|
on Microeconomic European Issues |
|
Issue of 2018‒10‒08
thirty-two papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Laura Gabrielli; Sergio Copiello; Pietro Bonifaci |
| Abstract: | The residential sector is a crucial segment in Italy, as it represents the most significant component of household wealth, and homeownership greatly prevails (around 73%) in comparison to other European countries. Moreover, the construction sector is an important contributor to domestic economy (about 10% of the GDP), but the last market cycle had a substantial impact on the construction business. The most significant downsizing concerned the constructions, as they have lost more than 10 percent of companies, almost 20 percent of employees and around 30 percent of the gross fixed capital formation. A weak economic prospect hit the property market, dramatically reduced the volume of transactions and bring the house prices down in most cities. This prolonged downturn of the market freeze the capital flow in most of part of the country, but different towns experienced different reactions to the global economic crisis.This paper aims at analysing the particular condition of the Italian residential market of the last 20 years, clustering the Italian cities into groups according to their behaviour and their characterization. The novelty of the approach proposed here lies in using not only market data and socio-economic covariates for the analysed cities, but also trends and dynamics shown by the adjoining and surrounding territorial units, according to the principles of spatial data analysis. Indeed, following the so-called first law of geography (Tobler, 1970), “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things”. Therefore, we expect that the real estate market fundamentals in a city are affected, to a certain extent, by what happens in the neighbouring cities.The method has been implemented using the data of the last two market cycles (expansion: 1999 – 2006; recession: 2007 – 2016), employing a variety of demand-side and supply-side variables, such as the number of transactions, house stock, house prices, building permits, quality of life, index of sustainability. The analysis has been conducted considering data organised at NUTS 3 level (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), namely, the Provinces. Custer analysis is then used to determine the composition of different submarkets and to characterise them, in order to understand their different conditions and to assess the weakness of the various submarkets during the expansion and the downturn of the market. |
| Keywords: | Cluster Analysis; Italian Real Estate Market; Residential sector; Spatial data analysis |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_147&r=eur |
| By: | Shimaa Elkomy (Surrey School of Economics); Zahra Murad (Portsmouth Business School); Veronica Veleanu (Surrey Business School) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we provide first-hand evidence that leadership quality matters for the quality of healthcare provision, based on NHS England hospital trust data between 2010 and 2014. This is the first paper to study this relationship using individual leadership styles, namely, task-, relations-, change- and integrity-oriented, and for different metrics of quality of healthcare provision, including staff and patient satisfaction survey measures and clinical performance indicators. We find that task-oriented leadership has the strongest relationship with staff-rated hospital quality while change-oriented leadership relates most to patient satisfaction and the clinical measure. We also find some evidence that organizational autonomy and competition across hospitals moderates the effect of leadership quality on healthcare quality. Overall, our results indicate that ideal healthcare leaders should behave as integrated leaders and that leadership matters at all levels of organizational hierarchy. This has important policy implications for continued support for the development and funding of integrated leadership programs in healthcare. |
| Keywords: | Healthcare Leadership, Integrated Leadership, Service Improvement, Public Service, England |
| JEL: | I10 H57 |
| Date: | 2018–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2018-08&r=eur |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Rossen, Anja; Wolf, André |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the incidence of overeducation among graduate workers in 21 EU countries and its underlying factors based on the European Labor Force Survey 2016 (EU-LFS). Although controlling for a wide range of covariates, the particular interest lies in the role of fields of study for vertical educational mismatch. The study reveals country and gender differences in the impact of these factors. Compared to Social Sciences, male graduates from e.g. Education, Health and Welfare, Engineering, and ICT are less and those from e.g. Services and Natural Sciences are more at risk in a clear majority of countries. These findings hold for the majority of countries and are robust against a change of the standard education. However, countries show different gendered patterns of fieldspecific risks. We suggest that occupational closure, productivity signals and gender stereotypes answer for these cross-field and cross-country differentials. Moreover, country fixed effects point to relevant structural differences between national labour markets and between educational systems. |
| Keywords: | field of study,college major,overeducation,vertical mismatch,gender,realized matches,household context,EU countries,Labour Force Survey |
| JEL: | J24 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:184&r=eur |
| By: | Olayiwola Oladiran; Anupam Nanda; Stanimira Milcheva |
| Abstract: | Recent projections suggest that despite Brexit, immigration to the UK is expected to increase which may further change the UK housing market trends.A key housing market dynamic caused by net migration in Britain is the variation in housing tenure trends for natives and non-natives which further influences housing demand. Anecdotal evidence reveals that the proportion of homeowners is much higher for natives than for non-natives, suggesting that an increase in migration may lead to growth in the demand on the rental market at a higher rate than the sales market. Research further suggests that it may be worthy to analyse second-generation migrants as a separate cohort from first-generation migrants, and natives. However, there is an absence of empirical evidence in this regard in Britain. Classical models analyse housing tenure choices in the context of the lifecycle position of the family head. We however provide evidence that while the natural lifecycle largely influences the housing tenure choice of natives and second-generation migrants, the migration lifecycle may be a stronger predictor of housing tenure choices for first-generation migrants. Research further reveals that generational factors, life pathways of natives and non-natives, migration-related factors and factors relating to the destination countries (among other factors) may also be responsible for the variation in housing tenure. While similar studies in the UK also account for migration era, racial and ethnic variation in housing tenure, they do not differentiate between natives and non-natives. We therefore posit that the year of entry, as well as racial and ethnic variations, may be an insufficient basis of analysis, and there may be deeper underlying factors, particularly native/non-native dichotomy. Our results indicate that the migration lifecycle may be the key predictor of housing tenure choices for first-generation migrants. We also observe that the effects of the natural lifecycle, individual, demographic, household and socioeconomic factors vary for natives, first-generation and second-generation migrants. Our results further reveal that second-generation migrants in Britain appear to have distinct housing tenure patterns, different from natives and first-generation migrants; and natives and non-natives housing tenure patterns differ in London, compared to the general British population. |
| Keywords: | Housing demand; housing tenure; Lifecycle; Migration |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_166&r=eur |
| By: | Girardi, Alessandro; Ventura, Marco; Margani, Patrizia |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a two-step procedure to derive a credit crunch indicator for the Italian manufacturing sector. Using qualitative firm-level data over the years 2008-2018, nonlinear discrete panel data techniques are first applied in order to identify the loan supply curve controlling for firm-specific observable characteristics. In the subsequent step, the variation of the estimated supply curve that cannot be explained by proxies for loan demand is interpreted as the degree of credit squeeze prevailing in the economy at a given point in time. The empirical evidence shows that credit crunch episodes are less likely to occur during periods of sustained economic growth, or when credit availability for the manufacturing sector is relatively abundant. In contrast, a tight monetary policy stance or a worsening of the quality of banking balance sheets tend to increase the likelihood of experiencing a credit squeeze |
| Keywords: | business survey, credit crunch, access to credit |
| JEL: | C23 G30 G32 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:88839&r=eur |
| By: | Yi Wu |
| Abstract: | Institutional real estate investors commonly invest in real estate via investments in publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs). Recently, the increasing flow of investment from international investors into REITs sector come from foreign institutional investors. Foreign investors vary in sophistication, business strategy and practices, governance, and capital sources, so the handy information from media news will impact their preferences for REITs instantly. The wave of news from media has largely changed the structure of investors' information, which affect investors investment preferences (Ron and Robert 2017). The information availability and quality are important factors that influence foreign investors’ decisions in building their investment portfolios. Although foreign investors could obtain information through various sources, they face significant information disadvantage compared to domestic investors (Choe et al. 2005; Leuz, 2006; Chan et al.2008). Media from the home country of foreign investors (i.e., home media) could minimize these barriers by broadcasting in its home language and commenting on news from its home perspective. This paper aims to investigate whether foreign investors rely more on home media (than domestic media) to make their foreign investment decisions. Furthermore, institutional investors hold large ownership stakes in European REITs. The traditional view is that institutions are both long-term and passive investors (Devos et al.2013), so the institutional investors tend to find out the more efficient information. Most literature suggests that media coverage reduces the information asymmetry in financial markets (Bushee et al. 2010; Blankespoor et al. 2014) and plays a corporate governance role (Dyck et al. 2010; Dai et al. 2015). However, it is not clear whether the domestic and foreign media play a different role in providing information to foreign investors in European REITs. This paper aims to resolve the puzzle by answering that whether higher media coverage from a particular foreign country is expected to increase European REITs’ foreign ownership from that country or not. I investigate this relationship over the period from 2000 to 2017 by matching the second-rate media news with the yearly European REITs ownership data. This paper highlights the different sources of media news impact on foreign institutional investors’ ownership of European REITs, which provides important implications for European REITs... |
| Keywords: | European Reits; Foreign Institutional Ownership; Media information |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_234&r=eur |
| By: | Klingler, Anna-Lena; Luthander, Rasmus |
| Abstract: | With increasing number of installations of photovoltaic (PV) systems and lower equipment costs, the subsidies dedicated to residential PV systems are reduced in many countries. Instead of the subsidies for selling PV electricity, prospectively self-consumption is the key parameter for the profitability of PV systems. In this paper, we study the market diffusion of residential PV systems for de-tached houses in Germany and Sweden. For this, we develop a hybrid model of the adoption of PV installations driven by self-consumption. We model the profitability and investment decisions for PV systems in a first step and account for inhibiting factors by introducing an adoption rate. The adoption rate is based on empirical data from the market diffusion of heat pumps in Sweden. We also study the market diffusion of battery systems aimed to increase self-consumption. A base case with several sensitivities on long-term trends of different parameters is analysed to examine the variation of the market diffusion until 2040. The results show a large difference in the market share of PV systems in Germany and Sweden in 2040. A base case scenario results in a market share for PV systems of 65% of the German detached houses in 2040, compared to 12% in Sweden. The results show that the market share in Sweden is most sensitive to electricity price changes, whereas the German market is most sensitive to changes in the adoption rate. Since the high electricity price in Germany makes PV profitable for most of the households at an early stage, it is mainly the adoption rate that limits the market diffusion in Germany. For Sweden, where the electricity price is less than half of the German price, the profitability is the main limiting factor. This is reflected in the hybrid adoption model, where the market diffusion is dependent on both the profitability and the adoption rate. The market share for battery systems is 5% in Germany and 0% in Sweden in 2040 in the base case scenario. The results show the influences of several parameters on the market diffusion based on the different initial mar-ket conditions, which can be extended to other national markets. |
| Keywords: | Market diffusion,self-consumption,PV,battery,technology adoption |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s182018&r=eur |
| By: | Alexander Bick (Arizona State University); Bettina Brüggemann (McMaster University); Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln (Goethe University Frankfurt); Hannah Paule-Paludkiewicz (Goethe University Frankfurt) |
| Abstract: | We document the time-series of employment rates and hours worked per employed by married couples in the US and seven European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK) from the early 1980s through 2016. Relying on a model of joint household labor supply decisions, we quantitatively analyze the role of non-linear labor income taxes for explaining the evolution of hours worked of married couples over time, using as inputs the full country- and year-specific statutory labor income tax codes. We further evaluate the role of consumption taxes, gender and educational wage premia, and the educational composition. The model is quite successful in replicating the time series behavior of hours worked per employed married woman, with labor income taxes being the key driving force. It does however capture only part of the secular increase in married women’s employment rates in the 1980s and early 1990s, suggesting an important role for factors not considered in this paper. We will make the non-linear tax codes used as an input into the analysis available as a user-friendly and easily integrable set of Matlab codes. |
| Keywords: | taxation, two-earner households, hours worked |
| JEL: | E60 H20 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-069&r=eur |
| By: | Cantarero-Prieto, David; Pascual-Sáez, Marta; Blázquez-Fernández, Carla |
| Abstract: | In recent years, population aging has received great attention in developed countries given the social challenges that it entails. At this regard, it is well documented that this collective is associated with fewer resources (both physical and economic). Furthermore, ageing societies incite an increase in the inactive population and so, threaten the financial viability of the social protection systems. This study investigates the effects of different factors on early retirement intentions among European workers aged 50-65 using the latest available data (waves 1-6: 2004-2015) from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We shed new light on this causal relationship controlling for job characteristics and well-being indicators. Our empirical results based on logistics regressions suggest that people that is satisfied with their jobs (OR = 0.61; 95 % C.I. 0.53, 0.71), with very high appreciation of their quality of life (OR = 0.56; 95 % C.I. 0.49, 0.64) or with good health (OR = 0.55; 95 % C.I. 0.47, 0.65) would have less intentions of early retirement, that is, decreased odds of work exit. Besides, social-environment would matter. |
| Keywords: | Early retirement intentions; Job satisfaction; Quality of life; Health; SHARE; Panel. |
| JEL: | I10 J26 J28 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89077&r=eur |
| By: | Francesco Fasani (Queen Mary University of London) |
| Abstract: | Do general amnesty programs lead to reductions in the crime rate among immigrants? We answer this question by exploiting cross-sectional and time variation in the number of immigrants legalized generated by the enactment of repeated amnesty programs between 1990 and 2005 in Italy. We address the potential endogeneity of the "legalization treatment" by instrumenting the actual number of legalized immigrants with alternative predicted measures based on past amnesty applications patterns and residential choices of documented and undocumented immigrants. We find that, in the year following an amnesty, regions in which a higher share of immigrants obtained legal status experienced a greater decline in non-EU immigrant crime rates, relative to other regions. The effect is statistically significant but relatively small and not persistent. In further results, we fail to find any evidence of substitution in the criminal market from other population groups - namely, EU immigrants and Italian citizens - and we observe a small and not persistent reduction in total offenses. |
| Keywords: | illegal migration, legalization, migration policy |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2018–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:867&r=eur |
| By: | Laura McCann; Norman Hutchison; Alastair Adair |
| Abstract: | In 1988 the Teaching and Higher Education Act introduced tuition fees in all the countries of the UK. However, as result of the establishment of devolved national administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, different fee arrangements now exist in each country. For example, in England and Wales, tuition fees for UK and EU students are capped at £9,250 p.a., while in Northern Ireland the fees are limited to £4,030 p.a. In Scotland, universities are not allowed to charge fees to Scottish based or EU students, but instead received funding from the Scottish government, which varies by subject, but averages around £5,000 p.a. per student. This funding model has introduced significant differences in the financial strength of the universities both between and within countries and has been subject to considerable criticism from all stakeholders, with alternative funding options being promoted by opposition political parties.This differential funding model exists at a time when universities are facing a very competitive market to attract both UK and international students in a post Brexit environment. This has resulted in significant capital investment by a number of universities on major building works, to maintain and grow student numbers. While some of the funding has been supported by the rise in tuition fee income, universities have also used a range of funding options from private bond issuance to commercial bank lending, both short term and long term, and loans from the European Investment Bank to finance the expenditure. Adopting a corporate finance theory perspective, this paper considers the appropriate mix of debt and equity which is appropriate for major capital projects in the HE sector. Utilising both HESA data returns and published annual accounts, in-depth analysis using a nested logit structure was carried out on data from the top 63 UK universities over the period 2013 to 2016, to establish the range of funding sources adopted for major capital projects, all set within the context of the UK macro environment and a period of low interest rates. The research also carried out a survey of funders to understand the decision criteria used by lenders active in the HE sector and to understand how the borrowers are monitored ex ante and ex post the lending event. The research reveals significant differences in covenant strength across the HE sector with a wide division emerging and differential access to the public markets. |
| Keywords: | Captial expenditure; External Funding; HE sector |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_88&r=eur |
| By: | Regina T. Riphahn; Salwan Saif |
| Abstract: | Naturalization may be a relevant policy instrument affecting immigrant integration in host-country labor markets. We study the effect of naturalization on labor market outcomes of immigrants in Germany. We apply recent survey data and exploit a reform of naturalization rules in an instrumental variable estimation. In our sample of recent immigrants, linear regression yields positive correlations between naturalization and beneficial labor market outcomes. Once we account for the endogeneity of naturalization most coefficients decline in magnitude and lose statistical significance: male immigrants' labor market outcomes do not benefit significantly from naturalization. Naturalization reduces the risks of unemployment and welfare dependence for female immigrants. For males and females, the propensity to hold a permanent contract increase as a consequence of naturalization. The results are robust to modifications of samples and the instrument. |
| Keywords: | citizenship, migration, naturalization, labor market outcomes, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J61 J15 C26 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7217&r=eur |
| By: | Bossler, Mario; Oberfichtner, Michael; Schnabel, Claus |
| Abstract: | The effects of large minimum wage increases, like those planned in the UK and in some US states, are still unknown. We conduct a survey experiment that randomly assigns increases or decreases in minimum wages to about 6,000 plants in Germany and asks the personnel managers about their expectations concerning employment adjustments. We find that employment reacts asymmetrically to positive and negative changes in minimum wages. The larger the increase in the minimum wage is, the larger the expected reduction in employment. Employment adjustments are more pronounced in those industries and plants which are more strongly affected by the current minimum wage and in those plants that have neither collective agreements nor a works council. In contrast, employment is not found to increase if the minimum wage is reduced by about 10 percent. This mainly reflects that plants with works councils and collective agreements would not cut wages. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage,wage cuts,establishment survey,Germany |
| JEL: | J31 J23 D22 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:106&r=eur |
| By: | Johannes Hermle; Andreas Peichl |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a model of jointly optimal income taxes for different types of income. Compared to standard optimal tax formulas, optimal schedular income tax rates additionally depend on cross-elasticities between tax bases capturing fiscal externalities. We discuss two applications: the taxation of different income sources such as labor or capital income and the taxation of couples. For these applications, we calculate income type-specific optimal tax rates for Germany using rich panel data from administrative tax records. We first estimate income-type specific elasticities with respect to the next-of-tax rate and show that responses to taxes differ substantially by income source and by gender. Second, we calculate social welfare weights implicit in the German personal income tax schedule which again differ between income sources and by gender. Using these estimates, we consider a tax simplification reform by calculating optimal schedular linear income tax rates. We find that optimal tax rates are significantly lower for labor income than for self-employment and capital income as well as for married women than men. |
| Keywords: | optimal taxation, income types, marginal social welfare weights, flat tax, administrative data |
| JEL: | H21 H24 H26 D60 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7248&r=eur |
| By: | Maria Garrone; Johan Swinnen |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates firm-level mark-ups and their volatility along the agri-food value chain using the methodology of De Loecker and Warzynski (2012). We estimate mark-ups of farmers, processors, wholesalers and retailers, how they change over time, and their volatility. We use detailed micro-level data from companies from Italy and France for the period 2006-2014. We find that farmers have a significantly higher volatility of mark-ups than other agents in the agri-food value chain, such as food processors, wholesalers and retailers. The volatility is negatively related with firms size in all sectors, and especially in agriculture. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:40318&r=eur |
| By: | Matej Kuc (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Smetanovo nabrezi 6, 111 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the size–efficiency relation of European cooperative banks during the 2006-2015 period. We employ the Stochastic Frontier Analysis in order to obtain inefficiency estimates and its determinants on the set of 183 cooperative banks from 12 European countries. This work extends the existing literature by focusing on shape of size-efficiency relationship and examining also the post-crisis period after the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Our results show that smaller European cooperative banks are significantly more cost efficient than their bigger peers and that the size-efficiency relation is linear. Interestingly, inefficiency remained roughly stable during the whole observation period without any substantial changes, not even on sub-samples of individual countries. These results imply that no significant consolidation of European cooperative banks can be expected in the near future. We conclude that for cooperatives, it is more efficient to remain small in size rather than to expand. From a policy perspective, we recommend regulators to reflect special nature of cooperative banks and allow them to operate at a small scale enabling their efficiency. As a result, we believe that one-size-fits-all regulation is harmful for efficient operations of cooperative banks in Europe. |
| Keywords: | cooperative banking, efficiency, EU, Stochastic Frontier Analysis |
| JEL: | D24 D61 E23 G21 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2018_21&r=eur |
| By: | Joseph-Alexander Zeitler; Christian Ott; Sven Bienert |
| Abstract: | In contrast to its European neighbors, Germany’s rental housing market has a long tradition. 54.3 % of all Germans live in rental housing. According to surveys, property acquisitions for rental purposes are on the rise and high purchase prices boost European rental markets. Simultaneously, individuals increasingly value flexibility and tend to minimize terms of commitment, resulting in major changes for the real estate industry. As a consequence, property investors need to consider shortened lease terms and a higher probability of tenants moving out, resulting in longer amortization periods and increased capital expenditure. On the one hand, long leases create stable income flows and require less capital-intensive maintenance strategies, but are confronted with higher legal burdens to increase rents. This is especially relevant to properties where a high margin between market rent and contractual rent is observable. On the other hand, short lease terms enable instantaneous adjustment to equilibrium market rents once the tenant has moved out, but also lead to higher fluctuation and wear of the subject property and directly encompass substantial refurbishment, administration and reletting costs. Therefore, the ability of residential investment properties to generate adequate returns stands or falls with tenant behavior. This obviously creates the need for more and deeper research in this field of study. Thus, the paper at hand aims to contribute to the theory, practice and development trends of residential property leases. The authors analyze a steady panel dataset of 500 residential housing units throughout one of the most overheated metropolitan German areas, namely Munich, from 2007 to 2017. Consequently, the analysis covers periods of boom and bust, making findings extremely robust. Based on a desktop literature review and a Cox proportional hazard model, the authors provide a more in-depth explanation of influence factors for effectively observed lease terms in residential markets. The authors support the hypothesis that main drivers of lease duration are tenant and property attributes, effective rental price increases, geo-referenced location variables and macroeconomic indicators. Due to bounded availability of data, current research in this field is still limited, especially in Germany. Thus, the study at hand should provide deeper insights into the decision making process of tenants and its implications for investors in the German residential market |
| Keywords: | lease terms; likelihood of moving out; Residential markets; tenant behaviour; value oriented asset management |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_145&r=eur |
| By: | Matteo Gamalerio |
| Abstract: | Do electoral incentives affect immigration policies? I study this question in the setting of Italian municipalities making decisions about the reception of refugees. The localized control of the reception policy (SPRAR), combined with the exogenous timing of policy decisions and staggered elections, enables me to study the effect of electoral incentives on the reception of refugees. Although municipalities receive fiscal grants for hosting refugees, electoral incentives reduce the probability of opening a refugee centre by 24 per cent. The effect is driven by voters' misperception of immigrants and by extreme-right political preferences. The results explain why is difficult to reach an equal redistribution of refugees across and within countries. |
| Keywords: | migration, reception of refugees, electoral incentives, fiscal grants |
| JEL: | R23 J61 D72 C23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7212&r=eur |
| By: | Xiong, Qizhou; Mavropoulos, Antonios |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use the panel of the first two waves of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey by the European Central Bank to study housing demand of European households and evaluate potential housing market regulations in the post-crisis era. We provide a comprehensive account of the housing decisions of European households between 2010 and 2014, and structurally estimate the housing preference of a simple life-cycle housing choice model. We then evaluate the effect of a tighter LTV/LTI regulation via counter-factual simulations. We find that those regulations limit homeownership and wealth accumulation, reduces housing consumption but may be welfare improving for the young households. |
| Keywords: | housing consumption,macroprudential policies,LTV/LTI regulation |
| JEL: | D14 D31 D91 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:172018&r=eur |
| By: | Gabin Langevin (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); David Masclet (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Fabien Moizeau (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Emmanuel Péterlé (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Date: | 2018–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01878878&r=eur |
| By: | Marianna Belloc; Paolo Naticchioni; Claudia Vittori |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we estimate the urban wage premia (UWP) in Italy, with its economy characterized by the interplay between collective bargaining and spatial heterogeneity in the cost of living. We implement a reduced-form regression analysis using both nominal and real (in temporal and spatial terms) wages. Our dataset for the 2005-2015 period includes, for workers’ characteristics, unique administrative data provided by Italian Social Security Institute and, for the local CPI computation, housing prices collected by Italian Revenue Agency. For employees covered by collective bargaining, we find a zero UWP in nominal terms and a negative and non-negligible UWP in real terms (-5%). To capture the role played by centralized wage settings, we also consider various groups of self-employed workers, who are not covered by national labour agreements, while living in the same locations and enjoying the same amenities as employees. We find that the UWP for self-employed workers are up to 25 times greater than for employees. Moreover, sorting proves more notable in the case of self-employed workers, i.e. the larger UWP provide the higher incentives for high-skilled individuals and better firms to locate in cities. Our findings are confirmed on extending the analysis along the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | urban wage premium, cost of living, collective bargaining |
| JEL: | R12 R31 J31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7253&r=eur |
| By: | Brochet, Francois; Limbach, Peter; Bazhutov, Dmitry; Betzer, André; Doumet, Markus |
| Abstract: | We test the hypothesis that the marginal benefit of investment in investor relations (IR) is greater in countries where capital market institutions are generally less developed and tailored to a more concentrated ownership structure. We use a large panel of survey-based annual IR rankings of German and U.K. companies to study the marginal benefits of IR using within-firm variation. We find that IR quality in Germany exhibits a positive association with capital market visibility, liquidity, and firm value and a negative one with information asymmetry and uncertainty as well as cost of equity capital - and significantly more so than in the U.K. In a broader European sample, we find that the benefits of IR accrue more significantly to firms located in countries where i) corporate ownership is more concentrated and ii) capital market institutions are weaker. Overall, the evidence suggests that IR provides greater marginal benefits in markets where demand for this type of shareholder communication has been historically lower. |
| Keywords: | Investor Relations,Transparency,Ownership Concentration,Firm Visibility,Information Asymmetry,Cost of Capital |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:1805&r=eur |
| By: | Michael Klien; Mickael Melki; Andrew Pickering |
| Abstract: | Electoral reforms that lead to reduced turnout modify the composition of the electorate, potentially overrepresenting specific interests in policy implementation. Intergenerational redistribution tilts in favor of the elderly when they are sufficiently numerous, but in favor of the young rich otherwise. We exploit a natural experiment provided by the repeal of compulsory voting in Austrian parliamentary elections to study how exogenous turnout decline affects intergenerational redistribution through pro-young public education spending in Austrian municipalities. Empirically, education spending falls when the proportion of elderly voters exceeds 21% of the electorate, but rises when the proportion of elderly voters is below this threshold. |
| Keywords: | Voter turnout, Education spending, Compulsory voting, Intergenerational conflict. |
| JEL: | I2 J1 D72 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:18/10&r=eur |
| By: | Sumit S. Deole |
| Abstract: | In 2011, German police accidentally stumbled upon a previously unknown right-wing extremist group called the National Socialist Underground (NSU). Further investigations implicated the group in previously unexplained murders of mostly ethnically Turkish individuals and in other crimes targeting Islamic immigrants in Germany. Using German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) data, this paper offers the first evidence that the 2011 revelations of the NSU crimes resulted in an increase in perceived fears of xenophobic hostility among NSU’s targeted groups. This serves as an indication of the minority’s perceived maltreatment by German institutions while investigating the NSU crimes. The results further show that the revelations significantly reinforced a feeling of estrangement among Turks, who were now less likely to self-identify as Germans and more likely to see themselves as foreigners; they, therefore, tended to bond more strongly with the ethos of their country of origin. The results also demonstrate that Turks reported a substantial decrease in their health satisfaction and subjective wellbeing. In conclusion, the paper underlines the pertinence of judicial efficacy over rightwing crimes for assimilation and welfare of immigrants. |
| Keywords: | rightwing crimes, immigration, delayed justice, social assimilation |
| JEL: | D63 F22 J15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7235&r=eur |
| By: | Elenka Brenna (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Lara Gitto |
| Abstract: | In recent years, there has been a growing interest among scholars on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their beneficial effects on elderly wellbeing; almost all contributions support the positive impact of ICTs among older population because their use has been demonstrated to enhance social participation and psychosocial wellbeing. This paper contributes to the extant literature by using a specific and comprehensive measure of quality of life, the WHOQol-Bref, on a sample of 341 individuals attending the University of Third Age in an Italian town. Through different model specifications, we are able to demonstrate the positive impact of ICTs’ use on elderly quality of life. Results corroborate the findings of existing literature and provide insight on possible policy measures framed in an active aging approach. |
| Keywords: | ICT, active ageing policies, quality of life, WHOQol-Bref, OLS. |
| JEL: | I12 J14 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def073&r=eur |
| By: | Anna Rosso (University of Milan and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I use a unique individual-level pre-migration labour market dataset for Poland, which provides also emigrant final destination, to examine emigrant selection into two major destination countries, the United Kingdom and Germany. Specifically, within a simple theoretical framework, I compare pre-migration observable and unobservable characteristics of emigrants with those of non-emigrants in Poland and test for selection by estimating skill price differences between Poland and the destination based on detailed labour market data for all three countries. I contribute to the migrant selection literature by providing additional evidence on how migrants react to both labour market differences and different migration policies across countries. |
| Keywords: | International migration, selection, skill prices, EU enlargement, inequality |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O15 D33 |
| Date: | 2018–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:440&r=eur |
| By: | Hieke van der Kloet |
| Abstract: | The earthquakes after the natural gas extraction in the Groningen region of the Netherlands have a significant impact on the housing market and sustainability of the communities. Since the strongest earthquake around the community of Huizinge in August 2012, with an magnitude of 3.6 on the Richter scale, it became clear there is a relation between natural gas extraction and earthquakes. As a consequence houses in the region get damaged and after research it gets obvious housing prices decline and the region will become unattractive to potential buyers of houses, damaged or not. Therefore the Dutch Petroleum Company since April 29th 2014 offers a compensation for the loss of the housing price before and after the earthquake of Huizinge to property owners who want to sell their home. They only get the compensation after a sales deal and only if they agree with the proposed compensation. Since the compensation has been introduced, the number of participants of the regulation is lacking behind the actual sales of houses. Our study aims to contribute to the research on the consequences of earthquakes by natural gas mining on the real estate market in the northern part of the Netherlands, especially the Groningen region. First of all we want to declare why relatively a large part of the property owners (about 60% until 2015) don’t request for the compensation regulation. Our second question concerns the buyers of the (damaged) houses in the earthquake area. Why would they buy a home in a region full of risks? Who are these buyers? We use a mixed-method approach for data collection which leads to an analysis of a unique dataset on notarial deeds of house sales in the Groningen earthquake region according to The Land Registry of the Netherlands during the period 2013 until 2015 as well as discovering common patterns of interview results with residents and experts. First results show that the majority of the homebuyers originate from the local area in the Province of Groningen. Reasons why property sellers after the house sale don’t opt for the compensation regulation concerns the complexity of the regulation and the used valuation model.We conclude that the Groningen earthquake region still has its attractiveness for local residents and buyers. Otherwise the compensation regulation doesn’t reach enough property sellers in the nine municipalities of the Groningen earthquake region. Advise to the Dutch government should be to generously compensate the residents of the Groningen earthquake regions for the loss of value of their dwellings, damaged or not. This will help to improve the regional development and attractiveness of areas that are effected by earthquakes. |
| Keywords: | Compensation regulation; Groningen earthquake region; Homebuyers; Loss of value |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_43&r=eur |
| By: | Davide Antonioli (Università degli Studi "G. D'Annunzio" di Chieti-Pescara, Italy); Grazia Cecere (Télécom Ecole de Management, Institut Mines-Télécom, Paris, France); Massimiliano Mazzanti (Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Information communication technology (ICT) and environmental innovation (EI) are relevant waves of the ongoing technological revolution. We study the complementarity in innovation adoption to test the research hypothesis that the higher the diffusion and intensity of usage of ICT and EI, the higher a firm’s productivity performance might be. However, it is not certain that the use of different innovations stemming from different innovation paths generates higher productivity. To test our hypothesis we use original survey data concerning manufacturing firms in Northeast Italy including detailed information on both ICT and EI. Empirical evidence shows that there are still wide margins to improve the integration between EI and ICT in order to exploit their potential benefits on productivity. The awareness of specific synergies seems to mainly characterize the heavy polluting firms that are subject to more stringent environmental constraints, while some trade-offs tend to emerge for the remaining firms. |
| Keywords: | ICT, environmental innovations, polluting sectors, complementarity, labour productivity |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:1118&r=eur |
| By: | Björkegren, Evelina (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | There are large differences in health across neighborhoods in Sweden. To try to answer if there is a causal link between neighborhood conditions in childhood and youth health, I apply two different empirical strategies. First, I use population wide data on families living in different areas in Sweden, and estimate the effects of childhood neighborhood on youth health using data on families that move across the country. Since the choice of moving and where to live is endogenous, I exploit the timing of moves and estimate the effect of siblings’ different exposure time to neighborhoods. The second approach utilizes a governmental policy that assigned refugees to their initial neighborhood in Sweden, potentially offering exogenous variation in neighborhoods and allowing me to study the effect of different neighborhoods on youth health. The findings from the two strategies together imply that there are significant neighborhoods effects on youth health, but that the effects are contemporaneous and there is no evidence of exposure time effects. |
| Keywords: | Health; Inequality; Neighborhoods; Childhood |
| JEL: | I14 J62 R00 |
| Date: | 2018–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2018_010&r=eur |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Lagemann, Andreas |
| Abstract: | The present study examines, based on the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2010 and 2014, the unadjusted gender pay gap of the public sector (economic sectors O (Public Administration, Defence, and compulsory Social Security) and P (Education)) compared to the private economy. The unadjusted gender pay gap in the public sector stood at 5.6 % in 2014 and was virtually unchanged compared to 2010. The gap in the private economy remained about four times as high. The wage advantage of women over men among part-time workers, both in the public and in the private sector, is due to the relatively high proportion of marginally and temporarily employed workers and the relatively short firm tenure among men. Among fulltime workers, the explained part of the gap is driven by the performance group. The findings once again underline the need to review gender-based access to leading positions in the public sector. The detailed decomposition of the explained part for all workers reveals that the advantageous distribution of performance groups and levels of education, as well as the lower rate of part-time employment among men, explains their earnings advantage. In the private economy, men also benefit from their employment in wage-attractive sectors. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:183&r=eur |
| By: | Pilar Rey del Castillo; Jaime Villanueva-Garcia |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a study of the relationship between the tax morale and the individual payments of personal income tax using the statistical matching of opinion polls with a representative sample of the personal income tax returns in Spain. As an initial step, the method selected to execute the match -imputations using Bayesian Networks- is described. The relationship between a proxy variable of the individual tax morale and other variables in the declared income tax file is later analyzed using the matched files. A first result is that tax morale increases with the level of declared wages, salaries and capital gains, while it has no link with declared business income. |
| Keywords: | statistical matching, opinion polls, personal income tax, tax morale |
| JEL: | C10 C65 H24 H26 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7218&r=eur |
| By: | Joana Cima (CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Paulo Guimarães (Banco de Portugal and Universidade do Porto); Álvaro Almeida (CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | This study examines waiting times for all patients submitted to surgical treatment in the Portuguese National Health Service (NHS), from 2011 to 2015 (amounting to more than 2.6 million observations) and it tries to evaluate whether there is gender discrimination in access to scheduled surgery. We show that men have 10% shorter waiting times than women. We then estimate a regression model on waiting times that controls for multiple sources of observed and unobserved heterogeneity. Some of these controls are high-dimensional fixed effects. The results still indicate an unexplained differential where men have 3.1% shorter waiting times than women. To understand the contribution of the controls to the explained gender gap we use Gelbach’s decomposition. The results indicate that the patient’s initial priority is the variable that contributes most to the explained gap (-5.8 log points), followed by hospital specific fixed-effects (-1.7 log points). In addition to noticing the resource allocation is not efficiently provided, decision-makers should pay more attention to a pattern that seems to disadvantage women. Overall, we consider that our approach provides a more informative assessment of the sources of the gender gap than previous literature. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, high-dimensional fixed effects, waiting times |
| JEL: | I14 C01 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:607&r=eur |