|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. (University of Melbourne); Jha, Nikhil (University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | The school resources – educational outcomes debate has focused almost exclusively on spending levels. We extend this by analysing the relationship between student achievement and schools' budget allocation decisions using panel data. Per-pupil expenditure has only a modest relationship with improvement in students' standardised test scores. However, budget allocation across spending categories matters for student achievement, particularly in grade 7. Ancillary teaching staff seems especially important in primary- and middle-school years. Spending on school leadership – primarily principals – is also linked to faster growth in literacy levels in these grades. On the whole, schools' spending patterns are broadly efficient. |
| Keywords: | educational achievement, test scores, school resource allocation |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7551&r=ure |
| By: | Thêmis Aragão (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg); Wolfgang Maennig (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | These events promise to improve the urban quality of life and to induce social legacy because of investments in urban infrastructure, transportation, and sporting facilities. Our analysis of the case of Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro (host of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games) shows that such benefits may differ locally and may accentuate the process of socio-spatial segregation. Urban projects often include forced evictions of low-income populations and the consequent expansion of social segregation. In public opinion, mega events are also responsible for increasing rents and (real estate) prices. However, such inflationary phenomenon occurs in most Brazilian cities, including non-host cities. The appreciation of real estate is explained largely by population and economic growth and the reduction of interest rates through mortgage programs, as well as reduced social inequality. Public investments in mega events account for only approximately 0.15% of Brazilian GDP from 2007 to 2016 and are thus too small to be responsible for the (increasing) social problems. Obviously, the perceived lack of public accountability for mega event finances as well as the perceived lack of susceptibility to social issues by the mega sporting projects may harm the public opinion of mega events. International sporting federations should thus have every interest in ensuring that their mega events target social inclusion and pay more attention to the needs of local urban and social policies. |
| Keywords: | Housing Prices, Real Estate, FIFA World Cup, Olympics, Mega Sporting Events, Rio de Janeiro 2016, Urban Planning, Accountability |
| Date: | 2013–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hce:wpaper:047&r=ure |
| By: | Mondschein, Andrew Samuel |
| Abstract: | Transportation planning research addresses accessibility from diverse approaches, focusing varyingly on the usability of the transportation system as a whole, a particular mode, the pattern of land uses, or the wherewithal of individuals and communities to make use of those systems. One aspect of accessibility that has received relatively little attention from planners is its cognitive, experiential aspect. Individuals’ activity and travel choices require not just money and time but also information about opportunities in the city. This component of an individual’s accessibility is highly personal but also dependent on the terrain of land uses and transportation options shaped by planners and policymakers. I seek to extend current accessibility research, addressing shortcomings in how the literature deals with individual experience of the city and knowledge. Through a series of empirical analyses of activity patterns and cognitive maps of theLos Angeles region, I explore the factors that shape individual accessibility. The first analysis investigates the spatial nature of personal cities, using the activity spaces of respondents to explore the types of opportunities that different populations within a city can access. The second demonstrates the differences – depending on mode of travel – among individuals’ perceptions of the city, even when location is held constant. The third analysis continues an exploration of the personal city by considering its fundamental components. Overall, the analyses support the relevance of the personal city framework to accessibility research, highlighting in particular that planning interventions are filtered through experiential and cognitive processes. The findings highlight that the accessibility impacts of transportation and land use patterns are felt not just in the instantaneous calculations of a microeconomic choice framework, but also in the long-term, developmental processes of cognition and experience. For urban planners, the implications of this research include evidence of how the built environment can effectively reduce travel while maintaining accessibility and how different transportation modes afford varying levels of functional accessibility. Overall, I find that experience, information, and learning are elements of urban daily life traditionally neglected by planners but with potential to increase opportunity and accessibility for diverse urban populations. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, urban planning, travel choice, accessibility |
| Date: | 2013–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt7014d9cg&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre-Alexandre Balland; Ron Boschma; Koen Frenken |
| Abstract: | Despite theoretical and empirical advances, the proximity framework has remained essentially static in that the given proximity between actors explains the extent to which they interact in knowledge networks and profit from such interactions. We propose a dynamic extension of the proximity framework of Boschma in which we account for co-evolutionary dynamics between knowledge networking and proximity. For each proximity dimension, we describe how proximities might increase over time as a result of past knowledge ties. We capture these dynamics through the processes of learning (cognitive proximity), integration (organizational proximity), decoupling (social proximity), institutionalization (institutional proximity), and agglomeration (geographical proximity). We end with discussing several avenues for future research on the dynamics of knowledge networking and proximity. |
| Keywords: | proximity, innovation, knowledge networks, proximity dynamics, geographical proximity |
| JEL: | R10 R11 B52 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1314&r=ure |
| By: | Brown, Martin; Hoffmann, Matthias |
| Abstract: | We examine the closeness of relationships between households and their mortgage lenders using survey data which provide information on the duration, geographical proximity and scope of all bank relationships of a representative sample of households. Our analysis is based on a sample of 470 households which have a mortgage and multiple bank relations, allowing us to compare mortgage relations and non-mortgage relations for the same households. We find that mortgage relations are used for a broader scope of payment and saving transactions, have been more recently established, and are held with banks that are located closer to the household than non-mortgage relations. Examining the heterogeneity of mortgage relations across households, we find that financially sophisticated borrowers are less likely to hold their mortgage with a local bank. We find no evidence that more opaque borrowers, e.g. younger and urban households, maintain tighter mortgage relations. |
| Keywords: | Mortgage loans, Household finance, Relationship banking. |
| JEL: | G21 D14 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:sfwpfi:2013:10&r=ure |
| By: | Gregory, Terry; Patuelli, Roberto |
| Abstract: | Demographic change is expected to affect labour markets in very different ways on a regional scale. The objective of this paper is to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of recent distributional changes in the workers age structure, innovation output and skill composition for German regions by conducting an Exploratory Space-Time Data Analysis (ESTDA). Beside commonly used tools, we apply newly developed approaches which allow investigating the space-time dynamics of the spatial distributions. We include an analysis of the joint distributional dynamics of the patenting variable with the remaining interest variables. Overall, we find strong clustering tendencies for the demographic variables and innovation that constitute a great divide across German regions. The detected clusters partly evolve over time and suggest a demographic polarization trend among regions that may further reinforce the observed innovation divide in the future. -- |
| Keywords: | innovation,workforce age structure,exploratory space-time data analysis,regional disparities |
| JEL: | J11 O31 R11 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13057&r=ure |
| By: | Charles S. Wilkins; Thomas W. White |
| Abstract: | The federal government offers the owners of multifamily rental housing guarantees. The guarantees and artificially low interest rates increase mortgage debt on the nation's multifamily stock. This may cause serious problems if not corrected. |
| Keywords: | multifamily loans,mortgage,Housing policy,government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs),Federal Housing Administration (FHA) |
| JEL: | A G R |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aei:rpaper:37116&r=ure |
| By: | Duffy, David; O'Hanlon, Niall |
| Abstract: | The sharp decline in house prices since 2007 has led to the emergence of widespread negative equity in Ireland. For a large sample of borrowers in negative equity the paper provides details on the characteristics of the borrowers and their mortgages by analysing loans taken out to purchase a primary residence in the period 2005 to 2012. The emergence of negative equity is not just about price drops. Loan characteristics such as the loan-to-value ratio and the length of the mortgage term also have a role to play. The analysis finds the situation in Ireland to be much more severe than that being experienced in other housing market downturns at present, with 64 per cent of borrowers from the period 2005-2012 in negative equity. Analysis by age gives rise to concern, with the majority of those in negative equity aged under 40 years. Traditionally, this is the age group most active in the housing market. The paper also points to the large wealth loss, in the order of ?43 billion, experienced by Irish households as a result of the fall in prices. With only moderate house price growth expected in the years ahead there is a generation of mortgage borrowers whose housing market experience will have been overwhelmingly negative and who will remain in negative equity for some time. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp463&r=ure |
| By: | Korpi, Martin (Ratio & EHFF); Clark, William (California Center for Population Research, UCLA) |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies on internal labor migration are usually based on observed patterns of net flows into local labor markets with relatively lower unemployment and relatively higher real wages. Evidence here suggests that internal migrants move to enhance returns to their labor. In contrast, major surveys in the USA, the UK and Australia show that less than a third of internal migrants are motivated primarily by employment reasons. A possible explanation for this disconnect revolves around average and individual outcomes from migration. Using a sample of 39 000 Swedish regional migrants, this paper addresses this disconnect by examining the distribution of short and long term migrant income changes, and the factors that predict their placement within this distribution. We show that returns to migration do matter, especially for the more educated migrants. Overall, however, about a third of all migrants had negative short term returns to migration and about 40 percent make below median gains even in the long run. The data support a view that average outcomes are an insufficient way to measure the role of human capital motivated migration. |
| Keywords: | migration; human capital; labor mobility; urban rural |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0213&r=ure |
| By: | Geanakoplos, John (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); William R. Zame (UCLA) |
| Abstract: | Much of the lending in modern economies is secured by some form of collateral: residential and commercial mortgages and corporate bonds are familiar examples. This paper builds an extension of general equilibrium theory that incorporates durable goods, collateralized securities and the possibility of default to argue that the reliance on collateral to secure loans and the particular collateral requirements chosen by the social planner or by the market have a profound impact on prices, allocations, market structure and the efficiency of market outcomes. These findings provide insights into housing and mortgage markets, including the sub-prime mortgage market. |
| Keywords: | Collateral, Default, GEI |
| JEL: | C5 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1906&r=ure |
| By: | Frank Van Oort |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1313&r=ure |
| By: | Dascher, Kristof |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the more open a city is to immigration, the more likely it is to welcome -- and hence also receive -- foreign direct investment. If immigration is allowed to complement the inflow of foreign capital, urban rent rises by more. This extra rise in rent aids in appeasing owners of capital specific to local traditional industries who else become worse off as foreign direct investment flows in. The paper's model may help give a simple alternative explanation of why urban centers such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Dublin or many cities on China's Eastern coast have received so much more FDI per capita. These cities could draw on a nearby pool of extra labor that -- by driving rents up and keeping wages down -- may have been decisive in the political struggle over whether to let foreign direct investors in. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, Open City, Immigration, Urban Rent |
| JEL: | F11 F23 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49197&r=ure |
| By: | Frank Van Oort; Stefan de Geus; Teodora Dogaru |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces indicators of regional related variety and unrelated variety to conceptually overcome the current impasse in the specialisation-diversity debate in agglomeration economics. Although various country-level studies have been published on this conceptualisation in recent years, a pan-European test has until now been missing from the literature. A pan-European test is more interesting than country-level tests, as newly defined cohesion policies, smart-specialisation policies, place-based development strategies and competitiveness policies may be especially served by related and unrelated variety conceptualisations. We test empirically for the significance of variables based on these concepts, using a cross-sectional dataset for 205 European regions during the period 2000- 2010. The results confirming our hypotheses are that related variety is significantly related to employment growth and that specialisation is significantly related to productivity growth. We do not find robust relationships that are hypothesised between unrelated variety and unemployment growth. Our analyses show that evolutionary economic geography and institutional and policy-based regional development may be integrated fruitfully at the European level. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1312&r=ure |
| By: | Lasse Steiner; Bruno S. Frey; Simone Hotz |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes whether hosting the most prestigious European cultural event, the European Capital of Culture, has an impact on regional economic development or the life satisfaction of the local population. Concerning the economic impact, we show that European Capitals are hosted in regions with above average GDP per capita, but do not causally affect the economic development in a significant way. Even a positive impact on GDP per capita would not imply a positive impact on individual utility or social welfare of the regional population. Surprisingly, using difference-in-difference estimations, a negative effect on the well-being of the regional population is found during the event. Since no effect is found before the event, reverse causality and positive anticipation can be ruled out. The negative effect during the event might result from dissatisfaction with the high levels of public expenditure, transport disruptions, general overcrowding or an increase in housing prices. |
| Keywords: | Life Satisfaction; Mega-Events; Culture; European Capital of Culture |
| JEL: | Z11 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2013-07&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | This working paper assesses national policy and governance mechanisms that can influence green growth in Chinese cities. It applies the OECD conceptual framework for urban green growth to examine the potential challenges and opportunities for increasing economic growth through reducing the environmental impact of urban land use, transport and buildings; through improving water and air quality; and through fostering supply and demand of green products and services. The paper first situates the issue of green growth within the nexus of urbanisation and environmental challenges now facing China. This is followed by a review of environmental and quality of life challenges posed by rapid urbanisation. Opportunities for national policies to influence green growth in four key urban policy sectors are then examined. The paper concludes with an assessment of governance challenges and considers potential changes to facilitate economic growth while reducing the environmental impact of cities. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, innovation, transport, renewable energy, China, climate change, energy efficiency, urban sustainability, cities, green technologies, green growth, green economy, multi-level governance, urban development, regional clusters, green cities, attractiveness, metro-region |
| JEL: | O18 O44 Q01 Q55 Q58 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2013–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:govaab:2013/7-en&r=ure |
| By: | Joseph Gyourko; gyourko |
| Abstract: | Drawing on original risk analysis, Wharton School professor Joseph Gyourko explains why FHA's failure to accurately account for the unemployment risk in its Single-Family Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is a key cause of its increasing share of seriously delinquent loans and the insolvency of its main insurance fund. |
| Keywords: | unemployment,Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund,Mortgage Bankers Association,housing bailout,FHA |
| JEL: | A G R |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aei:rpaper:37370&r=ure |
| By: | Julie Beugnot (Department of economics, Université Laval, CIRPÉE); Bernard Fortin (Department of economics, Université Laval, CIRPÉE and CIRANO); Guy Lacroix (Department of economics, Université Laval, CIRPÉE and CIRANO); Marie Claire Villeval (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69007, France ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne,F-69130 Ecully, France) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the standard work effort model by allowing workers to interact through networks. We investigate experimentally whether peer performances and peer contextual effects influence individual performances. Two types of network are considered. Participants in Recursive networks are paired with participants who played previously in isolation. In Simultaneous networks, participants interact in real-time along an undirected line. Mean peer effects are identified in both cases. Individual performances increase with peer performances in the recursive network. In the simultaneous network, endogenous peer effects vary according to gender : they are large for men but not statistically different from zero for women. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, social networks, work effort, piece rate, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J24 J31 M52 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1323&r=ure |
| By: | Alex Fenton |
| Abstract: | This paper considers techniques for measuring the prevalence of income poverty within small areas, or "neighbourhoods", in Britain. The ultimate purpose is applying such statistics to investigating how the micro-spatial distribution of poverty within cities and regions changes over time as a consequence of political decisions and economic events. In the paper, some general criteria for small-area poverty measures are first set out, and two broad methods, poverty proxies and modelled income estimates, are identified. Empirical analyses of the validity and coverage of poverty proxies derived from UK administrative data, such as social security benefit claims, are presented. The concluding section assesses a new poverty proxy that will be used within a wider programme of analysis of the spatial distributional effects of tax and welfare changes and of economic trends in Britain from 2000 to 2014. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the proxy values and other local poverty measures in different kinds of places. These suggest that the proxy is an adequate, albeit imperfect,tool for investigating changes in intra-urban distributions of poverty. |
| Keywords: | area, small-area, small, proxy, neighbourhood, spatial, measurement, cold climate, social policy in a cold climate |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:spccwp:01&r=ure |
| By: | Janke, Katharina (University of Bristol); Propper, Carol (University of Bristol); Shields, Michael A. (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | Crime has been argued to have important externalities. We investigate the relationship between violent crime and an important type of behaviour: individuals' participation in their local area through walking and physical activity. We use a sample of nearly 1 million people residing in over 320 small areas in England between 2005 and 2011. We show that concerns about personal safety co-move with police recorded violent crime. To identify the causal effect of recorded violent crime on walking and other physical activity we control for individual-level characteristics, non-time varying local authority effects, national time effects and local authority-specific trends. In addition, we exploit a natural experiment that caused a sudden increase in crime – the 2011 England riots – to identify the causal impact of a large exogenous crime shock on physical activity in a triple difference framework. Our results show a substantive deterrent effect of local area violent crime on walking, pointing to important effects of violent crime on non-victims. The adverse effect of an increase in local area violent crime from the 25th to the 75th percentile on walking is equivalent in size to a 6°C fall in average minimum temperature. |
| Keywords: | violent crime, walking, physical activity, riots |
| JEL: | I12 I18 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7545&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe COMBES (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Bruno DECREUSE (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Morgane LAOUENAN (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) and Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Alain TRANNOY (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the link between the over-exposure of African immigrants to unemployment in France and their under-representation in jobs in contact with customers. We build a two-sector matching model with ethnic sector-specifc preferences, economy-wide employer discrimination, and customer discrimination in jobs in contact with customers. The outcomes of the model allow us to build a test of ethnic discrimination in general and customer discrimination in particular. We run the test on French individual data in a cross-section of local labor markets (Employment Areas). Our results show that there is both ethnic and customer discrimination in the French labor market. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, Matching frictions, Jobs in contact, Ethnic unemployment, Local labor markets |
| JEL: | J15 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–06–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013016&r=ure |
| By: | Patrick Kline (Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA); Enrico Moretti (Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA) |
| Abstract: | We study the long run effects of one of the most ambitious regional development programs in U.S. history: the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Using as controls authorities that were proposed but never approved by Congress, we find that the TVA led to large gains in agricultural employment that were eventually reversed when the program’s subsidies ended. Gains in manufacturing employment, by contrast, continued to intensify well after federal transfers had lapsed – a pattern consistent with the presence of agglomeration economies in manufacturing. Because manufacturing paid higher wages than agriculture, this shift raised aggregate income in the TVA region for an extended period of time. Economists have long cautioned that the local gains created by place based policies may be offset by losses elsewhere. We develop a structured approach to assessing the TVA’s aggregate consequences that is applicable to other place based policies. In our model, the TVA affects the national economy both directly through infrastructure improvements and indirectly through agglomeration economies. The model’s estimates suggest that the TVA’s direct investments yielded a significant increase in national manufacturing productivity, with benefits exceeding the program’s costs. However, the program’s indirect effects appear to have been limited: agglomeration gains in the TVA region were offset by losses in the rest of the country. Spillovers in manufacturing appear to be the rare example of a localized market failure that cancels out in the aggregate. |
| JEL: | R11 J20 N92 O40 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:43_13&r=ure |
| By: | Banerjee, Simanti; de, Vries Frans; Hanley, Nicholas; van, Soest Daan |
| Abstract: | The Agglomeration Bonus (AB) is a mechanism to induce adjacent landowners to spatially coordinate their land use for the delivery of ecosystem services from farmland. This paper uses laboratory experiments to explore the performance of the AB in achieving the socially optimal land management configuration in a local network environment where the information available to subjects varies. The AB poses a coordination problem between two Nash equilibria: a Pareto dominant and a risk dominant equilibrium. The experiments indicate that if subjects are informed about both their direct and indirect neighbors' actions, they are more likely to coordinate on the Pareto dominant equilibrium relative to the case where subjects have information about their direct neighbors' action only. However, the extra information can only delay - and not prevent - the transition to the socially inferior risk dominant Nash equilibrium. In the long run, the AB mechanism may only be partially effective in enhancing delivery of ecosystem services on farming landscapes featuring local networks. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration bonus, agri-environment schemes, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, information spillovers, Payments for Ecosystem Services, spatial coordination |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2013-09&r=ure |
| By: | M. Mayer; R. Patuelli |
| Abstract: | Empirical assessments of the forecasting power of spatial panel data econometric models are still scarcely available. Moreover, several methodological contributions rely on simulated data to showcase the potential of proposed methods. While simulations may be useful to evaluate the properties of a single estimator, the empirical set-ups of simulation studies are often based on strong assumptions regarding the shape and regularity of the statistical distribution of the variables involved. It is then valuable to have, next to simulation studies, empirical assessments of competing econometric models based on real data. In this paper, we evaluate competing spatial (dynamic) panel methods, selecting a number of data sets characterized by a range of different crosssectional and temporal dimensions, as well as different levels of spatial autocorrelation. We carry out our empirical exercise on regional unemployment data for France, Spain and Switzerland. Additionally, we test different forecasting horizons, in order to investigate the speed of deterioration of forecasting quality. We compare two classes of methods: spatial vector autoregressive (SVAR) models and dynamic panel models making use of eigenvector spatial filtering (SF). We find that, as it could be expected, the unbalance between the temporal and cross-sectional dimension (T >> n) does play in favour of the SVAR model. On the other hand, the advantage of the SVAR model over the SF model appears to diminish as the forecasting horizon widens, eventually leading the SF model to being preferred for more distant forecasts. |
| JEL: | C53 E24 E27 R12 R15 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp899&r=ure |
| By: | Antoniades, Adonis |
| Abstract: | I test the hypothesis that the banks' exposure to liquidity risk contributed to the contraction of mortgage credit during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. I use micro-level data on mortgage loan applications to control for variation in demand conditions and find that lenders who relied less on core-deposit funding or who had larger off-balance sheet exposure to credit lines, exhibited a sharper decline in their propensity to approve loan applications. These two sources of liquidity risk jointly accounted for a $41.5 billion-$61.9 billion contraction of mortgage credit during 2007-2009, or 5.2%-7.8% of total mortgage originations during this period. |
| Keywords: | liquidity risk, bank lending channel, lines of credit, core deposits, real estate, mortgage lending |
| JEL: | E51 G01 G11 G21 |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49270&r=ure |
| By: | Werner, Daniel (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Large regional unemployment disparities are a common feature of the labor market in many countries. This study deals with the question whether regional unemployment disparities in western Germany widen, become narrower or remain constant over time. It examines the hypothesis of convergence for regional unemployment rates of western German Federal States and the time period 1968 to 2009 following different concepts of convergence. Western German regional unemployment rates exhibit ß-convergence but no s-convergence. Further, regional unemployment rates show a high degree of intra-distributional dynamics. Panel unit root tests designed for cross-sectional dependent panels are applied to investigate the hypothesis of stochastic convergence. This is necessary because the assumption of cross-sectional independency does not hold. The results do not indicate the existence of stochastic convergence. This is in contrast to previous studies that do not take cross-sectional dependence into account. However, additional robustness checks show that evidence of stochastic convergence depends on the underlying assumption about the shape of the equilibrium relationship between regional unemployment rates and their national counterpart. Western German regional unemployment is not characterized by a catching-up process between high and low unemployment regions. The development of regional unemployment disparities is mainly driven by economic disturbances." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitslosigkeit, Konvergenz, regionale Disparität - Determinanten, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | C33 J60 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–08–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201311&r=ure |
| By: | Todd Gardner |
| Abstract: | This study uses census microdata from 1960 to 2010 to look at how the racial and ethnic composition of local government employees has reflected the diversity of the general population in the 100 largest metro areas over the last half century. Historically, one route to upward social mobility has been employment in local government. This study uses microdata that predates key immigration and civil rights legislation of the 1960s through to the present to examine changes in the racial and ethnic composition of local government employees and in the general population. For this study, local government employees have been divided into high- and low-wage occupations. These data indicate that local workforces have grown more diverse over time, though representation across different racial and ethnic groups and geographic areas is uneven. African-Americans were underrepresented in high-wage local government employment and overrepresented in low-wage jobs in the early years of this study, particularly in the South, but have since become proportionally represented in high-wage jobs on a national level. In contrast, the most recent data indicate that Hispanic and other races are underrepresented in this employment group, particularly in the West. Though the numbers of Hispanic and Asian high-wage local government employees are increasing, it appears that it will take several years for those groups to achieve proportional representation throughout the United States. |
| Keywords: | local government employment, race, ethnicity |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:13-38&r=ure |
| By: | Philippe Polomé (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - École Normale Supérieure - Lyon) |
| Abstract: | We present results of a household-level survey on behaviors regarding refuses in the home waste-waters network. Interpreting survey results in a panel-data logit results show that most socio-economic and public good-related respondent's characteristics do not play a significant role in explaining choices to discard in the home waste-waters network. The only significant regressor, apart from the nature of the refuse itself, is, by far, the belief that the respondent has about her neighbors' and relatives' discarding behavior. We use Dong's endogeneity test [7] to show that that regressor is not endogenous. We argue that these results may be used by policymakers to reduce undesirable refuses in the home waste-waters network by means of properly designed nudges. |
| Keywords: | Behavior; Endogeneity; Nonparametric; Panel data; Public good; Reputation; Waste-waters |
| Date: | 2013–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00855051&r=ure |
| By: | Richard Akresh (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Damien de Walque (The World Bank, Washington DC); Harounan Kazianga (Oklahoma State University) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a randomized experiment in rural Burkina Faso to estimate the impact of alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on education. The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cash transfers that were either conditional (CCT) or unconditional (UCT). Families under the CCT schemes were required to have their children ages 7-15 enrolled in school and attend classes regularly. There were no such requirements under the unconditional programs. Results indicate that UCTs and CCTs have a similar impact increasing the enrollment of children who are traditionally favored by parents for school participation, including boys, older children, and higher ability children. However, CCTs are significantly more effective than UCTs in improving the enrollment of "marginal children" who are initially less likely to go to school, such as girls, younger children, and lower ability children. Thus, conditionality plays a critical role in benefiting children who are less likely to receive investments from their parents. |
| Keywords: | Cash transfers; Conditionality; Education; Africa |
| JEL: | I21 I25 I38 J13 O15 C93 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:okl:wpaper:1301&r=ure |
| By: | INOUE Hiroyasu; NAKAJIMA Kentaro; SAITO Yukiko |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the localization of knowledge exchange behavior by using data on inter-establishment collaborations in Japanese patent applications. Using distance-based methods, we obtain the following results. First, inter-establishment collaborations are significantly localized at the 5% level, with the range of localization at approximately 100km. Second, the extent of collaboration localization was stable during 1986-2005 despite the extensive developments in information and communications technology facilitating easy communication between remote researchers. Third, the extent of collaboration localization is much larger in inter-firm collaborations than in inside-firm collaborations. Furthermore, in inter-firm collaborations, the extent of localization is larger in collaborations with firms having only one research establishment. As a whole, inter-establishment collaborations are localized and stable, and localization occurs to complement firm-border effects, especially with regard to small firms. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:13070&r=ure |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Engdahl, Mattias (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor market impact of opening borders to low-wage countries. The analysis exploits time and regional variation provided by the 2004 EU enlargement in combination with transport links to Sweden from the new member states. The results suggest an adverse impact on earnings of present workers in the order of 1 percent in areas close to pre-existing ferry lines. The effects are present in most segments of the labor market but tend to be greater in groups with weaker positions. The impact is also clearer in industries which have received more workers from the new member states, and for which across-the-border work is likely to be more common. There is no robust evidence on an impact on employment or wages. At least part of the effects is likely due to channels other than the ones typically considered in the literature. |
| Keywords: | migration policy; immigration; labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–04–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2013_009&r=ure |
| By: | TOKUI Joji; MAKINO Tatsuji; KODAMA Naomi; FUKAO Kyoji |
| Abstract: | We construct a cross-prefectural index of human capital that captures the quality of the labor force available to the 47 Japanese prefectures from 1970 through 2008 using the Population Census. Our index is based on the index number concept proposed by Caves, Christensen, and Diewert (1982), and it takes into account the workers' educational background, gender, age, and their employed industries concurrently. Although the difference in the quality of the labor force among Japanese prefectures greatly converged in the 40 years from 1970, there still remains a significant gap to such an extent that the level of quality of the highest prefecture is 1.3 times that of the lowest. The main sources of the difference are both the workers' educational background and their employed industries in 1970, but the latter—regional industrial location factor—has diminished recently. The migration of young workers to more prosperous prefectures does contribute to the enlargement of the cross-prefectural difference in the total amount of human capital, but it contributes surprisingly little to the prefectural difference in the quality of human capital. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:13058&r=ure |
| By: | Vera, Celia Patricia |
| Abstract: | One issue that has pervaded policy discussions for decades is the difficulty that school districts experience in retaining teachers. Almost a quarter of entering public school teachers leave teaching within the first three years and empirical evidence has related high attrition rates of beginner teachers to family circumstances, such as maternity or marriage. I examine female teachers' career choices and inquire about the effects that wage increases and child care subsidies have on their employment decisions. I set up a dynamic model of job search where individuals simultaneously make employment and fertility decisions, fit it to data from a national longitudinal survey and estimate it by Simulated Method of Moments. Estimates indicate that gains of exiting the teaching workforce to start a family vary between 75% and 88% of the average teaching wage if the exit occurs during the first five years. At late periods and provided a positive stock of children, nonpecuniary penalties to return to teach lie between one and two times the average teaching wage. A 20 percent raise in teaching wages increases retention by 14% and decreases the proportion of teachers giving birth by 50%. Results suggest that fertility changes occur not only at earlier periods but also after a career interruption when teachers are considering a returning decision. The effectiveness of the wage policy in attracting back to the field individuals who left teaching to enroll in nonteaching jobs is positively associated with the greatest impact that the policy has on fertility in nonteaching. Child care subsidies increase retention by 11% and 29% with the lowest and highest subsidy, respectively. New births are concentrated at earlier periods of teachers' careers and thus, generate longer first teaching spells. However, large nonpecuniary rewards at late periods of the non labor market alternative relative to being in teaching as well as exits out of the workforce concentrated at later periods lead the decrease of returning rates of teachers who dropped the workforce altogether. |
| Keywords: | Teachers, Fertility, Attrition, Structural Model. |
| JEL: | C61 J13 J44 J45 |
| Date: | 2013–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49340&r=ure |
| By: | Brown, J. David (U.S. Census Bureau); Earle, John S. (George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | Small Business Administration (SBA) loans have long been one of the most significant policy interventions in the U.S. affecting firm behavior, but little is known about their outcomes. This paper estimates the effects on employment using a list of all SBA loans linked to annual data on all U.S. employers from 1976 to 2010. Our methods combine firm fixed-effect regressions with matching on exact firm age, industry, year, and pre-loan size, and on propensity scores as a function of four years of employment history and other variables. The results imply positive average effects on loan recipient employment of about 25 percent, or 3 jobs at the mean. Including loan amount, we find little or no impact of loan receipt per se, but an increase of about 5.4 jobs for each million dollars of loans. Similar results for high-growth counties and industries suggest the estimates are not driven by differential demand conditions across firms. Exploiting variation in the distance of controls from recipient firms, we find only very small displacement effects. In all these cases, the results pass "placebo" and "pre-program" specification tests. Other specifications using only matching or only regression imply somewhat higher effects, but they fail these tests. The estimates facilitate calculations of total job creation by the SBA and of the cost per job created. |
| Keywords: | small business finance, entrepreneurship, employment, program evaluation |
| JEL: | D04 G21 G28 H32 H81 J23 L52 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7544&r=ure |
| By: | Rivayani Darmawan (Georg-August-University Göttingen); Stephan Klasen (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | It has been argued that the potential gains of community-driven development (CDD) poverty programs are large as these can foster sustained poverty reduction. However, recent literature shows that community involvement can increase the risk of elite capture, particularly in more unequal communities. The risk is higher when the gap between the poor and the non-poor is larger with limited mobility between groups, the poor find it difficult to increase their bargaining power or voice their preferences. This paper contributes to the limited empirical literature on the existence of elite capture in social programs. Using community and household data from the Second Urban Poverty Project in Indonesia, we find robust evidence for the existence of elite capture under unequal communities. We further find that only when decision makers share similar characteristics with non-elites in terms of wealth, education and social networks, the share of pro-poor projects increases. |
| Keywords: | Elite capture; Community-driven Development; Inequality; Poverty; Indonesia |
| JEL: | H42 I32 D63 |
| Date: | 2013–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:145&r=ure |
| By: | Jeffrey P. Thompson; Shawn M. Rohlin |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect of sales taxes on employment at state borders using county-level quarterly data and a newly developed data set of local tax rates. Sales tax increases, relative to cross-border neighbors, lead to losses of employment, as well as payroll and hiring, but these effects are only found in counties with large shares of residents working in another state. The effects also represent an upper-bound, largely driven by employment shifting across the state border. We also find that employment in food and beverage stores is negatively affected when cross-border neighbors adopt low sales tax rates on food. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-49&r=ure |
| By: | Leonardo Morales |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the estimation of peer group effects on a fertility decision. The peer group is composed of neighbors with similar socio-demographic characteristics. In order to deal with the endogeneity problem associated to the estimation of neighborhood effects, an instrumental variables procedure is performed. To control for the reflection problem, usual in linear effects models, this paper uses an identification strategy that relies on the definition of peer groups at the individual level. This paper provides evidence that peer effects explain the age at which poor women in Medellín (Colombia) decide to have their firstborn. These social forces are hazardous factors that may increase the incidence of adolescent pregnancy.. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Family Planning, Demographic Economics, Social Interaction Models. Classification JEL: J13, J130, C310 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:777&r=ure |
| By: | Svaleryd, Helena (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | The business cycle is likely to be of importance for self-employment rates. When the economy is growing, business opportunities open up and encourage the set-up of new firms. In downturns, self-employment may be a way to avoid unemployment. The strength of these pull and push factors may depend on the amount of human capital a person has. The findings in this paper show that although the local business cycle is of minor importance for total self-employment rates in Sweden, there are heterogeneous effects across groups. People with higher human capital endowments are more likely to be pulled into self-employment, while those with lower human capital endowments are to a larger extent pushed into self-employment. This pattern is particularly strong for women. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment; local business cycle; panel data |
| JEL: | J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2013_016&r=ure |
| By: | Mototsugu Fukushige (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Yingxin Shi (Department of Economics & Management, Dalian Nationalities University) |
| Abstract: | We propose a new empirical approach to analyzing fiscal decentralization and apply it to Chinese intergovernmental fiscal relationships between the central government and provincial governments. In calculating budgetary revenue and expenditure shares, we include extra budgetary revenue and expenditure. We find that although an increase in either income inequality or real per capita GDP lowers local governmentsf bargaining power within the budgetary system, local governments can offset this by obtaining more bargaining power over extra budgetary expenditures. Another finding is that although urbanization increases provincial governmentsf budgetary revenues, it also restricts the scope for further budgetary expenditure. |
| Keywords: | nonsymmetric Nash bargaining, intergovernmental fiscal relationships, China |
| JEL: | H77 D72 P35 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1321&r=ure |
| By: | Benjamin Zycher |
| Abstract: | In the past several decades, 30 states have introduced tax and expenditure limits to maintain fiscal discipline, but all evidence suggests that these laws are ineffective. |
| Keywords: | Tax expenditures,state budgets,fiscal discipline |
| JEL: | A H |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aei:rpaper:37721&r=ure |
| By: | Bauer, Anja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This paper provides detailed empirical evidence on the scope of mismatch in Germany in the past decade, using a comprehensive administrative data set that allows for disaggregation at the levels of industry, occupation and region. The findings suggest that regional mismatch did not play an important role in explaining movements of aggregate unemployment. Across industries and occupations, there was a decrease in mismatch unemployment from over 5 percent to below 4 percent (on the highest disaggregation level), whereas the share of mismatch unemployment (across industries and occupations) within total unemployment remains almost unchanged between 2000 and 2010. The results provide no evidence that the Hartz reforms have substantially reduced mismatch, in line with the fact that reallocation across occupations appears not to have been eased." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | E24 J6 |
| Date: | 2013–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201310&r=ure |
| By: | Paul Cheshire; Christian A. L. Hilber; Ioannis Kaplanis |
| Abstract: | We use store-specific data for a UK supermarket chain to estimate the impact of planning on store output. Exploiting the variation in policies between England and other UK countries, we isolate the impact of Town Centre First (TCF) policies introduced in England. We find they directly reduced output by forcing stores onto less productive sites. We estimate TCF policies imposed a loss of output of 32 percent on a representative store opening after their rigorous implementation in 1996. Additionally, we show that, household numbers constant, more restrictive local authorities have fewer stores and lower chain sales within their areas. |
| Keywords: | retail productivity, land use regulation, Town Centre First, local regulatoryconstraints |
| JEL: | D2 L51 L81 R32 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0138&r=ure |