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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2018‒11‒05
37 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Francesca Borgonovi (OECD); Artur Pokropek (Joint Research Centre - European Commission) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the role of education in shaping individuals’ attitudes towards migration in European countries using data from the 2012, 2014 and 2016 editions of the European Social Survey (rounds 6, 7 and 8). Results indicate that, despite the large influx of migrants experienced by many European countries in 2015, attitudes towards migration reported by 25-65 year olds did not vary significantly over the period considered. Education was strongly associated with individuals’ attitudes towards migration although the strength of the association and how the association changed over time varied greatly across countries. On average a difference of one standard deviation in educational participation is associated with a difference of 20% of a standard deviation in reported opposition to migration. Around three quarters of the association between education and opposition to migration can be explained by the lower economic threat, cultural threat and prejudice that individuals with higher educational participation experience. |
| Date: | 2018–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:185-en&r=eur |
| By: | von Werder, Marten |
| Abstract: | This paper uses SOEP data to study the distributional effect of intergenerational transfers on the wealth distribution of German households. Similar to most other central European countries, Germany is likely to face a period of increasing aggregate bequest flows. At the same time, there is an ongoing debate on the distributional implications of such wealth shocks. This study adds to the discussion by providing causal estimates for the effect of transfer receipt on the savings behavior of households. The model allows for dynamic adjustment and variations in the savings behavior over the wealth distribution. I use the estimates to decompose the overall effect of transfers on wealth inequality in the effect of the aggregated transfer volume, the transfer incidence over the wealth distribution and the effect of the savings behavior. The results are very much in line with the literature, indicating that transfers tend to equalize wealth inequality, despite minor variations in the savings behavior over the wealth distribution and despite a strong relationship between initial household wealth and transfer accrual. |
| Keywords: | savings behavior,Intergenerational transfers,wealth distribution,inequality |
| JEL: | D63 E21 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201815&r=eur |
| By: | Divella, Marialuisa; Sterlacchini, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we focus on public procurement for innovation. We provide a broad characterization of the firms involved in “innovative public procurement” as opposed to firms participating in “regular” (i.e. non innovative) public procurement, including those firms that perform innovation in an autonomous way (i.e. not related to public procurement). Moreover, we identify the main determinants of the firms’ propensity to innovate, when innovative activities are related to a public procurement contract. We carry out this study by using micro-data from two Community Innovation Surveys for Italian and Norwegian firms, which have released information on firms having public procurement contracts. Our main findings highlight important differences between firms engaged in regular or innovative public procurement, in particular regarding the role of firm size and sectors, the presence of in-house R&D activities and the educational level of employees. |
| Keywords: | public procurement, firms’ innovation, Italy, Norway |
| JEL: | H57 O31 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2018–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89592&r=eur |
| By: | Tommaso Agasisti (Politecnico di Milano School of Management); Sergio Longobardi (Università di Napoli Parthenope); Vincenzo Prete (University of Goettingen); Felice Russo (Università del Salento) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the degree of educational poverty in European countries by focusing on data from two editions of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA): 2006 and 2015. We focus on students’ proficiency levels in various literacy domains and propose a multidimensional approach that enables the measurement of not only the incidence of educational poverty but also its depth and severity. Subsequently, we perform a microeconometric analysis of school factors that are associated with the probability of educational poverty using a Partial Proportional Odds Model. The main results demonstrate that in recent years, the incidence of educational poverty became more relevant in many countries, while most of them experienced a reduction of poverty depth and severity. Several school factors can be manipulated to avoid the trap of educational poverty, such as improving the disciplinary climate, adopting an adaptive style of teaching, and increasing the amount of instructional time. |
| Keywords: | educational poverty, students’ learning, European countries |
| JEL: | I24 I32 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:73&r=eur |
| By: | Ufuk Akcigit; Salomé Baslandze; Francesca Lotti |
| Abstract: | Do political connections affect firm dynamics, innovation, and creative destruction? We study Italian firms and their workers to answer this question. Our analysis uses a brand-new dataset, spanning the period from 1993 to 2014, where we merge: (i) firm-level balance sheet data; (ii) social security data on the universe of workers; (iii) patent data from the European Patent Office; (iv) the national registry of local politicians; and (v) detailed data on local elections in Italy. We find that firm-level political connections are widespread, especially among large firms, and that industries with a larger share of politically connected firms feature worse firm dynamics. We identify a leadership paradox: When compared to their competitors, market leaders are much more likely to be politically connected, but much less likely to innovate. In addition, political connections relate to a higher rate of survival, as well as growth in employment and revenue, but not in productivity – a result that we also confirm using a regression discontinuity design. We build a firm dynamics model, where we allow firms to invest in innovation and/or political connection to advance their productivity and to overcome certain market frictions. Our model highlights a new interaction between static gains and dynamic losses from rent-seeking in aggregate productivity. |
| JEL: | D70 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25136&r=eur |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins |
| Abstract: | The subdued wage growth observed over the last years in many countries has spurred renewed interest in monopsony views of the labour market. This paper is the first to measure the extent and robustness of employer labour-market power and its wage implications exploiting comprehensive matched employer-employee data. We find average (employment-weighted) Herfindhal indices of 800 to 1,100; and that less than 9% of workers are exposed to concentration levels thought to raise market power concerns. However, these figures can increase significantly with different methodological choices. Finally, when holding worker composition constant and instrumenting concentration, wages are found to be negatively affected by employer concentration, with elasticities of between -1.5% and -3%. |
| Keywords: | Oligopsony, Wages, Portugal |
| JEL: | J42 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:95&r=eur |
| By: | Thiess Büttner; Manuela Krause |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits a recent devolution of tax setting powers in the German federation to study the effects of fiscal equalization on subnational governments’ tax policy. Based on an analysis of the system of fiscal equalization transfers, we argue that the redistribution of revenues provides incentives for states to raise rather than to lower their tax rates. The empirical analysis exploits differences in fiscal redistribution among the states and over time. Using a comprehensive simulation model, the paper computes the tax-policy incentives faced by each state over the years and explores their empirical effects on tax policy. The results support significant and substantial effects. Facing full equalization a state is predicted to set the tax rate from the real estate transfer tax about 1.3 percentage points higher than without. Our analysis also shows that the incentive to raise tax rates is proliferated by the equalization system because the states’ decisions to raise their tax rates have intensified fiscal redistribution over time. |
| Keywords: | fiscal equalization, tax autonomy, real estate transfer tax |
| JEL: | H77 H24 R38 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7260&r=eur |
| By: | Quis, Johanna Sophie; Mehl, Simon |
| Abstract: | A large literature aims to establish a causal link between education and health using changes in compulsory schooling laws. It is however unclear how well more education is operationalized by marginal increases in school years. We shed a new light on this discussion by analyzing the health effects of a reform in Germany where total years of schooling for students in the academic track were reduced from nine to eight while keeping cumulative teaching hours constant by increasing instruction intensity. .e sequential introduction of the reform allows us to implement a triple difference-in-differences estimation strategy with data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. We find that increased weekly instruction time has negative health effects for females while they are still in school. However, a.er graduation, females even seem to benefit from reduced school years. We find no effects on males’ health. |
| Keywords: | education and health,instruction intensity,natural experiment,SOEP |
| JEL: | I19 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181619&r=eur |
| By: | Lindenthal, Volker |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits the administrative IAB establishment dataset for Germany to investigate the volatility and cyclicality of job flows within exporters and non-exporters. On average, exporters face a lower employment volatility, which suggests a diversification of sales across markets. A closer look at the export share, however, reveals that the employment volatility is increasing in the export share for small firms, while it is decreasing for large firms. Thus, large firms gain from more diversification of a higher export share, while small firms face more volatility when exporting a higher share. Small exporters with an export share above one third are even more volatile than similar domestic producers. Although the lion's share of these employment fluctuations is of idiosyncratic nature and aggregate fluctuations play only a minor role, we document heterogeneity between exporters and non-exporters. Controlling for size, exporters are cyclically more sensitive than non-exporters. This result is in line with aggregate exports being highly pro-cyclical and suggest that exporters specialize in the production of goods and services that are more cyclical. The contribution of exporters to the variance of aggregate flows, however, is limited and only about one third, which corresponds approximately to their employment share. |
| JEL: | F16 E32 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181637&r=eur |
| By: | Rudy Douven (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Minke Remmerswaal (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Ana Moura; Martin Salm |
| Abstract: | We assess the relative importance of demand and supply factors as determinants of regional variation in healthcare expenditures in the Netherlands. Our empirical approach follows individuals who migrate between regions. We use individual data on annual healthcare expenditures for the entire Dutch population between the years 2006 and 2013. Regional variation in healthcare expenditures is mostly driven by demand factors, with an estimated share of around 70%. Both demographics and other unobserved demand factors, e.g. patient preferences, are important components of the demand share. The relative importance of different causes varies with the groups of regions being compared. |
| JEL: | I11 I13 H51 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:384&r=eur |
| By: | Anderson, Gareth; Bahaj, Saleem; Chavaz, Matthieu; Foulis, Angus; Pinter, Gabor |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that lending relationships insulate corporate investment from shocks to collateral values. We construct a novel database covering the banking relationships of UK firms, as well as those of their board members and executives. We find that the sensitivity of corporate investment to shocks to real estate collateral value is halved when the length of the bank-firm relationship increases from the 25th to the 75th percentile. This effect is substantially reduced for firms whose executives have a personal mortgage relationship with their firm’s bank. Our findings provide support for theories where collateral and private information are substitutes in mitigating credit frictions over the cycle. |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2018–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:90371&r=eur |
| By: | Cardoso, Ana Rute (IAE Barcelona (CSIC)); Morin, Louis-Philippe (University of Ottawa) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the potential channels that drive female labor force participation to rise in response to unbalanced sex ratios, in the presence of strong social norms against female employment. One such channel is women's desired labor supply, operating through the marriage market, and the other is employers' demand for female labor. If faced with a reduction in male workforce, do employers turn to women to fill in the gap? Do women enter traditionally male occupations and industries, so that segregation decreases? Does the gender pay gap decline? We exploit exogenous variation in sex ratios across cohorts and regions, by using instruments based on casualties from the Portuguese Colonial War and massive emigration in the 1960s combined with its historical regional patterns. We find that as the sex ratio declined, female participation increased, women entered traditionally male-dominated occupations and industries, and the gender pay gap declined. These findings are consistent with a demand shock. Our estimated impact of sex ratios on marriage market points to a muted supply channel. We complement the quantitative analysis with an archival case. Our findings help to explain an apparent puzzle, a decades-long high female participation in Portugal, as opposed to the other Southern European countries. |
| Keywords: | labor demand, labor force participation, gender segregation, pay gap |
| JEL: | J21 J23 N34 J22 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11822&r=eur |
| By: | Kamhöfer, Daniel; Westphal, Matthias |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effects of college education on female fertility – a so far understudied margin of education, which we instrument by arguably exogenous variation induced through college expansions. While college education reduces the probability of becoming a mother, college-educated mothers have slightly more children than mothers without a college education. Unfolding the effects by the timing of birth reveals a postponement that goes beyond the time in college – indicating a negative early-career effect on fertility. Coupled with higher labor-supply and wage returns for non-mothers as compared to mothers the timing effects moreover suggest that career and family are not fully compatible. |
| Keywords: | Fertility,family planning,education |
| JEL: | C31 H52 I21 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181624&r=eur |
| By: | Christl, Michael; Köppl-Turyna, Monika; Gnan, Philiipp |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes wage differences between natives and immigrants in Austria. First, we show that for both groups, literacy skills are an important determinant of the hourly wage. In the second step, we show that differences in proficiency with respect to literacy can explain more than three log points of the total wage gap of 9.7 log points between natives and immigrants. When adding literacy skills to the wage decomposition, the discriminatory part vanishes completely, suggesting that the wage difference between immigrants and natives in Austria can be to a large extent explained. Furthermore, we account for a possible sample selection bias. After controlling for literacy skills, the unexplained part of the gap becomes statistically insignificant. The importance of literacy skills in explaining wage differences between natives and immigrants is robust across several sensitivity tests. |
| Keywords: | wage,decomposition,gap,immigrants,natives,Austria |
| JEL: | J71 J15 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181566&r=eur |
| By: | Asaad Ismail Ali; Andrea K. Menclova (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | In the Netherlands, primary schools have a rolling admissions policy. In particular, children can individually start school right after their fourth birthday instead of starting with a cohort on a fixed date. Children with birthdays during school holidays start together at the beginning of the next term. Leuven et al. (2010) indicated that these two features of the Dutch schooling system create adequate exogenous variation in children’s enrolment opportunities to identify the effects of additional early formal education on later test scores. This study replicates Leuven et al. and finds some differences. |
| Keywords: | Replication, early childhood education, achievement |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:18/19&r=eur |
| By: | Lasierra, Jose Manuel |
| Abstract: | We investigate the degree of satisfaction with life carried by individuals for the Spanish case and which are some of the most influential work and personal factors, all according to their family structure: single, single parent, couples with children and childless couples, and two periods in the recent economic cycle. In this paper, the subjective individual well-being level is analyzed as an indicator of inequality. We use factors from two of the areas in which the individual develops most part of his life: work and family. It is an empirical analysis with not too many precedents in the literature, using these family models and incorporating only labour and personal factors and not considering other variables such as health, to better highlight the relevance of labor considerations. The results indicate substantial differences in the degree of individual well-being depending on family type and cycle. Furthermore, of the explanatory variables, job satisfaction, and good labour relations and social relations on the job were found to be the most important and significant in relation to well-being. The research could serve to orient human resource policies in companies and also public policies to improve the plight of those least satisfied with the lives they lead, here single parents and couples with children. |
| Keywords: | Individual well-being; Family structure; Job satisfaction; Public policy; Social inequality |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J18 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2018–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89404&r=eur |
| By: | Pouliakas, Konstantinos (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on identifying determinants of 'automatability risk', namely the propensity of EU employees being in jobs with high risk of substitutability by machines, robots or other algorithmic processes, and uncovers its impact on labour market outcomes. Using relevant data on tasks and skill needs in jobs, collected by the European skills and jobs survey (ESJS), jobs are bundled according to their estimated risk of automation. The paper builds on the methodology of previous studies that estimate the latent relationship between 'true' automatability and job tasks (Frey and Osborne, 2013, 2017; Arntz et al., 2016; Nedelkoska and Quintini, 2018) but utilises highly disaggregated job descriptions provided by a subsample of the ESJS, as well as information on jobs' skill requirements. About 14% of EU adult workers are found to face a very high risk of automation. The distribution of high automatability across industries and occupations is also found to be skewed towards routine jobs with low demand for transversal and social skills. The risk of job displacement by machines is higher among males and lower-skilled workers, with little evidence of polarisation. It is prevalent in private sector jobs that fail to provide remedial training to employees, accentuating the vulnerability of at-risk-workers and highlighting the need for stronger lifelong learning policies at EU level. |
| Keywords: | automation, skills, technology, digitalisation, future of work, skill needs |
| JEL: | J01 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11829&r=eur |
| By: | Santos, Eleonora; Khan, Shahed |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to evaluate whether schools with better National Exams scores are located in regions NUTs III with greater purchasing power. Accordingly, we analyze the evolution of the ranking of schools in light of the purchasing power of the regions where they are located. Using data collected in the media, related to school rankings by region for 2008 and 2014; and in Pordata database for regional purchasing power in 2007 and 2011; we calculate location and specialization measures and perform a shift-share analysis of the regions. The results indicate that schools located in regions with very high and high purchasing power rank first; and both structural and regional changes were positive. A notable exception is the region of Alto Alentejo with a medium purchasing power. In contrast, regions with low purchasing power showed negative structural and regional changes. These results indicate that, although there may have been an improvement in a region of medium purchasing power, the gap between regions of low and high purchasing power has been perpetuated. |
| Keywords: | Regional Inequalities,Education Performance,Knowledge-Based Economy,Shift-Share Analysis,Human Capital |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I25 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:183220&r=eur |
| By: | Andrea Caggese; Vicente Cuñat; Daniel Metzger |
| Abstract: | Firms consider wages, current and expected productivity as well as firing and hiring costs when firing a worker. Financing constraints distort this intertemporal trade-off, leading firms to sub-optimally fire short-tenured workers with high future expected productivity.We provide empirical evidence of this distortion using matched employer-employee data from the Swedish population between 2000 and 2010. We propose a new empirical strategy that uses credit ratings to identify financing constraints and uses exchange rates and trade data to identify demand shocks. Our empirical results identify an important new misallocation effect of financial frictions that operates within firms across different types of workers. |
| Keywords: | Labor misallocation, firing decisions, financing constraints |
| JEL: | G32 J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1618&r=eur |
| By: | Jérôme Gautié (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Patrice Laroche (ESCP Europe et Université de Lorraine - CEREFIGE) |
| Abstract: | Since it was introduced in 1950, and even more since it was reformed in 1970, the statutory minimum wage has been playing a key role in the French labor market. It has very specific fixing mechanisms, and from the eighties, it has been one of the highest among the OECD countries - both in relative and absolute terms. After presenting the specific features of the minimum wage setting regime in France as well as the minimum wage policies implemented since the 1950s, we provide a comprehensive survey of existing empirical evidence on the impacts of the minimum wage on the French labor market. We use a meta-analysis to draw the lessons from the empirical studies on its effects on employment. We also survey the other potential effects, such as the impact on wage bargaining and other wages, on inequalities, on profit and prices, on working conditions |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage; France; wage bargaining; wage regulation |
| JEL: | J31 J32 J38 J23 C18 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:18019&r=eur |
| By: | S. Balia; R. Brau; D. Moro |
| Abstract: | We investigate long distance hospitalizations in a setting of patients with free mobility by studying the elective admissions of patients for cancers of the digestive system and distinguishing between local (located in the region of residence) and distant hospitals (located at very long distances in non-boundary regions). We used data from hospital discharge records of patients enrolled in the local healthcare systems of two insular Italian regions. We model mobility towards alternative hospitals as a discrete choice process determined by geographical distance, clinic quality and other hospital characteristics through a mixed logit model that controls for patients' heterogeneity. Quality plays a relevant role in the choice of distant hospitals, whereas it does not affect the choice of local hospitals. Patients are willing to travel at least 14 km farther to be cured in a distant hospital with a clinical quality indicator that increases from the 75th to the 25th percentile. The willingness to travel is greater for younger and higher educated patients. Important differences emerge vis-à-vis the role of hospital pull factors. Our findings support the idea that long-distance mobility is a distinctive phenomenon that requires further study. |
| Keywords: | hospital choice;healthcare demand;quality of care;discrete choice models |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201810&r=eur |
| By: | Libertad González; Núria Rodríguez-Planas |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of social gender norms on the incidence of domestic violence. We use data for 28 European countries from the 2012 European survey on violence against women, and focus on first and second generation immigrant women. We find that, after controlling for country of residence fixed effects, as well as demographic characteristics and other source-country variables, higher gender equality in the country of ancestry is significantly associated with a lower risk of victimization in the host country. This suggests that gender norms may play an important role in explaining the incidence of intimate partner violence. |
| Keywords: | domestic violence, gender, Social Norms, immigrants, epidemiological approach |
| JEL: | I1 J6 D1 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1061&r=eur |
| By: | Fiorillo, D.; |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the demand side factors that determine access to health care and analyses the issues of unmet needs for health care and the reasons thereof in western EU countries. A probit model is estimated from a sample of the whole population, accounting for the possibility of individual selection in unmet needs for health care (UN) (selection equation). Expanded probit models (including the inverse Mills ratio) are then used on the reasons for unmet needs (RUN) with social capital and social support as determinants and using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset carried out in 2006. In RUN equations, the findings show that females, large households, people with low income and financial constraints, the unemployed and those in poor health have a higher probability of declaring unmet needs due to economic costs. Additionally, people in tertiary education, those with high income and the employed have a higher probability of not visiting a doctor when needed due to time availability. Furthermore, the frequency of contact with friends and the ability to ask for help are correlated with a lower probability of unmet needs due to economic costs, while the frequency of contact with relatives is related with a lower probability of unmet needs due to time availability and distance. However, the ability to ask for help is also correlated with a higher probability of not having medical care due to time availability and the wait-and-see-approach. |
| Keywords: | unmet needs for healthcare; reasons for unmet needs; social capital; social support; EU Western countries; EU-SILC data; Heckman selection model; |
| JEL: | C35 I12 I18 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:18/29&r=eur |
| By: | Fehn, Rebecca; Frings, Hanna |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the returns to regional mobility based on a sample of job-to-job transitions in Germany. Additionally, we provide evidence for the selection mechanisms into regional mobility and sorting into firms and matches. Using linked employer-employee data we estimate a wage decomposition including individual, firm and match fixed effects. Our (preliminary) results suggest a wage level increase of 28% for regionally mobile individuals, whereas workers making a job-to-job transition in their local labor market region experience an increase of 24%. Further, workers generally experience a move to higher paying firms, whereas this effect is smallest for regionally mobile workers. In addition, workers find relatively better matches due to the job-to-job transition; with regionally mobile workers benefiting most form this increase in match quality. |
| Keywords: | regional mobility,wage growth,job-to-job transitions,firm effects,match effects |
| JEL: | J31 J62 R23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181609&r=eur |
| By: | Nicodemo, Catia (University of Oxford); Raya, Josep M. (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | Using a unique dataset a non-parametric decomposition, we determined whether immigrants with native name, immigrants with foreign name and natives have different outcomes in Spain's housing market. Results suggest there are significant price discounts for immigrants with native names relative to immigrants with non-Spanish names. As a robustness check we prove that this is not due to the country of birth. We observe that most of the difference in price across immigrant groups remains unexplained, which may imply some form of discrimination (pure or statistical) against immigrants with non-native names. |
| Keywords: | house price, price cut, discrimination, housing, matching method |
| JEL: | R1 R3 J7 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11811&r=eur |
| By: | Petr Pleticha (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Smetanovo nabrezi 6, 111 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic; CERGE EI, Politickych veznu 7, 11000 Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | Decelerating productivity in recent years raised questions about technology diffusion in the economy. This study focuses on one particular diffusion channel, entrepreneurship, and inspects the mechanics through which it interacts with digitalization. The composite indicator of digitalization is split into separate components which enables analyzing digitalization’s interplay with entrepreneurship as a dynamic process. Based on the econometric analysis of Eurostat regional data covering the period 2008-2015, I find significant links between digitalization and entrepreneurship. Specifically, digitalization is associated with an increase in the rate at which firms are created and with a decrease in their survival rate after 3 years. The paper demonstrates that the interaction is dynamic in its nature as the effects of initial stages of digitalization reverse or vanish in its later phases. A sectoral analysis shows the persistence of the results across industries. Moreover, there is evidence that professional, scientific and technical activities are especially sensitive towards digitalization, experiencing strong, yet short-term shock in the firms’ birth, death, and survival rates. Accounting for geographic variation reveals heterogeneity between regions but not large enough to affect the overall results. |
| Keywords: | Digitalization, Entrepreneurship, Technology dissemination |
| JEL: | L16 L26 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2018_26&r=eur |
| By: | Lutz Bornmann; Klaus Wohlrabe; Sabine Gralka |
| Abstract: | In research into higher education, the evaluation of completion and dropout rates has generated a steady stream of interest for decades. While most studies only calculate quotes using student and graduate numbers for both phenomena, we propose to also consider the budget available to universities. We transfer the idea of the excellence shift indicator [1] from the research to the teaching area, and particularly to the completion rate of educational entities. The graduation shift shows institutions’ ability to produce graduates as measured against their basic academic teaching efficiency. The new indicator avoids the well-known heterogeneity problem in efficiency measurements. Their politically determined focus on education makes German universities of applied science the perfect sample for evaluating the graduation shift. Using a comprehensive dataset covering the years 2008 to 2013, we show that the shift produces results, which correlate closely with the results of the standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and graduation rates. Thus, we recommend the graduation shift as an alternative method of efficiency measurement in the teaching area. Compared to the DEA, the computation of the shift is easy, the shift is robust and non-economists can understand its results. We outline some limitations of the graduation shift. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, graduation shift, DEA, students, universities of applied sciences |
| JEL: | A23 H52 I21 I23 D61 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_268&r=eur |
| By: | Merz, Joachim (Leuphana University Lüneburg) |
| Abstract: | Quality of life and satisfaction with life are of particular importance for individuals as well as for society concerning the "demographic change" with now longer retirement periods. This study will contribute to the life satisfaction discussion and quantifies life satisfaction and pattern of explanation before and after such a prominent life cycle event, the entrance into retirement. In particular, with the individual longitudinal data and 33 waves of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the appropriate microeconometric causal fixed effects robust panel methods we ask and quantify if actual life satisfaction indeed is decreasing before retirement, is increasing at the entrance into retirement, and is decreasing then after certain periods back to a foregoing level. Thus, we ask if such an anticipation and adaptation pattern – as known from other prominent events – is also to discover for life satisfaction before and after retirement in Germany. |
| Keywords: | retirement, life-satisfaction, happiness, retirement, anticipation and adaptation effects, fixed-effect regression, Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), Germany |
| JEL: | I31 J26 J14 J17 A13 C23 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11832&r=eur |
| By: | Dirk Van de gaer; Flaviana Palmisano |
| Abstract: | We propose a social welfare function to evaluate a profile of income streams and compare the welfare gain of the actual profile relative to the income profile where the individual receives his first period income in each period. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the welfare gain to be positive, and show how this welfare gain can be decomposed in a pure effect of economic growth, a mobility effect and a cost due to aversion to time fluctuations given individuals’ ranks in the income distribution. The mobility effect, generated by reranking in the income distribution has two components: a cost due to the time fluctuations in incomes and a benefit, due to the equalization in time averaged incomes. We illustrate the analysis using CNEF data for Australia, Korea, Germany and Switzerland. Our results indicate that the largest component of the welfare gain is the equalization of time averaged income, induced by reranking. After subtracting the cost of mobility due to the increase in time fluctuations of individual income streams, the net effect of mobility remains positive. In countries with high growth (Australia and Korea), the growth effect is larger than the mobility effect, but in countries with low growth (Germany and Switzerland), the opposite holds true. |
| Keywords: | intertemporal growth; mobility; income streams; time horizon |
| JEL: | D31 D63 I32 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp988&r=eur |
| By: | Musson, Anne; Rousselière, Damien |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at understanding the economic performance of craftsmen cooperatives during the crisis period. These cooperatives have the distinctive feature of being supply cooperatives. We use an exhaustive dataset for the French craftsmen cooperatives (2004-2014). We estimate Bayesian Translog econometric models in order to underline the impact of the 2008 crisis on these cooperatives. On the one hand, cooperatives’ turnover contracts during the crisis, the effect is lower for elder cooperatives and varies across sectors. On the other hand, there is convergence towards the mean for the various generations of cooperatives. Theses findings are robust to alternative econometric specifications. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:inrasl:279350&r=eur |
| By: | Andreas Kuhn; Stefan Staubli; Jean-Philippe Wuellrich; Josef Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect of permanent and premature exits from the labor force on mortality. To overcome the problem of negative health selection into early retirement, we exploit a policy change in unemployment insurance rules in Austria that allowed workers in eligible regions to exit the labor force 3 years earlier compared to workers in non-eligible regions. Using administrative data with precise information on mortality and retirement, we find that the policy change induced eligible workers to exit the labor force significantly earlier. Instrumental variable estimation results show that for men retiring one year earlier causes a 6.8% increase in the risk of premature death and 0.2 years reduction in the age at death, but has no significant effect for women. |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25124&r=eur |
| By: | Ye, Han (University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a clear and transparent setting to study the effect of additional pension benefits on women's retirement decision. Using administrative pension insurance records from Germany, I examine the impact of a pension subsidy program to low pay workers, implemented in 1992. The subsidies have a kinked relationship with the recipients' average pension contribution, which led to sharply different slopes of benefits for similar women to the left and to the right of the kink point. Using a regression kink design, I find that 100 euros additional monthly pension benefits induce female recipients to claim pension earlier by about 10 months. The hazard rate to claim a pension at age 60 increases by 17%. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the ratio of behavioral cost to mechanical cost of this subsidy program is 0.3, which is smaller than other anti-poverty programs such as extending unemployment benefits and progressive taxation. I find that the phasing out of this subsidy program can account for one third of the increase in women's age of claiming pension over the past decade. |
| Keywords: | pension subsidy, pension generosity, retirement, regression kink design |
| JEL: | H55 J18 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11831&r=eur |
| By: | Abreu, Maria (University of Cambridge); Öner, Özge (University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy); Brouwer, Aleid (University of Groningen); van Leeuwen, Eveline (Urban Economics Group) |
| Abstract: | Our paper presents an empirical analysis of entrepreneurial well-being using a large-scale longitudinal household survey from the UK that tracks almost 50,000 individuals across seven waves over the period 2009–2017, as well as a number of exploratory case studies. We contribute to the existing literature by investigating how entrepreneurial well-being varies across locations along the urban-rural continuum, and across wealthy-deprived neighbourhoods. We use a Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) approach to compare the well-being outcomes of individuals who switch into self-employment from waged employment, and show that entrepreneurial well-being, in the form of job satisfaction, is significantly higher for those living in semi-urban locations, relative to those living in urban and rural locations. We argue that semi-urban locations provide an optimal combination of ease of doing business and quality of life. Our results also show that individuals in wealthy neighbourhoods who switch into self-employment experience higher job satisfaction than otherwise comparable individuals living in materially deprived neighbourhoods, although the latter experience greater levels of life satisfaction following the switch. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Well-being; Self-employment; Urban-rural; Neighbourhood effects |
| JEL: | E24 I13 L26 P25 R20 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1243&r=eur |
| By: | Bachmann, Ronald; Bechara, Peggy |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data on individual workers' employment history and firms, we investigate the cyclicality of worker flows on the German labour market. Focusing on heterogeneities on both sides of the labour market, we find that small firms hire much more workers from unemployment than large firms, and that they do so at the very beginning of an economic expansion. Later on in the expansion, overall hirings more frequently result from direct job-to-job transitions to larger firms. Transitions from unemployment to employment at large firms are generally found to be more (pro-)cyclical. However, this stylised fact disappears when the composition of the workforce is controlled for. |
| Keywords: | worker flows,accessions,hirings,separations,business cycle,job-to-job,employer-to-employer |
| JEL: | J63 J64 J21 E24 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:303&r=eur |
| By: | Belot, Michèle (European University Institute); Kircher, Philipp (University of Edinburgh); Muller, Paul (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | We study how job seekers respond to wage announcements by assigning wages randomly to pairs of otherwise similar vacancies in a large number of professions. High wage vacancies attract more interest, in contrast with much of the evidence based on observational data. Some applicants only show interest in the low wage vacancy even when they were exposed to both. Both findings are core predictions of theories of directed/competitive search where workers trade off the wage with the perceived competition for the job. A calibrated model with multiple applications and on-the-job search induces magnitudes broadly in line with the empirical findings. |
| Keywords: | online job search, directed search, wage competition, field experiments |
| JEL: | J31 J63 J64 C93 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11814&r=eur |
| By: | Jan Marvin Garbuszus; Notburga Ott; Sebastian Pehle; Martin Werding |
| Abstract: | Income inequality and poverty risks receive a lot of attention in public debates and current research. However, the situation of families that differ in size and composition is rarely considered more closely in this context. Relevant research typically relies on equivalence scales to make income comparable across different types of households. The standard approach for doing so is based on the so-called “(modified) OECD scale”. Instead, we apply income-dependent equivalence scales in this paper to assess how the financial situation of families living in Germany has developed since the early 1990s. Among other things, our results indicate that poverty risks for households with children – especially for single parents – are considerably higher than was previously found. We conclude that the application of income-dependent equivalence scales is required for applied research in income inequality, especially if one is concerned with the composition, not just the size of the population at poverty risk. |
| Keywords: | Equivalence scales; family income; household needs; inequality measurement; poverty risks |
| JEL: | D12 I32 J12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp987&r=eur |
| By: | Thomas Douenne (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a micro-simulation assessment of the distributional impacts of the French carbon tax. It shows that the policy is regressive, but could be made progressive by redistributing the revenue through a flat-recycling. However, it would still generate large horizontal distributive effects and harm an important share of low-income households. The determinants of the tax incidence are characterized precisely, and alternative targeted transfers are simulated on this basis. The paper shows that given the importance of unobserved heterogeneity in the determinants of energy consumption, horizontal distributive effects are much more difficult to tackle than vertical ones. |
| Keywords: | Energy taxes, Distributional effects, Demand-System, Micro-simulation |
| JEL: | D12 H23 I32 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2018.10&r=eur |