|
on Investment |
| By: | Jeffrey Clemens; Michael R. Strain |
| Abstract: | Using Current Population Survey data, we assess whether and to what extent the burden of wage theft — wage payments below the statutory minimum wage — falls disproportionately on various demographic groups following minimum wage increases. For most racial and ethnic groups at most ages we find that underpayment rises similarly as a fraction of realized wage gains in the wake of minimum wage increases. We also present evidence that the burden of underpayment falls disproportionately on relatively young African American workers and that underpayment increases more for Hispanic workers among the full working-age population. |
| JEL: | J08 J21 J38 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31818&r=inv |
| By: | Marco Caliendo; Nico Pestel; Rebecca Olthaus |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term effects of the 2015 German minimum wage introduction and its subsequent increases on regional employment. Using data from two waves of the Structure of Earnings Survey allows us to estimate models that account for changes in the minimum wage bite over time. While the introduction mainly affected the labour market in East Germany, the raises are also increasingly affecting low-wage regions in West Germany, such that around one third of regions have changed their (binary) treatment status over time. We apply different specifications and extensions of the classic difference-in-differences approach as well as a set of new estimators that enables for unbiased effect estimation with a staggered treatment adoption and heterogeneous treatment effects. Our results indicate a small negative effect on dependent employment of 0.5 percent, no significant effect on employment subject to social security contributions, and a significant negative effect of about 2.4 percent on marginal employment until the first quarter of 2022. The extended specifications suggest additional effects of the minimum wage increases, as well as stronger negative effects on total dependent and marginal employment for those regions that were strongly affected by the minimum wage in 2015 and 2019. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2310.15964&r=inv |
| By: | Valentin Lang (Universität Mannheim, Germany); Stephan A. Schneider (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | During recent immigration waves, nationalist parties increased their vote shares in many countries, but the political backlash against immigration in some regions was much stronger than in others. We examine whether past experience with migrant inflows shapes voters' reactions to current immigration waves. Our study is based on a natural experiment from Germany, where a short-term and demonstrably arbitrary drawing of occupation zones entailed a discontinuous distribution of forced migrants after World War II. Combining historical migration and election records in a 1949-2021 panel at the municipality level, we exploit these differences in a spatial fuzzy regression discontinuity design. Our results show a substantially weaker nationalist backlash against current immigration in regions that received more forced migrants in the past. Current immigration levels activate and mute this effect of exposure to immigration in the past over a period of at least 70 years. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Nationalism, Persistence, Voting Behavior |
| JEL: | D72 O15 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:22-505&r=inv |
| By: | Dongwoo Kim; Daniel Wilhelm |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a powerful alternative to the t-test of the null hypothesis that a coefficient in linear regression is equal to zero when a regressor is mismeasured. We assume there are two contaminated measurements of the regressor of interest. We allow the two measurement errors to be nonclassical in the sense that they may both be correlated with the true regressor, they may be correlated with each other, and we do not require any location normalizations on the measurement errors. We propose a new maximal t-statistic that is formed from the regression of the outcome onto a maximally weighted linear combination of the two measurements. Critical values of the test are easily computed via a multiplier bootstrap. In simulations, we show that this new test can be significantly more powerful than t-statistics based on OLS or IV estimates. Finally, we apply the proposed test to a study of returns to education based on twins data from the UK. With our maximal t-test, we can discover statistically significant returns to education when standard t-tests do not. |
| Date: | 2023–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:azt:cemmap:22/23&r=inv |
| By: | Piet Eichholtz; Stefan Flagner; Nils Kok; Rick Kramer; Steffen Kuenn; Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt; Guy Plasqui; Xudong Sun |
| Abstract: | Academic achievement of students is a major determinant for their subsequent professional careers. Thus, university classrooms should offer optimal learning environments fostering students’ cognitive performance and development. However, university buildings are often poorly ventilated and in need of renovation. Past studies have shown that poor indoor environmental quality in terms of the thermal environment and air quality impairs cognitive performance. This study uses a quasi-experimental setup to investigate the effects of a sustainable university building on students’ academic performance and wellbeing. We randomly assigned a sample of about 1200 first-year Maastricht University bachelor students in economics and business into a control and treatment group. The treatment group had their four weekly 2-hour tutorials in a newly renovated building certified with the WELL Building Silver Standard. The control group stayed in the old building, which has been in service for the university since 1976, with the most recent renovation in 2002. In each of the tutorial rooms, we measured indoor temperature, relative humidity, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), fine particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) during two course periods from November to December 2022 and from February to March 2023, each lasting seven weeks. We recorded the grades, the course evaluations, and student survey responses on their perception of the indoor environment during each course. Each tutor taught classes in both buildings, allowing a natural tutor-fixed effect. Preliminary results from the first period showed that CO2 and VOC concentrations were significantly lower in the certified building. No substantial differences in students’ grades were found. However, students reported a better mood, a higher satisfaction, and believed that the certified building had a positive impact on their performance. Contrarily, they reported that the lighting conditions and noise levels of the certified building hindered their performance. The next step will be to incorporate the data from the second test period examining possible longitudinal effects. All data collection will be finished by the end of March 2023, and we will do the remaining analysis and the paper write-up in April and May. |
| Keywords: | Cognition; Green Building; Indoor Environmental Quality; Well-Being |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2023–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2023_126&r=inv |
| By: | Gustavo J. Bobonis; Anke Kessler; Xin Zhao |
| Abstract: | To what extent can audits serve to limit patronage and corrupt networks effectively and sustainably in clientelist societies with a prevailing norm of corruption? We develop a political agency model in which office holders are motivated to reduce rent seeking behavior through re-election incentives operating via elections and audits (formal institutions), but also through reputational concerns that are influenced by the prevailing norm on corruption in their peer group (informal institutions). We show that, while the formal institutions of audits and elections have the desired direct effect of reducing corruption, they also affect informal rules of conduct, which can have unintended effects. We then apply this theoretical framework to evidence from Puerto Rico’s anti-corruption municipal audits program over the period 1987-2014, and argue that the interaction of elections, audits, and norms can help explain a peculiar pattern in the data. Using a quasi-experimental design based on the exogenous timing of audits relative to elections, we find that mayors respond positively to audits in their own community, but negatively to audits - and the corresponding reduction in corruption - in neighboring municipalities. Our estimates suggest a large negative spillover effect: communities where two-thirds of adjacent jurisdictions undergo a (timely) audit experience a 30 percent increase in reported corruption levels. |
| Keywords: | corruption; rent-seeking; public sector accounting and audits; social norms; institutional arrangements |
| JEL: | D72 H83 K42 O17 |
| Date: | 2023–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-763&r=inv |
| By: | Kovacs, Roxanne J.; Dunaiski, Maurice; Tukiainen, Janne |
| Abstract: | There is an ongoing debate about face masks being made compulsory in public spaces to contain COVID-19. A key concern is that such policies could undermine efforts to maintain social distancing and reduce mobility. We provide first evidence on the impact of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility. We exploit the staggered implementation of policies by German states during the first wave of the pandemic and measure mobility using geo-located smartphone data. We find that compulsory face mask policies led to a short-term reduction in community mobility, with no significant medium-term effects. We can rule out even small increases in mobility. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19; coronavirus; face masks; social distancing; community mobility; Wellcome Research Fellowships in Humanities and Social Science 219744/Z/19/Z |
| JEL: | D90 H10 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2023–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120492&r=inv |
| By: | Aloys Mugiziki |
| Abstract: | Despite efforts made by Government of Rwanda and Organisation International de la Francophonie (OIF) through Ministry of Education in order to improve teaching and learning. French for English-speaking learners, they still have great difficulty in speaking and writing it. The same difficulties arise at the level of comprehension. This study investigates the effectiveness of audio-visual teaching aids to improve teaching-learning French to anglophone learners, to encourage English-speaking learners to take an interest in learning French; give our contribution to the improvement of the teaching-learning of French to English-speaking learners. To verify that we have achieved our objectives, we have distributed questionnaires to learners, observation, interview with learners and with teachers, as methods used to collect information related to our subject. The findings revealed that audio-visual teaching aids is playing major role in helping anglophone learners to take interest in learning French foreign language. After collecting the information, we analyzed it, in order to draw the conclusion on the results obtained. We recommend the Government of Rwanda through the ministry of education to supply all necessary audio-visual teaching aids for teaching French foreign language and provide many trainings to teachers about how these teaching aids should be used properly in order to enhance students’ French ability. Key words: Investigating, French language, teaching and learning, audio visual aids |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2023-47-02&r=inv |
| By: | ENDO Yuya; ONO Yoshikuni |
| Abstract: | Do male and female candidates equally benefit from disclosing their political ambitions during electoral campaigns? Generally, candidates for elective office are politically ambitious individuals vying for positions of power. There is a pervasive stereotype of women that sees them as ideally modest and reserved, which is potentially contradictory to the seemingly masculine nature of political office. Voters swayed by this stereotype may not reward female candidates for openly expressing their political ambitions to the same extent they would male candidates. To investigate this issue, we conducted a vignette experiment where both the candidate’s gender and their stated motivation for seeking office were randomly manipulated. Our findings reveal that respondents favored candidates—regardless of gender—who were transparent about their political ambition. Nevertheless, male candidates who openly displayed ambition were perceived as more favorable among voters, whereas female candidates did not receive a comparable boost to their image. These results indicate that the electoral benefits garnered from revealing political ambitions are not equally distributed between men and women. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:23074&r=inv |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti; Daniel Mangrum; Sasha Thomas; Wilbert Van der Klaauw |
| Abstract: | After forty-three months of forbearance, the pause on federal student loan payments has ended. Originally enacted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the administrative forbearance and interest waiver lasted until September 1, 2023, and borrowers’ monthly payments resumed this month. As discussed in an accompanying post, the pause on student loan payments afforded borrowers over $260 billion in waived payments throughout the pandemic, supporting borrowers’ consumption and savings over the last three years. In this post, we analyze responses of student loan borrowers to special questions in the August 2023 SCE Household Spending Survey designed to gauge the expected impact of the payment resumption on future spending growth, the risk of credit delinquency for borrowers, and the economy at large. The findings suggest that the payment resumption will have a relatively small overall effect on consumption, on the order of a 0.1 percentage point reduction in aggregate spending from August levels, and a (delayed) return of student loan delinquency rates back to pre-pandemic levels. Across groups, we see little variation in spending responses but find that low-income borrowers, female borrowers, those with less than a bachelor’s degree, and those who were not in repayment before the pandemic expect the highest likelihood of missed student loan payments. |
| Keywords: | household spending; student loans |
| JEL: | D14 I22 |
| Date: | 2023–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:97184&r=inv |
| By: | Pullinger, Martin (University College London); Zapata-Webborn, Ellen (University College London); Kilgour, Jonathan; Elam, Simon; Few, Jessica; Goddard, Nigel; Hanmer, Clare; McKenna, Eoghan James; Oreszczyn, Tadeusz; Webb, Lynda |
| Abstract: | This study investigates typical domestic energy demand profiles and their variation over time. It draws on a sample of 13, 000 homes from Great Britain, applying k-means cluster analysis to smart meter data on their electricity and gas demand over a three-year period from September 2019 to August 2022. Eight typical demand archetypes are identified from the data, varying in terms of the shape of their demand profile over the course of the day. These include an ‘All daytime’ archetype, where demand rises in the morning and remains high until the evening. Several other archetypes vary in terms of the presence and timing of morning and/or evening peaks. In the case of electricity demand, a ‘Midday trough’ archetype is notable for its negative midday demand and high overnight demand, likely a combination of the effects of rooftop solar panels exporting to the grid during the day and overnight charging of electric vehicles or electric storage heating. The prevalence of each archetype across the sample varies substantially in relation to different temporally-varying factors. Fluctuations in their prevalence on weekends can be identified, as can Christmas Day. Among homes with gas central heating, the prevalence of gas archetypes strongly relates to external temperature, with around half of homes fitting the ‘All daytime’ archetype at temperatures below 0°C, and few fitting it above 14°C. COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on work and schooling are associated with households’ patterns of daily demand becoming more similar on weekdays and weekends, particularly for households with children and/or workers. The latter group had still not returned to pre-pandemic patterns by March 2022. The results indicate that patterns of daily energy demand vary with factors ranging from societal weekly rhythms and festivals to seasonal temperature changes and system shocks like pandemics, with implications for demand forecasting and policymaking. |
| Date: | 2023–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ckyb6&r=inv |
| By: | Rosenblatt, Lucas; Herman, Bernease; Holovenko, Anastasia; Lee, Wonkwon; Loftus, Joshua; McKinnie, Elizabeth; Rumezhak, Taras; Stadnik, Andrii; Howe, Bill; Stoyanovich, Julia |
| Abstract: | Differential privacy (DP) data synthesizers are increasingly proposed to afford public release of sensitive information, offering theoretical guarantees for privacy (and, in some cases, utility), but limited empirical evidence of utility in practical settings. Utility is typically measured as the error on representative proxy tasks, such as descriptive statistics, multivariate correlations, the accuracy of trained classifiers, or performance over a query workload. The ability for these results to generalize to practitioners' experience has been questioned in a number of settings, including the U.S. Census. In this paper, we propose an evaluation methodology for synthetic data that avoids assumptions about the representativeness of proxy tasks, instead measuring the likelihood that published conclusions would change had the authors used synthetic data, a condition we call epistemic parity. Our methodology consists of reproducing empirical conclusions of peer-reviewed papers on real, publicly available data, then re-running these experiments a second time on DP synthetic data and comparing the results. We instantiate our methodology over a benchmark of recent peer-reviewed papers that analyze public datasets in the ICPSR social science repository. We model quantitative claims computationally to automate the experimental workflow, and model qualitative claims by reproducing visualizations and comparing the results manually. We then generate DP synthetic datasets using multiple state-of-the-art mechanisms, and estimate the likelihood that these conclusions will hold. We find that, for reasonable privacy regimes, state-of-the-art DP synthesizers are able to achieve high epistemic parity for several papers in our benchmark. However, some papers, and particularly some specific findings, are difficult to reproduce for any of the synthesizers. Given these results, we advocate for a new class of mechanisms that can reorder the priorities for DP data synthesis: favor stronger guarantees for utility (as measured by epistemic parity) and offer privacy protection with a focus on application-specific threat models and risk-assessment. |
| Keywords: | NSF Awards Nos. 1916505; 1922658; 1934405; NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Grant No. DGE-2039655 |
| JEL: | C1 |
| Date: | 2023–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120493&r=inv |
| By: | Hassan El Yaagoubi (FSE - Faculté des sciences de l’Education de Rabat); Khalid El Baz (FSE - Faculté des sciences de l’Education de Rabat) |
| Abstract: | The Covid-19 crisis has deeply impacted the functioning of organizations, forcing them to completely rethink their operations. Indeed, this health crisis has accelerated the digitization of tools and the restructuring of internal processes. However, it is important not to overlook the significant challenges this profound change entails in terms of team management. This unprecedented crisis has truly disrupted the status quo, prompting managers to fundamentally reconsider work organization and demonstrate adaptability, creativity, and leadership to successfully overcome these unprecedented challenges. As a result, human resource managers are faced with a major challenge: implementing new forms of steering, management, and innovative strategies, placing digital transformation at the core of their concerns. Furthermore, it is crucial to consider the impact of this transformation on individuals, placing the human factor at the center of reflections. This study aims to analyze the contribution of digital transformation to the field of human resource management, specifically focusing on the advantages of agile management and digitalization in ensuring business continuity during crises, particularly the Covid-19 crisis. This research adopts a positivist epistemological standpoint, utilizing a hypothetico-deductive reasoning approach and employing a quantitative research methodology to explore our research questions. The study is based on questionnaires completed by 44 key individuals from various Moroccan banks who willingly participated in our survey. The analysis of the results highlighted the contribution of digital transformation to HR management in crisis situations. Indeed, organizations that had already embraced digital transformation prior to the Covid-19 crisis were able to seamlessly ensure business continuity during this challenging period, which would not have been possible without digital technologies. Thus, this crisis served as a wake-up call for organizations that had not yet embarked on their digital transformation journey. However, it is important to acknowledge that this research has certain limitations. Specifically, our study focuses specifically on the banking sector, which means that the findings cannot be generalized to other sectors, particularly the public sector, which often adopts different management approaches compared to the banking sector. |
| Abstract: | La crise liée au Covid-19 a profondément impacté le fonctionnement des organisations, les obligeant à repenser entièrement leur mode de fonctionnement. En effet, cette crise sanitaire a accéléré la digitalisation des outils et la refonte des processus internes. Cependant, il ne faut pas négliger que ce changement profond implique également des défis majeurs en termes de gestion d'équipe. Cette crise sans précédent a véritablement bouleversé la donne, incitant les managers à repenser en profondeur l'organisation du travail et de faire preuve d'adaptabilité, de créativité et de leadership pour relever ces défis inédits avec succès. Ainsi, les responsables des ressources humaines se trouvent face à un défi de taille : mettre en place de nouvelles formes de pilotage, de management et de stratégie innovante, plaçant ainsi la transformation digitale au coeur de leurs préoccupations. Par ailleurs, Il est primordial de considérer l'impact de cette transformation sur les individus, en mettant l'humain au centre des réflexions. Cette étude a pour but d'analyser la contribution de la transformation digitale au domaine du management des ressources humaines, en se penchant spécifiquement sur les avantages du management agile et de la digitalisation pour assurer la continuité des activités en période de crise, notamment durant la crise du Covid-19. Cette recherche s'inscrit dans un positionnement épistémologique positiviste, avec l'adoption d'une logique de raisonnement hypothético-déductif et en adoptant une approche de recherche quantitative pour explorer notre problématique. Notre étude repose sur des questionnaires renseignés par 44 personnes-ressources appartenant à différentes banques marocaines, qui ont accepté de participer à notre enquête. L'analyse des résultats obtenus a mis en exergue l'apport de la transformation digitale au management RH en situation de crise. En, effet, les organisations ayant adopté une transformation digitale avant la crise liée au Covid 19 ont pu assurer aisément la continuité de leurs activités pendant cette crise, chose qui n'aurait jamais été possible sans le digital. Ainsi, cette crise a sonné l'alarme des organisations n'ayant pas encore entamé leur transformation digitale. Par ailleurs, Il est important de noter que cette recherche présente certaines limites. Effectivement, notre étude se concentre spécifiquement sur le secteur bancaire, ce qui signifie que les résultats obtenus ne peuvent pas être généralisés à d'autres secteurs, en particulier le secteur public qui adopte souvent des modes de management différents de ceux utilisés dans le secteur bancaire. |
| Keywords: | Human resources management, Banking sector, Crisis situation, Health crisis Covid 19, Digital transformation, Agility, Management des ressources humaines, Secteur bancaire, Crise Sanitaire Covid 19, Transformation digitale, agilité |
| Date: | 2023–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04230708&r=inv |
| By: | Torres-Brito, David Israel; Cruz-Aké, Salvador; Venegas-Martínez, Francisco |
| Abstract: | La presente investigación indaga en la relación entre emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) y crecimiento económico; en particular, busca medir el impacto de estas emisiones en el Producto Interno Bruto (PIB), a partir de la identificación de las fuentes contaminantes y sus costos asociados, mediante la construcción de un panel de datos anuales para 86 países distribuidos en 4 niveles de ingreso y 6 regiones, a través del periodo de 30 años 1990-2019. La relación de interés se contextualiza en un marco de estructura de mercado, por lo que se consideran datos del crecimiento de los sectores más grandes de la economía, así como datos demográficos para cada país y año. También se toma la información del mercado energético, así como la participación de los recursos renovables en este, y la generación de energía por tipo de combustible. A su vez, se explora la relación entre ingreso y la participación de los recursos naturales en la economía, con lo que se identifica la eficiencia energética y el aprovechamiento de los recursos como proxy de la tecnología disponible para cada grupo de ingreso. Además de un análisis exploratorio (descriptivo) de los datos, se emplea un modelo de regresión cuantílico para datos de panel con efectos fijos aditivos (QRPD), el cual es un caso especial del estimador de regresión cuantílica generalizado (GQR). En el uso del modelo se aplica el método de optimización adaptativa de Montecarlo basado en cadenas de Markov (MCMC). Se verifica la hipótesis de la investigación tanto a nivel descriptivo como econométrico: una relación inversa entre crecimiento económico y emisiones de GEI. Se devela una curva ambiental de Kuznets, al observarse que las emisiones de GEI se incrementan a mayores niveles de ingreso de los países, pero alcanzan un punto de inflexión, de modo que los países de ingreso alto emiten menores emisiones de CO2eq que el resto. Asimismo, el modelo estimado revela que las emisiones de GEI contribuyen de manera positiva en el crecimiento económico, pero en el largo plazo, al considerar la variable cuadrática, se alcanza un punto de inflexión a partir del cual las emisiones presentan un estimador negativo. También se identifica una curva tecnológica de Kuznets (CTK) a partir del análisis de la eficiencia energética de cada grupo de ingreso, la cual responde al desarrollo tecnológico, cambios en la estructura económica internacional y la caída en los precios de las energías limpias. / This research inquiries into the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and economic growth; in particular, it seeks to measure the impact of these emissions on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), based on the identification of polluting sources and associated costs, through the construction of an annualized data panel for 86 countries distributed in 4 income levels and 6 regions, through the 30-year period 1990-2019. The relationship of interest is contextualized within a market structure framework, for which there were taken growth rates for each major economic sector, as well as demographic data for each country and year. Information on the energy market is also considered, including the share of renewable resources and the generation of energy by type of fuel, which helps to identify the efficiency of energy consumption and use of natural resources as a proxy of technology availability by income group. In addition to an exploratory (descriptive) analysis of the data, a quantile regression model for panel data with additive fixed effects (QRPD) is used, as a special case of the generalized quantile regression (GQR) estimator. In the use of the model, the adaptive optimization of Markov chain Monte Carlo Method (MCMC) is applied. The research hypothesis is verified both at a descriptive and econometric level: an inverse relationship between economic growth and GHG emissions. An Environmental Kuznets curve is observed (EKC), revealing that GHG emissions increase with income levels reaching a turning point, so that high-income countries emit fewer CO2eq emissions than the rest. Likewise, the estimated model reveals that GHG emissions contribute positively to economic growth, but in the long term, by considering the quadratic variable, a turning point is reached from which emissions present a negative estimator. Finally, a Kuznets technology curve (CTK) is also identified from the energy efficiency analysis of each income group that responds to technological development, changes in the international economic structure and the drop in clean energy prices. |
| Keywords: | Gases de Efecto Invernadero, Crecimiento económico, Curva Ambiental de Kuznets, Datos de panel, Regresión cuantílica / Greenhouse Gases, Economic Growth, Environmental Kuznets curve, Panel data, Quantile regression |
| JEL: | Q51 |
| Date: | 2023–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119031&r=inv |