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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2016‒06‒18
23 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Konstantin A. Kholodilin; Andreas Mense; Claus Michelsen |
| Abstract: | Rising rents in German cities have led to an intense debate about the need for tighter rent controls in housing markets. In April 2015, the so-called rental brake was introduced, which imposes upper bounds for rents in new contracts, in order to immediately slow down the increase of rents in tight housing markets. Since then, 11 federal states made use of this instrument. We take advantage of this intra-country variation and test whether the regulation had a causal effect on rents and house prices in the short run. We apply a standard difference-in-differences setup that allows us to study the effects of the rental brake on the underlying price trend in neighboring treated and non-treated postal-code districts. We ground our analysis on a large sample of online advertised rental dwellings and find that, contrary to the expectations of the policy makers, the rental brake has, at best, no impact in the short run. At worst, it even accelerates rent increases both in municipalities subject to the rental brake and in neighboring areas. We further conclude, based on our estimates on the development of at prices, that investors expect on little impact on future rental income. |
| Keywords: | Housing policy, rental housing, Germany, rent controls, rental brake |
| JEL: | K23 N9 R30 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1584&r=eur |
| By: | Sandrine Meyer; Laurence Holzemer; Thiago Nyssens Moraes Da Silva; Kevin Maréchal |
| Abstract: | Energy poverty is a major societal issue with both economic impacts and solidarity implications. Although its main drivers (e.g. insufficient income, bad quality housing, high energy prices) are widely recognised, there is no common definition of energy poverty at the European level, let alone a common way of measuring the phenomenon. The energy poverty barometer for Belgium has been developed accordingly. It draws on a set of composite indicators with the aim of grasping the multifaceted nature of energy poverty: excessive energy bills compared to available income (measured energy poverty), restriction in energy consumption below basic needs (hidden energy poverty) and self-reported difficulties to heat the housing correctly (perceived energy poverty). The results of the barometer are enriched and complemented with the insights of a field survey carried out in collaboration with municipal Public Centres for Social Action from the Brussels-Capital Region. The usefulness of combining an indicatorbased approach relying on macro statistics with a more qualitative field study leads us to support the setting up of a dedicated platform involving stakeholders. This broader and more systemic understanding would help moving beyond a ‘one size fits all’ approach to intervention which could be detrimental for some affected households. |
| Keywords: | Energy poverty; Barometer; Indicators; Social inclusion |
| JEL: | Q40 D10 D63 |
| Date: | 2016–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/230917&r=eur |
| By: | Paula Rodríguez-Modroño (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Mauricio Matus López (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Lina Gálvez-Muñoz (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | The 20th century has witnessed an increase in the female participation force in Western countries, especially since 1940s. Explanations behind the more intensive use of female labour are of different nature: globalization forces, the relative female/male wage linked to an increase in education and productivity, the tertiarization of the economy, and other institutional and cultural factors that allow women to control fertility, invest in assets other than the family ones and alter female bargaining power. Since these phenomena are complex and might respond to specific reasons and timing in different countries, it is important to advance on country case studies in a comparative basis. While in other Western countries the increase in female labor participation started to be significant in the 1960s and 1970s, Spanish female activity rates started to rise dramatically in the 1980s, concurrently with the deep integration of Spain in international markets, especially through the entry in the European Union in 1986. In this paper, we will analyze the reasons behind the decalage in female labor force participation in Spain after WWII in comparison with other Western countries, and the subsequent catching up from the 1980s in order to determine the level of influence of Spanish integration in international markets, as well as other economic, institutional and cultural factors. |
| Keywords: | female labor force, globalization, gender analysis, inequality |
| JEL: | F66 J1 J2 N14 N34 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wphaei:16.02&r=eur |
| By: | Júlia Varga (Institute of Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a large-scale, individual-level, panel dataset to analyse the effect of EU accession on the probability of out-migration on the part of Hungarian physicians and dentists between 2003 and 2011. The study uses event history modelling and competing risk models. The results show that EU accession did not at the time affect the probability of the out-migration on the part of Hungarian medical doctors, while after the end of the transitional period of restrictions on the free movement of labour from the new EU member states to Austria and Germany (May 2011), the probability of doctors’ migration increased considerably, as it did (for other reasons) starting in the spring of 2010. We also found that more than half of those medical doctors who left the country during the observation period returned sometime later. Results also show that in Hungary, in addition to migration, the attrition of doctors’ numbers is also a severe problem. It seems that shortages of healthcare professionals are not only due to high outward migration but may also be attributed to other problems in the Hungarian health system. Nevertheless, outward migration plays an important and growing role in the phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | medical doctors’ migration; competing risk model |
| JEL: | C41 C55 I10 J4 J40 J45 J60 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1604&r=eur |
| By: | Baudy, Philipp; Cords, Dario |
| Abstract: | There have been continuous deregulation efforts concerning temporary agency employment in almost all European countries aiming at an increasing flexibility in the European labor markets. This paper theoretically investigates the effects of a legal deregulation of temporary agency employment on wage setting and the employment structure in a unionized economy with labor market frictions. Multiple-worker firms bargain simultaneously with temporary agencies and labor unions to determine the respective labor costs. It is shown that there is a hump-shaped relationship between the degree of legal deregulation of temporary agency employment and the rate of temporary employment used in the production process. Temporary agency employment may even decrease despite its deregulation. Furthermore, regular employment monotonically increases, while individual workers and labor unions suffer from deregulation due to declining wages and a reduction in labor union's utility. |
| Keywords: | Matching Theory,Labor Unions,Temporary Agency Work,Wage-Setting Process |
| JEL: | C78 J51 J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:062016&r=eur |
| By: | HIldegunn E. Stokke (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies the sources of the gender wage gap across education groups and studies how the gap develops with work experience throughout the career. The analysis applies matched employer-employee register data for Norway covering hourly wages for all full-time workers 20-40 years old in 2008 and with information on actual work experience the previous 15 years. Overall, less than half the male wage premium is explained by differences in observable factors. The remaining gap follows from lower returns to worker characteristics for women, especially lower returns to experience. The gender wage gap between observable equal workers is non-existing upon entry to the labor market, while it increases rapidly throughout the early career, before stabilizing. The findings of early-career effects are robust to an analysis following cohorts during 1993-2008. The degree of gender discrimination in the labor market decreases with the level of education. Low educated women have lower returns to experience and lose more from entering family life compared to highly educated women. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap; return to experience; early-career effect; register data |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:17116&r=eur |
| By: | Juan J. Dolado (European University Institute); Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa (Aix-Marseille University (Aix Marseille School of Economics), EHESS & CNRS); Linas Tarasonis (Aix-Marseille School of Economics (Aix-Marseille University), EHESS & CNRS) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role played by selectivity issues induced by nonemployment in explaining gender wage gap patterns in the EU since the onset of the Great Recession. We show that male selection into the labour market, traditionally disregarded, has increased. This is particularly the case in peripheral European countries, where dramatic drops in male unskilled jobs have taken place during the crisis. As regards female selection, traditionally positive, we document mixed findings. While it has declined in some countries, as a result of increasing female LFP due to an added-worker effect, it has become even more positive in other countries. This is due to adverse labour demand shifts in industries which are intensive in temporary work where women are over-represented. These adverse shifts may have more than offset the rise in unskilled female labour supply. |
| Keywords: | Sample Selection, Gender Wage Gap |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2016–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1620&r=eur |
| By: | Emilia Bedyk (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw); Jacek Liwiński (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to determine whether parents’ investments in the education of children in Poland have an impact on the wages of the latter in adulthood. To answer this question, an extended Mincer wage equation was estimated using OLS on the basis of data from the nationwide tracer survey of Polish graduates conducted in 2007. The results of the analysis show that parents’ investments in the education of their children have a strong, positive impact on the first earnings after the end of formal education. This relationship is observed when the investment is depicted with the education level of each parent, as well as when represented by the child’s participation in various extra-curricular activities. Furthermore, if any of the above measures of parents’ investment is included in the equation, the wage premium from formal education decreases. In particular, when both these measures of parents’ investments are included in the model, the tertiary education premium declines by about one quarter, while the secondary vocational education and secondary general education are no longer significant determinants of the graduates’ wages (as compared to basic vocational education). |
| Keywords: | investment in human capital, formal education, extra-curricular activities, wage premium, wage equation |
| JEL: | I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2016-14&r=eur |
| By: | Dirk Czarnitzki; Thorsten Doherr; Katrin Hussinger; Paula Schliessler; Andrew A. Toole |
| Abstract: | We use an exogenous change in German Federal law to examine how entrepreneurial support and the ownership of patent rights influence academic entrepreneurship. In 2002, the German Federal Government enacted a major reform called Knowledge Creates Markets that set up new infrastructure to facilitate university-industry technology transfer and shifted the ownership of patent rights from university researchers to their universities. Based on a novel researcher-level panel database that includes a control group not affected by the policy change, we find no evidence that the new infrastructure resulted in an increase in start-up companies by university researchers. The shift in patent rights may have strengthened the relationship between patents on university-discovered inventions and university start-ups; however, it substantially decreased the volume of patents with the largest decrease taking place in faculty-firm patenting relationships. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property, patents, technology transfer, policy evaluation |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:540553&r=eur |
| By: | Ines Buono (Bank of Italy); Sara Formai (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the role of bank credit in firms' export performance. We use Italian bank-firm matched data and contribute to the existing literature by focusing on the link between bank-credit and exports in ‘normal times’ (1997-2008) and measuring access to credit with hard data on the credit actually extended to firms by the banking system. We also establish the causal link that goes from bank credit to exports, exploiting bank mergers and acquisitions as a source of bank credit supply shocks. We find that short-run shocks to the supply of bank credit induce exporters to decrease their export flows, without affecting their domestic sales. On the other hand, non-exporters react by reducing their domestic sales. |
| Keywords: | export, bank lending channel, credit shocks, mergers and acquisitions |
| JEL: | F14 G21 G34 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1066_16&r=eur |
| By: | Pilar Bernal (University of Zaragoza); Juan P. Maicas (University of Zaragoza); Pilar Vargas (University of La Rioja) |
| Abstract: | Environmental dynamism has recently attracted the attention of scholars studying the relationships between exploration and exploitation strategies and innovation performance. Surprisingly, although extant research has already acknowledged its multidimensional character, it has only been analyzed in an aggregate fashion. In this paper, we distinguish two components of environmental dynamism, the pace of market evolution and the pace of technology evolution, and we elaborate on their different impacts in the context of exploration and exploitation strategies. More precisely, we argue that while a rapid pace of technology evolution has opposite impacts on the relationships between exploration (positive), exploitation (negative) and innovation performance, a rapid pace of market evolution positively affects both exploration and exploitation. Our findings provide substantial support for our prediction using a large panel of Spanish innovating firms for the period 2008-2012. |
| Keywords: | Exploration; Exploitation; Environment; Technology, Market |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zar:wpaper:dt2016-03&r=eur |
| By: | Bora Kim |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates unfair inequality, namely inequality of opportunity (IOp), in access to medical care among the elderly population. I compare the magnitude of IOp across 14 European countries using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) collected in 2013. Self-reported unmet medical need caused by cost-related reasons is used as a measure of medical access. Separate models are introduced to accommodate two competing philosophical views (e.g. control and preference approaches) that result in a different definition of the scope of individual responsibility. A joint estimation strategy is applied to take unobserved heterogeneity into account. We find the highest IOp to exist in medical access in EE and IT, and the lowest in AT, CH, SI, NL, SE and DK. However, some results are sensitive to normative assumptions. For instance, EE, IT and DE show greater IOp when it is assumed that individuals are responsible for their decisions made on the basis of genuine preference rather than control. Additional results from a policy simulation suggest that IOp could have been significantly reduced due to educational promotion in many countries, with the exception of EE, NL, SI, SE and DK. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:542513&r=eur |
| By: | Elzbieta Antczak; Ewa Galecka-Burdziak; Robert Pater |
| Abstract: | We analyse to what extent spatial interactions affect the labour market matching process. We apply spatial econometrics methods (including spatial panel Durbin model), which are rarely used in labour market matching analysis. We use the data on stocks and the inflows of unemployed individuals and vacancies registered at public employment offices. We conduct the analysis at the NUTS-3 and the NUTS-4 levels in Poland for the period 2003-2014. We find that (1) spatial dependency affects matching processes in the labour market; (2) both close and remote spatial interactions influence the results of the matching process; (3) spatial indirect, direct, and total spillover effects determine the scale of outflows from unemployment; and (4) spatial modelling is a more appropriate approach than classic modelling for matching function. |
| Keywords: | spatial interaction, spillover effect, matching function, region |
| JEL: | C23 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2016009&r=eur |
| By: | Anna Matas Prat (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Adriana Karina Ruíz Marín (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Josep Lluís Raymond Bara (Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the relationship between road infrastructure improvements and investment in capital assets. Using aggregate data at a provincial level for 1977-2008, an equation for machinery and equipment investment is estimated applying Panel Corrected Standard Errors. The results indicate that the long-term elasticities of investment in relation to market potential, GDP and average years of schooling are 0.90, 0.75 and 0.80, respectively. Additionally, the long run impact of a road infrastructure investment policy is assessed. We find that the elasticities of investment in machinery and equipment, capital stock and GDP in relation to travel time are 1.18, 0.33 and 0.11, respectively. |
| Keywords: | infraestructure, Regional investment, Market potential, Travel time |
| JEL: | R4 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1610&r=eur |
| By: | Francesco Rotoli (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Elena Navajas Cawood (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Antonio Soria (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | The transport sector is increasingly faced with several issues related to the rising of traffic demand such as congestion, energy consumption, noise, pollution, safety, etc.. Due to its low external and environmental costs, railway can be considered (together with inland waterways and short-sea-shipping) as a key factor for the sustainable development of a more competitive and resource-efficient transport system (European Commission, White Paper 2011). In order to reinforce the role of rail in European transport, there is a strong need of addressing the efficiency of the system and customers' satisfaction through targeted actions, i.e. rising reliability and quality of service. This becomes particularly pressing as many parts of the existing railway infrastructures are reaching their maximum capacity thus shrinking their capability to provide users and customers a higher or even adequate level of service. Taking also into account that transport demand forecasts for 2030 clearly show a marked increase of rail activity across the whole Europe, we aim to address the issue of rail congestion in the context of relevant policy questions: Is the actual rail Infrastructure really able to absorb forecasted traffic, without significant impacts on punctuality of the system? Would the already planned interventions on the European railway infrastructure guarantee an adequate available capacity and consequently adequate reliability and level of service? To which extent would the coveted competition in an open railway market be influenced by capacity scarcity, mainly during peak hours or along more profitable corridors? An accurate estimation of capacity of the rail network can help answer these questions, leading policy makers to better decisions and helping to minimize costs for users. In this context this report explores the issue of capacity scarcity and sets this issue in the context of other relevant policy issues (track access charges, cost/benefit and accessibility measures, maintenance programmes, freight services’ reliability, external, marginal congestion or scarcity cost for rail, impacts of climate changes, etc.), providing a methodological review of capacity and punctuality assessment procedures. To better explore the real applicability and the time and/or data constraints of each methodology, the study reports some practical applications to the European railway network. Finally in the last section the report discusses the topic from a modelling perspective, as the quantitative estimation of railway capacity constraints is a key issue in order to provide better support to transport policies at EU level. |
| Keywords: | railway, transport policy, capacity constraints, punctuality, accessibility, synthetic and analytic methods, modelling |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc100509&r=eur |
| By: | Franklin, Joel (KTH); Eliasson , Jonas (KTH); Börjesson, Maria (KTH); Brundell-Freij, Karin (WSP); Johansson, Fredrik (WSP); Jiang, Sida (WSP); Ramjerdi, Farideh (Transportøkonomisk institutt, TØI); Skollerud, Kåre (Transportøkonomisk institutt, TØI); Denstadli, Jon Martin (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU); Uteng, Tanu Priya (Transportøkonomisk institutt, TØI) |
| Abstract: | Roadway tolls are seeing increasing use in metropolitan areas worldwide, motivated first by increasing reliance on user fees to finance maintenance and expansion of transport infrastructure, and second by a strategy of reducing congestion externalities by discouraging car use in peak periods. In Scandinavia in particular, roadway tolls have been tested and permanently implemented in more cities than in any other region around the world. Despite the large body of evidence directly after these implementations, there remain several issues related to the effects of roadway tolls that are unexplored, not only in the Scandinavian cases but also abroad. This report documents the results of a research project intended to help fill these gaps. Our main contributions to the literature are in three broad areas: 1) travel adaptations patterns and their underlying explanations; 2) effects of tolling on location patterns and on telecommuting; and 3) explanations for the varying levels of acceptability of tolling schemes across time and in different locations. |
| Keywords: | Tolls; Road pricing; Equity; Adaptation; Acceptance; Attitudes |
| JEL: | D63 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2016–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2016_014&r=eur |
| By: | Jessen, Robin; Rostam-Afschar, Davud; Schmitz, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | We quantify the importance of precautionary labor supply using data from the German Socio- Economic Panel (SOEP) for 2001-2012. We estimate dynamic labor supply equations augmented with a measure of wage risk. Our results show that married men choose about 2.5% of their hours of work or one week per year on average to shield against unpredictable wage shocks. This implies that about 26% of precautionary savings are due to precautionary labor supply. If self-employed faced the same wage risk as the median civil servant, their hours of work would reduce by 4%. |
| Keywords: | wage risk,labor supply,precautionary saving,life cycle,dynamic panel data |
| JEL: | D91 J22 C23 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201610&r=eur |
| By: | Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska (Faculty of Economic Sciences-University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | The paper documents employment and wage gaps, which arise between mothers and childless women, for a set of 28 European countries. The role of family policies in explaining these inequalities is then examined by looking at a single policy as well as childcare and leave policies interaction. The findings from the fixed effects model reveal that childcare coverage for small children and the length of maternity and paid parental leaves are important for explaining the size of the motherhood gap in employment. The impact of the leaves depends, however, on childcare availability: long maternity leaves combined with high childcare coverage lead to greater employment gap than when the coverage is low. The results do not prove that the interaction effect is present for the motherhood wage gap, which is found to be predominantly affected by the length of paid parental leave. |
| Keywords: | family gap, maternal employment, family policies, childcare |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1601&r=eur |
| By: | Martin Halla; Harald Mayr; Gerald J. Pruckner; Pilar Garcia-Gomez |
| Abstract: | The incidence of Cesarean deliveries (CDs) has been on the rise. The procedure’s cost and benefits are discussed controversially; in particular, since non-medically indicated cases seem widespread. We study the effect of CDs on subsequent fertility and maternal labor supply. Identification is achieved by exploiting variation in the supply-side’s incentives to induce nonmedically indicated CDs across weekdays. On weekends and public holidays obstetricians’ are less likely to induce CDs (due tighter capacity constraints in hospital). On Fridays and other days preceding a holiday, they face an increased incentive to induce CDs (due to their demand for leisure on non-working days). We use high-quality administrative data from Austria. Women giving birth on different weekdays are pre-treatment observationally identical. Our instrumental variable estimates show that a non-planned CD at parity one decreases life cycle fertility by almost 17 percent. This reduction in fertility translates into a temporary increase in maternal employment. |
| Keywords: | Caesarean delivery; Caesarean section; fertility; female labor supply |
| JEL: | I12 J13 J11 J22 J21 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2016_03&r=eur |
| By: | Kyureghian, Gayaneh; Soler, Louis-Georges |
| Abstract: | Over the next few decades, the share of the elderly population in France (i.e., aged 65 and older) will increase steadily. There is concern that upon retirement aging people cannot maintain the pre-retirement level of consumption, giving rise to nutrition and health deprivation, even food insecurity. Compounded by the increasing proportion of the aging population, this can quickly become a public health threat. Although there is empirical evidence that the expenditure for durables decreases as households age, there does not seem to be any evidence whether the quantity, quality or the structure of food baskets change in France. The objective of this research is to investigate this issue. In particular, we establish that aging households pay effectively lower prices through changing shopping tactics, leaving the food quantities practically uncompromised. |
| Keywords: | Aging, Life cycle consumption, Home production function, Food Demand, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D12, D91, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236785&r=eur |
| By: | Anna Makles and (Wuppertal Research Institute for the Economics of Education (WIB), University of Wuppertal, Gaußstr. 20, 42119 Wuppertal); Kerstin Schneider (Wuppertal Research Institute for the Economics of Education (WIB), University of Wuppertal, Gaußstr. 20, 42119 Wuppertal and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Noise pollution is detrimental to health and to cognitive development of children. This is not only true for extreme levels of noise in the neighborhood of an airport but also to traffic noise in urban areas. Using a census of preschool children, we show that children who are exposed to intensive traffic noise significantly fall behind in terms of school readiness. Being exposed to additional 10 dB(A) compares to about 3 months in kindergarten. We contribute to the lit-erature and the policy debate by working with administrative data and focusing on everyday exposure to noise. The proposed method is easily applied to other regions. We assess the public costs of different abatement instruments and compare the costs to the benefits. It turns out that the commonly used abatement measures like quiet pavement or noise protection walls in densely populated areas of about 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants per km2 can be cost efficient, even with a conservative assessment of the benefits. |
| Keywords: | Noise, child development, early education, abatement, abatement costs |
| JEL: | Q53 I18 I26 H23 H54 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp16002&r=eur |
| By: | Tommaso Agasisti (Politecnico di Milano); Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI); Mara Soncin (Politecnico di Milano) |
| Abstract: | This research investigates the impact of managerial practices implemented by Italian school principals on students’ outcomes. We use micro-data provided by the National Evaluation Committee for Education (INVALSI) for 2013/14 school year. Employing an educational production function, we regress a set of student and school’s characteristics, enriched by information from a questionnaire filled by school principals to estimate student’s score at grade 8 (last year of junior secondary school), also taking into account student’s prior achievement (at grade 6 – first year of junior secondary school). We find that the model well fits for student’s characteristics, while managerial practices tend to have positive effects, but low statistical significance. Stronger associations between management variables and test scores are detected for low-SES schools. |
| Keywords: | policy analysis, school principals, school managerial practices, Value Added Model |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:43&r=eur |
| By: | Jack Britton (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies); Lorraine Dearden (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies and Department of Quantitative Social Science Institute of Education, University of London); Neil Shephard (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Harvard University); Anna Vignoles (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute of Education) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses tax and student loan administrative data to measure how the earnings of English graduates around 10 years into the labour market vary with gender, institution attended subject and socioeconomic background. The English system is competitive to enter, with some universities demanding very high entrance grades. Students specialise early, nominating their subject before they enter higher education (HE). We find subjects like Medicine, Economics, Law, Maths and Business deliver substantial premiums over typical graduates, while disappointingly, Creative Arts delivers earnings which are roughly typical of non-graduates. Considerable variation in earnings is observed across diff erent institutions. Much of this is explained by student background and subject mix. Based on a simple measure of parental income, we see that students from higher income families have median earnings which are around 25% more than those from lower income families. Once we control for institution attended and subject chosen this premium falls to around 10%. |
| Keywords: | Graduate, Earnings, University, Higher Education |
| Date: | 2016–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:16/06&r=eur |