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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Jens Kolbe; Rainer Schulz; Martin Wersing; Axel Werwatz |
| Abstract: | The price for a single-family house depends both on the characteristics of the building and on its location. We propose a novel semiparametric method to extract location values from house prices. After splitting house prices into building and land components, location values are estimated with adaptive weight smoothing. The adaptive estimator requires neither strong smoothness assumptions nor local symmetry. We apply the method to house transactions from Berlin, Germany. The estimated surface of location values is highly correlated with expert-based land values and location ratings. The semiparametric method can therefore be used for applications where no other location value information exists or where this information is not reliable. |
| Keywords: | Location value, adaptive weight smoothing, spatial modeling |
| JEL: | R31 C14 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1216&r=ure |
| By: | William R. Kerr; Scott Duke Kominers |
| Abstract: | We model spatial clusters of similar firms. Our model highlights how agglomerative forces lead to localized, individual connections among firms, while interaction costs generate a defined distance over which attraction forces operate. Overlapping firm interactions yield agglomeration clusters that are much larger than the underlying agglomerative forces themselves. Empirically, we demonstrate that our model’s assumptions are present in the structure of technology and labor flows within Silicon Valley and its surrounding areas. Our model further identifies how the lengths over which agglomerative forces operate influence the shapes and sizes of industrial clusters; we confirm these predictions using variations across both technology clusters and industry agglomeration. |
| Keywords: | CES,economic,research,micro,data,microdata, agglomeration, clusters, industrial organization, Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship, labor markets, technology flows, patents, natural advantages |
| JEL: | J2 J6 L1 L2 L6 O3 R1 R3 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:12-09&r=ure |
| By: | Raffaele Paci; Emanuela Marrocu |
| Abstract: | Regional competitiveness, especially in the industrialised countries, is increasingly reliant on the availability of an adequate endowment of knowledge assets at the local level, like technological and human capital. These intangible factors enhance regional efficiency directly as inputs of the production function, but they also play a crucial role in allowing the territory to absorb the potential knowledge spillovers from the neighbouring regions. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of the internal and external factors in determining the productivity level for a large set of regions belonging to the EU27 plus Norway and Switzerland. We estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function over the period 2000-2008 where, in addition to the traditional inputs of physical capital and units of labour, we consider innovation activities and human capital endowments as relevant knowledge assets. We also control for other geographical and industrial features of the regions. In order to take into account the commonly found geographic association across regions, our analysis is carried out within the spatial panel econometric framework. Main results, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, show that knowledge assets exhibit positive and significant coefficients and the impact of human capital on GDP is higher than the one found for technological capital in most of the estimated empirical models. Moreover, we find evidence of spatial spillovers directly associated with the two immaterial assets, which turn out to be much more effective in the regions of the 12 new accession countries with respect to all other European regions. The significant presence of such spillovers emphasizes the important role played by highly educated labour forces in increasing the regions’ absorptive capacity of new external knowledge and in ensuring its effective use in the production process. |
| Keywords: | knowledge; innovation; human capital; production function; spatial spillovers; European regions |
| JEL: | C23 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201213&r=ure |
| By: | Donald R. Davis; Jonathan I. Dingel |
| Abstract: | Leading empiricists and theorists of cities have recently argued that the generation and exchange of ideas must play a more central role in the analysis of cities. This paper develops the first system of cities model with costly idea exchange as the agglomeration force. Our model replicates a broad set of established facts about the cross section of cities. It provides the first spatial equilibrium theory of why skill premia are higher in larger cities, how variation in these premia emerges from symmetric fundamentals, and why skilled workers have higher migration rates than unskilled workers when both are fully mobile. |
| JEL: | F1 F22 J24 J61 R1 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18188&r=ure |
| By: | Victor Aguirregabiria; Gustavo Vicentini |
| Abstract: | We propose a dynamic model of an oligopoly industry characterized by spatial competition between multi-store retailers. Firms compete in prices and decide where to open or close stores depending on demand conditions and the number of competitors at different locations, and on location-specific private-information shocks. We develop an algorithm to approximate a Markov Perfect Equilibrium in our model, and propose a procedure for the estimation of the parameters of the model using panel data on number of stores, prices, and quantities at multiple geographic locations within a city. We also present numerical examples to illustrate the model and algorithm. |
| Keywords: | Spatial competition; Store location; Industry dynamics; Sunk costs. |
| JEL: | C73 L13 L81 R10 R30 |
| Date: | 2012–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-457&r=ure |
| By: | Nirav Mehta (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | I develop a model of competition between charter schools and traditional public schools and estimate the model using administrative data from North Carolina. I use the model to quantify how existing charter schools have affected test scores for both charter and public school students and simulate charter school entry and student test scores were binding caps on charters lifted. I find that i) the mean effect of charter schools on attendant students (direct effect) is 25% of a standard deviation, ii) there is substantial heterogeneity in the mean direct effect by market, iii) the mean spillover effect on public school students is marginal, and iv) lifting caps on charter schools would more than double entry and cause increases in mean test scores similar to those under the capped scenario. |
| Keywords: | School Choice; Charter Schools; Education; Structural Estimation; General Equilibrium; Public Economics |
| JEL: | D58 I20 I28 H41 H72 L30 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20123&r=ure |
| By: | Gros, Daniel; Alcidi, Cinzia |
| Abstract: | Spain faces high unemployment and slow growth. This paper focuses on an important source of those problems, namely its housing market. While some adjustment has occurred since Spain's housing bubble burst in 2008, the authors find that house prices and construction need to decrease more to slow Spain's unsustainable accumulation of foreign debt. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:cepswp:6836&r=ure |
| By: | Traag Tanja; Lubbers Miranda Jessica; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate if peer relations affect a student’s risk of early schoolleaving.We use the sociometric data collection from the Dutch “Secondary EducationPupil Cohort 1999” to identify peer relations in a sample of almost 20,000 students inthe first grade of secondary education (mean age 13). This information is matched todata on educational attainment from 1999 to 2010 for these students, to measure laterearly school-leaving by both the focal students as well as their peers. Our results showthat both being friends with future early school-leavers as well as popularity amongfuture early school-leavers increases the risk of students to be early school-leaverslater in their educational career while other characteristics of the peer group such asgender composition, ethnic composition, average (non)cognitive skills and averagesocioeconomic background have no effects on the risk of early school-leaving. And whilecharacteristics like gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background play an importantrole in peer selection, the future dropout status does not have a major impact on peerselection. |
| Keywords: | labour market entry and occupational careers; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012006&r=ure |
| By: | Pim Heijnen (University of Groningen); Marco A. Haan (University of Groningen); Adriaan R. Soetevent (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We develop a method to screen for local cartels. We first test whether there is statistical evidence of clustering of outlets that score high on some characteristic that is consistent with collusive behavior. If so, we determine in a second step the most suspicious regions where further antitrust investigation would be warranted. We apply our method to build a variance screen for the Dutch gasoline market. |
| Keywords: | collusion; variance screen; spatial statistics; K-function |
| JEL: | C11 D40 L12 L41 |
| Date: | 2012–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120058&r=ure |
| By: | Evan Borkum; Fang He; Leigh L. Linden |
| Abstract: | We conduct a randomized evaluation of a school library program on children’s language skills. We find that the program had little impact on students’ scores on a language test administered 16 months after implementation. The estimates are sufficiently precise to rule out effects larger than 0.13 and 0.11 standard deviations based on the 95 and 90 percent confidence intervals. The finding of zero effects is robust to different modes of implementation, individual tested language competencies and various subsets of the student population. We also find no impact on test scores in other subjects or on school attendance rates. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18183&r=ure |
| By: | Otto, Alkis Henri; Steinhardt, Max Friedrich |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on the effect of immigration on election outcomes. Our analysis makes use of data on city districts in Hamburg, Germany, during a period of substantial inflows of immigrants and asylum seekers. We find significant and robust effects for changes in foreigner shares on the electoral success of parties that built up a distinctive reputation in immigration politics. In particular, our fixed-effects estimates indicate a positive effect for xenophobic, extreme right-wing parties and an adverse effect for the Green party that actively campaigned for liberal immigration policies and minority rights. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that changes in local compositional amenities shape individual attitudes towards immigration. -- |
| Keywords: | immigration,elections,xenophobia |
| JEL: | D72 J15 R23 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hsbawp:022012&r=ure |
| By: | Silke J. Forbes; Nora E. Gordon |
| Abstract: | We investigate decision-making and the potential for social learning among school administrators in the market for school reform consulting services. Specifically, we estimate whether public schools are more likely to choose given Comprehensive School Reform service providers if their “peer” schools—defined by common governance or geography—have performed unusually well with those providers in the past. We find strong evidence that schools tend to contract with providers used by other schools in their own districts in the past, regardless of past performance. In addition, our point estimates are consistent with school administrators using information from peers to choose the plans they perceive to have performed best in the past. Despite choosing a market with an unusually comprehensive data source on contracts between public schools and private firms, our statistical power is sufficiently weak that we cannot reject the absence of social learning. |
| JEL: | H52 I2 L14 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18185&r=ure |
| By: | Ghazala Azmat; José Garcia Montalvo |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of school choice, focusing on the role of information. We consider how parents' search efforts and their capacity to process information (i.e., to correctly assess schools) affect the quality of the schools they choose for their children. Using a novel dataset, we are able to identify parents' awareness of schools in their neighborhood and measure their capacity to rank the quality of the school with respect to the official rankings. We find that parents’ education and wealth are important factors in determining their level of school awareness and information gathering. Moreover, these search efforts have important consequences in terms of the quality of school choice. |
| Keywords: | school choice, education in developing country, information gathering, household behavior |
| JEL: | I21 O12 D1 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1324&r=ure |
| By: | Richard Harris; John Moffat |
| Abstract: | This paper decomposes aggregate TFP growth in Britain for 1997-2008 to show the contribution of different LEPs and the role played by manufacturing and services and UK- and foreign-owned plants within these LEPs. These contributions are further decomposed to show the role of productivity growth in continuing plants vis-à-vis reallocations in output shares. The results show that the largest LEPs, in population terms, with higher levels of job density, greater reliance on manufacturing and skilled worker occupations, higher proportions of workers with NVQ4+ qualifications, and lower turnover of businesses, achieved the highest TFP growth. This strong performance is mostly the result of reallocations of output shares towards high productivity continuing plants and the opening of high productivity plants. |
| Keywords: | Productivity decomposition, regional productivity growth |
| JEL: | C23 D24 R12 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0112&r=ure |
| By: | Sofia N. Andreou and Panos Pashardes |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the willingness of households to pay for level (mean score) and egalitarian (deprivation compensating) components of the Contextual Value Added (CVA) indicator of school quality, which is used in England. Semi-parametric and parametric analysis shows that consumers are willing to pay for houses in the catchment area of primary and secondary schools with high academic achievement as measures by mean score; whereas, the component of the CVA indicating egalitarian education attainment is found to have zero and negative valuation at primary and secondary education levels, respectively. The implications of our findings for recently proposed changes in school funding policy to combat education inequalities are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Consumer Valuation, Egalitarian Education, School Quality, Hedonic Analysis, Contextual Value Added |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:10-2012&r=ure |
| By: | Naomi Hausman |
| Abstract: | Universities, often situated at the center of innovative clusters, are believed to be important drivers of local economic growth. This paper identifies the extent to which U.S. universities stimulate nearby economic activity using the interaction of a national shock to the spread of innovation from universities - the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 - with pre-determined variation both within a university in academic strengths and across universities in federal research funding. Using longitudinal establishment-level data from the Census, I find that longrun employment and payroll per worker around universities rise particularly rapidly after Bayh-Dole in industries more closely related to local university innovative strengths. The impact of university innovation increases with geographic proximity to the university. Counties surrounding universities that received more pre-Bayh-Dole federal funding - particularly from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health - experienced faster employment growth after the law. Entering establishments - in particular multi-unit firm expansions - over the period from 1977 to 1997 were especially important in generating long-run employment growth, while incumbents experienced modest declines, consistent with creative destruction. Suggestive of their complementarities with universities, large establishments contributed more substantially to the total 20-year growth effect than did small establishments. |
| Keywords: | CES,economic,research,micro,data,microdata, clusters, innovation, local economic growth, universities |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:12-10&r=ure |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Tabuchi, Takatoshi |
| Abstract: | We consider information aggregation in national and local elections when voters are mobile and might sort themselves into local districts. Using a standard model of private information for voters in elections in combination with a New Economic Geography model, agglomeration occurs for economic reasons whereas voter stratification occurs due to political preferences. We compare a national election, where full information equivalence is attained, with local elections in a three-district model. We show that full information equivalence holds at a stable equilibrium in only one of the three districts when transportation cost is low. The important comparative static is that full information equivalence is a casualty of free trade. When trade is more costly, people tend to agglomerate for economic reasons, resulting in full information equivalence in the political sector. Under free trade, people sort themselves into districts, most of which are polarized, resulting in no full information equivalence in these districts. We examine the implications of the model using data on corruption in the legislature of the state of Alabama and in the Japanese Diet. |
| Keywords: | information aggregation in elections; informative voting; new economic geography; local politics |
| JEL: | D82 D72 R12 |
| Date: | 2012–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39596&r=ure |
| By: | Enghin Atalay |
| Abstract: | There is substantial within-industry variation, even within industries that use and produce homogeneous inputs and outputs, in the prices that plants pay for their material inputs. I explore, using plant-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the consequences and sources of this variation in materials prices. For a sample of industries with relatively homogeneous products, the standard deviation of plant-level productivities would be 7% lower if all plants faced the same materials prices. Moreover, plant-level materials prices are both persistent across time and predictive of exit. The contribution of net entry to aggregate productivity growth is smaller for productivity measures that strip out di¤erences in materials prices. After documenting these patterns, I discuss three potential sources of materials price variation: geography, di¤erences in suppliers. marginal costs, and suppliers. price discriminatory behavior. Together, these variables account for 13% of the dispersion of materials prices. Finally, I demonstrate that plants.marginal costs are correlated with the marginal costs of their intermediate input suppliers. |
| Keywords: | CES,economic,research,micro,data,microdata |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:12-11&r=ure |
| By: | Philippe Gagnepain (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Marc Ivaldi (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - Toulouse School of Economics); David Martimort (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | Economic theory claims that contracts renegotiation prevents from reaching the informationally constrained efficient solution that could have been obtained under full commitment. Assessing the cost of renegotiation compared to the full commitment scenario still remains an open issue from an empirical viewpoint. To address this question, we fit a structural principal-agent model with renegotiation on a set of contracts for urban transport services. The model captures two important features of the industry. First, only two types of contracts are used in practice (fixed-price and cost-plus). Second, subsidies are greater when a cost-plus contract was signed earlier on than following a fixed-price contract. We then compare a scenario with renegotiation and a hypothetical situation with full commitment. We conclude that the welfare gains from improving commitment would be significant but would accrue mostly to operators. |
| Date: | 2012–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00710639&r=ure |
| By: | Peter Simmons; Yuan Yuan Xie |
| Abstract: | Guangdong is one of the fastest growing Chinese provinces and has a high level of gross migration flows. Its intra-province migration is 2.7 times higher than its inter-province migration. We study migration between the 18 prefecture-level divisions of Guangdong during 1990-1999 using annual data. In our framework, migration decisions are based on differences in five characteristics between origin and destination: expected urban wage, marriage opportunities, urbanisation and (to reflect profitability of self employed migrants) population and capital stock. We formulate a panel regression equation allowing for both panel heteroscedasticity and inter-cities heterogeneity in the migration process. Remarkably we find that there is a high degree of homogeneity between cities, the only differences being in the impacts of capital stock and degree of urbanisation. Even here, nearly 70% of cities have identical effects. Despite the high level of net migration demonstrated to be largely caused by the above characteristics, intercity inequalities as measured by some of these forces has been growing over our time period. This suggests that a locational equilibrium has not yet been achieved. |
| Keywords: | Intra-provincial migration; intercity inequalities; multivariate choices; equilibrium. |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:12/16&r=ure |
| By: | Marcello Basili; Filippo Belloc; Simona Benedettini; Antonio Nicita |
| Abstract: | In many contexts, warning systems of law enforcement are used to let uninformed individuals learn what is illegal, while sanctions are applied only after a number of repeated violations. Surprisingly no em- pirical evidence is available so far, over the learning impact of warnings. This paper is a first attempt to empirically investigate the warning’s effect on individuals’ behavior employing a unique database on a traffic law enforcement system, which constitutes an extraordinary nat- ural laboratory to test whether experience warning induces learning. Specifically, we use six-year longitudinal data on about 50000 drivers under the Italian point-record system of traffic law. Our statistical re- sults show that warned drivers become more compliant. To the extent individuals learn through their repeated behavior, a warning system makes it possible to apply sanctions only to (presumably) informed violators. |
| Keywords: | warning, law enforcement, mixture models |
| JEL: | K42 C14 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:639&r=ure |
| By: | Bram Timmermans; Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of labour mobility on plant performance in Denmark. Our study shows that the effect of labour mobility can only be assessed when one accounts for the type of skills that flow into the plant, and the degree to which these match the existing skills at the plant level. As expected, we found that the inflow of skills that are related to skills in the plant impacts positively on plant productivity growth, while inflows of skills that are similar to the plant skills have a negative effect. We used a sophisticated indicator of revealed relatedness that measures the degree of skill relatedness between sectors on the basis of the intensity of labour flows between sectors. Intra-regional mobility of skilled labour had a negative effect on plant performance, but the impacts of intra- and inter-regional mobility depended on the type of skills that flow into the plant. |
| Keywords: | labour mobility, revealed relatedness, plant performance, geographical proximity, related labour flows, Denmark |
| JEL: | J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1213&r=ure |
| By: | Büchner Charlotte; Cörvers Frank; Traag Tanja; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes four different transmission mechanisms, through which father’searnings affect son’s earnings: the educational attainment, cognitive skills, the culturalcapital of the family and the social capital in the neighborhood. Using a unique dataset that combines panel data from a birth cohort with earnings data from a largenationwide income survey and national tax files, our findings show that cognitive skillsand schooling of the son account for 50% of the father-son earnings elasticity. Educationby far accounts for the largest part, while cognitive skills mainly work indirectly througheducational attainment. Social capital of the neighborhood and cultural capital of theparents account for an additional 6% of the intergeneration income persistence. Fromthese two additional mechanisms, social capital appears to play a stronger role than thecultural capital of the parents. This means that 44% of the intergenerational persistenceis due to other unobserved characteristics for example personality traits or spillovereffects of family assets. |
| Keywords: | labour economics ; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012007&r=ure |
| By: | Furtado, Delia (University of Connecticut); Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos (University of Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of ethnic networks in disability program take-up among working-age immigrants in the United States. We find that even when controlling for country of origin and area of residence fixed effects, immigrants residing amidst a large number of co-ethnics are more likely to receive disability payments when their ethnic groups have higher take-up rates. Although this pattern can be partially explained by cross-group differences in satisfying the work history or income and asset requirements of the disability programs, we also find that social norms and, to a lesser extent, information sharing play important roles. |
| Keywords: | social security disability insurance, supplementary security income, networks, immigrants |
| JEL: | C31 H55 I18 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6649&r=ure |