|
on Microeconomic European Issues |
|
Issue of 2017‒10‒08
thirty-two papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Helene Naegele; Aleksandar Zaklan |
| Abstract: | Carbon leakage is an issue of major interest in both academic and policy debates about the effectiveness of unilateral climate policy addressing global externalities. The debate is particularly salient in Europe, where the EU Emissions TradingSystem (EU ETS) covers emissions of many traded sectors. In a first step, we review how carbon leakage and the pollution haven effect are defined and identified in the literature. In a second step, we evaluate whether the emission cost introduced by the EU ETS has caused carbon leakage in European manufacturing. We compute trade flows in embodied carbon and value, using GTAP trade and input-output data and administrative data from the EU ETS. We evaluate theeffect of four measures of environmental stringency on both net trade flows and bilateral trade flows. We do not find evidence that the EU ETS has caused carbon leakage. |
| Keywords: | Carbon leakage, pollution haven, EU ETS, cap-and-trade, CO2 emissions, policy evaluation |
| JEL: | F18 Q58 Q54 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1689&r=eur |
| By: | Raffaella Patimo (Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro”); Chiara Mussida (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to highlight the determinants of female employment in Italy in recent years, when education, costumes, family composition and social and individual preferences for family and work have considerably changed from the past. Nevertheless, the difficulties Italian women still experience in planning and carrying out their (potential) professional and private life have no similar explanations in other countries. We calculate the impact of several features of women’s life in determining their employment and we find highly significant results which help to explain the situation. Furthermore, we investigate what shape the perception of their health status using the same variables. We find significant results also for explaining the health status of women through the (multiple) family burdens and the chance to have a job. |
| Keywords: | female employment; family burdens; health outcome |
| JEL: | C25 E24 I10 J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bai:series:series_wp_04-2017&r=eur |
| By: | Peters, Bettina; Hud, Martin; Dachs, Bernhard; Köhler, Christian |
| Abstract: | We investigate employment effects of innovations over the business cycle using data of manufacturing firms from 26 EU countries for the period 1998-2010. Using a structural model, our empirical analysis reveals three important findings: 1) The net effect of product innovation on employment growth is pro-cyclical. It is positive in all BC phases except for the recession. 2) Product innovators are more resilient to recessions than non-product innovators. 3) We only find resilience for SMEs. |
| JEL: | O33 J23 C26 D2 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168211&r=eur |
| By: | Karoline S. Rogge (SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; Fraunhofer Institute Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Karlsruhe, Germany); Joachim Schleich (Fraunhofer Institute Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Karlsruhe, Germany; Grenoble Ecole de Management, Grenoble, France; Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA) |
| Abstract: | Policy mixes may play a crucial role in redirecting and accelerating innovation towards low-carbon solutions, thus addressing a key societal challenge. Towards this end, the characteristics of such policy mixes have been argued to be of great relevance, yet with little empirical evidence backing up such claims. In this paper we explore this link between policy mix characteristics and low-carbon innovation, using the research case of the transition of the German electricity system towards renewable energy. Our empirical insights are based on an innovation survey among German manufacturers of renewable power generation technologies which builds on the Community Innovation Survey, but which we adjusted to better capture companies’ perceptions of the policy mix. Employing a bivariate Tobit model we find that companies’ perceptions regarding the consistency and credibility of the policy mix are positively associated with the level of their innovation expenditures for renewable energies, and this positive link intensifies when considering the mutual interdependence of these policy mix characteristics. In contrast, we find no support for such a direct link for the comprehensiveness of the instrument mix or the coherence of policy processes. These findings suggests that future research on low-carbon and eco-innovation more broadly should pay greater attention to the characteristics of policy mixes, rather than focusing on policy instruments only. It also implies a need to rethink the consideration of policy in innovation surveys to enable better informed policy advice regarding the greening of innovation. |
| Keywords: | policy mix, credibility, consistency, coherence, comprehensiveness, ecoinnovation, renewable energy, sustainability transition, decarbonization |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2017-19&r=eur |
| By: | Obrizan, Maksym |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates changes in public health care use in 28 transition countries in the aftermath of the global financial crisis using data on more than 60 thousand households from “Life in Transition” surveys II and III conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2010 and 2016. A difference-in-difference model with robust standard errors clustered at a country level is applied to two sets of transition countries defined by their membership status in the European Union. While there was no difference in public health care use between the two groups in 2010 the share of households using the public health care system dropped by a remarkable 22.2% points between 2010 and 2016 in non-EU transition countries compared to new EU members. There is also some evidence of crowding out of public health care with private out-of-pocket expenditures in non-EU members. These findings represent a serious policy concern in terms of falling access to health care in non-EU transition countries. If one believes in equity benefits from access to public health care for all compared to private out-of-pocket expenditures these results also demonstrates a clear benefit of EU membership. |
| Keywords: | public-private health care, mixed financing, transition countries, difference-in-difference |
| JEL: | H44 I1 O57 |
| Date: | 2017–08–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81708&r=eur |
| By: | Frondel, Manuel; Gerster, Andreas; Vance, Colin |
| Abstract: | Many countries have introduced Energy Performance Certificates to mitigate the information asymmetry with respect to the thermal quality of houses. Drawing on a stylized theoretical model that is coupled with comprehensive data on real estate advertisements in the German housing market, this paper investigates the causal effect of disclosing energy information on the offer prices of houses. We are particularly interested in testing whether house sellers who would not voluntarily disclose the house's energy consumption decrease the offer price upon a shift to a mandatory disclosure scheme. Employing both within-variation from panel data and an instrumental-variable approach to cope with the endogeneity of disclosure decisions, our analysis demonstrates the power of mandatory disclosure rules to increase market transparency and to reduce prices. |
| Keywords: | information asymmetry,mandatory disclosure,environmental certification |
| JEL: | D82 L15 Q58 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:684&r=eur |
| By: | Simon, Lisa; Piopiunik, Marc; Lergetporer, Philipp |
| Abstract: | From 2014 onwards, Europe has witnessed an unprecedented influx of refugees. We conducted a survey experiment with almost 5,000 university students in Germany in which we randomly shifted the perception of refugees’ education level through information provision. We find that the perceived education level significantly affects respondents’ concerns regarding labor market competition, but these concerns do not translate into general attitudes toward refugees. |
| JEL: | H12 H53 I38 D83 D72 P16 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168280&r=eur |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd; Furdas, Marina; Sajons, Christoph |
| Abstract: | This study re-estimates the employment effects of training programs for the unemployed using exogenous variation in participation caused by budget rules in Germany in the 1980s and early 1990s, resulting in the infamous "end-of-year spending". In addition to estimating complier effects with 2SLS, we implement a exible control-function approach to obtain the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). Our findings are: Participants who are only selected for budgetary reasons do not benefit from training programs. However, the ATT estimates suggest modest positive effects in the long run. Longer programs are more effective than shorter and more practice-oriented programs. |
| Keywords: | Training for the unemployed,budgetary conditions,administrative data,Germany |
| JEL: | J64 J68 H43 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168310&r=eur |
| By: | Büttner, Thiess; Madzharova, Boryana |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes a unique micro data set on consumer durables to study the effect of consumption tax reforms on the time path of consumption. The dataset reports the monthly sales of individual products and their consumer prices in 22 European countries, which enacted numerous consumption tax reforms in recent years. We implement a reduced form specification for sales that allows us to test theoretical predictions by a standard inter-temporal model of consumer choice under different assumptions about the pass-through of taxes into prices. Our identification strategy exploits the trading of individual products in multiple countries. The results document that changes in baseline consumption tax rates are fully and quickly shifted into consumer prices and exert very strong effects on the time path of consumption. We find that a one percentage point increase in consumption taxes causes an inter-temporal shift in consumption by 3 or more percent. In addition, purchases of durable goods increase temporarily by about 2 percent in the last month before a tax increase. |
| Keywords: | Tax Reform,Fiscal Policy,Consumption Tax,Pass-Through,Tax Incidence,Durable Goods |
| JEL: | D12 H24 H32 E21 E62 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168201&r=eur |
| By: | Pilny, Adam; Wübker, Ansgar; Ziebarth, Nicolas R. |
| Abstract: | To equalize differences in health plan premiums due to differences in risk pools, German legislature introduced a simple Risk Adjustment Scheme (RAS) based on age, gender and disability status in 1994. In addition, effective 1996, consumers gained the freedom to choose among hundreds of existing health plans, across employers and state-borders. This paper (a) estimates RAS pass-through rates on premiums, financial reserves, and expenditures and assesses the overall impact on market price dispersion. Moreover, it (b) characterizes health plan switchers and their annual and cumulative switching rates over time. Our main findings are based on representative enrollee panel data linked to administrative RAS and health plan data. We show that sickness funds with bad risk pools and high pre-RAS premiums lowered their total premiums by 42 cents per additional euro allocated by the RAS. Consequently, post-RAS, health plan prices converged but not fully. Because switchers are more likely to be white collar, young and healthy, the new consumer choice resulted in more risk segregation and the amount of money redistributed by the RAS increased over time. |
| Keywords: | employer-based health insurance,free health plan choice,risk adjustment,health plan switching,adverse selection,German sickness funds,SOEP |
| JEL: | D12 H51 I11 I13 I18 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168121&r=eur |
| By: | Murmann, Martin |
| Abstract: | Recent research based on aggregate data suggests that employment in young firms is more negatively impacted during economic crises than employment in incumbent firms. Using firm-level data, we show that under constant human capital of the firms' founders, employment growth in less than 1 1/2-year-old start-ups reacts countercyclically and employment growth in older start-ups reacts procyclically. The young start-ups realize their countercyclical growth by hiring qualified labor market entrants. |
| JEL: | E32 J23 L26 M13 L25 L11 D22 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168290&r=eur |
| By: | Danzer, Natalia; Halla, Martin; Schneeweis, Nicole; Zweimüller, Martina |
| Abstract: | There is a strong debate about who should provide care to young children. Governments offer two alternative types of institutions: formal childcare and parental leave. We assess the effectiveness of these two competing institutions in promoting child development by comparing how a major parental leave extension from one to two years affected Austrian children's long-term outcomes in communities with and without formal childcare facilities for under-3-year-olds. Empirical identification of treatment effects is based on a sharp birthday cutoff-based discontinuity in the eligibility for extended parental leave and geographical variation in formal childcare. We find evidence that the counterfactual mode of care is decisive. If formal childcare is available, the reform induced a replacement of formal childcare by maternal care and had zero (or negative effects) on child outcomes. Whereas if formal childcare is not available, informal childcare was replaced by maternal care, and the reform improved child outcomes. This heterogeneity is driven by the additional time with the mother in the second year of the child's life and not by a change in maternal income. We conclude that care provided by mothers or formal institutions is superior to informal care-arrangements. |
| Keywords: | Parental leave,formal childcare,informal childcare,child development,maternal labor supply,fertility |
| JEL: | J13 H52 J22 J12 I38 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168239&r=eur |
| By: | Englmaier, Florian; Roider, Andreas; Stowasser, Till; Hinreiner, Lisa |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence that German public energy providers, over which municipality-level politicians hold substantial sway, systematically adjust the pricing of electric energy in response to local electoral cycles. The documented pattern is in line with both, an artificial reduction in prices before an election that needs to be countermanded by future price increases, and an artificial postponement of market-driven price increases until after the election is over. |
| JEL: | D72 D73 H44 H72 H76 K23 L33 L94 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168267&r=eur |
| By: | Tjerk Budding (School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Bram Faber (School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Raymond (R.H.J.M.) Gradus (School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Tinbergen Institute, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | In the Netherlands, electronic service delivery has become an important issue in many municipalities. Using the Internet for service delivery is seen as an important element of e-government. Based on 2014-2016 panel-data of ICT service delivery for all Dutch municipalities, we show that there is a large variety among the municipalities in the extent to which they offer their service delivery digitally. We explore the factors that may explain the differences among the municipalities. Some trends can be discerned, most notably the strong relationship of e-government adoption with demographic characteristics, such as population, population density and both older age and younger age groups. Remarkably, we did not find an influence of educa-tion and income. Finally, we did not observe a relation between municipal allocated costs and level of e-maturity, hereby leaving the question open if and how e-government can lead to cost reductions. |
| Keywords: | e-government; municipalities; service delivery; local government; cost of services; empirical study |
| JEL: | M15 H76 H79 |
| Date: | 2017–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20170087&r=eur |
| By: | Bachmann, Rüdiger; Bayer, Christian; Merkl, Christian; Seth, Stefan; Stüber, Heiko; Wellschmied, Felix |
| Abstract: | We find that worker turnover is more procyclical than job turnover. Procyclical worker churn result almost exclusively from job-to-job transitions. The size and cyclical properties of churn are close to uniform along the entire employment growth distribution of establishments. Even shrinking firms churn, i.e., they hire while separating from workers. The cyclical movements in the source of hiring, from employment vs non-employment, are close to uniform across the employment growth distribution. |
| JEL: | E32 J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168162&r=eur |
| By: | Freddi, Eleonora (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Combining click data from a Swedish newspaper and administrative data on asylum seekers in Sweden, I examine whether a larger presence of refugees in a municipality induces people to avoid news that may encourage welcoming the newcomers. Exploiting the unexpected inflow of refugees to Sweden during 2015 and their exogenous allocation across Swedish municipalities, I find that people living in municipalities where the relative number of refugees has been larger read fewer articles about asylum seekers. I then identify articles that may raise feelings of compassion towards the refugees. The decrease in information acquisition is 36 larger for such empathic articles. |
| Keywords: | information avoidance; refugee crisis; motivated beliefs; click data |
| JEL: | A13 D64 D83 J15 L82 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:ee7c017f-1996-47d3-9d73-2f83695e2b95&r=eur |
| By: | Rosa Sanchis-Guarner |
| Abstract: | An inflow of immigrants into a region impacts house prices in three ways. For a fixed level of local population, housing demand rises due to the increase in foreign-born population. In addition, immigrants can influence native location decisions and induce additional shifts in demand. Finally, changes in housing supply conditions can in turn affect prices. Existing reduced form estimates of the effect of immigration on house prices capture the sum of all these effects. In this paper, I propose a methodology to identify the different channels driving the total effect. I show that, conditional on supply, total changes in housing demand can be decomposed into the sum of direct immigrant demand and indirect demand changes from relocated population. The size and sign of the indirect demand effect depends on the impact of immigration on native mobility. I use Spanish data during the period 2001-2012 to estimate the different elements of the decomposition, applying an instrumental variables strategy to obtain consistent coefficients. The results show that overlooking the impact of immigration on native location induces a sizeable difference between the total and the immigrant demand effects, affecting the interpretation of the estimates. |
| Keywords: | immigration, housing, Spain, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J61 R12 R21 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0223&r=eur |
| By: | Tommaso Frattini (University of Milan, LdA, CReAM and IZA); Elena Meschi (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on how the presence of immigrant peers in the classroom affects native student achievement. The analysis is based on longitudinal administrative data on two cohorts of vocational training students in Italy’s largest region. Vocational training institutions provide the ideal setting for studying these effects because they attract not only disproportionately high shares of immigrants but also the lowest ability native students. We adopt a value added model, and exploit within-school variation both within and across cohorts for identification. Our results show small negative average effects on maths test scores that are larger for low ability native students, strongly non-linear and only observable in classes with a high (top 20%) immigrant concentration. These outcomes are driven by classes with a high average linguistic distance between immigrants and natives, with no apparent role played by ethnic diversity. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, education, peer effects, vocational training, language |
| JEL: | I20 J15 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2017:20&r=eur |
| By: | Reggio Ojeda, Iliana Gabriela; Alba Ramírez, Alfonso |
| Abstract: | We investigate labour market outcomes among persons who graduated from college during a recession in Spain. We use administrative data that allow for longitudinal analysis for a large sample of workers. The main result is that men and women who enter the labor market in a period of rising unemployment experience a significant loss of earnings in comparison with cohorts entering just before or after the downturn. However, we find that earnings differentials become insignificant by the third year after graduation for men, and by the fifth year for women. Almost all earnings losses among unlucky college graduates appear to be caused by joblessness: the brunt of adjustment takes place through employment rather than wages. |
| Keywords: | earnings; recession; youth unemployment; college graduates |
| JEL: | J24 J23 |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:25363&r=eur |
| By: | John S. Heywood; Uwe Jirjahn; Annika Pfister |
| Abstract: | Using German establishment data, this paper examines the relationship between product market competition and the extent of employer provided training. We demonstrate that high product market competition is associated with increased training except when the competition is so severe as to threaten liquidation to a firm. We take this as evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship. We also make clear that while this relationship is very evident for the service sector it is largely missing for manufacturing where we confirm earlier results of no relationship. |
| Keywords: | Competition, Employer Provided Training, Manufacturing, Services |
| JEL: | J24 L00 M53 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:201707&r=eur |
| By: | Briglauer, Wolfgang |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid programme for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German state of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. We find that aided municipalities have—depending on quality— between 16.8 and 23.2 percentage points higher broadband coverage than non-aided municipalities. This increase in broadband coverage closes the digital divide but does not contribute to a further closing of the economic divide in the form of creating new jobs. |
| JEL: | D62 D73 G38 H23 J23 K23 L52 L96 L98 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168055&r=eur |
| By: | Giuseppe Albanese (Bank of Italy); Marika Cioffi (Bank of Italy); Pietro Tommasino (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We explore how electoral rules and cultural traits (namely, the degree of civicness) interact in shaping elected officials' behaviour. We use a dataset that includes the expenditure proposals sponsored by members of the Italian Senate from 1993 to 2012 (as well as other individual and district characteristics) and exploit the 2005 electoral reform that transformed a mainly majoritarian system into a proportional one. As a first step, we can confirm previous empirical findings: legislators elected in first-past-the-post districts show a higher propensity to sponsor locally oriented bills and to put effort into legislative activity than those elected with a closed-list proportional system. More importantly, however, we find that the effects of the change in the electoral rules are muted in areas with a high degree of civicness. We also propose a simple probabilistic voting model with altruistic preferences that is able to rationalize this finding. |
| Keywords: | electoral rules, provision of public goods, political economy, civicness |
| JEL: | D72 H41 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1135_17&r=eur |
| By: | Abeliansky, Ana Lucia; Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | We analyze how childhood hunger affects human aging for a panel of European individuals. For this purpose, we use six waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) dataset and construct a health deficit index. Results from log-linear regressions suggest that, on average, elderly European men and women developed about 20 percent more health deficits when they experienced a hunger episode in their childhood. The effect becomes larger when the hunger episode is experienced earlier in childhood. In non-linear regressions (akin to the Gompertz-Makeham law), we obtain greater effects suggesting that health deficits in old age are up to 40 percent higher for children suffering from hunger. The wedge of health deficits between hungry and and non-hungry individuals increases absolutely and relatively with age. This implies that individuals who suffered from hunger as children age faster. |
| Keywords: | health,aging,health deficit index,hunger episodes,childhood health |
| JEL: | I10 I19 J13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:322&r=eur |
| By: | Töpfer, Marina |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we estimate the gender pay gap along the wage distribution using a detailed decomposition approach based on unconditional quantile regressions. Non-randomness of the sample leads to biased and inconsistent estimates of the wage equation as well as of the components of the wage gap. Therefore, the method is extended to account for sample selection problems. The decomposition is conducted by using Italian microdata. Accounting for labor market selection may be particularly relevant for Italy given a comparably low female labor market participation rate. The results suggest not only differences in the income gap along the wage distribution (in particular glass ceiling), but also differences in the contribution of selection effects to the pay gap at different quantiles. |
| Keywords: | Gender Pay Gap,Detailed Decomposition,Unconditional Quantile Regression,Sample Selection |
| JEL: | J7 J13 J31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168422&r=eur |
| By: | Sergi Jiménez-Martín; Catia Nicodemo; Stuart Redding |
| Abstract: | In England as elsewhere, policy makers are trying to reduce the pressure on costs caused by rising hospital admissions by encouraging GPs to refer less patients to hospital specialists.This could have an impact on elective treatment levels, particularly procedures for conditions which are not life-threatening and can be delayed or perhaps withheld entirely. This study attempts to identify the potential consequences on levels of emergency treatment if elective care is managed downwards. Using administrative data from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) in England we estimate dynamic fixed effects panel data models for emergency admissions at Primary Care Trust and Hospital Trust levels for the years 2004–13, controlling for a group of area-specific characteristics and other secondary care variables. We find that increasing levels of elective care tends to increase the future requirement for emergency treatment. While there is no guarantee that the positive correlation between emergency and elective activity will persist if policy is effective in reducing levels of elective treatment, it does suggest that the cost-saving benefits to the NHS from reducing elective treatment may not be as great in aggregate as anticipated. |
| Keywords: | Health care services, elective and emergency hospital admissions, secondary care, NHS, dynamic panel data |
| JEL: | I11 I C30 C33 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1582&r=eur |
| By: | Radulescu, Doina; Feger, Fabian |
| Abstract: | We use data on 180,000 households in the Swiss Canton of Bern and the years 2008-2013 to analyse whether one instrument (the income tax) vs. two instruments (income tax and public utility pricing) are adequate for income redistribution. The results of our structural estimation show that under certai assumptions there is a role for redistribution through public good pricing markups and hence with two instruments being adequate for redistribution. |
| JEL: | D12 D31 H21 H22 H24 L51 L94 L98 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168138&r=eur |
| By: | CLIFTON-SPRINGG, Joanna; JAMES, Jonathan; VUJIC, Suncica |
| Abstract: | This paper sets out a method of generating a unique data set that has been underused by economists – a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The FOI Act came into force in 2005 in the UK and allows the public to make requests of publicly held data. We explain how they can be made and provide suggestions on how to make effective data driven requests, those most frequently made by economists. Finally, we document the determinants of one particular FOI request. We applied for crime data from all police forces in the UK and examine the determinants of that request. In general, we find that observable characteristics of the local area or the police force neither determine whether the request was fulfilled, nor the speed at which it was responded to. |
| Keywords: | Data collection, Data access |
| JEL: | C80 C81 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2017008&r=eur |
| By: | Nils May; Karsten Neuhoff |
| Abstract: | Power systems with increasing shares of wind and solar power generation have higher capital and lower operational costs than traditional technologies. This increases the importance of the cost of finance for total system cost. We quantify how renewable policy design can influence cost of finance by addressing regulatory risk and facilitating hedging. We use interview data on wind power financing costs from the EU and model how long-term contracts signed between project developers and energy suppliers impact financing costs in the context of green certificate schemes. Be- tween the policy regimes, the cost of renewable energy deployment differ by 30%. |
| Keywords: | Investments, long-term contracts, financing costs, liberalization of power markets, renewable energy policies |
| JEL: | Q42 Q55 O38 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1684&r=eur |
| By: | Zhu, Junyi; Pasteau, Etienne |
| Abstract: | The relative attractions from both inherited and acquired traits in martial choices can change. We expand the traditional dimension of assortative mating through only labor income to both labor income and inheritance as Frémeaux (2014) accomplished. This paper studies the concentration and substitutability of these two traits in forming partnership using Panel of Household Finance (PHF) data for Germany. Our results resembles to the quantitative and distributional outcomes from France. |
| JEL: | D10 D31 J12 J62 C13 J31 D83 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168086&r=eur |
| By: | Bagues, Manuel; Sylos-Labini, Mauro; Zinovyeva, Natalia |
| Abstract: | Prospective candidates with connections in committees may have access to more accurate information about evaluation standards. When applications are costly, this informational advantage may reduce the application rate of connected individuals, leading to a positive selection among applicants. We document the relevance of this phenomenon using data from national evaluations in Italian academia. Researchers are significantly less likely to apply when the committee includes, through the luck of the draw, a colleague or a coauthor. At the same time, they tend to receive more favorable evaluations from their connections. Our analysis indicates that self-selection may bias in a non-trivial way estimates of evaluation biases that rely on observational data. |
| Keywords: | academic labor markets; connections; Self-selection |
| JEL: | I23 J71 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12308&r=eur |
| By: | Raffaello Bronzini (Bank of Italy); Giampaolo Caramellino (London School of Economics); Silvia Magri (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Italian startups financed by venture capitalists (VCs) experience a faster growth in size and become more innovative compared with other startups. VC-backed firms also show a much larger increase in equity and a reduction in their leverage. This evidence is obtained by comparing a representative sample of firms financed by private VCs in the period 2004-2014 with a sample of firms rejected by VC at the very last stage of the screening process or in the due diligence phase. These firms narrowly lost the contest and before VC financing have very similar observable and unobservable characteristics to the VC-backed firms; self-selection is specifically taken into account. The effects on firms' size and innovation are not exclusively explained by equity financing. The results hold when we restrict the comparison to firms in the control group that also increase their equity from investors other than VCs: this suggests that VC effects can also be linked to their managerial expertise and network connection. Finally, the results are exclusively driven by independent VC investors compared with captive VCs. |
| Keywords: | venture capital, innovation, firm financial structure, differences-in-differences |
| JEL: | G21 G24 G32 O30 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1131_17&r=eur |
| By: | Oancea, Bogdan; Pospisil, Richard; Dragoescu, Raluca |
| Abstract: | Education is one of the most important components of the human capital, and an important determinant of the personal income. Estimating the rate of return to education is a main topic of economic research. In this paper we analyzed the rate of return to higher education in Romania using the well-known Mincer equation. Besides the educational level and the number of years of experience on the labor market we also used a series of socio-demographic variables such as gender, civil status, the area of residence. We were interested mainly in calculating the rate of return to higher education, therefore we computed this rate for bachelor, master and doctoral degrees separately. We also investigated the rate of return to higher education on technical, science, economics, law, medicine, and arts fields. Our results showed that the rate of return to higher education has a greater value than most of the developed countries of EU and the field of higher education that brings the highest rate of return is medicine |
| Keywords: | Mincer equation; higher education; returns to education |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2017–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81720&r=eur |