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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | David M. Brasington; Donald R. Haurin |
| Abstract: | Communities differ in both the bundle of amenities offered to residents and the implicit price of these amenities. Thus, households are faced with a choice of which bundle to select when they select their residence. This choice implies households make tradeoffs among the amenities; that is, the amenities are substitutes or complements. We focus on estimating the demand for one of the most important amenities -- public school quality. We use transaction prices from the housing market and the hedonic house price model to generate the implicit prices of community amenities. The median voter model is used to estimate the income and price elasticities of demand for educational quality. We find that the own price elasticity of demand for schooling is about -0.5 and the income elasticity of demand is about 0.5. New findings include estimates of a set of cross-price elasticities of demand for school quality. We find that a community’s income level, percentage white households, and level of public safety are substitutes for school quality. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2006-07&r=ure |
| By: | Raffaele Paci; Stefano Usai |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to assess the role of a large set of factors which potentially relate agglomeration economies to local growth. Such a relationship is analysed thanks to an ample database on the case of Italy which refers to 784 Local Labour Systems and 34 sectors (21 manufacturing and 13 services) over the period 1991-2001. Econometric results show that local growth in Italy is characterized by significant differences across sectors. It is worth mentioning the positive influence of diversity externalities, human and social capital and the negative influence of specialisation externalities and competition. Spatial association is also detected. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration externalities, Local growth, Spatial dependence, Italy. |
| JEL: | R11 R12 L60 O52 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200612&r=ure |
| By: | Konstantinos Tatsiramos (IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the determinants of residential mobility of older households (above 50 years old) and the adjustment of housing for those who move employing individual data from the European Community Household Panel. Although homeowners are less likely to move compared to renters, an increase in mobility rates is observed for older age homeowners. Moreover, having an outstanding home loan, retirement, the death of a spouse, and excessive housing costs, are significantly associated with a move in central and northern European countries, but not in the south. Analyzing the transitions from the current tenure choice after a move takes place, based on a competing risk hazard model, an increasing transition out of the current residence for old-age homeowners is found, indicating some dissaving later in life. The direction of the transitions is mostly from ownership to renting. However, especially in countries in central and northern Europe, transitions from ownership to ownership are also observed, which are associated with a reduction in the home size. |
| Keywords: | residential mobility, ageing, housing tenure choice, competing risk hazard |
| JEL: | J14 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2435&r=ure |
| By: | Rainald Borck (University of Munich and DIW Berlin); Marco Caliendo (DIW Berlin, IAB Nuremberg and IZA Bonn); Viktor Steiner (Free University of Berlin, DIW Berlin and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we consider fiscal competition between jurisdictions. Capital taxes are used to finance a public input and two public goods, one which benefits mobile skilled workers and one which benefits immobile unskilled workers. We derive the jurisdictions’ reaction functions for different spending categories. We then estimate these reaction functions using data from German communities. Thereby we explicitly allow for a spatially lagged dependent variable and a possible spatial error dependence by applying a generalized spatial two-stage least squares (GS2SLS) procedure. The results show that there is significant interaction between spending of neighbouring counties in Germany. |
| Keywords: | tax competition, capital skill complementarity, public spending, spatial econometrics |
| JEL: | H77 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2428&r=ure |
| By: | Fredriksson, Peter (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Öckert, Björn (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | In Sweden, children typically start compulsary school the year they turn seven. Individuals born just before or just after the new year, have about the same date of birth but start school att different ages. We exploit this source of exogenous variation, to identify the effects of age at school entry on school and labor market outcomes. Using data for the entire Swedish population born 1935-84, we find that children who start school at an older age do better in school and go on to have more education than their younger peers. The longrun earnings effects are positive but small. However, since starting school later entails the opportunity cost of entering the labor market later, the net earnings effect over the entire life-cycle is negative. Exploiting within-school variation in peer age composition, we find that the school starting age effect primarily is due to absolute maturity rather than to the relative age in the class. |
| Keywords: | School starting age; school performance; labor market outcomes; regression-discontinuity design |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2006_012&r=ure |
| By: | Edwin Leuven (University of Amsterdam, SCHOLAR, Tinbergen Institute and IZA Bonn); Mikael Lindahl (SOFI, Stockholm University and IZA Bonn); Hessel Oosterbeek (University of Amsterdam, SCHOLAR and Tinbergen Institute); Dinand Webbink (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) |
| Abstract: | This study presents quasi-experimental estimates of the effect of expanding early schooling enrollment possibilities on early achievement. It exploits two features of the school system in Holland. The first is rolling admissions; children are allowed start school immediately after their 4th birthday instead of at the beginning of the school year. The second is that children having their birthday before, during and after the summer holiday are placed in the same class. These features generate sufficient exogenous variation in children’s maximum length of schooling to identify its effects on test scores. Making available one additional month of time in school increases language scores of disadvantaged pupils by 0.06 of a standard deviation and their math scores by 0.05 of a standard deviation. For non-disadvantaged pupils we find no effect. |
| Keywords: | early childhood intervention, early test scores, early schooling, achievement, policy, identification |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2434&r=ure |
| By: | Lars-Erik Borge (Department of Economics and Centre for Economic Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | Compared with most countries the Norwegian system of financing local governments is highly centralized. Grants make up a substantial part of revenues and local taxes are highly regulated by the center. The development of the system was motivated by a desire to equalize service provision throughout the country. The purpose of this paper is to analyze possible consequences of more decentralized financing with local tax discretion. Contrary to the conventional wisdom the analysis indicates that decentralized financing is likely to give more equal provision of local public services. In addition, substantial efficiency gains can be obtained. |
| Keywords: | Centralized financing; Decentralized financing; Tax discretion; Efficiency gains; Equalization |
| JEL: | D61 H71 H72 |
| Date: | 2006–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:7806&r=ure |
| By: | Lubo Schmidt; Aleš ?Cerný and David Miles |
| Abstract: | Using a calibrated OLG model with several sources of uncertainty we find that the impact of ageing and of reform of social security upon the demand for housing and the level of owner occupation is substantial. The overall structure of household asset holdings - in particular the split between real and financial assets - is sensitive to demographics and to the generosity of state run, pay-as-you go pensions. The interaction between social security reform and housing market conditions is significant and suggests that any changes in pension rules will have substantial knock on effects on the housing market. |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:267&r=ure |
| By: | Jiri Slacalek |
| Abstract: | I construct a new dataset with financial and housing wealth in 16 countries and investigate the effect of wealth on consumption. The baseline estimation method based on the sluggishness of consumption growth implies that the long-run marginal propensity to consume out of total wealth averaged across countries is 5 cents. I find substantial heterogeneity in the wealth effects: the individual country estimates typically lie between 0 and 10 cents. The wealth effects are more powerful in market-based, Anglo-Saxon and non euro area economies. The effect of housing wealth is somewhat smaller than that of financial wealth for most countries, but not the US and the UK. The housing wealth effect has risen substantially after 1988 as it has become easier to borrow against housing wealth. |
| Keywords: | Housing prices, wealth effect, consumption dynamics, portfolio choice |
| JEL: | E21 E32 C22 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp647&r=ure |
| By: | Daniele Checchi (University of Milan); Giorgio Brunello |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether at the interaction between family background and school tracking affects human capital accumulation. Our a priori view is that more tracking should reinforce the role of parental privilege, and thereby reduce equality of opportunity. Compared to the current literature, which focuses on early outcomes, such as test scores at 13 and 15, we look at later outcomes, including literacy, dropout rates, college enrolment, employability and earnings. While we do not confirm previous results that tracking reinforces family background effects on literacy, we do confirm our view when looking at educational attainment and labour market outcomes. When looking at early wages, we find that parental background effects are stronger when tracking starts earlier. We reconcile the apparently contrasting results on literacy, educational attainment and earnings by arguing that the signalling role of formal education - captured by attainment - matters more than actual skills - measured by literacy - in the early stages of labour market experience. |
| Keywords: | education, training, literacy, |
| Date: | 2006–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bep:unimip:1044&r=ure |
| By: | Pekkarinen, Tuomas (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Pekkala, Sari (Charles River Associates International); Uusitalo, Roope (Helsinki School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect of a major education reform on the intergenerational income mobility in Finland. The Finnish comprehensive school reform of 1972-1977 replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the intergenerational income elasticity using a representative sample of males born during 1960-1966. The identification strategy relies on a difference-in-differences approach and exploits the fact that the reform was implemented gradually across country during a six-year period. The results indicate that the reform reduced the intergenerational income elasticity by about seven percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility; education; comprehensive school reform |
| JEL: | I20 J62 |
| Date: | 2006–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2006_013&r=ure |
| By: | Randall Akee (IZA Bonn and Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | The Coase theorem emphasizes the role transactions costs play in efficient market outcomes. We document inefficient outcomes, in the presence of a transactions cost, in southern California land markets and the corresponding transition to efficient outcomes after the transactions cost is eliminated. In the late 1800s, Palm Springs, CA was evenly divided, in a checkerboard fashion, and property rights assigned in alternating blocks to the Agua Caliente tribe and a non-Indian landowner by the US Federal government. Sales and leasing restrictions on the Agua Caliente land created a large transactions cost to development on those lands; consequently, we observe very little housing investment. Non-Indian lands provide a benchmark for efficient outcomes for the Agua Caliente lands. Once the transactions cost for Agua Caliente lands was removed, there is a convergence between American Indian-owned and non Indian-owned lands in both the number of homes constructed and the value of those homes. |
| Keywords: | land markets, coase theorem, economic development |
| JEL: | R14 O12 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2438&r=ure |
| By: | Monique de Haan (SCHOLAR, University of Amsterdam); Erik Plug (SCHOLAR, University of Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the impact of parental schooling on child schooling, focus on the problem that children who are still in school constitute censored observations, and evaluate three solutions to it: maximum likelihood approach, replacement of observed with expected years of schooling, and elimination of all school-aged children. Plug (2004) - a recent mobility study that relies on censored data - serves as an illustration. With updated and uncensored versions of previous samples, we re-examine Plug’s estimates and test how the three correction methods deal with censored observations. The one that treats parental expectations as if they were realizations seems to fix the censoring problem quite well. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility of education, censored observations |
| JEL: | I2 J62 C34 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2416&r=ure |
| By: | Eric Maurin (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - [CNRS : UMR8545] - [Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales][Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées][Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris]); Julie Moschion (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]) |
| Abstract: | In France as in the US, the participation of a mother in the labour market is influenced by the sex of her oldest siblings. Same-sex mothers tend to have more children and to work significantly less than the other mothers. In contast, the sex of the oldest siblings does not have any perceptible influence on neighbourhood choices. There is no correlation between the sex of the siblings of a mother and the sex of the siblings of the other mothers living in the same close neighbourhood. Given these facts, the distribution of the sex of the siblings of the other mothers provides us with a plausible instrumental variable to identify the influence of other mothers' participation on a mother's participation in the labour market. Reduced-form analysis reveals that a mother's participation in the labour market is significantly affected by the sex of the oldest siblings of the other mothers living in the same neighbourhood. IV estimates suggest a strong impact of close neighbours' participation in the labour market on individual participation. We compare this result to estimates produced using the distribution of children's quarters of birth to generate instruments. Mothers whose children were born at the end of the year cannot send their children to pre-elementary school as early as the other mothers and participate less in the labour market. Interestingly enough, estimates using the distribution of quarters of birth in the neighbourhood as instruments are as strong as estimates using the sex-mix instruments. |
| Keywords: | Female participation in the labour market, neighbourhood effects, social multiplier. |
| Date: | 2006–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00117042_v1&r=ure |