nep-eur New Economics Papers
on Microeconomic European Issues
Issue of 2016‒07‒23
23 papers chosen by
Giuseppe Marotta
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

  1. Regional Health Care Decentralization in Unitary States: Equal Spending, Equal Satisfaction? By Joan Costa-Font; Gilberto Turati
  2. The part-time poverty gap across Europe: How institutions affect the way part-time and full-time workers avoid poverty differently By Jeroen Horemans
  3. Paternal Unemployment During Childhood: Causal Effects on Youth Worklessness and Educational Attainment By Müller, Steffen; Riphahn, Regina T.; Schwientek, Caroline
  4. Asymmetric Investment Responses to Firm-specific Uncertainty By Buchholz, Manuel; Tonzer, Lena; Berner, Julian
  5. Social Comparisons and Attitudes towards Foreigners. Evidence from the ‘Fall of the Iron Curtain’ By Hyll, Walter; Schneider, Lutz
  6. Size of Training Firms and Cumulated Long-run Unemployment Exposure – The Role of Firms, Luck, and Ability in Young Workers’ Careers By Müller, Steffen; Neubäumer, Renate
  7. Housing Decisions, Family Types and Gender. A look across LIS countries By SIERMINSKA Eva; ROSSI Cristina
  8. Beggar-Thy-Neighbour Tax Cuts: Mobility after a Local Income and Wealth Tax Reform in Switzerland By Martinez, Isabel Z.
  9. Self-employment of the young and the old: exploring effects of the crisis in Croatia By Valerija Botric; Iva Tomic
  10. Evidence, drivers and sources of distortions in the distribution of building energy ratings prior to and after energy efficient retrofitting By Collins, Matthew; Curtis, John
  11. A “reverse Robin Hood”? The distributional implications of non-standard monetary policy for Italian households By Marco Casiraghi; Eugenio Gaiotti; Lisa Rodano; Alessandro Secchi
  12. Optimal emission prices for a district heating system owner. By Sebastian Wehrle; Martin Kniepert
  13. The division of inter-vivos parental transfers in Europe By OLIVERA Javier
  14. The challenge of measuring UK wealth inequality in the 2000s By Facundo Alvaredo; Anthony B. Atkinson; Salvatore Morelli
  15. An economic assessment of GHG mitigation policy options for EU agriculture (EcAMPA 2) By Ignacio Pérez Domínguez; Thomas Fellmann; Franz Weiss; Peter Witzke; Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé; Mihaly Himics; Torbjörn Jansson; Guna Salputra; Adrian Leip
  16. Matching inefficiencies, labor market flexibility and local democracy in Spain By Ambra, Poggi
  17. EU corporate R&D intensity gap: What has changed over the last decade? By Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello
  18. How important is precautionary labor supply? By Jessen, Robin; Rostam-Afschar, Davud; Schmitz, Sebastian
  19. Does administrative status matter for urban growth? Evidence from present and former county capitals in East Germany By Heider, Bastian; Kauffmann, Albrecht; Rosenfeld, Martin T. W.
  20. Income Poverty, Affluence and Polarisation Viewed From The Median By Rolf Aaberge; A.B. Atkinson; Henrik Sigstad
  21. Spatial microsimulation estimates of household income distributions in London boroughs, 2001 and 2011 By Alex Fenton
  22. Multidimensional Well-being and Regional Disparities in Europe By Döpke, Jörg; Knabe, Andreas; Lang, Cornelia; Maschke, Philip
  23. Monitoring and Assessment Framework for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (MAFEIP) - Gap analysis By Christian Boehler; Fabienne Abadie

  1. By: Joan Costa-Font; Gilberto Turati
    Abstract: Does regional decentralization threaten the commitment to regional equality in government outcomes? We attempt to shed light on this question by drawing on unique evidence from the largest European unitary states to have engaged in countrywide health system decentralization: Italy and Spain. We estimate, decompose, and run counterfactual analysis of regional inequality in government output (health expenditure per capita) and outcome (health system satisfaction) during expansion of health care decentralization in both countries. We find no evidence of increase in regional inequalities in outcomes and outputs in the examined period. Inequalities are accounted for by differences in health system design.
    Keywords: health care decentralization, regional inequality, health care, Oaxaca decomposition
    JEL: H7 I18 I3
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eiq:eileqs:113&r=eur
  2. By: Jeroen Horemans
    Abstract: Drawing on EU-SILC 2012 data, this paper investigates the variation in the degree to which part-time and full-time workers avoid poverty differently by various income components in Europe. We look at three consecutive steps in the income package: individual earnings, market incomes of other household members, and government transfers. The results indicate that on average across Europe full-timers are more likely than part-timers to escape poverty with each step. On the other hand, much variation across countries is discovered. More stringent wage institutions, short working hour cultures and a strong support for working mothers are related with lower differences in earnings poverty between part-time and full-time workers. These institutional characteristics also reduce the difference in the degree to which part-time and full-time workers avoid poverty by other market incomes in the household. The difference in poverty reduction by government transfers between part-timers and full-timers was found to vary little across countries, but the degree to which part-time earnings are combined with benefits tends to be related to a larger difference pre-distribution poverty.
    Keywords: part-time employment, in-work poverty, social policy, working time, labour market institutions
    JEL: I32 I38 J08 J21 J22 J31
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hdl:wpaper:1603&r=eur
  3. By: Müller, Steffen; Riphahn, Regina T.; Schwientek, Caroline
    Abstract: Using long-running data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984-2012), we investigate the impact of paternal unemployment on child labor market and education outcomes. We first describe correlation patterns and then use sibling fixed effects and the Gottschalk (1996) method to identify the causal effects of paternal unemployment. We find different patterns for sons and daughters. Paternal unemployment does not seem to causally affect the outcomes of sons. In contrast, it increases both daughters' worklessness and educational attainment. We test the robustness of the results and explore potential explanations.
    Keywords: youth unemployment,educational attainment,intergenerational mobility,causal effect,Gottschalk method,sibling fixed effects
    JEL: C21 C26 J62
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-8-16&r=eur
  4. By: Buchholz, Manuel; Tonzer, Lena; Berner, Julian
    Abstract: This paper analyzes how firm-specific uncertainty affects firms' propensity to invest. We measure firm-specific uncertainty as firms' absolute forecast errors derived from survey data of German manufacturing firms over 2007-2011. In line with the literature, our empirical findings reveal a negative impact of firm-specific uncertainty on investment. However, further results show that the investment response is asymmetric, depending on the size and direction of the forecast error. The investment propensity declines significantly if the realized situation is worse than expected. However, firms do not adjust their investment if the realized situation is better than expected, which suggests that the uncertainty effect counteracts the positive effect due to unexpectedly favorable business conditions. This can be one explanation behind the phenomenon of slow recovery in the aftermath of financial crises. Additional results show that the forecast error is highly concurrent with an ex-ante measure of firm-specific uncertainty we obtain from the survey data. Furthermore, the effect of firm-specific uncertainty is enforced for firms that face a tighter financing situation.
    Keywords: risk climate,microeconomic survey data,forecast errors,firm investment,uncertainty
    JEL: D22 D84 E32
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-7-16&r=eur
  5. By: Hyll, Walter; Schneider, Lutz
    Abstract: We exploit the natural experiment of German re-unification to address the question whether distress from social (income) comparisons results in negative attitudes towards foreigners. Our empirical approach rests upon East German individuals who have West German peers. We use the exogenous variation of wealth of West German peers shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall as an instrument to identify the effect of distress from social comparisons on East Germans' attitudes. We find robust evidence that East Germans expose strong negative attitudes towards foreigners, particularly from low-wage countries, if they worry about their economic status compared to better-off peers.
    Keywords: social comparison,attitudes towards foreigner,natural experiment
    JEL: D31 J61 N34
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-12-16&r=eur
  6. By: Müller, Steffen; Neubäumer, Renate
    Abstract: This paper analyzes how life-cycle unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of the training firm. We start from the hypotheses that the size of training firms reduces long-run cumulated unemployment exposure, e.g. via differences in training quality and in the availability of internal labor markets, and that the access to large training firms depends positively on young workers' ability and their luck to live in a region with many large and medium-sized training firms. We test these hypotheses empirically by using a large administrative data set for Germany and find corroborative evidence.
    Keywords: unemployment,training,apprenticeship,young workers,mobility,firm size
    JEL: D21 L10 L25 L26 L29 M13
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-5-16&r=eur
  7. By: SIERMINSKA Eva; ROSSI Cristina
    Abstract: In this paper we shall examine homeownership trends over the past 3 to 4 decades and discuss differences related to the homeownership gap for women and men, with a focus on most recent trends. We shall compare differences in the US to those in countries with different institutional structures and shall pay particular attention to differences across family types. Our estimation techniques will allow us to discuss the role of determinants from a gender perspective. We find that single women are better off than single men without children and a reverse trend exists in families with children. The general negative effect for women remains for younger cohorts in the face of risking homeownership. The latest crisis did not change the general long-running trend of the homeownership gap except for the US and France. The findings of this paper could provide an international perspective on differential homeownership rates among women and men, across countries and over time. Given that the value of one?s own home (home equity) is the largest financial reserve in a household?s wealth portfolio, it is important to have a better understanding of the differences resulting from gender and family types.
    Keywords: Housing; wealth; gender; homeownership; time trends
    JEL: D01 D03 J01
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2016-10&r=eur
  8. By: Martinez, Isabel Z.
    Abstract: Tax competition raises the question to which extent taxpayers respond to differences in income tax rates by migrating to low-tax areas. This paper analyzes a large, two-step tax reform in the canton of Obwalden in central Switzerland in 2006 and 2008. The canton first introduced a regressive income tax scheme with the explicit purpose of attracting affluent taxpayers, followed by a flat rate tax, thereby lowering taxes for all taxpayers. DiD estimations comparing Obwalden and two neighboring cantons confirm that the reform was successful in increasing the canton’s tax base by increasing the share of rich and their average income. Using individual tax data I apply a 2SLS approach to estimate how responsive migration was to the tax reduction. I find an elasticity of the stock of rich taxpayers in the canton with respect to the average net-of-tax rate of 1.9–2.4. The elasticity of the inflow of rich taxpayers is even larger, ranging from 5 to 12. These large elasticities can be explained by (i) the large pool of intentionally treated in the present institutional setting, which puts almost no restrictions on taxpayers to take advantage of the low tax, and (ii) the initially low share of rich taxpayers in Obwalden combined with the small size of the canton. A small number of rich taxpayers relocating therefore translates into a large elasticity. DiD estimates of cantonal revenue, however, suggest that the tax cuts despite attracting and retaining a substantial number of rich taxpayers, did not lead to an increase
    Keywords: Tax-induced mobility; Personal income tax; Local taxes; Tax competition; Elasticity of taxable income ETI
    JEL: H71 H73 R23 H31 H24
    Date: 2016–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2016:08&r=eur
  9. By: Valerija Botric (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb); Iva Tomic (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb)
    Abstract: The economic and financial crisis that erupted in Europe in 2008 hit some groups of the population harder than others. Young population was among those that experienced the largest increase in unemployment, whereas many of those belonging to the older working-age group, after experiencing a loss of their jobs, were unable to return to employment. Hence, one of the options for both of these groups was to seek self-employment solutions. This paper focuses precisely on transitions into self-employment of these two end-groups among the working-age population in a country that experienced one of the longest and largest setbacks during the recent recession – Croatia. The main goal of the paper is to establish differences in transition to self-employment of the young and the old before and during the crisis by distinguishing between two types of transitions: (i) out of unemployment or “necessity self-employment” and (ii) out of employment or “opportunity self-employment”. The data source used for the analysis is EU LFS. Main results suggest that necessity self-employment is dominant for both groups, and especially so for the old, whereas opportunity self-employment is slightly more pronounced in the case of the young population. However, both necessity and opportunity self-employment have decreased in the crisis period. Decomposition analyses – Fairlie and Blinder-Oaxaca – indicate that the gap between the old and the young has increased in the case of necessity self-employment while it decreased for opportunity self-employment between the two observed periods. Further examination of the characteristics of unemployed youth that became self-employed or employed during the crisis reveals that the only common characteristics that increase both the probability of self-employment as well as the probability of employment are the share of working adults and the share of children within a household.
    Keywords: transitions, self-employment, young, old, decomposition, crisis, Croatia
    JEL: J60 J21
    Date: 2016–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iez:wpaper:1603&r=eur
  10. By: Collins, Matthew; Curtis, John
    Abstract: Energy performance certificates provide a measure of and raise the awareness of the energy efficiency of homes. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) operates a grant aid scheme to incentivise residential energy efficient retrofits known as the Better Energy Homes (BEH) scheme, which was implemented in 2009. Since June 2010, participating homes have been required to undertake independent Building Energy Rating (BER) assessments of the home prior to and after the completion of energy efficient works. This study analyses the distribution of pre- and post-works BERs among participant households, using a regression discontinuity design to examine the significance of discontinuities at each BER grade threshold and to estimate the number of affected BERs in our sample. We find evidence of bunching at the more efficient side of thresholds of post-works BERs, while no evidence of bunching on the more efficient side was found among pre-works BERs. We find slight evidence of bunching on the less efficient side of certain thresholds in the pre-works distribution. We estimate counter-factual distributions around each threshold to examine the number of dwellings which may have been affected by potentially incorrect assessments. We analyse whether adjustment of BER assessments is systemic and whether market forces provide an incentive to adjust assessments. We find significant evidence of the misrepresentation of Building Energy Ratings but this is not found to be systemic. We also examine potential sources of adjustment, finding discontinuities in certain parameters coinciding with the areas where bunching is found to occur.
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp535&r=eur
  11. By: Marco Casiraghi (Bank of Italy); Eugenio Gaiotti (Bank of Italy); Lisa Rodano (Bank of Italy); Alessandro Secchi (Bank of Italy)
    Abstract: We study empirically the distributional implications of a non-standard monetary policy expansion, considering the measures implemented by the Eurosystem in 2011-2012 and exploiting a rich micro dataset on Italian households’ income and wealth, in order to take contemporaneously into account a number of income- and wealth-related channels. Our results do not support the claim that an unconventional monetary loosening acts as a “reverse Robin Hood”. Larger benefits accrue to households at the bottom of the income scale, as the effects via the stimulus to economic activity and employment outweigh those via financial variables. The response of net wealth is U-shaped: less wealthy households take advantage of their leveraged positions, wealthier households of their larger share of financial assets. Overall, the effects on inequality are negligible. The results also suggest that the risk of an “expropriation of savers” is not likely to materialize, as the decrease in the remuneration of savings is compensated by support to labour income and by capital gains.
    Keywords: monetary policy, interest rates, policy effects, inequality
    JEL: E52 E58 I14
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1077_16&r=eur
  12. By: Sebastian Wehrle (Institute for Sustainable Economic Development, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Wien Energie GmbH); Martin Kniepert (Institute for Sustainable Economic Development, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna)
    Abstract: Low emission prices have stirred up discussion about political measures that aim to increase emission prices. District heating system operators, often municipal utilities, use a variety of heat generation technologies that are affected by the emission trading system. We examine whether district heating system owners have an incentive to support measures that increase emission prices in the short term. Therefore, we (i) develop a simplified analytical framework to analyse optimal decisions of a district heating operator, and (ii) investigate the market-wide effects of increasing emission prices, in particular the pass-through of emission prices to power prices. Using the clustered unit commitment model MEDEA of the common Austrian and German power system, we estimate a pass-through from emission prices to power prices between 1.1 and 0.75, depending on the absolute emission price level. Under reasonable assumptions regarding heat generation technologies, the pass-through from higher emission prices to power prices is about twice as high as required to make low-emission district heating system owners better off.
    Keywords: : Emission Price, Pass Through, Dispatch Model, District Heating, Optimization
    JEL: Q41
    Date: 2016–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sed:wpaper:642016&r=eur
  13. By: OLIVERA Javier
    Abstract: This paper explores the patterns of the division of inter-vivos financial transfers from old parents to adult children in a sample of 14 European countries drawn from two waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe. Contrary to previous research, mostly focused on the US, this study finds a higher number of parents who divide their financial transfers among their adult children equally. On average, 36% of European parents divide equally. These results contrast sharply with the approximately 6.4%-9.2% of American parents giving equal transfers. It is possible that altruistic parents are also concerned with a norm of equal division, and therefore they do not fully offset the differences of income among their children as predicted by the standard model of altruism. The econometric results show that parents are more likely to give equal transfers if, in their view, income inequality among their children is not too high. Furthermore, the analysis is extended by adding variables at the country level. In this regard, income inequality, pension expenditures, the societal level of altruism and inheritance taxes are key to explaining country differences.
    Keywords: Inter-vivos transfers; Altruism; Equal division; Income inequality; Pensions
    JEL: D31 D64 D91 H31 H55 J18
    Date: 2016–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2016-06&r=eur
  14. By: Facundo Alvaredo; Anthony B. Atkinson; Salvatore Morelli
    Abstract: The concentration of personal wealth is now receiving a great deal of attention – after having been neglected for many years. One reason is the growing recognition that, in seeking explanations for rising income inequality, we need to look not only at wages and earned income but also at income from capital, particularly at the top of the distribution. In this paper, we use evidence from existing data sources to attempt to answer three questions: (i) What is the share of total personal wealth that is owned by the top 1 per cent, or the top 0.1 per cent? (ii) Is wealth much more unequally distributed than income? (iii) Is the concentration of wealth at the top increasing over time? The main conclusion of the paper is that the evidence about the UK concentration of wealth post-2000 is seriously incomplete and significant investment in a variety of sources is necessary if we are to provide satisfactory answers to the three questions.
    Keywords: wealth inequality; estate multiplier; investment income
    JEL: D3 H2
    Date: 2016–03–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:67131&r=eur
  15. By: Ignacio Pérez Domínguez (European Commission – JRC); Thomas Fellmann (European Commission – JRC); Franz Weiss (European Commission – JRC); Peter Witzke (EuroCARE GmbH); Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé (European Commission – JRC); Mihaly Himics (European Commission – JRC); Torbjörn Jansson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Guna Salputra (European Commission – JRC); Adrian Leip (European Commission – JRC)
    Abstract: The project 'Economic Assessment of GHG mitigation policy options for EU agriculture (EcAMPA)' is designed to assess some aspects of a potential inclusion of the agricultural sector into the EU 2030 climate policy framework. In the context of possible reductions of non-CO2 emissions from EU agriculture, the scenario results of the EcAMPA 2 study highlight issues related to production effects, the importance of technological mitigation options and the need to consider emission leakage for an effective reduction of global agricultural GHG emissions.
    Keywords: greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture, mitigation policy, climate policy, EU, CAPRI model, agricultural markets, emission leakage
    JEL: Q18 Q58 Q02 Q11
    Date: 2016–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc101396&r=eur
  16. By: Ambra, Poggi
    Abstract: By applying a stochastic production frontier approach to the matching process of unemployed and vacancies, this paper provides novel detailed insights into the process of job creation in Spain over the 2006-2012 period. The methodology produces estimates of the relative importance of demand and supply factors for the creation of new jobs, and of regional inefficiencies of job creation. This paper represents a first attempt to test whether a more flexible labour market as designed by the 2010 reform affects the matching efficiencies. We also investigate the possible link existing between local democracy (as factor influencing labour market governance) and inefficiency, handling endogeneity. Results suggest that the matching process was inefficient before the 2008 crisis. Efficiency increased during recession/rebound probably as consequence of policies aims to strengthen the economic system. In particular, the 2010 reform appears to have improved on average the matching efficiencies. Local democracy positively influences efficiency (and the effect is substantially higher when endogeneity in the inefficiency is handled). Despite these considerations, regional disparities in matching efficiencies persisted over time. Therefore, these results support the recommendation of further reducing matching inefficiencies before implementing policies aimed to increase the stock of vacancies at least in regions characterized by persistent inefficiencies.
    Keywords: matching functions, regional labour market, stochastic frontier, democracy, endogeneity
    JEL: J64 A13 D63
    Date: 2016–07–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:348&r=eur
  17. By: Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello (European Commission – JRC)
    Abstract: This paper contributes with new findings to the literature on corporate research and development (R&D) intensity decomposition by examining the effects of several parameters on R&D intensity and investigating its comparative distribution among top R&D firms, sectors and world regions/countries. It draws on a longitudinal company-level micro-dataset from 2005 to 2013, and uses both descriptive statistics and decomposition computation methods. The results confirm the structural nature of the EU R&D intensity gap. In the last decade the gap between the EU and the US has widened, whereas the EU gap with Japan and Switzerland has remained relatively stable. The study also uncovers differences in R&D intensity between EU and US companies operating in the sectors more responsible for the aggregate R&D intensity gap. In contrast, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and Asian Tiger countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) R&D intensity gap compared to the EU has remained relatively stable, while companies from the rest of the world are considerably reducing such gap. Finally, the study shows a high concentration -sustained over time- of R&D investment in a few countries, sectors and firms, but in the EU there are fewer smaller top R&D firms that invest more intensively in R&D, than in the most closed competing countries.
    Keywords: corporate R&D; decomposition; EU R&D intensity gap, EU R&D policy
    JEL: O30 O32 O38 O57
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201605&r=eur
  18. 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:hohdps:072016&r=eur
  19. By: Heider, Bastian; Kauffmann, Albrecht; Rosenfeld, Martin T. W.
    Abstract: Public sector activities are often neglected in the economic approaches used to analyze the driving forces behind urban growth. The institutional status of a regional capital is a crucial aspect of public sector activities. This paper reports on a quasi-natural experiment on county towns in East Germany. Since 1990, cities in East Germany have demonstrated remarkable differences in population development. During this same period, many towns have lost their status as a county seat due to several administrative reforms. Using a difference-in-difference approach, the annual population development of former county capitals is compared to population change in towns that have successfully held on to their capital status throughout the observed period. The estimations show that maintaining county capital status has a statistically significant positive effect on annual changes in population. This effect is furthermore increasing over time after the implementation of the respective reforms.
    Keywords: urban economic growth,centrality,institutions,public sector,East Germany,post-socialist cities,capital cities,county towns,county government reform
    JEL: H1 H7 P2 R1 R5
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:242016&r=eur
  20. By: Rolf Aaberge; A.B. Atkinson; Henrik Sigstad
    Abstract: The present paper brings together different features of the distribution of income - poverty, affluence and dispersion - in a single framework that allows ready comparisons across countries. We believe that such a unified framework contributes both to the policy debate and to the theoretical understanding of inequality. There are at present largely separate literatures on the measurement of poverty, and (to a limited degree) affluence, and on bi-polariszation. In relation to the EU social indicators, the paper may be seen as providing complementary information.
    Keywords: poverty, inequality, polarisation, affluence
    JEL: I31
    Date: 2015–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/194&r=eur
  21. By: Alex Fenton
    Abstract: Spatial microsimulation (SMS) is a range of techniques for estimating the local distribution of a variable - here, household income - by combining social survey microdata with Census or administrative population totals. This paper makes a case for the value of these methods in social policy analysis of spatial economic differences because unlike other methods and sources, they permit distributional analysis of income, encompass both market outcomes and secondary distribution through taxes and transfers, and measure income poverty in standard national terms. As a demonstration of spatial microsimulation by iterative proportional fitting (IPF), the household income distribution in London's 33 boroughs in 2001/02 and 2011/12 is estimated in this paper. The coherence and plausibility of the results in comparison to other official statistics is examined in some detail. Two refinements to standard IPF methods are presented, including "multi-level IPF", which allows the use of both person- and household-level data; this is found to improve the estimation of poverty rates. The paper confirms the value of SMS for synchronic spatial analysis, and argues for its hitherto little-explored use in modelling spatial differences in the effects of fiscal and welfare policy changes.
    Keywords: microsimulation, income estimation, poverty, spatial inequality
    JEL: C81
    Date: 2016–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/196&r=eur
  22. By: Döpke, Jörg; Knabe, Andreas; Lang, Cornelia; Maschke, Philip
    Abstract: Using data from the OECD Regional Well-Being Index - a set of quality-of-life indicators measured at the sub-national level, we construct a set of composite well-being indices. We analyse the extent to which the choice of five alternative aggregation methods affects the well-being ranking of regions. We find that regional inequality in these composite measures is lower than regional inequality in gross-domestic product (GDP) per capita. For most aggregation methods, the rank correlation across regions appears to be quite high. It is also shown that using alternative indicators instead of GDP per capita would only have a small effect on the set of regions eligible for aid from EU Structural Funds. The exception appears to be an aggregation based on how individual dimensions of welfare relate to average life satisfaction across regions, which would substantially change both the ranking of regions and which regions would receive EU funds.
    Keywords: well-being,regional economic policy,EU structural funds,composite index
    JEL: C31 I31 R10
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:iwh-13-16&r=eur
  23. By: Christian Boehler (European Commission – JRC); Fabienne Abadie (European Commission – JRC)
    Abstract: DG JRC-IPTS has been developing a Monitoring and Assessment Framework to assess the health and economic impact of the activities carried out by stakeholders of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) within the MAFEIP project. In this context, IPTS has conceptualised a decision analytic model which has been implemented as a web-based tool, the MAFEIP tool. This tool builds up from a variety of surrogate endpoints commonly used across the diverse set of EIP on AHA commitments in order to estimate health and economic outcomes of the Partnership. Stakeholders can access the tool through an intuitive web-based user interface that is linked to a database of country, age and gender specific mortality data. This report offers a review of the issues encountered with the set-up of the model, the usability of the tool, technical issues and further gaps that could be identified in the course of the tool implementation as well as issues related to data collection. It offers recommendations as to what improvements could be undertaken in the future.
    Keywords: EIP, Active and Healthy Ageing, EIP on AHA, indicators, monitoring, framework, health states, markov, model
    Date: 2016–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc101550&r=eur

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