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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2016‒10‒30
29 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Leppin, Julian; Rossen, Anja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wolf, André |
| Abstract: | "This study investigates the incidence of overeducation among workers in the EU and its underlying factors based on the most recent wave of the European Labor Force Survey (EU-LFS 2013). Its main purpose is to shed light on the interplay of so far neglected explanatory factors such as household characteristics and field of study as well as to reveal country differences in the impact of these factors. Therefore, our innovative features are the large number of determinants as well as the considerable amount of European countries simultaneously analyzed. Moreover, we differentiate in our analysis between high- and medium-skilled workers. Our findings point to a considerable variation in the potential determinants of overeducation across countries as well as across skill levels. This variation is not restricted to jobrelated characteristics, but interestingly also concerns household variables. Among those determinants showing a largely uniform influence are nationality, job tenure, temporary employment and presence of unemployed household members." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Überqualifikation - internationaler Vergleich, unterwertige Beschäftigung, mismatch, Hochqualifizierte, mittlere Qualifikation, sozioökonomische Faktoren, sektorale Verteilung, Berufsgruppe, Europäische Union, Belgien, Bulgarien, Dänemark, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Estland, Finnland, Frankreich, Griechenland, Irland, Italien, Lettland, Litauen, Luxemburg, Niederlande, Österreich, Portugal, Rumänien, Schweden, Slowakei, Spanien, Tschechische Republik, Ungarn, Großbritannien, Zypern, Kroatien |
| JEL: | J24 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201635&r=eur |
| By: | Burmeister, Johannes; Peterson, Sonja |
| Abstract: | Given that the carbon price in the EU Emissions Trading System is only around 5€/tCO2 while consensus about a more stringent EU climate policy is very unlikely in the near future, we explore the potential scope and optimal design of additional national climate policies in the current EU policy framework. In particular, we suggest to implement a type of carbon price floor in the national EU ETS sectors that either allows for i) shifting emissions to non-ETS sectors like housing and transport or ii) retiring EU-wide emission allowances. In a simple theoretical framework with two countries and two sectors, we show that these two policy options are efficient up to a certain carbon price threshold. Moreover, efficiency is the highest at an optimal carbon price level equaling a weighted sum of the price differentials between ETS and non-ETS sectors. In order to determine the empirical relevance, we conduct a numerical partial equilibrium analysis of the EU carbon market in 2020. We find that Germany shows the highest potential to reduce EU-wide inefficiencies. With a price floor of 36€/tCO2 in 2020, Germany could reduce national climate policy costs by 13% if emissions are shifted from the ETS to non-ETS sectors. If they are willing to take on additional costs by retiring emission allowances, they are able to reduce EU ETS emissions by 1.6%. |
| Keywords: | Climate policy,EU Emission Trading System,Overlapping regulation,Carbon price floors,Abatement costs |
| JEL: | Q58 H21 H23 D58 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2052&r=eur |
| By: | Elena Bárcena-Martín (University of Malaga, Spain); M. Carmen Blanco-Arana (University of Malaga, Spain); Salvador Pérez-Moreno (University of Malaga, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Children are generally at a higher risk of poverty than the population as a whole, although the mechanisms that lead to their socioeconomic vulnerability vary widely across European countries. This paper assesses to what extent social transfers explain the variation in levels of child poverty across 30 European countries. Using a multilevel framework, we jointly examine individual characteristics and country-level factors, focusing on specific aspects of social transfer systems, namely generosity and targeting. We consider two types of targeting: pro-child (categorical selectivity) and pro-poor (income selectivity).We observe that the variation in child poverty is mainly due to contextual factors and to a lesser degree to individual factors. We conclude that, as stated in the literature, the generosity of social transfers matters in reducing child poverty. Nevertheless, our findings go further and demonstrate that targeting children is more effective in reducing the risk of poverty for children than targeting the lower end of income distribution, which should be borne in mind when determining and prioritizing policy orientations and measures for fighting child poverty. |
| Keywords: | Child poverty, European countries, social transfers, generosity and targeting. |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2016-410&r=eur |
| By: | Davia, Maria A. (Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha); McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); O'Connell, Philip J. (ESRI, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the factors determining variations in spatial rates of overeducation. A quantile regression model has been implemented on a sample of region-yearly data drawn from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and several institutional and macroeconomic features captured from other data-sets. Potential determinants of overeducation rates include factors such as labour market risk, financial aid to university students, excess labour demand and institutional factors. We find significant effects both for labour market structural imbalances and institutional factors. The research supports the findings of micro based studies which have found that overeducation is consistent with an assignment interpretation of the labour market. |
| Keywords: | regional variation, overeducation, mismatch |
| JEL: | C29 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10250&r=eur |
| By: | Brilli, Ylenia (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Tonello, Marco (Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department, Territorial Economic Research Unit) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the contemporaneous effect of education on adolescent crime by exploiting the implementation a reform that increases the school leaving age in Italy by one year. We find that the Reform increases the enrollment rate of all ages, but decreases the offending rate of 14-year-olds only, who are the age group explicitly targeted by the Reform. The effect mainly comes from natives males, while females and immigrants are not affected. The Reform does not induce crime displacement in times of the year or of the day when the school is not in session, but it increases violent crimes at school. By using measures of enrollment and crime, as well data at the aggregate and individual level, this paper shows that compulsory education reforms have a crime reducing effect induced by incapacitation, but may also lead to an increase of crimes in school facilities plausibly due to a higher students concentration. |
| Keywords: | adolescent crime; school enrollment; crime displacement; incapacitation |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J13 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0676&r=eur |
| By: | Ana Lamo (EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK); Enrique Moral-Benito (Banco de España); Javier J. Pérez (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | We empirically analyse the impact of public employment and public wages shocks on private labour market outcomes by examining whether policies operate differently in periods of economic slack than in normal times. We use local projection methods and focus on the Spanish and euro area aggregate cases. We find that the degree of unemployment slack is key for determining: (i) whether public employment crowds out private employment, and (ii) the degree and extent of the influence of public wages on the private sector. In addition, we find that at times of economic distress, public wage adjustment has lower output costs than public employment cuts for the Spanish case, while the opposite occurs at the euro area level. We conjecture that differences in the degree of wage rigidities and the size of the unemployment pool may rationalise our findings |
| Keywords: | public employment, wages, unemployment, fiscal policies. |
| JEL: | E62 E65 H6 C3 C82 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1605&r=eur |
| By: | Steve Gibbons; Stephan Heblich; Esther Lho; Christopher Timmins |
| Abstract: | Shale gas has grown to become a major new source of energy in countries around the globe. While its importance for energy supply is well recognized, there has also been public concern over potential risks - such as damage to buildings and contamination of water supplies - caused by geological disturbance from the hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') extraction process. Although commercial development has not yet taken place in the UK, licenses for drilling were issued in 2008 implying potential future development. This paper examines whether public fears about fracking are evident in changes in house prices in areas that have been licensed for shale gas exploration. Our estimates suggest differentiated effects. Licensing did not affect house prices but fracking the first well in 2011, which caused two minor earthquakes, did. We find a 2.7-4.1 percent house price decrease in the area where the earthquakes occurred. Robustness checks confirm our findings. |
| Keywords: | shale gas, fracturing, property valuation, housing prices, consumer expectation, hedonic price, United Kingdom |
| JEL: | Q5 Q42 Q51 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0207&r=eur |
| By: | Jan Marcus; Vaishali Zambre |
| Abstract: | We examine the consequences of compressing secondary schooling on students’ university enrollment. An unusual education reform in Germany reduced the length of academic high school while simultaneously increasing the instruction hours in the remaining years. Accordingly, students receive the same amount of schooling but over a shorter period of time, constituting an efficiency gain from an individual’s perspective. Based on a difference-indifferences approach using administrative data on all students in Germany, we find that this reform decreased enrollment rates. Moreover, students are more likely to delay their enrollment, to drop out of university, and to change their major. Our results show that it is not easy to get around the trade-off between an earlier labor market entry and more years of schooling. |
| Keywords: | University enrollment, G8, workload, difference-in-differences, education efficiency |
| JEL: | I28 J18 D04 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1613&r=eur |
| By: | Frick, Fabian; Sauer, Johannes |
| Abstract: | We investigate development of productivity and its relation to resource reallocation effects in the dairy sector in South-East Germany during the phase-out of the EU milk quota. We use a dataset containing dairy farm accounting data of 15 years. Farm-level productivity is estimated by applying a proxy approach recently discussed in the literature and compared to other estimation approaches and an index analysis. After aggregation we decompose sector productivity into unweighted mean productivity and a covariance term quantifying the allocation of production resources towards more productive farms. We observe an increase in the covariance term coinciding with a period of rather volatile milk prices. Therefore, we hypothesize that reallocation of production resources are triggered by extreme prices possibly powered by market deregulation. We seek to find support for this hypothesis in a regression analysis linking the covariance term and price variability. However, we find only little support for our hypothesis in this analysis. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, EU Milk Quota, Agricultural and Food Policy, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi16:244884&r=eur |
| By: | NAGORE GARCIA Maria desemparados; VAN SOEST Arthur |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data from Spanish Social Security, we compare the pattern and the determinants of individual unemployment durations and the stability of jobs found after unemployment before and during the recent crisis. We find particularly strong effects of the crisis on the hazards in the beginning of the unemployment spell. The groups hit hardest by the crisis are men, immigrants, older workers, and individuals with lower levels of education. The disadvantage of men is mainly due to the more pro-cyclical nature of men´s jobs. Decompositions show that the increase in average unemployment duration and the decrease in average duration of the new job during the crisis are not explained by changing characteristics of the individuals who become unemployed. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment durations; Job durations; Business cycle; Re-employment probability |
| JEL: | C41 E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2016-14&r=eur |
| By: | Weaver, Robert D.; Rosa, Franco |
| Abstract: | This research is an application of the econometric price series to the analysis of dairy chain efficiency in Italy. At a theoretic level, the price transmission and asymmetry in the speed of adjustment to positive and negative price changes is supported by the Industrial Organization, multi market equilibrium, food chain theories. However this does not provide a clear signal of competitiveness as many conditions may induce stickiness (curvature of demand, local cost and externalities, long term contracts. While evidences from past EU studies about the dairy sector are mixed, several studies have demonstrated the evidence of price asymmetries in different market contests. The aim of this research is to examine the price dynamics along the dairy chain and offer some empirical evidences about the cointegration and asymmetric price transmission at different market levels. The parametric test of asymmetry in a multivariate VECM (vector error correction term), suggests symmetry in co-movement. To explore in deeper whether these results are robust with respect to nonlinearity it is estimated the threshold VECM model; the results suggest to reject the hypothesis of asymmetry with exception for the raw milk and wholesale butter. While market competitiveness can not be inferred only from evidence of asymmetry, these findings support the hypothesis that the market structure and policy in the Italian dairy chain didn’t affect greatly the price asymmetry. However, for the butter market, the public intervention seems to have generated speculative behavior among the operators and generated asymmetric price responses to positive/negative price changes. |
| Keywords: | dairy sector, CMO, time series analysis, asymmetric price transmission, TVECM, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa149:245113&r=eur |
| By: | Broszeit, Sandra; Fritsch, Ursula; Görg, Holger; Laible, Marie-Christine |
| Abstract: | Based on a novel dataset, the "German Management and Organizational Practices" (GMOP) Survey, we calculate establishment specific management scores following Bloom and van Reenen as indicators of management quality. We find substantial heterogeneity in management practices across establishments in Germany, with small firms having lower scores than large firms on average. We show a robust positive and economically important association between the management score and establishment level productivity in Germany. This association increases with firm size. Comparison to a similar survey in the US indicates that the average management score is lower in Germany than in the US. Overall, our results point towards lower management scores being at least in part to blame for the differences in aggregate productivity between Germany and the US. |
| Keywords: | management practices,firm performance,labor productivity,GMOP,MOPS |
| JEL: | D24 L2 M2 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2050&r=eur |
| By: | Capuano, Stella (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Migali, Silvia |
| Abstract: | "Despite the effort at EU level to harmonize the process of recognition of foreign educational qualifications, the European states differ in their propensity to accept high-school and academic certificates obtained in other EU member states. In turn, a country's higher degree of recognition of foreign qualifications might be an attractor of non-native skilled workers. We provide evidence on this issue using new data on the outcome of the recognition process in every EU country. Estimating different panel data gravity models, we find that the migration rate to a given destination country is positively affected by its propensity to recognize foreign educational qualifications." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | F22 J44 C23 |
| Date: | 2016–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201634&r=eur |
| By: | Tomaso Duso; Florian Szücs |
| Abstract: | We analyze the pass-through of cost changes to retail tariffs in the German electricity market over the 2007 to 2014 period. We find an average pass-through rate of around 60%, which significantly varies with demand factors: while the pass-through rate to baseline tariffs, where firms have higher market power, is only 50%, it increases to 70% in the competitive segment of the market. Although the pass-through rate of independent firms is significantly higher than that of other firms in the competitive market segment, the extent of supply-side heterogeneity is limited. Thus, the firms’ ability to exercise market power appears to be constrained by competition and largely determined by demand side factors. Finally, we find that the pass-through rate in the competitive market segment has been approaching unity over the past years, indicating a rise in competitive pressure. |
| Keywords: | Electricity retail, pass-through, Germany |
| JEL: | C23 D22 D43 L13 L94 Q41 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1614&r=eur |
| By: | Huber, Robert |
| Abstract: | Farm structural change increases the productivity and efficiency of farming. In the policy debate, however, there is still a strong attachment to a highly fragmented structure of family farms, especially in countries with high support for the agricultural sector. In these regions, the somewhat “romantic” attachment to small family farms in the policy debate may also be interpreted as a public preference for concomitant non-use values of agricultural production. As a consequence, a cost-benefit analysis including the economic gains from farm structural change as well as the non-use values of small-scale, traditional agriculture may give a new perspective on this policy debate. We here combine results from a discrete choice experiment in a Swiss mountain region with simulation results from an agent-based farm model in the same case study region. We compare the willingness to pay of local people for farm survival with the reduced average income that results from impeded structural change. Results imply that on average WTP is higher than the opportunity costs. However, the differentiation into farm types shows that productive full-time farmers would have to bear the highest opportunity costs that exceed the average WTP by far. We discuss this result with respect to the policy debate and further research. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa149:244785&r=eur |
| By: | Lisa-Christine ? Girard; Jean-Baptiste Pingault; Orla Doyle; Bruno Falissard; Richard Ernest Tremblay |
| Abstract: | Conduct problems have been associated with poor language development, however the direction of this association in early childhood remains unclear. This study examined the longitudinal directional associations between conduct problems and expressive language ability. Children enrolled in the UK Millennium Cohort Study (N = 14, 004; 50.3 % boys) were assessed at 3 and 5 years of age. Parent reports of conduct problems and standardised assessments of expressive language were analyzed using cross-lagged modeling. Conduct problems at 3 years was associated with poorer expressive language at 5 years and poorer expressive language at 3 years was associated with increased conduct problems by 5 years. The results support reciprocal associations, rather than a specific unidirectional path, which is commonly found with samples of older children. The emergence of problems in either domain can thus negatively impact upon the other over time, albeit the effects were modest. Studies examining the effects of intervention targeting conduct problems and language acquisition prior to school entry may be warranted in testing the efficacy of prevention programmes related to conduct problems and poor language ability early in childhood. |
| Keywords: | Conduct problems; Expressive language; Early childhood; Millennium Cohort Study |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/8060&r=eur |
| By: | Yang Stephanie Liu (Keele Management School, Keele University); Xiaoyan Zhou (ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading); Jessica Yang (Henley Business School, University of Reading); Andreas Hoepner (ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | Academic debate relating to the link between corporate environmental disclosures, environmental performance and financial performance is persistent and controversial. In this paper, we investigate whether and if so, how, carbon emission performance is related to corporate financial performance and how disclosures of carbon emission in the annual and standalone reports mediate such relationship. Specifically, we construct a 42-item disclosure index to quantify the quality of corporate carbon emission information of 62 FTSE 100 companies from the period of 2010 to 2012. We find that while carbon emission is negatively associated with financial performance, it is positively related to the level of carbon disclosures which is significantly and positively related to financial performance. The findings show that market responses to excessive carbon emission; however, companies with poor carbon performance tend to use disclosure strategically to manage the legitimacy threat and to reduce the information asymmetry. |
| Keywords: | carbon emission, carbon disclosure, financial performance, firm value, mediation analysis |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:icmadp:icma-dp2016-03&r=eur |
| By: | Bittmann, Thomas; Holzer, Patrick; Loy, Jens-Peter |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to analyze the extent of seasonality in wholesale cost pass-through between wholesale and retail prices for differentiated milk products in the German dairy market from 2005 to 2011 on a weekly basis. The non-linear nature of the price relationship is modelled by a panel four-regime error correction model. The analysis provides new evidence of significant time-variant wholesale to retail cost pass-through, which also might be interpreted as seasonal changing degrees of competition, pointing to seasonal fluctuations in cost pass-through as a common feature of commodity markets. In particular, costs are passed on to consumers more quickly during fall and winter and the effect of seasonally varying costs is dampened in higher markups. |
| Keywords: | Non-linear cost pass-through, seasonality, panel error correction model, milk, Demand and Price Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi16:244779&r=eur |
| By: | Ivan Boal-San Miguel (Department of Applied Economics, University of Valladolid); Luis Cesar Herrero-Prieto (Department of Applied Economics, University of Valladolid) |
| Abstract: | The creative economy has become the subject of increasing interest in recent years, both in the area of cultural economics as well as in economic development studies and the analysis of spatial disparities. In this regard, various studies have examined the spatial logics of cultural and creative industries, although analyses into the location and agglomeration of artists therein remain few and far between, in other words inquiry into the activities location linked to artistic creation in a purer sense. The present work thus seeks to delve into location and spatial structure of the cultural sector in a Spanish region, focusing specifically on activities more closely linked to artistic creativity, such as literary creation, performing arts, bullfighting, music, cinema, etc. The work examines the autonomous community of Castilla y León as an example, and posits an analysis of the spatial distribution of artists using micro-spatial disaggregation, in other words taking the network of towns as the territorial analysis unit. Spatial econometric techniques are used to identify location patterns, pinpoint territorial activity clusters and to measure agglomeration economies. A first look at the findings reveals that the cultural sector in Castilla y León evidences a strong trend towards concentration, with spatial distribution patterns which lead to the formation of statistically significant cultural clusters and strong spatial dependence between territories over the whole of the period analysed (2005-2013). |
| Keywords: | Artists, spatial economic analysis, economies of agglomeration, cultural clusters, micro-territorial analysis |
| JEL: | Z11 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-11-2016&r=eur |
| By: | Andrew Jenkins (Department of Social Science, University College London); Alison Wolf (School of Management, King's College London) |
| Abstract: | Higher education is increasingly competitive and international in its recruitment of both students and faculty, and international 'league tables' are increasingly publicised and discussed. In many jurisdictions, universities also now have freedom to set fees for at least some students, and those with a high reputation are well placed to charge large amounts. England has a university sector which is highly differentiated in reputational terms, and a fee regime which allows universities to set fees for a large proportion of their students. It is therefore possible, using administrative and income data, to examine how far commonly recognised measures of reputation explain universities' teaching income per student, after controlling for a wide range of other factors. The results confirm that reputation, or 'brand', appears to have a very large impact on fee and teaching income, and that it is therefore entirely rational for English universities to prioritise activities which raise their international visibility and reputation. |
| Keywords: | Fees, Teaching income, Brand, University reputation, University revenue |
| JEL: | I22 I23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1612&r=eur |
| By: | Elena Mattana (University of Chicago); Juanna Joensen (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Does it matter whether study aid is provided as grants or loans? We provide a framework for quantifying the impacts of financial aid on student debt, academic capital, and labor market outcomes. We specify and estimate a dynamic discrete choice model of simultaneous education, work, and student loan take-up decisions. We use administrative panel data and exploit exogenous variation from the 2001 Swedish Study Aid reform for identification of the model parameters. This enables ex-ante evaluation of various changes to financial aid schemes. We find that additional years of aid and more generous means testing on student income substantially reduce dropout rates and increase graduation rates with more advanced degrees, but at the cost of students staying enrolled longer and accumulating more debt. Moving from an income-contingent to an annuity-based loan repayment scheme decreases student debt accumulation and improves the effectiveness of academic capital accumulation. If study aid consists mostly of grants, a reduction in loans and increase in grants reduces graduation rates. However, once loans are larger than grants, further changes have little impact on dropout and graduation rates. This means that in some cases, the government can decide who bears the college cost without affecting human capital accumulation. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:1102&r=eur |
| By: | J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz; Ignacio Marra de Artíñano |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the male-female differentials in Spain in terms of labor force participation, working conditions and professional development in order to identify the major obstacles in achieving gender equality. Data were gathered from a wide range of national and international sources, and a comparative analysis with other Western European countries was carried out in order to put the Spanish case into a wider context. Despite the great progress that has been made in the last two decades, which has brought Spain on a par with other European countries, the gender gap is still large in a wide number of areas. These are, for the most part, reflected in the existing gender pay gap, as well as in working conditions involving temporality, undesired part-time work, and over-qualification. Furthermore, women are highly under-represented in positions of power and authority in both public and private organizations and there is a high level of occupational and sectorial segregation. The uneven distribution of tasks at the household level is one of the most important factors behind gender inequality in the labor market, one that is likely further hindering the participation of women in the labor market and contributing to widening the gender gap in many other dimensions. Potential gender policy measures to correct the aforementioned situation in Spain are also discussed. |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaeee:eee2016-32&r=eur |
| By: | Aubert, Magali; Enjolras, Geoffroy |
| Abstract: | Short food supply chains are now recognized marketing channels in French agriculture and are adopted widely by some sectors. This article is part of the growing body of studies on short food supply chains by proposing a study of the dynamics of the adoption of retail selling. The analysis relies on the FADN database for the years 2006 to 2012 and considers farms continuously operating over this period. Descriptive statistics are complemented by a two-step Heckman selection model that considers the duration of retail selling adoption, conditioned by the fact that farmers decide at first to adopt or not such marketing strategy. The analysis identifies that the adoption of such strategy is quite stable over the years. The econometric results confirm the link between the farmer's level of education, the use of workforce, phytosanitary products and the adoption of short marketing channels. They highlight the relationship between the reduction of workforce and phytosanitary products, the implementation of a sound financial situation, as well as sectorial peculiarities in the duration of adoption of retail selling. By contributing to a deeper understanding of short marketing modes, these results reflect the emergence of a specific model of farms centered on the use of short food supply chains. |
| Keywords: | Retail selling, FADN, wine-growing, market gardening, fruit production, Heckman, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa149:244895&r=eur |
| By: | Maciej Jagielski; Kordian Czy\.zewski; Ryszard Kutner; H. Eugene Stanley |
| Abstract: | Using the empirical data from the Norwegian tax office, we analyse the wealth and income of the richest individuals in Norway during the period 2010--2013. We find that both annual income and wealth level of the richest individuals are describable using the Pareto law. We find that the robust mean Pareto exponent over the four-year period to be $\approx 2.3$ for income and $\approx 1.5$ for wealth. |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1610.08918&r=eur |
| By: | Bertoni, Danilo; Cavicchioli, Daniele; Latruffe, Laure |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse whether the event of succession changes the performance of farms, for the case of Italian family farms during the period 2008-2014. We using data from the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and several performance indicators. Analyses based on t-tests of equality of means and propensity score matching reveal that succession has a negative effect on performance indicators related to capital, revealing that the capital value has increased after succession. In addition, for farms with succession in the first years of the period considered, performance per hectare after succession is lower for those farms than for farms in which no succession occurred. But this negative effect of succession on performance per hectare is not systematically confirmed when performance is related per labour unit. |
| Keywords: | family farms, succession, performance, propensity score matching, Italy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa149:245166&r=eur |
| By: | Ivo Bischoff (University of Kassel); Nataliya Kusa (University of Kassel) |
| Abstract: | In a recent representative survey, German citizens are asked whether or not inherited wealth beyond a certain amount should be taxed. Almost 60 percent stated that it should not be taxed. We use this survey to identify the factors that drive this fundamental opposition against the taxation of inherited wealth. We find monetary self-interest and redistributive preferences to drive citizens’ attitude in this matter. We account for other intra-familial transfers, in partic-ular long-term care. Being at the heart of intra-familial exchange relations, women are more likely to oppose wealth transfer taxation than men are. Citizens’ attitude towards inheritance taxation does not depend on their personal experience in giving long-term care. Expecting the typical German family to reward intra-familial caregiving through a higher inheritance reduces the opposition against the taxation of inherited wealth. |
| Keywords: | inheritance taxation, intergenerational transfers, citizens’ preferences, long-term care, vignettes |
| JEL: | H27 D31 D72 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201636&r=eur |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (CIRCLE, Lund University); Jienwatcharamongkhol, Viroj (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the role of various types of agglomeration externalities on the survival rate of entrepreneurial firms. In particular, we trace the population cohort of newly-established and self-employed Swedish firms in the Knowledge-Intensive Business Service (KIBS) sector in 1997 up to 2012 and investigate the role of Marshallian and Jacobian externalities on the survival of these firms. We find that only Jacobian externalities (diversity) is positively associated with the survival of entrepreneurial firms. Not all Jacobian externalities matter though. Only the higher the “related variety” of the region in which an entrepreneurial firm is founded, the higher will be the survival chance of the firm, while “unrelated variety” barely has any significant correlation. The result is robust after controlling for extensive firm characteristics and individual characteristics of the founders. The main message here is: for a newly-established entrepreneurial firm, not only it matters who you are, but also where you are. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial firms; region; agglomeration externalities; survival analysis; related variety; unrelated variety |
| JEL: | J24 L26 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_028&r=eur |
| By: | Saint-Cyr, Legrand D. F. |
| Abstract: | This study aims at investigating the impact of agricultural policies on structural change in farming. As not all farms may behave alike, a mixed Markov chain modelling approach is applied to capture for unobserved heterogeneity transition process of farms. A multinomial logit specification is used for transition probabilities and the parameters are estimated by maximum likelihood method and the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. An empirical application to an unbalanced panel from 2000 to 2013 shows that the French farms mainly consists of a mixture two farm types characterized by specific transition processes. The main result of this paper is that the impact of farm subsidies from both the two pillars of the Common Agricultural policy (CAP) highly depends on the type membership of farms. From this result it is argued that more attention should be paid to both observed and unobserved farm heterogeneity in assessing agricultural policy impact on structural change in farming. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa149:244789&r=eur |
| By: | Maes, Dries; Vancauteren, Mark; Van Passel, Steven |
| Abstract: | The Belgian pig production has been confronted with stagnating prices since the start of the century. While several studies have investigated the financial structure of the pork production chain, it remains unclear whether excessive market power from slaughterhouses, or meat retailers plays a role. Market power studies can reveal some of the market dynamics in this setting, but this type of research has not yet been applied to the Belgian pork market. This paper looks at potential oligopolies and oligopsonies in the pork production sector. A new model is build to focus on market power dynamics in the market for live pigs. This model distinguishes horizontal and vertical market power parameters both for pig farmers and for slaughterhouses. The results follow from an empirical application using slaughterhouses data for the period 2002-2011. The potential reasons and consequences of these market powers are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Market power, slaughterhouse, input elasticity, mark-up, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa149:245114&r=eur |