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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Florida, Richard (Martin Prosperity Institute); Mellander, Charlotta (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Stolarick, Kevin (Martin Prosperity Institute) |
| Abstract: | It is argued that the introduction of new technology is leading toward the decentralization of the production and consumption of creative products and industries. But creative industries and workers may benefit from being around large markets, access to shared labor, network interactions and economies of scale as well as scope. We hypothesize that the combined effects of scale and scope economies shape significant geographic concentration of the entertainment industry. We test for this using data for 297 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1970-2000 for the entertainment industry overall and its key sub-segments. The findings indicate show that the entertainment industry is concentrated in New York and Los Angeles which significantly outperform other large regions. We further note the rise of one or two highly specialized locations in individual segments of the entertainment industry such as Nashville in music or Las Vegas for dancers. We also find some dispersal of entertainment activity to smaller centers. We conclude that the entertainment industry is characterized by a biurificated spatial structure – with concentration driven by the conjoined effects of scale and scope economies growing at the very top (among the very largest city-regions) and dispersal growing at the bottom. |
| Keywords: | Entertainment; agglomeration; economies of scale; economies of scope |
| JEL: | R11 R12 Z11 |
| Date: | 2009–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0158&r=ure |
| By: | Enrico Moretti (University of California, Berkeley, USA and The Rimini Centre of Economic Analisys, Italy) |
| Abstract: | A large literature has documented a signi cant increase in the return to college over the past 30 years. This increase is typically measured using nominal wages. I show that from 1980 to 2000, college graduates have increasingly concentrated in metropolitan areas that are characterized by a high cost of housing. This implies that college graduates are increasingly exposed to a high cost of living and that the relative increase in their real wage may be smaller than the relative increase in their nominal wage. To measure the college premium in real terms, I de ate nominal wages using a new CPI that allows for changes in the cost of housing to vary across metropolitan areas and education groups. I nd that half of the documented increase in the return to college between 1980 and 2000 disappears when I use real wages. This nding does not appear to be driven by di erences in housing quality and is robust to a number of alternative speci cations. The implications of this nding for changes in well-being inequality depend on why college graduates sort into expensive cities. Using a simple general equilibrium model, I consider two alternative explanations. First, it is possible that the relative supply of college graduates increases in expensive cities because college graduates are increasingly attracted by amenities located in those cities. In this case, higher cost of housing re ects consumption of desirable local amenities, and there may still be a signi cant increase in well-being inequality even if the increase in real wage inequality is limited. Alternatively, it is possible that the relative demand of college graduates increases in expensive cities due to shifts in the relative productivity of skilled labor. In this case, the relative increase in skilled workers' standard of living is o set by higher cost of living. The empirical evidence indicates that relative demand shifts are more important than relative supply shifts, suggesting that the increase in well-being inequality between 1980 and 2000 is smaller than the increase in nominal wage inequality. I thank David Card, Tom Davido , Ed Glaeser, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Pat Kline, Douglas Krupka and David Levine for insightful conversations, and seminar participants at Berkeley Economics, Berkeley Haas, Collegio Carlo Alberto in Torino, IZA, San Francisco Federal Reserve and UC Merced for many useful comments. I thank Emek Basker for generously providing the Accra data on consumption prices. Issi Romen, Mariana Carrera, Justin Gallagher, Jonas Hjort, Max Kasy and Zach Liscow provided excellent research assistance. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:34-08&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Greenstone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER, USA); Richard Hornbeck (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA); Enrico Moretti (University of California and NBER, USA and The Rimini Centre of Economic Analisys, Italy) |
| Abstract: | We quantify agglomeration spillovers by estimating the impact of the opening of a large new manufacturing plant on the total factor productivity (TFP) of incumbent plants in the same county. Articles in the corporate real estate journal Site Selection reveal the county where the "Million Dollar Plant" ultimately chose to locate (the "winning county"), as well as the one or two runner-up counties (the "losing counties"). The incumbent plants in the losing counties are used as a counterfactual for the TFP of incumbent plants in winning counties in the absence of the plant opening. Incumbent plants in winning and losing counties have economically and statistically similar trends in TFP in the 7 years before the opening, which supports the validity of the identifying assumption. After the new plant opening, incumbent plants in winning counties experience a sharp relative increase in TFP. Five years after the opening, TFP of incumbent plants in winning counties is 12% higher than TFP of incumbent plants in losing counties. Consistent with some theories of agglomeration, this effect is larger for incumbent plants that share similar labor and technology pools with the new plant. We also find evidence of a relative increase in skill-adjusted labor costs in winning counties, indicating that the ultimate effect on profits is smaller than the direct increase in productivity. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:36-08&r=ure |
| By: | Frédéric Rychen (LEST - Laboratoire d'économie et de sociologie du travail - CNRS : UMR6123 - Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille I - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II, IDEP - Institut d'Économie Publique - GREQAM); Jean-Benoît Zimmermann (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales - CNRS : UMR6579) |
| Abstract: | During the recent years, clusters have been at the heart of a vast literature supposed to bring new arguments and perspectives to local development preoccupations. Two complementary factors are stressing for firms and territories the importance of governing the interactions of industrial actors: the globalisation of the economy and the technology and the emergence of a knowledge based economy. In local systems, agents are mostly connected with agents situated in their spatial proximity, while these local networks, as open systems, benefit from the long distance connections that some of their members are able to activate. Co-location of actors in a geographical proximity by itself is not a sufficient condition for co-ordination but can contribute to its efficiency, provided the existence of other shared dimensions among agents: organic level, representations, projects, ... As far as efficiency and performances of "classical" clusters are not only the result of the intensity and quality of internal but also external interactions and coordination, into which extent can we still consider the relevance of interaction structures restricted to bounded geographical areas? In this paper we turn our attention to the way industrial actors take into account the question of the local-global articulation for the strategic building of their own ego-network, that is the set of links they may build in order to achieve efficient interactions with partners and competitors. Thus interfaces between local and global relationships are a key feature that can be achieved through different approaches. To this aim we introduce the two concepts of knowledge gatekeeper and temporary proximity that appear as providing alternative approaches of actors partnering, likely to provide a better flexibility in the local-global trade-off. We will then present the basic form of the ego-networks on which the individual firm is able to build her relational neighbourhood. This raises the question of the combination of individual ego-networks into a consistent networked structure into which local networks are articulated by the way of local-global interfaces. On this basis we present a typology of the basic new forms of clustering where time and space can be alternatively and complementarily combined in order to achieve more flexibility and costs reduction of the localisation game. |
| Keywords: | Industry ; territory ; globalisation ; knowledge based economy ; local-global ; knowledge gatekeeper ; temporary proximity ; clusters ; network ; structure |
| Date: | 2009–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00353425_v1&r=ure |
| By: | Hendricks, Lutz; Schoellman, Todd |
| Abstract: | Since 1950, U.S. educational attainment has increased substantially. While the median student in 1950 dropped out of high school, the median student today attends some college. In an environment with ability heterogeneity and positive sorting between ability and school tenure, the expansion of education implies a decrease in the average ability of students conditional on school attainment. Using a calibrated model of school choice under ability heterogeneity, we investigate the quantitative impact of rising attainment on ability and measured wages. Our findings suggest that the decline in average ability depressed wages conditional on schooling by 31-58 percentage points. We also find that the entire rise in the college wage premium since 1950 can be attributed to the rising mean ability of college graduates relative to high school graduates. |
| Keywords: | Education; ability; skill premium |
| JEL: | I2 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12798&r=ure |
| By: | Björn Frank (University Kassel, Nora-Platiel-Str. 4, 34109 Kassel, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The notion of face-to-face contacts has recently become very popular in regional economics and in economic geography. This is the most obvious way to explain why firms still locate in proximity to others after the "death of distance", i.e., the shrinking costs for transportation, especially transportation of messages' pure information content. While this is intuitive, controlled laboratory experiments provide much more direct and reliable evidence on the importance of face-to-face contacts. They tackle the question what personal contacts are good for, and in which cases their effects are negligible. To the best of my knowledge, regional economists and geographers are not aware of this new and developing string of literature; it is the purpose of this paper to survey and to organize the relevant experimental research with a special focus on its importance for regional economics. However, the paper might also serve to alert more experimentalists to the importance of their work for current regional science, of which they seem not to be aware either. |
| Keywords: | Cooperation, death of distance, face-to-face, localized spillovers, trust |
| JEL: | C90 D83 R19 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:200904&r=ure |
| By: | Antonio Merlo (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania); Kenneth I. Wolpin (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the relationship among schooling, youth employment and youth crime. The framework, a multinomial discrete choice vector autoregression, provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic interactions among a youth’s schooling, work and crime decisions and arrest and incarceration outcomes. We allow for observable initial conditions, unobserved heterogeneity, measurement error and missing data. We use data from the NLSY97 on black male youths starting from age 14. The estimates indicate important roles both for heterogeneity in initial conditions and for stochastic events that arise during one’s youth in determining outcomes as young adults. |
| Keywords: | crime, schooling, work, VAR |
| JEL: | K42 J24 J15 |
| Date: | 2008–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:09-002&r=ure |
| By: | Niels Bosma (Urban and Regional research Centre Utrecht (URU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands); Erik Stam (Tjalling Koopmans Institute, Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Centre for Technology Management, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), The Hague, The Netherlands; Max Planck Institute of Economics - Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy group, Jena, Germany); Veronique Schutjens (Urban and Regional research Centre Utrecht (URU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Do firm entry and exit improve the competitiveness of regions? If so, is this a universal mechanism or is it contingent on the type of industry or region in which creative destruction takes place? This paper analyses the effect of firm entry and exit on the competitiveness of regions, measured by total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Based on a study across 40 regions in the Netherlands over the period 1988-2002, we find that firm entry is related to productivity growth in services, but not in manufacturing. The positive impact found in services does not necessarily imply that new firms are more efficient than incumbent firms; high degrees of creative destruction may also improve the efficiency of incumbent firms. We also find that the impact of firm dynamics on regional productivity in services is higher in regions exhibiting diverse but related economic activities. |
| Keywords: | firm entry, firm exit, turbulence, regional competitiveness, total factor productivity |
| JEL: | L10 M13 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-003&r=ure |
| By: | Ramprasad Sengupta |
| Abstract: | An analysis of the economic implication of judicial activism of the apex court of India in the regulation of automotive air pollution is analysed. It estimates the health damage cost of urban air pollution for 35 major urban agglomerations of India arising from automotive emissions and the savings that can be achieved by the regulation of fuel quality so as to conform to the Euro norms. It has used the results of some US based study and has applied the transfer of benefit method from the US to the Indian situation for the purpose. The paper finally makes a benefit cost analysis of refinery upgradation for such improvement of fuel quality. |
| Keywords: | fuel quality, health, urban pollution, air, cost benefit analysis, US, Indian, ecoomic implication, automotive, Euro, , |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1841&r=ure |
| By: | Wolfgang Polasek (IHS, Austria and The Rimini Centre of Economic Analisys, Italy); Richard Sellner (IHS, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Completing data that are collected in disaggregated and heterogeneous spatial units is a quite frequent problem in spatial analyses of regional data. Chow and Lin (1971) (CL) were the rst to develop a uni ed framework for the three problems (interpolation, extrapolation and distribution) of predicting disaggregated times series by so-called indicator series. This paper develops a spatial CL procedure for disaggregating cross-sectional spatial data and compares the Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian spatial CL forecasts with the naive pro rata error distribution. We outline the error covariance structure in a spatial context, derive the BLUE for the ML estimator and the Bayesian estimation procedure by MCMC. Finally we apply the procedure to European regional GDP data and discuss the disaggregation assumptions. For the evaluation of the spatial Chow-Lin procedure we assume that only NUTS 1 GDP is known and predict it at NUTS 2 by using employment and spatial information available at NUTS 2. The spatial neighborhood is de ned by the inverse travel time by car in minutes. Finally, we present the forecast accuracy criteria comparing the predicted values with the actual observations. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:38-08&r=ure |
| By: | Hanes, Niklas (Department of Economics, Umeå University); Wikström, Magnus (Department of Economics, Umeå University); Wångmar, Erik (Department of Social Science, Växjö University) |
| Abstract: | This paper concerns municipal preferences for state imposed municipal amalgamations. The main purpose of the paper is to study what factors that can explain municipal acceptance or objection of a state imposed amalgamation decision. The empirical analysis is based on the extensive municipal reform in Sweden in 1952. As much as 66 percent of the newly formed municipalities had at least one municipality that objected to the new organisation. The results indicate that the size of the municipality is of importance; small and large municipalities are most likely to accept the amalgamation decision. Furthermore, the relative municipal size affects the probability of accepting the amalgamation decision and equally sized municipalities are less likely to amalgamate on a voluntary basis. We also find that interjurisdictional co-operation prior to the reform has a positive effect on the municipal decision to accept the new municipal structure. |
| Keywords: | Local government structure; municipal amalgamations; heterogeneous preferences |
| JEL: | H11 H40 H73 H77 R50 |
| Date: | 2009–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0763&r=ure |
| By: | Dreger, Christian (DIW Berlin); Erber, Georg (DIW Berlin); Glocker, Daniela (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | The accumulation of the human capital stock plays a key role to explain the macroeconomic performance across regions. However, despite the strong theoretical support for this claim, empirical evidence has been not very convincing, probably because of the low quality of the data. This paper provides a robustness analysis of alternative measures of human capital available at the level of EU NUTS1 and NUTS2 regions. In addition to the univariate measures, composite indicators based on different construction principles are proposed. The analysis shows a significant impact of construction techniques on the quality of indicators. While composite indicators and labour income measures point to the same direction of impact, their correlation is not overwhelmingly high. Moreover, popular indicators should be applied with caution. Although schooling and human resources in science and technology explain some part of the regional human capital stock, they cannot explain the bulk of the experience. |
| Keywords: | human capital indicators, regional growth |
| JEL: | I20 O30 O40 O52 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3919&r=ure |
| By: | Salazar, César A.; Jaime, Mónica M. |
| Abstract: | In defining the guidelines of central governments, regional and local, the participation of civil society has been incorporated as a guiding principle in the construction of development strategies. This initiative involves promoting the participation of people and strengthening civil organizations. To face this challenge it should study the process of formation of civil organizations. The objective of this work is to study the problem of participation from a microeconomic perspective, using the approach of social capital to determine the factors influencing the decision to participate. In order to achieve this objective information of CASEN 2003 was used to estimate a Probit Model. The results show lower levels of participation to the extent that the opportunity costs grow with individual incomes higher, more children at home and higher levels of unemployment. Participation is higher in the older population and level of education, which is related to increased capacity of expression and negotiation. Finally higher levels of participation are observed in the population belongs to some native people, married people, households who have own house and living in rural areas, which is associated with the possibility that social networks are specific communities. |
| Keywords: | Social capital; Participation; Civil Society Organizations. |
| JEL: | Z13 D01 D1 |
| Date: | 2009–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12795&r=ure |
| By: | Andreas V. Stokke, Gerard L. Doorman, Torgeir Ericson (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the demand response from residential electricity consumers to a demand charge grid tariff. The tariff charges the maximum hourly peak consumption in each of the winter months January, February and December, thus giving incentives to reduce peak consumption. We use hourly electricity consumption data from 443 households, as well as data on their network and power prices, the local temperature, wind speed and hours of daylight. The panel data set is analysed with a fixed effects regression model. The estimates indicate a demand reduction between 0.07 and 0.27 kWh/h in response to the tariff. This is on average a 5 percent reduction, with a maximum reduction of 9 percent in hour 8. The consumers did not receive any information on their continuous consumption or any reminders when the tariff was in effect. It is likely that the consumption reductions would have been even higher with more information to the consumers. |
| Keywords: | Electricity consumption; demand charge tariff; demand response |
| JEL: | D10 Q40 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:574&r=ure |
| By: | Sonali Das (CSIR, Pretoria); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Alain Kabundi (Department of Economics and Econometrics, University of Johannesburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes whether a wealth of information contained in 126 monthly series used by large-scale Bayesian Vector Autoregressive (LBVAR) models, as well as Factor Augmented Vector Autoregressive (FAVAR) models, either Bayesian or classical, can prove to be more useful in forecasting real house price growth rate of the nine census divisions of the US, compared to the small-scale VAR models, that merely use the house prices. Using the period of 1991:02 to 2000:12 as the in-sample period and 2001:01 to 2005:06 as the out-of-sample horizon, we compare the forecast performance of the alternative models for one- to twelve–months ahead forecasts. Based on the average Root Mean Squared Error (RMSEs) for one- to twelve–months ahead forecasts, we find that the alternative FAVAR models outperform the other models in eight of the nine census divisions. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic Factor Model, BVAR, Forecast Accuracy |
| JEL: | C11 C13 C33 C53 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:200902&r=ure |
| By: | Li Shi; Ding Sai |
| Abstract: | Based on the urban survey data of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in 2006, this paper studies the impact of ethnic characteristics on the income determination mechanism in the same economic region. Using the decomposition methods of Blinder and Oaxaca, Fields, and Morduch and Sicular, we analyze income gap between employed Hui and Han as well as income inequality within the two ethnic groups. The main conclusions are, first, that there is almost no income gap between Han and Hui in Ningxia. But different ethnic characteristics have effects on the income determination mechanism. Ethnic factors such as religion and social capital have no obvious effect on the income determination. |
| Keywords: | Minority, Majority, Income Inequality |
| JEL: | D33 J15 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd08-022&r=ure |
| By: | Hiroshi Sato |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the economic and noneconomic determinants of growth disparity among Chinese villages between 1990 and 2002. By estimating a growth equation, first, we confirm a significant positive effect of the initial level of human capital, as well as the initial condition of physical infrastructure. Second, social capital measured by the degree of stable social relations at the village level is also a significant growth-promoting factor. The policy implications of our findings are that public policy promoting social stability in rural areas should be strengthened, as well as increasing financial support for rural education and infrastructure construction, especially in lower income regions. |
| Keywords: | regional disparity, growth regression, social capital, rural China |
| JEL: | D31 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd08-023&r=ure |
| By: | Shiqing Jiang; Ming Lu; Hiroshi Sato |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of income inequality on the subjective well-being of different social groups in urban China. We classify urban social groups according to their hukou status: rural migrants, gbornh urban residents, and gacquiredh urban residents who once changed their hukou identity from rural to urban. We focus on how the horizontal inequality-income disparity between migrants and urban residents-affects individual happiness. The main results are as follows. First, migrants suffer from unhappiness when the horizontal inequality increases, but urban residents show a much smaller aversion to the horizontal inequality. Second, migrants will not be happier if their relative incomes within their migrant group increase, while urban residents do become happier when their incomes increase within their groupfs income distribution. Third, gacquiredh urban residents have traits of both migrants and gbornh urban residents. They have an aversion to the horizontal inequality like migrants, and they also favor higher relative income among urban residents. Fourth, gbornh urban residents have lower happiness scores when they are old. People who are Communist Party members strongly dislike the horizontal inequality. Our findings suggest that migrants, gacquiredh urban residents, elderly people and Party members from gbornh urban residents are the potential proponents of social integration policies in urban China. |
| Keywords: | Horizontal inequality, Happiness, Hukou identity, Migration, Social integration |
| JEL: | I31 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd08-020&r=ure |
| By: | Céline Gisèle Jung (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.) |
| Abstract: | Industrial waste is usually sorted in order to valorise most of minerals, polymers and metals. This sorting does generate a sorting residue with a rather high calorific value. The present study shows the opportunities of producing gaseous or liquid substitution fuels by pyrolysis or gasification of industrial sorting residues. By the use of the predictive model, it is possible to evaluate, for various inputs (tyres, fluffs, mixed plastics and biomass residues), the mass en energy balance for each of these thermal treatments. Opportunities to produce substitution fuels issued from these waste streams are evaluated. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-001&r=ure |
| By: | Sen Gupta , Rajorshi; Vadali , Sharada R |
| Abstract: | Optimism bias is a consistent feature associated with truck toll forecasts, à la Standard & Poor’s and the NCHRP synthesis reports. Given the persistent problem, two major sources of this bias are explored. In particular, the ignorance of operating cost as a demand-side factor and lack of attention to user heterogeneity are found to contribute to this bias. To address it, stochastic dominance analysis is used to assess the risk associated with toll revenue forecasts. For a hypothetical corridor, it is shown that ignorance of operating cost savings can lead to upward bias in the threshold value of time distribution. Furthermore, dominance analysis demonstrates that there is greater risk associated with the revenue forecast when demand heterogeneity is factored in. The approach presented can be generally applied to all toll forecasts and is not restricted to trucks. |
| Keywords: | Forecast Bias; Operating costs; Risk assessment; Savings; Stochastic Dominance; Tolls;Trucks |
| JEL: | D81 C15 R41 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12891&r=ure |
| By: | Donath , Liliana; Milos, Marius |
| Abstract: | The budgetary constraints governments have to deal with on a daily bases require a new approach in public spending as well as the revision of public goods definition. Consequently the key words are efficiency and effectiveness, in order to comply with the new management approach requirements. Assessing the efficiency and performance of public expenses is a key item for analyzing the quality of public expenses because it connects the entries as public resources and their yield (efficiency) or the entries to the results obtained (performance) |
| Keywords: | public spending; performance; efficiency; effectiveness |
| JEL: | H50 |
| Date: | 2008–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12927&r=ure |
| By: | Dalen Dag Morten; Furu Kari; Locatelli Marilena (University of Turin); Strom Steinar |
| Abstract: | The importance of prices, doctor and patient characteristics, and market institutions for the likelihood of choosing generic drugs instead of the more expensive original brand-name version were examined. Using an extensive dataset extracted from The Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD) containing all prescriptions dispensed to individuals in February 2004 and 2006 on 23 different drugs (chemical substances) in Norway, we find strong evidence for the importance of both doctor and patient characteristics for the choice robabilities. The price difference between brand and generic versions and insurance coverage both affect generic substitution. Moreover, controlling for the retail chain affiliation of the dispensing pharmacy, we find that pharmacies play an important role in promoting generic substitution. In markets with more recent entry of generic drugs, the brand-name loyalty proves to be much stronger, giving less explanatory power to our demand model. |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200901&r=ure |
| By: | Stephen Taylor (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Derek Yu (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | The needs to find ways of lifting people out of poverty and to transform the existing patterns of inequality in South Africa are high on the country’s development agenda. Much hope is often vested in education as an opportunity for children from poor households to overcome the disadvantage of their background and escape poverty. The logic of this is often conceived of in terms of the human capital model, according to which education improves an individual’s productivity, which in turn is rewarded on the labour market by higher earnings. However, there is a circularity in the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and education, in that it is well known that a student’s SES has an important influence their educational achievement. Drawing on data from the recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006), this paper investigates the extent to which SES affects educational achievement in the case of South Africa, and moves on to consider the implications of this for the ability of the education system to be an institution that transforms existing patterns of inequality rather than reproducing such patterns. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, socio-economic status, education, educational achievement, educational inequality, economic development |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I30 O15 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers73&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Rusinek (DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); François Rycx (Centre Emile Bernheim, DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and IZA-Bonn.) |
| Abstract: | In many European countries, the majority of workers have their wages directly defined by industry-level agreements. In addition, for some workers, industry agreements are complemented by firm-specific agreements. Yet, the relative importance of firm and industry agreements (in other words, the degree of centralization) differs drastically across industries. The authors of this paper use unique linked employer-employee data from a 2003 survey in Belgium to examine how these bargaining features affect the extent of rent-sharing. Their results show that there is substantially more rent-sharing in decentralized than in centralized industries, even when controlling for the endogeneity of profits, for heterogeneity among workers and firms and for differences in characteristics between bargaining regimes. Moreover, in centralized industries, rent-sharing is found only for workers that are covered by a firm agreement. Finally, results indicate that within decentralized industries, both firm and industry bargaining generate rent-sharing to the same extent. |
| Keywords: | Rent-sharing, collective bargaining, propensity score matching. |
| JEL: | J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-004&r=ure |
| By: | Bredemeier, Christian (University of Dortmund); Juessen, Falko (University of Dortmund) |
| Abstract: | We propose a new explanation for differences and changes in labor supply by gender and marital status, and in particular for the increase in married women's labor supply over time. We argue that this increase as well as the relative constancy of other groups' hours are optimal reactions to outsourcing labor in home production becoming more attractive to households over time. To investigate this hypothesis, we incorporate heterogeneous agents into a household model of labor supply and allow agents to trade home labor. This model can generate the observed patterns in US labor supply by gender and marital status as a reaction to declining frictions on the market for home services. We provide an accounting exercise to highlight the role of alternative explanations for the rise in hours in a model where home labor is tradable. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, gender, home production, heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J22 J16 E13 D13 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3944&r=ure |