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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2021‒03‒22
27 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Laszlo Goerke; Markus Pannenberg |
| Abstract: | The German law on co-determination at the plant level (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz) stipulates that works councilors are neither to be financially rewarded nor penalized for their activities. This regulation contrasts with publicized instances of excessive payments. The divergence has sparked a debate about the need to reform the law. This paper provides representative evidence on wage payments to works councilors for the period 2001 to 2015. We find wage premia of 2% to 6% in OLS-specifications, which are more pronounced for long-term works councilors. Moreover, we observe no wage premia in linear fixed-effects panel data specifications, suggesting that the OLS-results capture the effect of selection into works councillorship. We obtain no evidence for a delayed compensation or a special treatment of works councillors released from work. Hence, our results indicate that payments to works councilors are broadly in line with legal regulations. |
| Keywords: | labor law, wages, works councils, Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) |
| JEL: | J30 J51 J53 J83 K31 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8923&r=all |
| By: | Dilara Tosu (Universitat de Girona); Montserrat Vilalta-Bufí (Universitat de Barcelona, BEAT, CREB) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between segregation and preferences for redistribution in Europe. We measure segregation as the incidence of assortative mating in terms of education and occupation. Assortative mating is measured at the regional level for 10 European countries using the IPUMS data. We combine these data with eight waves of the European Social Survey (2002-2016). We find that increased socioeconomic segregation in most forms of assortative mating leads affluent individuals to support less redistribution. Results suggest that affluent individuals are less socially attached when there are high levels of segregation. |
| Keywords: | Segregation, assortative mating, preferences for redistribution, European regions. |
| JEL: | D31 D63 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewp:wpaper:408web&r=all |
| By: | Sekou Keita (IAB); Thomas Renault (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Jérôme Valette (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Immigration and crime are two first-order issues that are often considered jointly in people's minds. This paper analyzes how media reporting policies on crime impact natives' attitudes towards immigration. We depart from most studies by investigating the content of crime-related articles instead of their coverage. Specifically, we use a radical change in local media reporting on crime in Germany as a naturel experiment. This unique framework allows us to estimate whether systematically disclosing the places of origin of criminals affects natives' attitudes towards immigration. We combine individual survey data collected between January 2014 and December 2018 from the Germain socio-Economic Panel with data from more than 545,000 crime-related articles in German newspapers and data on their diffusion across the country. Our results indicate that systematically mentioning the origins of criminals, especially when offenders are natives, significantly reduces natives' concerns about immigration |
| Keywords: | Immigration; Crime; Media Bias |
| JEL: | F22 K42 L82 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:21004&r=all |
| By: | Alexander Hijzen; Andrea Salvatori |
| Abstract: | This report provides an ex ante assessment of the distributional effects of introducing portable severance pay accounts in Spain based on micro-simulations. In the current system, permanent workers who are dismissed from their job are entitled to 20 days of severance pay per year of service, which is relatively high by OECD standards. The report considers a reform that replaces the current severance payment system with individual saving accounts financed through periodic contributions by employers. The report focuses on two versions of the reform that keep constant respectively the total compensation in case of dismissal (“constant benefit”) or the expected costs for firms of employing a permanent worker (“constant-cost”). Importantly, the analysis in the report does do not take account of the behavioural responses of firms and workers to the reform. |
| Keywords: | employment protection, individual savings accounts, job mobility, microsimulation |
| JEL: | H55 J32 J62 |
| Date: | 2021–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:259-en&r=all |
| By: | Megalokonomou, Rigissa (University of Queensland); Vidal-Fernández, Marian (University of Sydney); Yengin, Duygu (University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | In the last decade, the proportion and academic performance of women who pursue university degrees has increased relative to men in a range of developing countries (OECD, 2015). Nonetheless, the percentage of undergraduate economics degrees awarded to women has remained between 30% and 35% during 2001-2018 in the U.S. (Siegfried, 2019). In a recent work by Lundberg and Stearns (2019), they show that the gender gap worsens as women economists progress in their professional careers in the U.S., where they end up representing only 10% of university professors. European countries seem to have less of a "leaky pipeline," where the same figure sits at 22% (Auriol, Friebel, and Wilhelm, 2020). To put this figure into perspective, our paper describes the cross-country underrepresentation of women graduating in economics degrees in Europe relative to their country-specific women/men university graduation rates. Second, we compare the underrepresentation of women in economics to its closest alternative namely business, as well as its gender underrepresented counterpart, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Finally, we lean on recent evidence to suggest policies to increase the relative share of women pursuing undergraduate economics degrees in Europe with a strong focus on policies aimed at high schools. Overall, we find that, over the period 2013-2018, the underrepresentation of women in economics graduates has worsened in Europe and that on average two of every five students are women. While the gender representation of university graduates in STEM is worse than in economics, it has experienced a mild increase over the period of study. Unlike Economics, its closest alternative, business, has a slight women overrepresentation, with 1.1 women graduating for every man. |
| Keywords: | women, economics, STEM, university |
| JEL: | J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp175&r=all |
| By: | Philip Du Caju; Guillaume Perilleux; François Rycx; Ilan Tojerow |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the potentially non-linear relation between households' indebtedness and their consumption between 2010 and 2014 in Belgium. To do so, we use panel data from the two waves of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Unlike previous studies, we find a negative effect of households' indebtedness on their consumption, even in the absence of any negative shock on their assets. Our findings suggest that, without such a shock, it is the day-to-day sustainability of the debt, rather than its overall sustainability, that leads households to reduce their consumption. To explore potential non-linearities in this effect, we perform a threshold analysis, whose results suggest that households should not have a debt-service-to-income ratio greater than 30% as this leads to a substantial reduction of their consumption. The effect appears to be robust to various specifications, including the inclusion of other European countries, to result from a trade-off between housing and consumption, and to be more prevalent among more fragile households. |
| Keywords: | Households; Indebtedness; Consumption; Debt-Service-to-Income; Non-linear Heterogeneous Effects |
| JEL: | D12 D14 E21 |
| Date: | 2021–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/320684&r=all |
| By: | Lukesch, Veronika; Zwick, Thomas |
| Abstract: | The literature on wage bargaining so far mainly argues that unemployment benefits are relevant outside options for employees. This paper demonstrates that also a change in outside wage options drives wages in continuing jobs. The authors use the natural experiment of a crafts reform that reduces outside wage options for a clearly defined treatment group of employees in deregulated crafts occupations in comparison to employees in crafts occupations that have not been reformed. Five years after the reform, the wages of employees in deregulated crafts increased by five percent less than wages of employees in the other group. Reform effects are concentrated in employers with high increases in their median wage level after the reform. Wage differences therefore seem to be the result of wage renegotiations initiated by employees, rather than renegotiations initiated by employers. Works councils or collective bargaining, firm size, firm profits or regional unemployment have no impact on wage differetiation after taking wage increases into account. They show for the first time that changes in outside options induce wage differentiation at the employer level even in the tightly regulated German labour market. They use entropy matching on the basis of a large representative administrative linked employer-employee panel data set to guarantee homogeneous treatment and control groups before the reform. They isolate the outside wage option effect from other wage determinants by restricting our sample to employers not affected by the crafts reform. |
| Keywords: | wage bargaining,outside options,diff-in-diff estimation,matching |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J44 L11 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21003&r=all |
| By: | Stefan Etgeton; Björn Fischer; Han Ye |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how households adjust their savings and consumption expenditure in response to an anticipated increase in the early retirement age (ERA). We examine the 1999 pension reform in Germany, which increased the ERA for women born after 1951 by at least three years. Using the German Income and Consumption Survey, we find a negative impact on private savings of 0.6 percentage points, which is driven by married households. We show that households consisting of highly educated women and homeowners are more likely to reduce their savings rates. Furthermore, we find that the treated households increase their leisure spending while maintaining an unchanged level of disposable income. Our findings suggest that the treated households absorb the pension wealth shock without increasing their savings. |
| Keywords: | Pension Reform; Early Retirement Age; Savings; Pension Wealth; Consumption Expenditur |
| JEL: | D14 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_255&r=all |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca; Hugo Morin; Ana I. Moro-Egido |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the bi-directional causal relationship between retirement and stress. We use PSID data for the period 2007-2015. Using a simultaneous equations approach, we find that a rise in stress increases the probability to retire by roughly 15.4 percentage points, while retirement decreases stress by 34.5 percentage points. We find the same results when we disaggregate by individuals’ characteristics, but the former effect is stronger for males, for people working in typical blue-collar jobs, and for people whose wealth is below the mean; while the latter is stronger for males, for white-collar workers, for people whose wealth is above the mean, and for white individuals. We show that official retirement ages are a strong instrument for actual retirement age, and that lagged physical activity levels are a non-linear instrument for perceived stress. We also confirm that objective measures of mental health are a strong instrument for perceived stress. |
| Keywords: | Stress,Retirement,Physical Activity,Simultaneous Equation Models, |
| JEL: | C30 J26 |
| Date: | 2021–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2021s-10&r=all |
| By: | Ingo E. Isphording; Marc Lipfert; Nico Pestel |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of the end of school summer breaks on SARS-CoV-2 cases in Germany. The staggered timing of summer breaks across federal states allows us to implement an event study design. We base our analysis on official daily counts of confirmed coronavirus infections by age groups across all 401 German counties. We consider an event window of two weeks before and four weeks after the end of summer breaks. We do not find evidence of a positive effect of school re-openings on case numbers. For individuals aged between 5-59 years, which comprise school-aged children and their parents, our preferred specification indicates that the end of summer breaks had a negative but insignificant effect on the number of new confirmed cases. Our results are not explained by changes in mobility patterns around school re-openings arising from travel returnees. Analyses of Google Trends data suggest that behavioral changes of parents may have contributed to contain larger outbreaks after school re-openings. We conclude that school re-openings in Germany under strict hygiene measures combined with quarantine and containment measures have not increased the number of newly confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, schooling, education, Germany |
| JEL: | I10 I18 I28 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_263&r=all |
| By: | Burcu Ozgun; Tom Broekel; |
| Abstract: | Variations in the frequency and tone of news media are the focus of a growing literature. However, to date, empirical investigations have primarily confirmed the existence of such differences at the country level. This paper extends those insights to the subnational level. We provide theoretical arguments and empirical support for systematic regional variations in the frequency and sentiments of news related to innovation and new technologies. These variations reflect regional socio-economic structures. We find that the average newspaper circulating in urban areas features more news on innovation and new technologies than media in more rural areas. Similar endings hold for locations in East Germany and to a certain degree for regions with low unemployment. The sentiments of innovation and new technology news are negatively associated to the unemployment rate, and they tend to be lower in regional newspapers than in national ones. Overall, our results suggest a strong link between the regional socioeconomic conditions and how newspapers circulating in these places report on innovation and new technologies. |
| Keywords: | innovation, technology, news media, sentiment analysis, topic modeling |
| JEL: | O33 R12 L82 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2110&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Gulyas; Sebastian Seitz; Sourav Sinha |
| Abstract: | We study the 2011 Austrian Pay Transparency Law, which requires firms above a size threshold to publish internal reports on the gender pay gap. Using an event-study design, we show that the policy had no discernible effects on male and female wages, thus leaving the gender wage gap unchanged. The effects are precisely estimated and we rule out that the policy narrowed the gender wage gap by more than 0.5 p.p.. Moreover, we do not find evidence for wage compression within firms. The Austrian transparency reform might have little 'bite' because wage reports are company secret and not public information. |
| Keywords: | Pay Transparency, Gender Pay Gap |
| JEL: | J08 J31 J38 J78 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_194v2&r=all |
| By: | Marco Caliendo (University of Potsdam, IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin, IAB Nuremberg); Stefan Tübbicke (IAB Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | While a growing body of literature finds positive impacts of Start-Up Subsidies (SUS) on labor market outcomes of participants, little is known about how the design of these programs shapes their effectiveness and hence how to improve policy. As experimental variation in program design is unavailable, we exploit the 2011 reform of the current German SUS program for the unemployed which strengthened case-workers’ discretionary power, increased entry requirements and reduced monetary support. We estimate the impact of the reform on the program’s effectiveness using samples of participants and non-participants from before and after the reform. To control for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity as well as differential selection patterns based on observable characteristics over time, we combine Difference-in-Differences with inverse probability weighting using covariate balancing propensity scores. Holding participants’ observed characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions constant, the results suggest that the reform was successful in raising employment effects on average. As these findings may be contaminated by changes in selection patterns based on unobserved characteristics, we assess our results using simulation-based sensitivity analyses and find that our estimates are highly robust to changes in unobserved characteristics. Hence, the reform most likely had a positive impact on the effectiveness of the program, suggesting that increasing entry requirements and reducing support in-creased the program’s impacts while reducing the cost per participant. |
| Keywords: | Start-Up Subsidies, Institutions, Policy Reform, Difference-in-Differences |
| JEL: | J68 H43 L26 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:30&r=all |
| By: | Julie Tréguier (INED - Institut national d'études démographiques, IPP - Institut des politiques publiques, EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Simon Rabaté (CPB - Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of survivors insurance on marital behavior. We study the 1996 Dutch reform which considerably tightened eligibility rules to survivors' benefits. Exploiting a discontinuity in date of birth eligibility to survivors insurance and using a rich and exhaustive of the Dutch population administrative dataset, we carry out a regression discontinuity design and we find no evidence of the reform on divorce probability. Exploring possible explanations for our zero-effect result, we study how labor supply responses can compensate the income drop the reform induced. We find a strong increase in the labor force participation of widows after the reform. However this response does not completely offset the decrease in income generated form the cut in survivors benefits. |
| Date: | 2021–03–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ipppap:halshs-03156317&r=all |
| By: | Jones, Melanie K. (Cardiff University); Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | In this study we quantify the size and drivers of the contemporary gender pay gap among medical doctors employed in the UK public sector. In using nationally representative data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we make comparisons to doctors employed in the private sector, as well as to other public sector medical professionals. We find that the substantial 20 per cent hourly gender pay gap among public sector doctors is far larger than in either of these comparator occupations. Decomposing the mean gender pay gap for public sector doctors, we find that it is largely unexplained by personal and work-related characteristics, consistent with evidence of potential substantial gender inequality in rewards. It is at the top end of the wage distribution where this is most pronounced indicating the presence of a 'glass ceiling' in UK medicine. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, medicine, public sector, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, wage decompositions, wage distribution |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J45 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14177&r=all |
| By: | Federica Cappelli (Roma Tre University); Gianni Guastella (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Stefano Pareglio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the relationship between urban sprawl and a measure of air quality, namely the number of days in which the PM10 concentration exceeds safeguard limits in European Union cities. Building on a multidimensional representation of sprawl, the paper employs several indicators to account for built-up area development, population density, and residential discontinuity. The paper employs generalised additive models to disentangle the non-linear effects in the variables and the interaction effects of the three sprawl dimensions. A significant and robust effect of urban morphology emerges after controlling for socio-economic, demographic, and climatic factors and the geographical location of the city. We find that urban sprawl impacts positively on pollutant concentration, but the effect is highly context-specific because of threshold effects and interactions. |
| Keywords: | Air Pollution, Urban Sprawl, European Cities, Additive Models |
| JEL: | Q53 R14 C21 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2021.07&r=all |
| By: | Harju, Jarkko (VATT, Helsinki); Jäger, Simon (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Schoefer, Benjamin (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effects of worker voice on job quality and separations. We leverage the 1991 introduction of worker representation on boards of Finnish firms with at least 150 employees. In contrast to exit-voice theory, our difference-in-differences design reveals no effects on voluntary job separations, and at most small positive effects on other measures of job quality (job security, health, subjective job quality, and wages). Worker voice slightly raised firm survival, productivity, and capital intensity. A 2008 introduction of shop-floor representation had similarly limited effects. Interviews and surveys indicate that worker representation facilitates information sharing rather than boosting labor's power. |
| Keywords: | industrial relations, corporate governance, codetermination, exit-voice theory, separations, job quality |
| JEL: | J0 J53 J54 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14163&r=all |
| By: | Atav, Tilbe (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Jongen, Egbert L. W. (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Rabat, Simon (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of the recent increase in the statutory retirement age (SRA) in the Netherlands, using RDD and rich administrative data on the universe of the Dutch population. We find large interaction effects with a preceding early retirement reform. The employment effect of the SRA reform is much larger for cohorts receiving less generous early retirement benefits. Indeed, the level of employment before the SRA, together with the retirement hazard at the SRA, is key to understanding the effects of retirement age reforms. Our results further point to a big role for automatic job termination in the Netherlands. |
| Keywords: | social insurance, employment, statutory retirement age, bunching, Netherlands |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14150&r=all |
| By: | Massimiliano Affinito (Bank of Italy); Giorgio Meucci (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Unlikely to pay loans (UTPs) are non-performing loans (NPLs) that have a non-zero probability of returning to the performing state. This paper draws on Italian Central Credit Register data on the entire population of Italian UTP firms from 2005 to 2019, matched with firm and bank balance sheet data, to detect the characteristics of UTP firms that have returned to the performing state. During the crises, even in the most acute phases, the share of UTP firms returning to the performing state has never been negligible. This suggests that the analysis of the factors most closely related to the return of UTP firms to the performing state could also provide policy guidance during the pandemic. Our results show that the factors that have a stronger statistical and economic correlation with the probability of a UTP firm recovering are (negatively) its size and the absolute value of its debt, and (positively) its capital. Results are strongly heterogeneous over time and across economic sectors and Italian regions. Lending bank characteristics matter, but less than firm characteristics. |
| Keywords: | non-performing loans, firm distress, firm recovery |
| JEL: | G21 G33 C23 C24 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_601_21&r=all |
| By: | Gürtzgen, Nicole; Lochner, Benjamin; Pohlan, Laura; van den Berg, Gerard J. |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of the high-speed internet expansion on the match quality of new hires. They combine data on internet availability at the local level with German individual register and vacancy data. Results show that internet availability has no major impact on the stability of new matches and their wages. The authors confirm these findings using vacancy data, by explicitly comparing match outcomes of online and non-online recruits. Further results show that online recruiting not only raises the number of applicants and the share of unsuitable candidates per vacancy, but also induces employers to post more vacancies. |
| Keywords: | Matching,online search,information frictions,recruiting channels |
| JEL: | J64 H40 L96 C26 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21002&r=all |
| By: | Kaufmann, Marc (Central European University); Machado, Joël (LISER); Verheyden, Bertrand (LISER (CEPS/INSTEAD)) |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that a large proportion of immigrants who initially intended to stay temporarily in the destination country end up staying permanently, which may lead to suboptimal integration. We study systematic causes of unexpected staying that originate in migrant misperceptions. Our framework contains uncertainty about long-term wages, endogenous integration and savings in the short term, and return migration in the long term. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions on misperceptions that lead migrants to overestimate their probability of return migration, independently of their characteristics. We show that these conditions involve pessimism about the destination country, either in terms of short-term utility, of long-term utility, or of wage prospects. We then highlight specific behavioural biases that give rise to such forms of pessimism. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find that relatively higher pessimism at arrival about future utility and wages is associated with migrants staying unexpectedly ex post. |
| Keywords: | migrant integration, return intentions, unexpected staying, misperceptions, pessimism, GSOEP |
| JEL: | F22 D91 J61 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14155&r=all |
| By: | Carine Milcent (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | We explore the competition impact on patient management in healthcare (length of stay and technical procedure's probability to be performed) by difference-indifference , exploiting time variations in the intensity of local competition caused by the French pro-competition reform (2004-2008). Models are estimated with hospital fixed effects to take into account hospital unobserved heterogeneity. We use an exhaustive dataset of in-hospital patients over 35 admitted for a heart attack. We consider the period before the reform from 2001 to 2003 and a period after the reform from 2009 to 2011. Before the reform, there were two types of reimbursement systems. Hospitals from private sector, were paid by fee-for-service. Hospitals from public sector were paid by global budget. They had no current activity's link, and a weak competition incentive. After the DRG-based payment reform, all hospitals compete with each other to attract patients. We find the reform a sizeable positive competition effect on high-technical procedure for the private sector as well as a negative competition effect on the length of stay for public hospitals. However, the overall local competition effect of the reform explained a very marginal part of the explanatory power of the model. Actually, this period is characterised by two contradictory components: a competition effect of the reform and in-patients who are more concentrated. Results suggest that if competition impacted management patient's change, it is through a global competition included in a global trend much more than a local competitive aspect of the reform. |
| Keywords: | Competition,Hospital ownership,Policy evaluation,Length of stay,High-tech procedure,Difference-in-difference,Measure of market structure,Heart attack competition |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03163249&r=all |
| By: | Jungkunz, Sebastian (University of Duisburg-Essen); Marx, Paul (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | The income gradient in political participation is a widely accepted stylized fact. This article asks how income effects on political involvement unfold over time. Using nine panel datasets from six countries, it analyzes whether income changes have short-term effects on political involvement, whether effects vary across the life-cycle, and whether parental income has an independent influence. Irrespective of indicator, specification, and method (hybrid models, inclusion of lags and leads, error-correction models), we find neither significant short-term effects of income changes nor life-cycle variation in these effects. However, parental income does seem to affect political socialization. Descriptive evidence and latent-growth-curve modeling based on household panels show that participatory inequality by parental income is already large before voting age. Poorer voters do not catch up with their richer peers in their twenties. This implies an urgent need for research on (political) inequality in youth and childhood. |
| Keywords: | participation, political inequality, panel data, socialization, income |
| JEL: | C23 D31 D72 D91 P16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14198&r=all |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | As work changes more quickly, firm-provided training may become more relevant. However, there is little causal evidence about the effects of training on firms. This paper studies a large training grants programme in Portugal, supported by the European Social Fund, contrasting firms that received the grants and firms that also applied but were unsuccessful. Combining several rich data sets, we compare a large number of potential outcomes of these firms, while following them over several years both before and after the grant decision. Our difference-in-differences models estimate significant positive effects on take up (training hours and expenditure), with limited deadweight; and that such additional training led to increased sales, value added, employment, productivity, and exports. These effects tend to be of at least 5% and, in some cases, 10% or more, and are robust in multiple dimensions. |
| Keywords: | training subsidies, productivity, programme evaluation |
| JEL: | J24 H43 M53 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14153&r=all |
| By: | Loeffler, Max (Maastricht University); Siegloch, Sebastian (University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the welfare implications of property taxation. Using a sufficient statistics approach, we show that the tax incidence depends on how housing prices, labor and other types of incomes as well as public services respond to property tax changes. Empirically, we exploit the German institutional setting with 5,200 municipal tax reforms for identification. We find that higher taxes are fully passed on to rental prices after three years. The pass-through is lower when housing supply is inelastic. Combining reduced form estimates with our theoretical framework, we simulate the welfare effects of property taxes and show that they are regressive. |
| Keywords: | property taxation, welfare, tax incidence, local labor markets, rental housing |
| JEL: | H22 H41 H71 R13 R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14195&r=all |
| By: | Hansen, Anne Toft (VIVE - The Danish Centre for Applied Social Science); Hvidman, Ulrik (Aarhus University); Sievertsen, Hans Henrik (University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the labor-market returns of skill signals. We identify the labor-market effect of grade point averages (GPA) by leveraging a nationwide change in the scaling of grades in Danish universities. Results show that a reform-induced increase in GPA that is unrelated to ability causes higher earnings immediately after graduation, but the effect fades in subsequent years. The effect at labor-market entry is largest for individuals with fewer alternative signals and the earnings adjustment occurs both within and across firms. Although employers initially screen candidates based on skill signals, our findings suggest that they rapidly learn about worker productivity. |
| Keywords: | job-market signaling, employer learning, higher education |
| JEL: | I20 J20 I26 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14200&r=all |
| By: | Maximilian Maurice Gail (Justus Liebig University Giessen); Phil-Adrian Klotz (Justus Liebig University Giessen) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically analyzes the effect of the widely used agency model on the retail prices of e-books in United Kingdom. Using a unique cross-sectional data set of e-book prices for a large sample of book titles across all major publishing houses, we exploit cross-genre and cross-publisher variation to identify the mean effect of the agency model on e-book prices. Since the genre information is ambiguous and even missing for some titles in our original dataset, we use a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) approach to determine detailed book genres based on the book's descriptions. We find that e-book prices for titles that are sold under the agency model are 36% cheaper than titles sold under the wholesale model on average. Our results are robust to different specifications, a Lewbel instrumental variable approach, and machine learning techniques. |
| Keywords: | e-books, agency, resale price maintenance, Amazon, double machine learning, Latent Dirichlet allocation |
| JEL: | D12 D22 L42 L81 L82 Z11 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:202111&r=all |