nep-ure New Economics Papers
on Urban and Real Estate Economics
Issue of 2006‒02‒26
28 papers chosen by
Steve Ross
University of Connecticut

  1. The welfare effects of slum improvement programs : the case of Mumbai By Bento, Antonio; Cropper, Maureen; Takeuchi, Akie
  2. Compensation of regional unemployment in housing markets By Wouter Vermeulen; Jos van Ommeren
  3. Demand (and Supply) in an Inter-District Public School Choice Program By Randall Reback
  4. Urban Sprawl and Spatial Segregation. A review (In French) By POUYANNE Guillaume (IERSO-IFReDE-GRES)
  5. The Dynamics of School Attainment of England’s Ethnic Minorities By Adam Briggs; Simon Burgess; Deborah Wilson
  6. Competition and Resource Effectiveness in Education By David Mayston
  7. Changing the Boston School Choice Mechanism By Atila Abdulkadiroglu; Parag A. Pathak; Alvin E. Roth; Tayfun Sönmez
  8. Social Segregation in Secondary Schools : How Does England Compare with Other Countries ? By Stephen P. Jenkins; John Micklewright; Sylke V. Schnepf
  9. Teacher-Student Matching and the Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness By Charles T. Clotfelter; Helen F. Ladd; Jacob L. Vigdor
  10. Housing, Consumption, and Asset Pricing By Monika Piazzesi; Martin Schneider; Selale Tuzel
  11. Innovation Clusters in the European Regions By Rosina Moreno; Raffaele Paci; Stefano Usai
  12. Single Parenthood and Childhood Outcomes in the Mid-Nineteenth Century Urban South By Howard Bodenhorn
  13. Price Linkages between Stock, Bond and Housing Markets - Evidence from Finnish Data By Elias Oikarinen
  14. Urban Social Exclusion in Transitional China By Bingqin Li
  15. How important is access to jobs? Old question - improved answer By Åslund, Olof; Östh, John; Zenou, Yves
  16. New Evidence on Race Discrimination under "Separate but Equal" By Bradley A. Hansen; Mary Eschelbach Hansen
  17. Securitization and the Declining Impact of Bank Finance on Loan Supply: Evidence from Mortgage Acceptance Rates By Elena Loutskina; Philip E. Strahan
  18. The Causes of Political Integration: An Application to School Districts By Nora Gordon; Brian Knight
  19. How Much Do Employers Learn from Referrals? By Joshua C. Pinkston
  20. The effect of moving on union dissolution By Paul J. Boyle; Hill Kulu; Thomas Cooke; Vernon Gayle; Clara H. Mulder
  21. Urban Poverty, School Attendance, and Adolescent Labor Force Attachment: Some Historical Evidence By Howard Bodenhorn
  22. Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth: A Comparative Study of China and India By Jorge Martinez-Vazquez; Mark Rider
  23. Social Mobility, Life Chances, and the Early Years By Jane Waldfogel
  24. Nonparametric Spectrum Estimation for SpatialData By Peter M Robinson
  25. Incarceration Length, Employment, and Earnings By Jeffrey R. Kling
  26. Parental Investment in Childhood and Later Adult Well-Being: Can More Involved Parents Offset the Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage? By Darcy Hango
  27. Structural change and regional employment dynamics By Uwe Blien; Helge Sanner
  28. Do we need an Economic Impact study or a Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Sports Event? By Késenne S.

  1. By: Bento, Antonio; Cropper, Maureen; Takeuchi, Akie
    Abstract: The authors compare the welfare effects of in situ slum upgrading programs with programs that provide slum dwellers with better housing in a new location. Evaluating the welfare effects of slum upgrading and resettlement programs requires estimating models of residential location choice, in which households trade off commuting costs against the cost and attributes of the housing they consume, including neighborhood attributes. The authors accomplish this using data for 5,000 households in Mumbai, a city in which 40 percent of the population live in slums. The precise welfare effects of resettlement programs depend on assumptions made about the ease with which w orkers can change jobs and also on the ethnic characteristics of neighborhoods in which new housing is located. To illustrate this point the authors consider a realistic slum upgrading program that could be offered to residents in their sample living in east Mumbai. They summarize the effects of job opportunities and neighborhood composition on welfare by mapping how compensating variation for the program changes depending on where in Mumbai improved housing is located. If program beneficiaries continue working in their original job, the set of welfare-enhancing locations for the upgrading program is small. The set increases greatly if it is assumed that workers can change jobs. The benefits of this program are contrasted with the benefits of in situ housing improvements.
    Keywords: Housing & Human Habitats,Urban Slums Upgrading,Urban Services to the Poor,Urban Housing,Municipal Housing and Land
    Date: 2006–02–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3852&r=ure
  2. By: Wouter Vermeulen; Jos van Ommeren
    Abstract: Why are regional unemployment differentials in Europe so persistent if, as the wage curve literature demonstrates, there is no compensation in labour markets? We hypothesise that workers in high-unemployment regions are compensated in housing markets. Modelling regional unemployment differentials as a consequence of centralised wage bargaining, we show that clearing of land markets may undo the incentive for workers to migrate to low-unemployment regions in general equilibrium. The compensating differentials hypothesis is tested on city-level data for several countries. Controlling for variation in income and amenities, housing is found to be about 3 percent less expensive on average in cities where unemployment is 10 percent up. An analysis of housing demand survey data, which takes account of housing heterogeneity, yields a similar negative relationship. The magnitude of the income effect generated by this compensating differential is consistent with a -0.10 wage curve elasticity. Workers in regions with high unemployment and low per capita income are therefore not necessarily worse off, and regional support programs should take this into account.
    Keywords: regional unemployment; housing markets; wage curve; compensating differentials; hedonic models; regional policy
    JEL: R23 R13 J64
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:57&r=ure
  3. By: Randall Reback (Barnard College, Columbia University)
    Abstract: This study examines parents’ demand for sending their children to a public school located outside their residential school district. Using a unique data set that contains information concerning both inter-district transfers and rejections of transfer applications, I am able to identify which school district characteristics attract the greatest demand for incoming transfers. The analyses reveal that mean student test scores are stronger predictors of transfer demand than both students’ socio-economic characteristics and school district spending, suggesting that parents care more about outcomes than inputs. In addition, while districts are only supposed to reject transfer students due to capacity concerns, districts’ supply decisions are also correlated with differences in student performance across neighboring districts.
    Keywords: school choice, inter-district open enrollment, public school demand
    JEL: I21 I28 H40
    Date: 2004–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brn:wpaper:0501&r=ure
  4. By: POUYANNE Guillaume (IERSO-IFReDE-GRES)
    Abstract: This article explores the theoretical linkages between urban sprawl and social segregation. We first present the way segregation can increase urban sprawl : according to the « flight from blight hypothesis », mechanisms of segregation may form socially homogenous areas which tend to move away from each other. Second, we show that the influence of sprawl on segregation is ambivalent. On one’s hand, it diminishes the pressure on rent ; thus the exclusion process is softened. On the other hand, it gives more achievability to bring together people who want to. This last process is reinforced by exclusionary zoning practices. A review of some empirical studies on the link between residential density and social segregation show that the direction of such a relation is unspecified. We finally argue for an analysis of the urban sprawl-social segregation linkages as from the study of residential relocations.
    Keywords: urban sprawl, social segregation, exclusionary zoning, flight from blight
    JEL: R12 R14 R41
    Date: 2006
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2006-07&r=ure
  5. By: Adam Briggs; Simon Burgess; Deborah Wilson
    Abstract: We exploit a universe dataset of state school students in England with linked test score records to document the evolution of attainment through school for different ethnic groups. The analysis yields a number of striking findings. First, we show that, controlling for personal characteristics, all minority groups make greater progress than white students over secondary schooling. Second, much of this improvement occurs in the high-stakes exams at the end of compulsory schooling. Third, we show that for most ethnic groups, this gain is pervasive, happening in almost all schools in which these students are found. We address some of the usual factors invoked to explain attainment gaps: poverty, language, school quality, and teacher influence. We conclude that our findings are more consistent with the importance of factors like aspirations and attitudes.
    Keywords: Ethnic test score gap, school attainment, education
    JEL: I20 J15
    Date: 2006–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/105&r=ure
  6. By: David Mayston
    Abstract: This paper examines the impact of competition in the markets for teachers and for housing on the long-standing issue of the influence of school resourcing on educational attainment. The existence of such competition is found to imply not only downward bias in many earlier empirical estimates of the role of resources in the educational production function, but also powerful general equilibrium effects, especially for the impact of relative levels of school resources upon the distribution of relative levels of educational attainment across individual schools, that highlight the importance of how resources are distributed across individual schools. The paper derives optimal resource allocation rules for distributing government educational budgets across individual schools and examines the properties of the associated funding formulae.
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:06/05&r=ure
  7. By: Atila Abdulkadiroglu (Columbia University); Parag A. Pathak (Harvard University); Alvin E. Roth (Harvard University); Tayfun Sönmez (Boston College)
    Abstract: In July 2005 the Boston School Committee voted to replace the existing Boston school choice mechanism with a deferred acceptance mechanism that simplifies the strategic choices facing parents. This paper presents the empirical case against the previous Boston mechanism, a priority matching mechanism, and the case in favor of the change to a strategy-proof mechanism. Using detailed records on student choices and assignments, we present evidence both of sophisticated strategic behavior among some parents, and of unsophisticated strategic behavior by others. We find evidence that some parents pay close attention to the capacity constraints of different schools, while others appear not to. In particular, we show that many unassigned students could have been assigned to one of their stated choices with a different strategy under the current mechanism. This interaction between sophisticated and unsophisticated players identifies a new rationale for strategy-proof mechanisms based on fairness, and was a critical argument in Boston's decision to change the mechanism. We then discuss the considerations that led to the adoption of a deferred acceptance mechanism as opposed to the (also strategy-proof) top trading cycles mechanism.
    Date: 2006–01–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:639&r=ure
  8. By: Stephen P. Jenkins; John Micklewright; Sylke V. Schnepf
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp550&r=ure
  9. By: Charles T. Clotfelter; Helen F. Ladd; Jacob L. Vigdor
    Abstract: We use administrative data on North Carolina public schools to document the tendency for more highly qualified teachers to be matched with more advantaged students, and we measure the bias this pattern generates in estimates of the impacts of various teacher qualifications on student achievement. One of the strategies we use to minimize this bias is to restrict the analysis to schools that assign students to classrooms in a manner statistically indistinguishable from random assignment. Using data for 5th grade, we consistently find significant returns to teacher experience in both math and reading and to licensure test scores in math achievement. We also find that the returns in math are greater for socioeconomically advantaged students, a finding that may help explain why the observed form of teacher-student matching persists in equilibrium.
    JEL: I2 J4
    Date: 2006–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11936&r=ure
  10. By: Monika Piazzesi; Martin Schneider; Selale Tuzel
    Abstract: This paper considers a consumption-based asset pricing model where housing is explicitly modeled both as an asset and as a consumption good. Nonseparable preferences describe households' concern with composition risk, that is, fluctuations in the relative share of housing in their consumption basket. Since the housing share moves slowly, a concern with composition risk induces low frequency movements in stock prices that are not driven by news about cash flow. Moreover, the model predicts that the housing share can be used to forecast excess returns on stocks. We document that this indeed true in the data. The presence of composition risk also implies that the riskless rate is low which further helps the model improve on the standard CCAPM.
    JEL: G0
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12036&r=ure
  11. By: Rosina Moreno; Raffaele Paci; Stefano Usai
    Abstract: This paper investigates on the presence of innovation clusters in the European regions. The analysis is based on a databank set up by CRENoS on regional patenting at the European Patent Office classified by ISIC sectors (2 digit), which considers 175 regions of 17 countries in Europe. Firstly, an analysis of the spatial distribution of innovation activities in Europe is performed. Some global and local indicators for spatial association are presented, indicating the presence of a general dependence process in the distribution of the phenomena under examination. The analysis is implemented for 23 manufacturing sectors to assess for the presence of significant differences in their spatial features. Moreover, the extent and strength of spatial externalities are evaluated for two periods: 1994-96 and 1999-01. Secondly, this paper contributes to the analysis of the process of spatial agglomeration of innovative activities by investigating directly its determinants. Our main purpose is to identify the extent to which the degree of specialisation or diversity in a region may affect the innovative activities in a particular local industry. Other local factors are also tested such as home market effect and other agglomeration phenomena. Moreover the geographical extent of such effects is measured by means of the usual tests of spatial econometrics.
    Keywords: Innovative activity, Spatial analysis, European regions, Knowledge production function
    Date: 2005
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200512&r=ure
  12. By: Howard Bodenhorn
    Abstract: Families are the core social institution and a growing body of research documents the costs of single parenthood for children in the twentieth century. This study documents racial differences in the incidence and costs of single parenthood in the mid-nineteenth century. Data from the urban South reveal two notable consequences of single parenthood. First, white children residing with single mothers left school earlier than children residing with two parents. Black children in single mother homes started school later and left school earlier. Single motherhood is therefore associated with less lifetime schooling for both races, but the consequences of living in a nontraditional home was larger for blacks. Second, single motherhood was associated with an increased incidence of labor force participation for white youth, but not for blacks. Single parenthood imposed costs, in terms of foregone human capital formation, on children in the mid-nineteenth century, but the consequences of single motherhood were mitigated by social norms toward childhood education.
    JEL: I2 J1 N3
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12056&r=ure
  13. By: Elias Oikarinen
    Abstract: There are a number of reasons to assume that significant interdependences exist between the financial asset markets and the housing market. Identifying the linkages between stock, bond and housing markets may improve return forecasts in different asset markets. Interdependence and predictability of different asset prices is of importance concerning portfolio diversification and allocation, especially from long-term investors’ point of view. Furthermore, linkages between asset classes are likely to have significant policy implications. The purpose of this paper is to study the long- and short-term dynamic interdependences between stock, bond and housing markets using time series econometrics and utilizing a quarterly dataset from Finland over 1970-2005. In addition to short-term dynamics, there also appears to be long-run interrelations between the asset prices according to cointegration analysis. There is clearly a structural break in the long-run relationship between stock and housing prices in the early 1990s. Interaction between the markets seems to have diminished after the break. In line with the theory and previous research, it is found that stock appreciation Granger caused housing price changes prior to 1993. Since 1993, in turn, stock appreciation seems to have Granger caused housing only through a cointegrating long-run relation. Co-movement of bond price changes with stock and housing appreciation is found to be weak, although bond prices belong to a long-run relation including also stock and housing prices.
    Keywords: asset prices, housing, co-movement, cointegration
    JEL: G10 G11
    Date: 2006–02–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1004&r=ure
  14. By: Bingqin Li
    Abstract: This paper demonstrates that urban social exclusion in China does not only include restricted participation by the ¿underclass¿ in urban life, but also the deprivation of certain political, social and economic rights. In addition, the paper describes how the character of urban social exclusion has changed over time. The author also examines the social exclusion of rural workers living and working in urban areas. The paper concludes by arguing that urban social exclusion in China needs coordinated reforms that target the whole set of problems in the urban ¿underclass¿ lacking political rights, social protection and economic opportunities.
    Keywords: social exclusion, urban China, rural to urban migrants
    JEL: J43 R23 I30
    Date: 2004–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:082&r=ure
  15. By: Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Östh, John (Uppsala University); Zenou, Yves (IUI, The Research Institute of Industrial Economics)
    Abstract: We study the impact of job proximity on individual employment and earnings. The analysis exploits a Swedish refugee dispersal policy to get exogenous variation in individual locations. Using very detailed data on the exact location of all residences and workplaces in Sweden, we find that having been placed in a location with poor job access in 1990–91 adversely affected employment in 1999. Doubling the number of jobs in the initial location in 1990–91 is associated with 2.9 percentage points higher employment probability in 1999. The analysis suggests that residential sorting leads to underestimation of the impact of job access.
    Keywords: Spatial mismatch; endogenous location; natural experiment
    JEL: J15 J18 R23
    Date: 2006–02–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2006_001&r=ure
  16. By: Bradley A. Hansen; Mary Eschelbach Hansen (Department of Economics, American University)
    Abstract: Recently uncovered 1906 Virginia teacher-salary data allow for more precise and consistent estimation of marginal returns to certification and formal education than available in previous studies. Virginia’s “separate but equal” educational system paid black teachers in rural counties lower wages than it paid white teachers and on average paid a lower premium to blacks for certification and formal education that it paid to whites. In incorporated cities, returns to certification and normal school education were about the same for black teachers and white teachers, although average salaries were lower for black teachers.
    Keywords: race discrimination, teacher salaries
    JEL: N3 J7
    Date: 2005–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:1105&r=ure
  17. By: Elena Loutskina; Philip E. Strahan
    Abstract: This paper shows that securitization reduces the influence of bank financial condition on loan supply. Low-cost funding and increased balance-sheet liquidity raise bank willingness to approve mortgages that are hard to sell (jumbo mortgages), while having no effect on their willingness to approve mortgages easy to sell (non-jumbos). Thus, the increasing depth of the mortgage secondary market fostered by securitization has reduced the impact of local funding shocks on credit supply. By extension, securitization has weakened the link from bank funding conditions to credit supply in aggregate, thereby mitigating the real effects of monetary policy.
    JEL: G2
    Date: 2006–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11983&r=ure
  18. By: Nora Gordon; Brian Knight
    Abstract: This paper examines the forces behind political integration through the lens of school district consolidations, which reduced the number of school districts in the United States from around 130,000 in 1930 to under 15,000 at present. Despite this large observed decline, many districts resisted consolidation before ultimately merging and others never merged, choosing to remain at enrollment levels that nearly any education cost function would deem inefficiently small. Why do some districts voluntarily integrate while others remain small, and how do those districts that do merge choose with which of their neighbors to do so? In addressing these questions, we empirically examine the role of potential economies and diseconomies of scale, heterogeneity between merger partners, and the role of state governments. We first develop a simulation-based estimator that is rooted in the economics of matching and thus accounts for three important features of typical merger protocol: two-sided decision making, multiple potential partners, and spatial interdependence. We then apply this methodology to a wave of school district mergers in the state of Iowa during the 1990s. Our results highlight the importance of economies of scale, diseconomies of scale, state financial incentives for consolidation, and a variety of heterogeneity measures.
    JEL: H4 H7 I2 C7
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12047&r=ure
  19. By: Joshua C. Pinkston (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
    Abstract: This paper tests the hypothesis that referrals from various sources provide employers with more information about job applicants than they would have without a referral. I use data from the 1982 EOPP Survey of employers that contain information on two workers in the same job, allowing me to cancel out differences in job and firm characteristics and control for the possibility that workers with referrals from different sources (or no referral at all) might sort into jobs that put different weights on individual performance. My estimation results provide evidence consistent with referrals from friends and family members providing employers with more information than they would have otherwise. Despite the information they provide, however, it appears as though referrals from family members are associated with jobs that put less weight on performance overall. On the other hand, referrals from other employers or labor unions appear to provide little, if any, information but are associated with jobs that put more weight on performance than the average job does. I find no evidence that referrals from schools, community organizations or other sources provide useful information.
    Keywords: Referrals; Recruiting Methods; Labor Market Information
    JEL: J6 M51 J31 D83
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bls:wpaper:ec060040&r=ure
  20. By: Paul J. Boyle; Hill Kulu (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Thomas Cooke; Vernon Gayle; Clara H. Mulder
    Abstract: This paper examines the effect of migration and residential mobility on union dissolution among married and cohabiting couples. While there is a large, multi-disciplinary literature looking at the determinants of union dissolution in Europe and North America, the possible impact of geographical mobility has received little attention. This is despite the fact that moving is a stressful life event and that numerous studies suggest that women’s economic well-being and employment suffer from family moves which are usually stimulated by the man’s career. We base our longitudinal analysis on retrospective event-history data from Austria and apply hazard regression. Our results show that couples who move frequently have a significantly higher risk of union dissolution. We argue that frequent moving increases couple stress and union instability through a variety of mechanisms.
    Keywords: Austria, dissolution of marriage, event history analysis, internal migration, residential mobility
    JEL: J1 Z0
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2006-002&r=ure
  21. By: Howard Bodenhorn
    Abstract: It is well known that children raised in poverty demonstrate lower academic achievement than children raised in affluence. This study extends previous studies in three ways. First, it estimates structural instead of reduced-form models of child academic attainment. Such structural models explicitly account for choices made by children themselves, given choices made by parents and governments. Second, it provides an historical insight into the connections between poverty, child choices and educational outcomes. Nearly all extent work considers the late 20th century. This study uses a unique data set from the mid-nineteenth century. And, third, this study documents the choices underlying adolescent labor force participation. Youth in poor households are more likely than affluent youth to be asked to contribute income to the household. The choice to do so is influenced by parental choices and the expected reduction in the child's later-life wealth attributable to choosing work over additional schooling.
    JEL: I1 I3 N3
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12043&r=ure
  22. By: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies); Mark Rider (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies)
    Abstract: Although there are obvious differences in the political systems of China and India, there are surprising similarities in their respective approaches to decentralization. Both countries face similar design issues with their intergovernmental systems, such as the lack of clear expenditure assignments, high transfer dependency, low revenue autonomy, and soft budget constraints. As a result, in both countries there is a lack of aggregate fiscal discipline among sub-national governments, and the quality of sub-national government service delivery is poor. Poor service delivery and the lack of fiscal discipline threaten the ability of both countries to sustain high rates of economic growth.
    Keywords: China, India, Fiscal Decentralization, Economic Growth, Intergovernmental fiscal
    Date: 2005–10–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0519&r=ure
  23. By: Jane Waldfogel
    Abstract: It is widely agreed that the early years are a particularly important time for efforts to increase social mobility, because a good deal of inequality is already apparent by the time children start school, and because children's development may be less amenable to change after they enter school. But it is less clear how much policies can reduce inequality in the early years, or what policies might be most effective, given the multiple influences on development in the early years and given the complex effects of policies. In this paper, I review what we know from research about what affects development in the early years and examine the current UK policy framework in light of that research. I then make recommendations for priorities for next steps to improve social mobility and other desired outcomes in the early years and thereafter. We know a good deal from research about what quality means, and about what types of experiences are best for children. The research points to some clear next steps in early years policy. These include: extending paid parental leave to 12 months; offering a more flexible package of supports to families with children under the age of 2 or 3; providing high-quality centre-based care to 2 year olds, starting with the most disadvantaged; and providing a more integrated system of high-quality care and education for 3 to 5 year olds.
    Keywords: Social mobility, parental leave, child care, early years
    JEL: D1 J1 J2
    Date: 2004–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:088&r=ure
  24. By: Peter M Robinson
    Abstract: Smoothed nonparametric kernel spectral density estimates areconsidered for stationary data observed on a d-dimensional lattice.The implications for edge effect bias of the choice of kernel andbandwidth are considered. Under some circumstances the bias canbe dominated by the edge effect. We show that this problem can bemitigated by tapering. Some extensions and related issues arediscussed.MSC: 62M30, 62M15 C22
    Keywords: nonparametric spectrum estimation, edge effect, tapering.
    JEL: C22
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stiecm:\2006\498&r=ure
  25. By: Jeffrey R. Kling
    Abstract: This paper estimates effects of increases in incarceration length on employment and earnings prospects of individuals after their release from prison. I utilize a variety of research designs including controlling for observable factors and using instrumental variables for incarceration length based on randomly assigned judges with different sentencing propensities. The results show no consistent evidence of adverse labor market consequences of longer incarceration length using any of the analytical methods in either the state system in Florida or the federal system in California.
    JEL: J24 K42
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12003&r=ure
  26. By: Darcy Hango
    Abstract: Parental involvement in their children's lives can have a lasting impact on well-being. More involved parents convey to their children that they are interested in their development, and this in turn signals to the child that their future is valued. However, what happens in socio-economically disadvantaged homes? Can the social capital produced by greater parental involvement counteract some of the harmful effects of less financial capital? These questions are examined on the National Child Development Study; a longitudinal study of children born in Britain in 1958. Results on a sample of children raised in two parent families suggest that parental involvement does matter, but that it depends on when it and poverty are measured, as well as the type of involvement and the gender of the parent. Father interest in education has the strongest impact on earlier poverty, especially at age 11. Meanwhile, both father and mother interest in school at age 16 have the largest direct impact on education. The frequency of outings with mother at age 11 also has a larger direct impact on education than outings with father, however, neither compare with the reduction in the poverty effect as a result of father interest in school.
    Keywords: parental involvement, socioeconomic disadvantage, social capital, education, National Child Development Study
    JEL: I21 I32 J13 Z13
    Date: 2005–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:098&r=ure
  27. By: Uwe Blien; Helge Sanner
    Abstract: A casual look at regional unemployment rates reveals that there are vast differences, which cannot be explained by different institutional settings. Our paper attempts to trace these differences in the labor market performance back to the regions' specialization in products that are more or less advanced in their product cycle. The model we develop shows how individual profit and utility maximization endogenously yields higher employment levels in the beginning. In later phases, however, employment decreases in the presence of process innovation. Our model suggests that the only way to escape from this vicious circle is to specialize in products that are at the beginning of their "economic life". The model is based on an interaction of demand and supply side forces.
    Keywords: Structural change; Productivity growth; Labor market dynamics; Specialization of Regions
    JEL: O41 D91 J23 R23
    Date: 2006–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:vwldis:82&r=ure
  28. By: Késenne S.
    Abstract: In this paper, we try to show, using a simple numerical example of a fictive international sports event, that there is a fundamental difference between what is generally called an economic impact study of a sports event and a cost-benefit analysis. The difference is important because an economic impact study does not yield any argument for the government to subsidize the event. Only a cost-benefit analysis can provide the necessary information.
    Date: 2005–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2005018&r=ure

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