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on Public Economics |
| By: | Heppke-Falk, Kirsten H.; Tenhofen, Jörn; Wolff, Guntram B. |
| Abstract: | We investigate the short-term effects of fiscal policy shocks on the German economy following the SVAR approach by Blanchard and Perotti (2002). We find that direct government expenditure shocks increase output and private consumption on impact with low statistical significance, while they decrease private investment, though insignificantly. For the sub-category government investment – in contrast to government consumption – a positive output effect is found, which is statistically significant until 12 quarters ahead. Allowing for anticipation effects of fiscal policy does not change the sign of the positive consumption response. Anticipated expenditure shocks have significant effects on output when the shock is realized, but not in the period of anticipation. In sum, effects of expenditure shocks are only short-lived. Government net revenue shocks do not affect output with statistical significance. However, when splitting up this aggregate, direct taxes lower output significantly, while small indirect tax revenue shocks have little effects. Compensation of public employees is equally not effective in stimulating the economy. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal policy, government spending, net revenue, policy anticipation, structural vector autoregression |
| JEL: | E62 H30 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:5169&r=pbe |
| By: | Blomquist, Sören (Department of Economics); Christiansen, Vidar (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The incidence and efficiency losses of taxes have usually been analysed in isolation from public expenditures. This negligence of the expenditure side may imply a serious misperception of the effects of marginal tax rates. The reason is that part of the marginal tax may in fact be payment for publicly provided commodities and reflect a cost that the consumers should bear in order to face the right incentives. Hence, part of the marginal tax serves the same role as a market price in the sense that it conveys information about a real social marginal cost of working more hours. We develop this idea formally by studying an optimal income tax model in combination with a type of public provision scheme not analyzed before; the provision level is individualized and positively associated with the individuals’ labour supply. As examples we discuss day care, elderly care, primary education and health care. We show that there is a gain in efficiency if public provision of such a service replaces market purchases. We also show that it is necessary for efficiency that marginal income tax rates are higher than in economies where the services are purchased in the market. This is because the optimal tax should be designed so as to face the taxpayers with the real cost of providing the services. Hence, it might very well be that economies with higher marginal tax rates have less severe distortions than economies with lower marginal tax rates. We also explore whether an efficiency gain is achievable by alternatively making day care expenses tax deductible and derive a negative conclusion. |
| Keywords: | Marginal income tax; public provision; private goods; in-kind transfer; tax deductions |
| JEL: | H21 H42 I38 |
| Date: | 2007–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_007&r=pbe |
| By: | Eliason, Marcus (Centre for European Labour Market Studies); Ohlsson, Henry (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Does taxation affect the timing of death? This is important as an example of how behavior might be affected by economic incentives. We study how three changes in Swedish inheritance taxation 2004-2005 have affected daily all-cause mortality. Our first main result is that mortality decreased by 16 percent the day before the beginning of expected tax reductions. Second, there was no corresponding effect before an unexpected tax reduction. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral responses to taxation; estate tax; inheritance tax; tax avoidance; timing of death |
| JEL: | D64 H24 I19 |
| Date: | 2007–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_008&r=pbe |
| By: | Kilponen , Juha (Bank of Finland Research); Kinnunen , Helvi (Bank of Finland); Ripatti , Antti (Bank of Finland) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends Gertler’s (1999) tractable overlapping generations model with life-cycle features by allowing for distortionary taxation, demographic transition and stochastic variation in demographic structure. The model is then used to study demographic change in the small open economy of Finland. Simulations highlight the key role played by labour market responses to ageing. When the responses of labour supply, wages, and hence private consumption, to higher taxation are consistently accounted for, population ageing has clearly much larger effects on public finance, when compared to mechanical sustainability calculations. Stochastic simulations suggest that lengthening of working time has only a modest alleviating effect on the fiscal burden of ageing. This is due to the fact that stochastic variation in the length of working time has only a relatively small effect on the model’s dependency ratio. Variation in life expectancy is clearly much more important. |
| Keywords: | ageing; general equilibrium; public finance; demographic uncertainty |
| JEL: | E13 H55 J11 J26 |
| Date: | 2006–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofrdp:2006_028&r=pbe |
| By: | Johansson, Lars (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the fiscal effects of emigration. A dynamic macroeconomic framework is used. The net peresent value of the fiscal effects of different types of individuals' emigration decisions is calculated. Individuals are differentiated w.r.t. age, gender, education, being immigrants or born in Sweden and how long they choose to stay abroad in case of emigration. This study expolores how the fiscal effects of emigration are contingent on these different personal characteristics and is applied to the case of emigration from Sweden in 1998. The estmated aggregate fiscal cost is SEK 11.6 billion or 0.62% of GDP. This cost is significantly larger than the cost of immigration. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Emigration; Fiscal Impact; Fiscal Policy; Taxation |
| JEL: | E62 F22 H20 H50 |
| Date: | 2007–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2007_0001&r=pbe |
| By: | Peter Claeys (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona.) |
| Abstract: | The fiscal policy rule implicit in the Stability and Growth Pact, has been rationalised as a way to ensure that national fiscal policies remain sustainable within the EU, thereby endorsing the independence of the ECB. We empirically examine the sustainability of European fiscal policies over the period 1970-2001. The intertemporal government budget constraint provides a test based on the cointegration relation between government revenues, expenditures and interest payments. Sustainability is analysed at both the national level and for a European panel. Results show that European fiscal policy has been sustainable overall, yet national experiences differ considerably. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal policy, debt sustainability, panel unit root test, panel cointegration test, EMU. |
| JEL: | E61 E63 H63 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200702&r=pbe |
| By: | Mörk, Eva (Department of Economics); Ahlin, Åsa |
| Abstract: | Sweden has undertaken major national reforms of its school sector which, consequently, has been classified as one of the most decentralized ones in the OECD. This paper investigates whether school resources became more unequally distributed across municipalities in connection with the reforms and if local tax base, grants, and preferences affected local school resources differently as decentralization took place. Using municipal data the paper studies how per pupil spending and the teacher-pupil ratio has evolved over the period 1989–2002, separating between three different waves of decentralization. As nothing much has happened with per pupil spending, the teacher-pupil ratio has become more evenly distributed across municipalities. Municipal tax base affects per pupil spending in the same way regardless of whether the school sector is centralized or decentralized, but has a smaller effect on teacher-pupil ratio after the reforms. The less targeted grants are, the fewer teachers per pupil do the municipalities employ. The results for local preferences are less clear cut. |
| Keywords: | school resources; school finance reform; decentralization; grant reform |
| JEL: | H40 H52 H70 |
| Date: | 2007–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_009&r=pbe |
| By: | Huizinga, Harry; Laeven, Luc |
| Abstract: | The conduct of business activities in two or more countries creates opportunities for international profit shifting, while international tax rate differences create incentives. Using detailed information on both multinational firm structure and the international tax system, this paper examines the extent of intra-European profit shifting by European multinationals. Firm-level estimates of profit shifting can be aggregated to arrive at macro measures of international profit shifting. On average, we find a macro semi-elasticity of reported profits with respect to the top statutory tax rate of 1.43 in Europe, while shifting costs are estimated to be 1.6 percent of the tax base. International profit shifting leads to a substantial redistribution of national corporate tax revenues. Many European nations appear to gain revenues from intra-European profit shifting by multinationals largely at the expense of Germany. |
| Keywords: | corporate taxation; international profit shifting |
| JEL: | F23 H25 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6048&r=pbe |
| By: | Aronsson, Thomas (Department of Economics, Umeå University); Blomquist, Sören (Department of Economics, Uppsala University); Micheletto, Luca (Istituto di Economia Politica, Università "L. Bocconi") |
| Abstract: | There is a rich literature analyzing the problems that will arise as the share of elderly and retired in the population increases in the near future. However, the locational decisions among the elderly as well as their implications in terms of taxes/transfers and of allocation of responsibilities for elderly care between the federal and local levels have not received much attention. In this paper we aim at investigating these issues. For this purpose we explore a model where there is a big city and a set of small villages and where congestion effects and agglomeration forces are at work at the level of the big city. We also assume that the population is divided between two groups of agents, productive and retired, which differ with respect to the degree of mobility. In the first part of the paper we study and characterize the inefficiencies that arise because of individuals' free location choice in the context of a unitary government. In the second part of the paper we consider a fiscal federalism structure and we investigate the suitable instruments that are needed in order to decentralize the optimal allocation obtained under full centralization. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration effects; congestion; elderly care; fiscal federalism |
| JEL: | D62 H42 H55 H77 J10 |
| Date: | 2007–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0702&r=pbe |
| By: | Epifani, Paolo; Gancia, Gino A. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and the size of governments, both theoretically and empirically. We argue that openness can increase the size of governments through two channels: (1) a terms of trade externality, whereby trade lowers the domestic cost of taxation, and (2) the demand for insurance, whereby trade raises risk and public transfers. We provide a unified framework for studying and testing these two mechanisms. Our main theoretical prediction is that the relative strength of the two explanations depends on a key parameter, namely, the elasticity of substitution between domestic and foreign goods. Moreover, while the first mechanism is inefficient from the standpoint of world welfare, the second is instead optimal. In the empirical part of the paper, we provide new evidence on the positive association between openness and government size and we explore its determinants. Consistently with the terms of trade externality channel, we show that the correlation is contingent on a low elasticity of substitution between domestic and foreign goods. Our findings raise warnings that globalization may have led to inefficiently large governments. |
| Keywords: | elasticity of substitution between imports and exports; government size; openness; terms of trade externality |
| JEL: | F1 H1 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6065&r=pbe |
| By: | Nico van Leeuwen |
| Abstract: | The tax rates of deliveries of energy products to industry and households in the GTAP-6 database are in some countries for the year 2001 rather different from the ones reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Especially the rates for deliveries to industry seem to be too high. This paper shows the rates derived from IEA with observations from Energy Prices and Taxes statistics and documents a new dataset with adjusted tax rates. Comparison with the GTAP-6 database reveals some striking differences. The rates are further adjusted for petroleum and coal products after comparing the implied taxes calculated as a percentage of GDP with the OECD Revenue Statistics. For other energy carriers we have not corrected the rates any further. <P> This paper is a contribution to the paper "The EU-ETS and existing energy taxes", which was delivered as a contribution to the EU TAXBEN-project (www.taxben.org). |
| Keywords: | energy usage; tax rates |
| JEL: | H20 H25 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:memodm:174&r=pbe |
| By: | Michal Horvath |
| Abstract: | The optimal policy mix maximizes a quadratic welfare objective which follows from the agents. utility function and depends only on inflation and output gap volatility. We analyze the optimal response of the economy to a rise in government spending. We find that the optimal economy moves along an analogue of a conventional inflation-output variance frontier, as the population share of non-Ricardian agents rises. Output should optimally vary more, as this is to the benefit of the liquidity-constrained agents via net real wages, while optimal inflation volatility falls as there is less of a need to use inflation to maintain fiscal solvency. There is little evidence that increased government spending would crowd in private consumption. The tax rate varies to contain pressures on prices by shifting the natural rate of output towards its preference-driven target level. We identify the size of the target deviation in output and the interest rate elasticity of demand as the key determinants of the optimal interest rate policy. |
| Keywords: | Optimal Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Macroeconomic Stabilization, Non-Ricardian Agents. |
| JEL: | E61 E63 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmawp:0703&r=pbe |
| By: | Berardino Cesi |
| Abstract: | Empirical and theoretical studies show that the local provision of public education affects the well being of individuals through two channels: the first reflects the direct use of the good, whereas the second runs through the value of the housing. The second effect leans on the idea that the quality of public education is capitalized into the value of the own housing. Empirical evidence finds that in a multi-community model childless households support local public spending in education because of the capitalization effect. I study the behavior of childless households, not necessarily elderly, in a two community model and show that the capitalization effect may not be a sufficient condition for middle aged households without children to support local public spending in education by a majority voting. |
| JEL: | H52 H72 I22 R2 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:07/2&r=pbe |
| By: | Germà Bel (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona.) |
| Abstract: | The Great Depression spurred State ownership in Western capitalist countries. Germany was no exception, the last governments of the Weimar Republic took over firms in diverse sectors. Later, the Nazi regime transferred public ownership and public services to the private sector. In doing so, they went against the mainstream trends in the Western capitalist countries, none of which systematically reprivatized firms during the 1930s. Privatization in Nazi Germany was also unique in transferring to private hands the delivery of public services previously provided by government. The firms and the services transferred to private ownership belonged to diverse sectors. Privatization was part of an intentional policy with multiple objectives and was not ideologically driven. As in many recent privatizations, particularly within the European Union, strong financial restrictions were a central motivation. In addition, privatization was used as a political tool to enhance support for the government and for the Nazi Party. |
| Keywords: | Privatization, Public Enterprise, Nazi Economy, Germany. |
| JEL: | G38 L32 L33 N44 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200607&r=pbe |
| By: | Krogh Graversen, Brian; van Ours, Jan C |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how a mandatory activation program in Denmark affects the job finding rate of unemployed workers. The activation program was introduced in an experimental setting where about half of the workers who became unemployed in the period from November 2005 to March 2006 were randomly assigned to the program while the other half was not. It appears that the activation program is very effective. The median unemployment duration of the control group is 14 weeks, while it is 11.5 weeks for the treatment group. The analysis shows that the job finding rate in the treatment group is 30% higher than in the control group. This result is mainly driven by the more intensive contacts between the unemployed and the public employment service. |
| Keywords: | Experiment; Unemployment duration; Unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | C41 H55 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6057&r=pbe |
| By: | Alvaredo, Facundo |
| Abstract: | This paper presents series on top shares of income in Argentina from 1932 to 2004 based on personal income tax return statistics. Our results suggest that income concentration was higher during the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s than it is today. The recovery of the economy after the Great Depression, favored but the international trade conditions during and after the Second World War, and the visible effects of the peronist policy between 1945 and 1955 generated an inverted U shape in the dynamics of top shares. The peronist redistributive policy, successful and visible, seemed to have proved limited when compared with the central economies. Since then, and after a new upward movement between 1955 and 1959, top shares seem to have described the U-shape pattern found in the developed English-speaking economies. The levels of concentration in 1953 were very similar to those found in 1997. |
| Keywords: | income inequality taxation |
| JEL: | O1 D3 H3 N3 |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1501&r=pbe |
| By: | François Marical; Marco Mira d'Ercole; Maria Vaalavuo; Gerlinde Verbist |
| Abstract: | This report looks at the effects on the distribution of household income of those government-provided services that confer a personal benefit to users. While most of the comparative evidence of the size and evolution of income inequalities in OECD countries relies on the concept of household disposable income, integrating the effects of these government services is important for both conceptual and practical reasons: first, as the tax burden levied on households represent a deduction from their disposable income, it is important to account for the services which governments provide... <BR>Le présent rapport examine les effets sur la distribution du revenu des services assurés par les administrations publiques qui confèrent des avantages directs aux ménages qui en sont bénéficiaires. Alors que l’essentiel des données comparatives sur l’ampleur et l’évolution des inégalités de revenu dans les pays de l’OCDE se fonde sur le concept de revenu disponible des ménages, il est important de prendre en compte les services assurés par les administrations publiques pour des raisons aussi bien conceptuelles que pratiques : premièrement, parce qu’il est important, étant donné que la charge fiscale imposée aux ménages vient en déduction de leur revenu imposable, de tenir compte des services... |
| JEL: | H4 I1 I2 I3 |
| Date: | 2006–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:45-en&r=pbe |
| By: | Urs von Arx (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zürich); Andreas Schäfer (Center for Corporate Responsability and Sustainability (CCRS), University of Zurich,) |
| Abstract: | Although pension funds have gained importance in the last two decades, their role has not been described in detail by economic models. This paper focusses on the scope of these institutional investors when they are not satisfied with a management team of a company in which the pension fund holds a block of shares. Stock holdings by pension funds are largely dispersed. Therefore, any intervention by pension funds in corporate governance requires the formation of a coalition of pension funds. The realization of a coordinated intervention, in turn, is subject to the problems related to the provision of public goods, such as free-riding. We find that stock dispersion among pension funds, the amount of noise traders, coordination costs and the attractiveness of the exit option are relevant factors for successful interventions. The overall probability for a successful intervention, however, is quite low. |
| Keywords: | Pension Funds, Public Goods, Coase Theorem |
| JEL: | G23 H41 Q50 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:07-63&r=pbe |
| By: | Simone Valente (CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes overlapping-generations models where natural capital is owned by selfish agents. Transfers in favor of young agents reduce the rate of depletion and increase output growth. It is shown that intergenerational transfers may be preferred to laissez-faire by an indefinite sequence of generations: if the resource share in production is su¢ ciently high, the welfare gain induced by preser- vation compensates for the loss due to taxation. This conclusion is reinforced when other assets are available, e.g. man-made capital, claims on monopoly rents, and R&D investment. Transfers raise the welfare of all generations, except that of the first resource owner: if resource endowments are taxed at time zero, all successive generations support resource-saving policies for purely selfish reasons. |
| Keywords: | Distortionary Taxation, Intergenerational Transfers, Overlapping Generations, Renewable Resources, Sustainability, Technological Change |
| JEL: | H30 Q01 Q20 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:06-55&r=pbe |
| By: | de Janvry, Alain; Dubois, Pierre; Sadoulet, Elisabeth |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of a conditional cash transfers program on school enrollment and performance in Mexico. We provide a theoretical framework for analyzing the dynamic educational process including the endogeneity and uncertainty of performance at school (passing grades) and the effect of a cash transfer program conditional on school attendance. This framework is developed to study the Mexican social program Progresa (called now Oportunidades) in which a randomized experiment has been implemented and allows us to identify the effect of the program on enrollment and performance at school. Using the rules of the conditional program, we can explain the different incentive effects provided. We also derive the formal identifying assumptions needed to estimate consistently the average treatment effects on enrollment and performance at school. We find empirically that this program had always a positive impact on school continuation whereas for performance it had a positive impact at primary school but a negative one at secondary school (a possible consequence of disincentives due to the program termination after the third year of secondary school). |
| Keywords: | dynamic decisions; education demand; Mexico; randomized experiment; school performance; schooling decisions; transfer program; treatment effects |
| JEL: | C14 C25 D91 H52 H53 I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6069&r=pbe |
| By: | Elinder, Mikael (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates voters’ response to municipality and regional level unemployment and economic growth, in Swedish general elections from 1985 to 2002, using data on 284 municipalities and 9 regions. An increase in regional growth or a reduction in regional unemployment by one percentage point is associated with an increase in the support for the national government by about 0.8 and 1.1 percentage points. Changes in unemployment and growth at the municipality level seem to have much smaller effects on government support. |
| Keywords: | elections; voting; local economic conditions |
| JEL: | H11 R11 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2006–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_001&r=pbe |
| By: | Pablo Brañas-Garza (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada); Angel Solano (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores a highly controversial issue: while most European countries are undergoing a clear and well-documented process of secularization, the governments of these countries widely support religious institutions. The arguments put forward by the median voter seem insufficient to explain the data. We show that if political parties are allowed to take an ideological position with respect to religion, the observed deviations from the most preferred policy by the median voter could be explained. The assumptions of our model are tested using European data. We observe that citizens are concerned about secularization, but that there are differences between religious and non-religious citizens as we assume. In addition, and in consonance with our assumptions, the percentage of religious-averse inhabitants is very small. |
| Keywords: | religiosity, favoritism, voting, political economics. |
| JEL: | Z12 D72 H59 |
| Date: | 2007–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:paoner:07/01&r=pbe |
| By: | Gisela Hostenkamp; Michael Stolpe |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of the health gradient – the positive correlation between household income and health – in individual retirement behavior, using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP). We first estimate agegroup-specific health gradients and find their slope increases with age, but declines among retired workers. We then estimate a variety of parametric and semi-parametric duration models and find that workers’ position relative to the agegroup-specific health gradient has about the same explanatory power as self-assessed health and income together. We argue our method promises better predictions of the long-term impact of policies affecting the health gradient on workers' timing of retirement amid population aging. Our findings also underline the importance of imperfect medical technology in reconciling the human capital theory of health demand with the observation of more rapid declines in health among less educated workers. |
| Keywords: | Health gradient; Retirement behaviour; Duration analysis; Germany |
| JEL: | H51 H55 I12 J26 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1305&r=pbe |
| By: | Kai-Joseph Fleischhauer |
| Abstract: | With the beginning of the new millennium it has become more and more apparent that education and human capital constitute a key element of modern economies. Despite the important role of human capital in modern societies, there are still many unknowns about the process of educational production as well as individual and collective decisions concerning how much and what kind of education to obtain. This literature review aims at providing a better understanding of the process of human capital formation and educational attainment. Although human capital plays an important role in both microeconomics and macroeconomics, we focus on the former branch of literature in order to analyze the individual incentives to acquire skills. This review is divided into six parts each of them representing an important stream of human capital literature. First, we introduce the basic concept of human capital that models individuals as investing in skills in response to the expected returns to education. After this, we investigate the different implications of investments in general and specific human capital and then provide an overview of various empirical studies measuring the rate of return to education. Because educational attainment may also be affected by other factors such as school characteristics or family background, we review the literature on educational production functions and discuss the significance of potential inputs into the process of educational production. Subsequently, we refer to models of human capital accumulation over the life-cycle that manage to replicate the empirical life-cycle patterns with respect to the age-earnings profile of individuals. Finally, we analyze the effects of taxation and education subsidies on the formation of human capital. Length: 50 pages |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Return to Education, Education Production Function, Life-Cycle of Earnings, Education Subsidies |
| JEL: | H24 H52 I20 I21 I28 J24 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2007:2007-01&r=pbe |
| By: | Neeraj Kaushal |
| Abstract: | I use changes in immigrant eligibility for food stamps under the 1996 federal law and heterogeneous state responses to set up a natural experiment research design to study the effect of food stamps on Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults in immigrant families. I find that in the post-1996 period food stamps use by foreign-born unmarried mothers with a high school or lower education was 10 percentage points higher in states with substitute programs than in states that implemented the federal ban. However, this increase in FSP participation was not associated with any statistically significant difference in BMI. I find that FSP participation was associated a statistically insignificant 0.3 percent increase in BMI among low-educated unmarried mothers. |
| JEL: | H0 I0 I3 I31 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12849&r=pbe |
| By: | Luca Zarri (Corresponding author, Dipartimento di Scienze economiche (Università di Verona)) |
| Keywords: | Non-cooperative Games, Happiness, Morality. |
| JEL: | B41 C72 C91 D64 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:37&r=pbe |