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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Rickman, Dan S.; Wang, Hongbo |
| Abstract: | Using a spatial hedonic growth model, this paper empirically examines the relative roles of natural amenities and urban agglomeration economies as determinants of U.S. regional growth patterns from 2000 to 2010. Natural amenities and urban agglomeration are measured using the USDA Economic Research Service county classification codes. The general finding is that natural amenities and urban agglomeration both influenced regional growth. However, the natural amenity ranking is estimated to be positively related to increased productivity over the period rather than increased attractiveness to households. Urban agglomeration is positively related to increased amenity attractiveness to households. Within Census regional analysis revealed a stronger role for household natural amenity demand in nonmetropolitan areas. |
| Keywords: | Regional growth; Natural amenities; Agglomeration economies |
| JEL: | R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61051&r=ure |
| By: | Grillitsch , Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University); Nilsson , Magnus (Department of Business Administration and CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | It is widely accepted that firms in peripheral regions benefit to a lesser extent from local knowledge spillovers than firms located in agglomerations or industrial clusters. This paper investigates the extent to which innovative firms in peripheral regions compensate for the lack of access to local knowledge spillovers by collaborating at other geographical scales. So far the literature predominantly suggests that collaborations complement rather than compensate for local knowledge spillovers. Using data on the collaboration patterns of innovative firms in Sweden, this paper provides evidence that firms with low access to local knowledge spillovers tend to collaborate more. This effect, however, depends on firm size and in-house capabilities. Our findings suggest that firms with strong in-house capabilities do indeed compensate for a lack of local knowledge spillovers with collaborations while firms with weaker in-house capabilities depend more on the regional knowledge infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | Local knowledge spillovers; periphery; collaboration; innovation; geography; Sweden |
| JEL: | O18 O30 O31 P48 R10 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–12–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_033&r=ure |
| By: | Juan Carmona Pidal; Markus Lampe; Joan R. Rosés |
| Abstract: | During the decades previous to the Civil War, Spain experienced a rapid process of urbanization, which was accompanied by the demographic transition and sizeable rural-urban migrations. This article investigates how urban housing markets reacted to these far-reaching changes that increased demand for dwellings. To this end, we employ a new hedonic index of real housing prices and construct a crossregional panel dataset of rents and housing price fundamentals. This new evidence indicates that rents were not a significant financial burden on low-income families and, hence, housing was affordable for working classes. Also, we show that families’ access to new homes was facilitated by a sizable growth of housing supply. Substantial investments in urban infrastructure and the institutional framework enabled the construction of new homes at affordable prices. Our results suggest that housing problems were not pervasive during the urban transition as the literature often seems to claim. |
| Keywords: | Demand and Supply of Housing; Regulation in Housing Markets; urban growth. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:60556&r=ure |
| By: | Jochen R. Andritzky |
| Abstract: | In housing crises, high mortgage debt can feed a vicious circle of falling housing prices and declining consumption and incomes, leading to higher mortgage defaults and deeper recessions. In such situations, resolution policies may need to be adapted to help contain negative feedback loops while minimizing overall loan losses and moral hazard. Drawing on recent experiences from Iceland, Ireland, Spain, and the United States, this paper discusses how economic trade-offs affecting mortgage resolution differ in crises. Depending on country circumstances, the economic benefits of temporary forbearance and loan modifications for struggling households could outweigh their costs. |
| Keywords: | Mortgages;Housing prices;Debt;Household consumption;Debt reduction;Cross country analysis;Debt overhang, foreclosure, housing crisis, mortgage distress, loan restructuring |
| Date: | 2014–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:14/226&r=ure |
| By: | Ali Protik; Elias Walsh; Alexandra Resch; Eric Isenberg; Emma Kopa |
| Abstract: | This working paper uses urban school district data to investigate whether including track indicators or accounting for classroom characteristics in the value-added model is sufficient to eliminate potential bias resulting from the sorting of students into academic tracks. Accounting for two classroom characteristics—mean classroom achievement and the standard deviation of classroom achievement—may reduce bias for middle school math teachers, whereas track indicators help for high school reading teachers. However, including both of these measures simultaneously reduces the precision of the value-added estimates in this context. While these different specifications produce substantially different value-added estimates, they produce small changes in the tails of value-added distribution. |
| Keywords: | Value-Added Students Teachers Estimates |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:bc26562de576484b9c40626f2c5d6da8&r=ure |
| By: | Patrick Bayer; Fernando Ferreira; Stephen L. Ross |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how high cost mortgage lending varies by race and ethnicity. It uses a unique panel data that matches a representative sample of mortgages in seven large metropolitan markets between 2004 and 2008 to public records of housing transactions and proprietary credit reporting data. The results reveal a significantly higher incidence of high costs loans for African-American and Hispanic borrowers even after controlling for key mortgage risk factors: they have a 7.7 and 6.2 percentage point higher likelihood of a high cost loan, respectively, in the home purchase market relative to an overall incidence of 14.8 percent among all home purchase mortgages. Significant racial and ethnic differences are widespread throughout the market – they are present (i) in each metro area, (ii) across high and low risk borrowers, and (iii) regardless of the age of the borrower. These differences are reduced by 60 percent with the inclusion of lender fixed effects, implying that a significant portion of the estimated market-wide racial differences can be attributed to differential access to (or sorting across) mortgage lenders. |
| JEL: | G0 G21 R21 R3 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20762&r=ure |
| By: | Joshua Furgeson; Moira McCullough; Clare Wolfendale; Brian Gill |
| Abstract: | This report describes The Equity Project (TEP) charter school’s instructional and personnel strategies, examines the characteristics and attrition rates of TEP students, and measures TEP’s impacts on student achievement during the school’s first four years of operation. |
| Keywords: | teacher quality, teacher salaries, charter school, TEP, The Equity Project, Student Achievement, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:9ed165ddb03646a496128da4d09b4477&r=ure |
| By: | Zhiming Cheng; Stephen P. King; Russell Smyth; Haining Wang |
| Abstract: | This study explores the relationship between home ownership and subjective wellbeing in urban China. We first present a theoretical model examining the relationship between housing property rights and subjective wellbeing in China. We then test the predictions of the theoretical model using a nationally representative dataset. We find that not only home ownership, but the property rights one acquires and the source of those property rights matters for subjective wellbeing. Moreover, not only whether one has a home loan, but the type of home loan one has matters for subjective wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | Subjective wellbeing, housing property rights, China |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2014-44&r=ure |
| By: | Atila Abdulkadiroğlu; Joshua D. Angrist; Peter D. Hull; Parag A. Pathak |
| Abstract: | Lottery estimates suggest oversubscribed urban charter schools boost student achievement markedly. But these estimates needn’t capture treatment effects for students who haven’t applied to charter schools or for students attending charters for which demand is weak. This paper reports estimates of the effect of charter school attendance on middle-schoolers in charter takeovers in New Orleans and Boston. Takeovers are traditional public schools that close and then re-open as charter schools. Students enrolled in the schools designated for closure are eligible for “grandfathering” into the new schools; that is, they are guaranteed seats. We use this fact to construct instrumental variables estimates of the effects of passive charter attendance: the grandfathering instrument compares students at schools designated for takeover with students who appear similar at baseline and who were attending similar schools not yet closed, while adjusting for possible violations of the exclusion restriction in such comparisons. Estimates for a large sample of takeover schools in the New Orleans Recovery School District show substantial gains from takeover enrollment. In Boston, where we can compare grandfathering and lottery estimates for a middle school, grandfathered students see achievement gains at least as large as the gains for students assigned seats in lotteries. Larger reading gains for grandfathering compliers are explained by a worse non-charter fallback. |
| JEL: | C21 C26 C31 I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20792&r=ure |
| By: | Knoll, Katharina (Free University of Berlin); Schularick, Moritz (University of Bonn); Steger, Thomas (Leipzig University) |
| Abstract: | How have house prices evolved in the long-run? This paper presents annual house price indices for 14 advanced economies since 1870. Based on extensive data collection, we are able to show for the first time that house prices in most industrial economies stayed constant in real terms from the 19th to the mid-20th century, but rose sharply in recent decades. Land prices, not construction costs, hold the key to understanding the trajectory of house prices in the long-run. Residential land prices have surged in the second half of the 20th century, but did not increase meaningfully before. We argue that before World War II dramatic reductions in transport costs expanded the supply of land and suppressed land prices. Since the mid-20th century, comparably large land-augmenting reductions in transport costs no longer occurred. Increased regulations on land use further inhibited the utilization of additional land, while rising expenditure shares for housing services increased demand. |
| JEL: | N10 O10 R30 R40 |
| Date: | 2014–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddgw:208&r=ure |
| By: | Alexandra Resch Jonah Deutsch |
| Abstract: | This report describes the value-added models that were used to estimate measures of teacher and principal effectiveness in Charleston County School District for the 2013-2014 school year. These measures are combined with other measures in the district’s multi-dimensional BRIDGE evaluation framework. |
| Keywords: | value added, teacher effectiveness , principal effectiveness, student growth measures |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:eec5dbb671ab46f09c1dfb85a408d619&r=ure |
| By: | Luis Eduardo Quintero |
| Abstract: | We provide a new method for estimating hedonic functions in a metropolitan housing market for both rental rates and real estate asset prices. First, our method treats housing quality as unobserved by the econometrician. Second, it deals with the problem that implicit rental rates for owner-occupied housing are latent. Using a non-parametric matching approach, we show how to identify the rent-to-value ratio as a function of latent quality. Third, the paper provides a new estimation method for a generalization that incorporates heterogeneity in preferences. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that incorporates these in a unified treatment of metropolitan housing markets. We estimate the model with types obtained by using clustering techniques to learn categorization of households into types based on age and number of children. We obtain the robust result that the presence of children lowers the preference for housing quality and increases the welfare sensitivity to changes in income and price. The opposite happens as households age. Finally, we also estimated a joint model for the NYC and Chicago metropolitan areas to compare quality markets, and find that a compensating variation of approximately 20\% of the annual income would be required to induce the median household in Chicago to move to NYC. Finally, we study the recent housing market crisis in the U.S., and obtain findings consistent with the view that changes in both credit market conditions and investor expectations were key contributors to the run-up in housing values. |
| JEL: | R2 R3 D12 G10 C5 |
| Date: | 2014–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2014:pqu53&r=ure |
| By: | Vicente Royuela; Paolo Veneri; Raul Ramos |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to understand how income inequality is associated with economic growth in OECD regions and whether the degree and type of urban concentration affects this relationship. Both income inequality and urban concentration can be seen as patterns of resource allocation that are particularly interlinked at the regional level. We combine household survey data and macroeconomic databases, covering a period ranging from 2004 to 2012 for comparable regions in 15 OECD countries. Econometric results show that, at least for the short period under consideration, there is a general negative association between inequalities and economic growth, especially since the start of the economic crisis. This relationship is sensitive to the type of urban structure. Higher inequalities seem to be more detrimental for growth in large cities, while regions characterised by small cities and rural areas are less affected. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, inequality, OECD regions, urban |
| JEL: | O15 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:govaab:2014/10-en&r=ure |
| By: | Andrè Lemelin (INRS - Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique); Fernando Rubiera-Morollón (REGIOLAB - University of Oviedo); Ana Gómez-Loscos (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we put forth the view that the potential for urbanisation economies increases with interaction opportunities. On the basis of that premise, three properties are key to an agglomeration index, which should: (i) increase with the concentration of population and conform to the Pigou-Dalton transfer principle; (ii) increase with the absolute size of constituent population interaction zones; and (iii) be consistent in aggregation. Confining our attention to pairwise interactions, and invoking the space-analytic foundations of local labour market area (LLMA) delineation, we develop an index of agglomeration based on the number of interaction opportunities per capita in a geographical area. This leads to Arriaga’s mean city-population size, which is the mathematical expectation of the size of the LLMA in which a randomly chosen individual lives. The index has other important properties. It does not require an arbitrary population threshold to separate urban from non-urban areas. It adapts readily to situations where an LLMA lies partly outside the geographical area for which agglomeration is measured. Finally, it can be satisfactorily approximated when data are truncated or aggregated into size classes. We apply the index to the Spanish NUTS III regions, and evaluate its performance by examining its correlation with the location quotients of several knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) known to be highly sensitive to urbanisation economies. The Arriaga index correlations are clearly stronger than those of either the classical degree of urbanisation or the Hirshman-Herfindahl concentration index. |
| Keywords: | urban and regional economics, urbanisation, agglomeration economies, indexes and Spain |
| JEL: | R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1430&r=ure |
| By: | Elias Walsh; Albert Y. Liu; Dallas Dotter |
| Abstract: | This report describes the value-added model used as part of the state of Oklahoma's Pilot Teacher and Leader Evaluation System. |
| Keywords: | Measuring Teacher, School Value Added, Oklahoma, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:96a4bc02e74346c7895798a9c7b6d702&r=ure |
| By: | Robin Dion; Amy Dworsky; Jackie Kauff; Rebecca Kleinman |
| Keywords: | Housing, Youth Aging out of Foster Care, Family Support |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:b930407795cb42658ce31bfc394d6c5f&r=ure |
| By: | Andrea Boyle; Laura Golden; Kerstin Carlson Le Floch; Jennifer O'Day; Barbara Harris; Sarah Wissel |
| Abstract: | The Study of School Turnaround examines the improvement process in a purposive sample of 35 case study schools receiving federal funds through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program over a three-year period (2010–11 to 2012–13 school years). This brief focuses on 11 of these SIG schools with high proportions of English Language Learner (ELL) students (a median of 45 percent ELLs), describing their efforts to improve teachers’ capacity for serving ELLs through staffing strategies and professional development (PD). |
| Keywords: | Study of School Turnaround, School Improvement Grants (SIG), English Language Learner (ELL), ELL sample, data collection, analytic methods; teacher capacity for serving ELLs, teacher hiring practices, teacher assignment practices, professional development, teacher participation in ELL-related PD, teacher survey, teacher effectiveness |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:a818b4c8b2d745fe880d7547c78d1c4f&r=ure |
| By: | Kerstin Carlson Le Floch; Beatrice Birman; Jennifer O'Day; Steven Hurlburt; Diana Mercado-Garcia; Rose Goff; Karen Manship; Seth Brown; Susan Bowles Therriault; Linda Rosenberg; Megan Hague Angus; Lara Hulsey |
| Keywords: | School Improvement Grants, SIG, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:f221de629b1e4e61ae2e50efbb464ca1&r=ure |
| By: | Ron Zimmer; Brian Gill; Jonathon Attridge; Kaitlin Obenauf |
| Abstract: | This paper uses individual student-level data from Ohio–which permits a wide range of organizations to authorize charter schools—to examine the relationship between type of authorizer and charter-school effectiveness, as measured by students’ achievement trajectories. |
| Keywords: | Charter School, Authorizers, Student Achievement, High-Performing Schools, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:6e4664294f7341868c9a7814259821f3&r=ure |
| By: | Ira Nichols-Barrer Joshua Haimson |
| Abstract: | In the first rigorous study of the impacts of Expeditionary Learning (EL) model schools, Mathematica found that EL middle school students perform better in reading and math than their counterparts in other public schools. |
| Keywords: | Expeditionary Learning, Middle Schools, Academic Achievement, Education , EL |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:e4330aa3795e4e87a89ea4b5296e5d65&r=ure |
| By: | Laura Golden; Barbara Harris; Diana Mercado-Garcia; Andrea Boyle; Kerstin Carlson Le Floch; Jennifer O'Day |
| Keywords: | SIG, School Improvement Grants, English Language Learners, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:e5fe54b6ac0e4a8fbb5a7b34224896e1&r=ure |
| By: | Robin Dion Amy Dworsky |
| Keywords: | Housing, Youth Aging out of Foster Care, Family Support |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:08ce777199864f8a93fae257dee20388&r=ure |
| By: | Christina Clark Tuttle; Brian Gill; Philip Gleason; Virginia Knechtel; Ira Nichols-Barrer; Alexandra Resch |
| Abstract: | This report shows that Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) middle schools have significant and substantial positive impacts on student achievement in four core academic subjects: reading, math, science, and social studies. One of the report’s analyses confirms the positive impacts using a rigorous randomized experimental analysis that relies on the schools’ admissions lotteries to identify comparison students, thereby accounting for students’ prior achievement, as well as factors such as student and parent motivation. The latest findings from Mathematica’s multiyear study of KIPP middle schools, the report is the most rigorous large-scale evaluation of KIPP charter schools to date, covering 43 KIPP middle schools in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Student outcomes examined included state test results in reading and math, test scores in science and social studies, results on a nationally normed assessment that includes measures of higher-order thinking, and behaviors reported by students and parents. |
| Keywords: | KIPP Middle Schools Achievement Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:4e2030d4eef1429395a8dd45790a1021&r=ure |
| By: | Gordey A. Yasterbov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Alexey R. Bessudnov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Marina A. Pinskaya (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Sergey G. Kosaretsky (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on how social contexts promote disparities in academic performance between Russian high schools. In particular, we investigate how a school’s average Unified State Examination (USE) scores in Russian and mathematics relate to the social composition of its student body, its material and human resources, and local deprivation. We develop a two-level hierarchical regression model to analyze data from school profiles collected in two Russian regions (Yaroslavskaya Oblast’ and Moskovskaya Oblast’) during the 2011-12 academic year. Both social characteristics of the student body and the school’s material and human resources were associated with academic performance. However, after controlling for the characteristics of pupils and schools, our study did not discover any significant independent effects of the local context. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings with regard to developing contextualized measures of academic performance in Russia, the limitations of current research and suggest several possibilities for its empirical development |
| Keywords: | school context, school resources, local deprivation, academic performance, educational inequality |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:55/soc/2014&r=ure |
| By: | Jorda, Oscar (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco); Schularick, Moritz (Department of Economics, University of Bonn); Taylor, Alan M. (Department of Economics, University of California,Davis) |
| Abstract: | Is there a link between loose monetary conditions, credit growth, house price booms, and financial instability? This paper analyzes the role of interest rates and credit in driving house price booms and busts with data spanning 140 years of modern economic history in the advanced economies. We exploit the implications of the macroeconomic policy trilemma to identify exogenous variation in monetary conditions: countries with fixed exchange regimes often see fluctuations in short-term interest rates unrelated to home economic conditions. We use novel instrumental variable local projection methods to demonstrate that loose monetary conditions lead to booms in real estate lending and house prices bubbles; these, in turn, materially heighten the risk of financial crises. Both effects have become stronger in the postwar era. |
| JEL: | C14 C38 E32 E37 E42 E44 E51 E52 F41 G01 G21 N10 N20 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2014-28&r=ure |
| By: | Joseph G. Altonji; Richard K. Mansfield |
| Abstract: | We consider the classic problem of estimating group treatment effects when individuals sort based on observed and unobserved characteristics that affect the outcome. Using a standard choice model, we show that controlling for group averages of observed individual characteristics potentially absorbs all the across-group variation in unobservable individual characteristics. We use this insight to bound the treatment effect variance of school systems and associated neighborhoods for various outcomes. Across four datasets, our most conservative estimates indicate that a 90th versus 10th percentile school system increases the high school graduation probability by between 0.047 and 0.085 and increases the college enrollment probability by between 0.11 and 0.13. We also find large effects on adult earnings. We discuss a number of other applications of our methodology, including measurement of teacher value-added. |
| JEL: | C20 I20 I24 R20 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20781&r=ure |
| By: | Kevin Booker; Brian Gill; Tim Sass; Ron Zimmer |
| Abstract: | This working paper discusses a new analysis, using data from Florida and Chicago, suggesting that charter high schools are not only increasing postsecondary educational attainment but may also boost students' long-run earnings. |
| Keywords: | Charter High Schools Educational Attainment, Earnings Student Achievement Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:cfe561a4b1924b7eafb64f9180060014&r=ure |
| By: | Brian Gill; Brittany English; Joshua Furgeson; Moira McCullough |
| Abstract: | This study describes how eight early-adopting school districts are using two types of alternative measures for assessing teacher effectiveness: value-added models that use the results of end-of-course assessments or commercially available tests in statistical growth models instead of typical state assessments, and student learning objectives, which are determined by individual teachers, approved by principals, and used in evaluations that do not involve sophisticated statistical modeling. The districts' experiences can be used by other states and districts to decide whether and how to implement these measures. |
| Keywords: | Alternative Student Growth Measures, Teacher Evaluation, School Districts, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:75a6f8ad56364762acf38c648e42c81d&r=ure |
| By: | Mariesa Herrmann; Lisa Dragoset; Susanne James-Burdumy |
| Abstract: | This issue brief from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of SIG for the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, sheds light on which individual SIG practices (and what combinations of practices) low-performing schools adopted. |
| Keywords: | Low-Performing Schools, School Improvement Grants, SIG Practices, Education, School Reform |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:94f9f9f18caf43869f0a6c45872070a8&r=ure |
| By: | Nicoletti, Cheti (University of York); Rabe, Birgitta (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data on schools in England, we estimate an education production model of cognitive skills at the end of secondary school. We provide empirical evidence of self-productivity of skills and of complementarity between secondary school inputs and skills at the end of primary school. Our inference relies on idiosyncratic variation in school expenditure and child fixed effect estimation that controls for the endogeneity of past skills. The persistence in cognitive ability is 0.221 and the return to school expenditure is three times higher for students at the top of the past attainment distribution than for those at the bottom. |
| Keywords: | education production function, test scores, school quality, complementarity |
| JEL: | I22 I24 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8693&r=ure |
| By: | Giovanna Messina (Bank of Italy); Marco Savegnago (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The paper traces recent developments in local real estate taxation in Italy. We exploit a rich dataset at both aggregate and individual level to estimate the variation in local taxes on first homes in the last three years and the redistributive impact of the adoption of the tax on indivisible services in 2014. Local property taxes on first homes average one fifth lower in 2014 than in 2012; including waste disposal taxes, the overall local fiscal burden remains broadly stable. However, taxation bears more heavily on lower-income households, owing to decreased allowance for tax deductions. To conclude, the paper examines possible future local property tax reform measures (keeping total revenue constant) to enhance transparency and equity. |
| Keywords: | property taxes, local taxes, redistribution |
| JEL: | H71 H23 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_250_14&r=ure |
| By: | Melissa Clark; Sheena McConnell; Jill Constantine; Hanley Chiang |
| Keywords: | Teacher effectiveness, teacher shortages, alternative routes to certification Teach For America Teaching Fellows programs random assignment, impact evaluation |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:feaf2ae566c548e1a93ca9bb75c19e64&r=ure |
| By: | Various authors |
| Abstract: | A growing focus on turning around the nation’s struggling schools has led the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to invest heavily in grants to states, including the School Improvement Grant (SIG) and Race to the Top (RTT) programs. Mathematica collected and compared data from low-performing schools that implemented one of four SIG-funded intervention models with data from similar schools that did not. |
| Keywords: | SIG, School Improvement Grants, Race to the Top , Education, RTT, school turnaround |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:fc1972851d204fb494c98a0864224e14&r=ure |
| By: | Eric Isenberg; Bing-ru Teh; Elias Walsh |
| Abstract: | This working paper compares teacher/student links that have undergone a roster confirmation process—whereby teachers verify the subjects and students they taught—to teacher/student links from unconfirmed administrative data. Due to the departmentalization of instruction in math and reading/English language arts in grades 4 and 5, about one in six teachers in these grades and subjects is linked in the unconfirmed data to a subject that he or she does not teach. The authors discuss the circumstances in which using unconfirmed teacher/student links in value-added models most affect research. |
| Keywords: | Elementary, School Data Issues, Implications for Research, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7f1382d01d9a40d9b2aad7d09faa8213&r=ure |
| By: | Peter Z. Schochet Hanley S. Chiang |
| Abstract: | This article addresses likely error rates for measuring teacher and school performance in the upper elementary grades using value-added models applied to student test score gain data. Using formulas based on ordinary least squares and empirical Bayes estimators, error rates for comparing a teacher’s performance to the average are likely to be about 25 percent with three years of data and 35 percent with one year of data. Corresponding error rates for overall false positive and negative errors are 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively. The results suggest that policymakers must carefully consider likely system error rates when using value-added estimates to make high-stakes decisions regarding educators. |
| Keywords: | Value-Added Models, Performance Measurement Systems, Student Learning Gains, False Positive and Negative Error Rates , Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:8cc459dd9c574c3d832ed4182a49da06&r=ure |
| By: | Balland, Pierre-Alexandre (Department of Economic Geography Utrecht University and Center for Innovation and Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University); Rigby, David (Departments of Geography and Statistics, University of California Los Angeles); Boschma, Ron (Center for Innovation and Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University and Utrecht University, Urban and Regional research centre Utrecht (URU)) |
| Abstract: | We study the resilience of cities by analyzing their capacity to sustain the production of technology when facing adverse events. Patent applications for 366 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas, spanning the period 1975 to 2002, are used to analyze the vulnerability and response of cities to technological crises. Crises are defined as periods of sustained negative growth in patenting activity. We find that the frequency, intensity and duration of technological crises vary considerably across American cities. We examine how the technological knowledge bases of cities, their network openness and institutional environment condition resilience. Econometric analysis suggests that cities with knowledge bases that are diverse, flexible and proximate to technologies in which they do not currently possess comparative advantage tend to avoid technological crises, have limited downturns in patent production and recover faster from crisis events. |
| Keywords: | Urban resilience; technological crisis; related knowledge structure; institutions; inter-city networks |
| JEL: | D83 L65 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–12–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_032&r=ure |
| By: | Elias Walsh Eric Isenberg |
| Abstract: | This working paper compares teacher evaluation scores from a typical value-added model with results from the Colorado Growth Model (CGM) and finds that use of the CGM in place of a value-added model depresses the evaluation scores for teachers with more English language learner students and increases the evaluation scores for teachers of low-achieving students. |
| Keywords: | Colorado, Value-Added Growth Model, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:e703eea3252e43d39fee791e5b7b8585&r=ure |
| By: | Mellander, Charlotta (Jönköping International Business School, Martin Prosperity Institute, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)); Stolarick, Kevin (Urban Studies, University of Toronto); Lobo, José (School of Sustainability, Arizona State University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects on individuals’ productivity (captured through their wage income) of two social networks in which individuals are embedded: their residential neighborhood and their workplace. We avail ourselves of Swedish micro-level data which makes it possible to identify individual workers, and who they live next to and work with. We vary the spatial extent of the non-workplace social networkfrom block group to the whole of a metropolitan areato examine which social community most affects an individual’s productivity. We distinguish between individuals engaged in “creative” and “non creative” occupations so as to starkly control for differences in education, training and skills. Our results suggest that residential neighborhoods do matter for individuals’ productivity, although the effect is stronger for noncreatives. For both creatives and noncreatives their workplace group has the greatest effect on income. |
| Keywords: | network effects; neighborhood; productivity; workplace; creative occupations |
| JEL: | J10 R20 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0386&r=ure |
| By: | Manniche , Jesper (Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (CRT), Bornholm, Denmark); Moodysson , Jerker (Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University, Sweden); Testa , Stefania (Polytechnic School, University of Genova, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper has three aims. Firstly, to provide a critical review of previous conceptualizations of the knowledge base approach in the research fields of innovation studies and economic geography. Secondly, to propose a broadened interpretation of the knowledge base approach which allows for considering combinatorial knowledge bases within and across industries, regions and time periods and for analytically integrating the cognitive, organizational and spatial dimensions of innovation and learning. Thirdly, to provide methodological suggestions for how to apply such broadened interpretation of the knowledge base approach in empirical innovation studies, regardless of industrial, geographical or temporal context. The paper thereby dismisses the wide-spread taxonomical application of knowledge base conceptualizations in innovation studies and economic geography for classification of firms, industries and economies into fixed categories based on their knowledge base characteristics. Instead it proposes a typological approach and a conceptual and methodological basis for explaining the shifting dynamics of innovation processes in firms, industries and economies. In addition to highlighting limitations and strengths of the knowledge base approach, the paper thus targets investigation of unexploited potentials of knowledge base conceptualizations and provides suggestions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Biographies; economic geography; innovation; knowledge; learning |
| JEL: | L20 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_028&r=ure |
| By: | Steven Glazerman; Ali Protik; Bing-ru Teh; Julie Bruch; Jeffrey Max |
| Abstract: | This report looks at the Talent Transfer Initiative, which offers a $20,000 incentive to high-performing teachers to move to low-performing schools. The intervention had positive effects on student test scores in math and reading in elementary schools—the equivalent of a 4 to 10 percentile point increase. |
| Keywords: | transfer incentives randomized controlled trial teacher effectiveness value added |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:4269bc8810414c8a8f64d3c36fde8211&r=ure |
| By: | Elias Walsh Dallas Dotter |
| Abstract: | To determine how the strategy of replacing principals affected student achievement in D.C. Public Schools, the Walton Family Foundation contracted with Mathematica Policy Research. The resulting study is the first to examine the impact of such a strategy on student achievement. |
| Keywords: | Principals, Student Achievement, DC Public Schools, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:c84ecd86d13e4c82922c246d40bc8af7&r=ure |
| By: | Margaret Hargreaves; Vanessa Oddo; Lindsey Stillman; Jonathan Sherwood; Steven Sullivan |
| Abstract: | In a project for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Mathematica and our partners at Cloudburst analyzed current federal (Health Resources and Services Administration and Housing and Urban Development) HIV housing assistance services data and best practices integrating HIV housing and health care services. This report includes a quantitative study of the costs, utilization, and outcomes of current federal HIV housing assistance services and a qualitative study of innovative programs integrating housing assistance with HIV care. It also suggests opportunities for improvement. |
| Keywords: | HIV Care, Housing, Ryan White Program, HOPWA Program |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:2313e87b865c45c49a5de408f35af028&r=ure |
| By: | Elul, Ronel (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Silverstein, Joseph M. (University of Pennsylvania); Stark, Tom (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | Residential house price indexes (HPI) are used for a large variety of macroeconomic and microeconomic research and policy purposes, as well as for automated valuation models. As is well known, these indexes are subject to substantial revisions in the months following the initial release, both because transaction data can be slow to come in, and as a consequence of the repeat sales methodology, which interpolates the effect of sales over the entire period since the house last changed hands. We study the properties of the revisions to the CoreLogic House Price Index. This index is used both by researchers and in the Financial Accounts of the United States to compute the value of residential real estate. We show that the magnitude of revisions to this index can be significant: At the national level, the ratio of standard deviation of monthly revisions to the growth rate of the index, relative to the standard deviation of the growth rate in the index, is 29%, which is comparable to the relative ratio for other macroeconomic series. The revisions are also economically significant and impact measures used by policymakers: Revisions over the first 12 releases of the index reduce estimates of the fraction of borrowers nationwide with negative equity by 4.3%, corresponding to 423,000 households. Lastly, we find that revisions are ex-ante predictable: Both past revisions and past house price appreciation are negatively correlated with future revisions. |
| Keywords: | House Price Index; Data Revisions; Real-Time Data |
| JEL: | R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2014–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:14-38&r=ure |
| By: | Alexandra Resch Eric Isenberg |
| Abstract: | Some educators are concerned that students with test scores at the bottom or top of the test score distribution will negatively affect the value-added estimates of teachers of those students. |
| Keywords: | Test Scores, Value-Added, Estimates, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:80fbbeb5dd504dbab6c51e4d8b401fb1&r=ure |
| By: | Chakraborty, Tanika (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur); Nottmeyer, Olga (IZA); Schüller, Simone (IRVAPP); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Estimating the effect of 'ethnic capital' on human capital investment decisions is complicated by the endogeneity of location choice of immigrants and the reflection problem. We exploit a rare immigrant settlement policy in Germany to identify the causal impact of parental peer-heterogeneity on the educational outcomes of their children. To identify the direction of peer effect we restrict to no-child-adult-peers who completed their education much before the children in our sample of interest. We find that children of low-educated parents benefit significantly from the presence of high-educated neighbors, with more pronounced effects in more polarized neighborhoods and significant gender heterogeneity. In contrast, we do not find any negative influence coming from the low-educated neighbors. Our estimates are robust to a range of flexible peer definitions. Overall, the findings suggest an increase in parental aspirations as the possible mechanism rather than a direct child-to-child peer effect. |
| Keywords: | education, ethnic capital, Germany, immigrant, peer effects, policy experiment |
| JEL: | R23 J15 I21 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8695&r=ure |
| By: | Ariun Ishdorj; Mary Kay Crepinsek; Helen H. Jensen |
| Abstract: | On an average school day, school lunch participants consume more fruits and vegetables, including relatively more at school and less away from school compared to nonparticipants. |
| Keywords: | Censoring, Endogeneity, Food Assistance, Fruits and Vegetables, National School Lunch Program , NSLP, Nutrition |
| JEL: | I0 I1 |
| Date: | 2013–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:aed0e856bd204a52abb8ef67e0c7478c&r=ure |
| By: | Pitchayaporn Tantihkarnchana; Gregmar Galinato (School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University) |
| Abstract: | This article estimates the amenity value from climate change by analyzing the effect of climatic variables on house prices near ski resorts in different regions in the United States using a hedonic model. We find that higher average winter temperatures tend to increase house price near ski resorts at a decreasing rate. Using the implicit value of average winter temperature, we estimate its demand and find that the crossing point temperature, where the homeowner’s consumer surplus from average winter temperature moves from positive to negative, varies in each region. The highest crossing point temperature is in the Western region at 46ºF and lowest is in the Midwest at 8ºF. The consumer surplus from average winter temperature for the median home owner is negative in the Midwest and Northeastern regions where the crossing point temperatures are lowest and it is positive for the West and Mountain regions where the crossing point temperatures are highest. |
| Keywords: | climate change; house price; ski resort; amenity value; hedonic price |
| JEL: | Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsu:wpaper:galinato-13&r=ure |
| By: | Alexander Kihm; Nolan Ritter; Colin Vance |
| Abstract: | We explore whether non-competitive pricing prevails in Germany’s retail gasoline market by examining the influence of the crude oil price on the retail gasoline price, focusing specifically on how this influence varies according to the brand and to the degree of competition in the vicinity of the station. Our analysis identifies several factors other than cost – including the absence of nearby competitors and regional market concentration – that play a significant role in mediating the influence of the oil price on the retail gas price, suggesting price setting power among stations. |
| Keywords: | Panel data; quantile regression; spatial competition; gasoline market |
| JEL: | C33 Q41 R41 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0522&r=ure |
| By: | Menno Pradhan; Daniel Suryadarma; Amanda Beatty; Maisy Wong; Arya Gaduh; Armida Alisjahbana; Rima Prama Artha |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the effect of four randomized interventions aimed at strengthening school committees, and subsequently improving learning outcomes, in public primary schools in Indonesia. |
| Keywords: | Educational Quality, Indonesia, Randomized Field Experiment |
| JEL: | F Z |
| Date: | 2013–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:38bc71ea32554aa5b9eb77b3a45bc4d0&r=ure |
| By: | Mariesa Herrmann; Elias Walsh; Eric Isenberg; Alexandra Resch |
| Abstract: | This working paper investigates how empirical Bayes shrinkage, an approach commonly used in implementing teacher accountability systems, affects the value-added estimates of teachers of students with hard-to-predict achievement levels, such as students who have low prior achievement and receive free lunch. Teachers of these students tend to have less precise value-added estimates than teachers of other types of students. Shrinkage increases their estimates’ precision and reduces the absolute value of their value-added estimates. However, this paper found shrinkage has no statistically significant effect on the relative probability that teachers of hard-to-predict students receive value-added estimates that fall in the extremes of the value-added distribution and, as a result, receive consequences in the accountability system. |
| Keywords: | Value-Added , Estimates , Students , Achievement |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:2b140369be0242ac83eeb5b0afea95da&r=ure |
| By: | Olessia Y. Koltsova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Sergei N. Koltcov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Following the discussion on the role of Internet in the formation of ties across space, this paper seeks to supplement recent findings on location-dependent preferential attachment online. For this purpose, instead of looking at egonetworks, we look at networks of online communities specifically aimed at development of location-independent ties. The paper focuses on professional communities of software developers. The data are obtained automatically from the VKontakte social networking site. Evidence suggests that membership, friendship, commenting and liking ties are overwhelmingly cross-city |
| Keywords: | Internet, SNS, professional communities, cross-distance ties, networks, SNA |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:57/soc/2014&r=ure |
| By: | Kristin Hallgren; Susanne James-Burdumy; Irma Perez-Johnson |
| Keywords: | Race to the Top, State Improvement Grants, Teacher Evaluation, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:d1012c2540154111af1dcc06ca2bcce3&r=ure |
| By: | Fallesen, Peter (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit); Geerdsen, Lars Pico (Kraks Fond); Imai, Susumu (University of Technology, Sydney); Tranæs, Torben (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we estimate the effect of workfare policy on crime by exploiting two exogenous welfare policy changes in Denmark. Our results show a strong decline in the crime rate among treated unemployment uninsured men relative to untreated uninsured and unemployment insured men, and part of this decline can be identified as a direct effect of workfare participation. Moreover, we find that criminal activity was also reduced during weekends, when the workfare programs were closed, allowing us to distinguishing the pure program effect from the incapacitation effect. These results imply a strong and potentially lasting crime reducing effect of workfare policy. |
| Keywords: | crime reduction, difference-in-differences, policy experiment, secondary effects, workfare policy, workfare and crime, unemployment and crime |
| JEL: | I38 K42 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8716&r=ure |
| By: | Ankita Mishra; Jaai Parasnis |
| Abstract: | Individual fertility preference is influenced by observed social norms. The present paper estimates the effect of the observed fertility of peers on a woman’s fertility preference. We find that both neighbourhood peers and religious peers have a significant impact on individual fertility preferences, but their relative importance changes with family size. An increase in peer fertility increases the probability of preferring more children. While women’s fertility preferences conform to the changes in observed fertility of their peers, education plays an important role in moderating peer effects. Our results contribute to the understanding of peer effects in fertility as well as possible policy responses. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, multinomial logit, fertility, India, education, wealth status |
| JEL: | D12 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2014-34&r=ure |
| By: | Wapler, Rüdiger (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Werner, Daniel (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wolf, Katja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Active labour-market policy (ALMP) not only affects the labour-market success of participants. Due to indirect effects, they might also affect the job perspectives of non-participants. Hence, even if ALMP programmes have a positive effect for the participants, this does not mean that ALMP improves the labour-market situation as a whole. Therefore, this paper deals with the question whether ALMP improves the matching-process between job-seekers and vacancies and thus increases the total number of outflows from unemployment into employment at the regional level. To answer this question, we use data for local employment offices of the German Federal Employment Agency for the time period 2006 to 2010 and focus on job-seekers subject to unemployment insurance. As microeconometric evaluation studies show, the search effectiveness of programme participants is low during participation due to the lock-in effect, but ideally increases at the end of the programme. In contrast to previous studies on aggregate effects of ALMP, we take this into account and explicitly differentiate current and former programme participants. The result from our augmented matching function shows that the lock-in effect is also present on the regional level. However, a higher search effectiveness after completion of the programme is not outweighed by potential indirect effects on non-participants. A higher share of former programme participants among the job-seekers in a region leads to an increase of the regional matches. This findings show that the application of ALMP improves the regional matching process. However, this effect varies largely between different types of programmes. Positive effects occur for long-term vocational training and wage subsidies as well as for in-firm training measures. Further, our results show that the effect of the different programme types depends to some extent on the regional labour-market situation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitsmarktpolitik - Auswirkungen, Arbeitsuche, Arbeitsuchende, Arbeitslose, matching, offene Stellen, berufliche Reintegration, Teilnehmer, arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme, regionaler Arbeitsmarkt, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien |
| JEL: | C23 H43 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2014–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201428&r=ure |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia; Chao Fu; Maia Güell |
| Abstract: | An important debate centers on what procedure should be used to allocate students across public schools. We contribute to this debate by developing and estimating a model of school choices by households under one of the most popular procedures known as the Boston mechanism (BM). We recover the joint distribution of household preferences and sophistication types using administrative data from Barcelona. Our counterfactual policy analyses show that a change from BM to the Gale-Shapley student deferred acceptance mechanism would create more losers than winners, while a change from BM to the top trading cycles mechanism has the opposite effect. |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2014-21&r=ure |
| By: | Arik Levinson |
| Abstract: | Construction codes that regulate the energy efficiency of new buildings have been a centerpiece of US environmental policy for 40 years. California enacted the nation’s first energy building codes in 1978, and they were projected to reduce residential energy use—and associated pollution—by 80 percent. How effective have the building codes been? I take three approaches to answering that question. First, I compare current electricity use by California homes of different vintages constructed under different standards, controlling for home size, local weather, and tenant characteristics. Second, I examine how electricity in California homes varies with outdoor temperatures for buildings of different vintages. And third, I compare electricity use for buildings of different vintages in California, which has stringent building energy codes, to electricity use for buildings of different vintages in other states. All three approaches yield the same answer: there is no evidence that homes constructed since California instituted its building energy codes use less electricity today than homes built before the codes came into effect. |
| JEL: | Q48 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20797&r=ure |
| By: | Doerner, William; Ihlanfeldt, Keith |
| Abstract: | Property tax appeals have increased dramatically at significant cost to local governments. Little is known about whether or how well the appeals process resolves potential assessment errors. This paper investigates the efficiency and equity of this process. Regarding the efficiency of correcting assessment error, reductions are granted for a majority of appealing homeowners who are overassessed but also for homeowners who are not overassessed, leaving them underassessed or further underassessed. Regarding the fairness of the appeals process, homeowners from particular neighborhoods receive assessment reductions more often. Tax representatives play an important role in explaining the advantage enjoyed by these homeowners. |
| Keywords: | appeal; property tax; assessment error |
| JEL: | D70 H20 P48 R30 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61035&r=ure |
| By: | Doerner, William; Ihlanfeldt, Keith |
| Abstract: | Property tax appeals provide property owners with a mechanism to challenge their assessments and reduce their property tax bill. Appeals are frequently filed not by the homeowner but by a tax representative who often works on their behalf for a contingency fee. Using appeals from Miami-Dade County, Florida, we find that representatives have a greater presence in higher-priced neighborhoods, which makes these homeowners more likely to appeal than those in lower-priced neighborhoods, and representatives increase the percentage reduction in assessed value, but only because they increase the likelihood that appellants show up for the appeal hearings. |
| Keywords: | tax appeal; tax representative; property tax |
| JEL: | H20 H26 H70 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61019&r=ure |
| By: | Ozden, Caglar (World Bank); Parsons, Christopher (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | We exploit the bilateral and skill dimensions from recent data sets of international migration to test for the existence of Zipf's and Gibrat's Laws in the context of aggregate and high-skilled international immigration and emigration using graphical, parametric and non-parametric analysis. The top tails of the distributions of aggregate and high-skilled immigrants and emigrants adhere to a Pareto distribution with an exponent of unity i.e. Zipf's Law holds. We find some evidence in favour of Gibrat's Law holding for immigration stocks, i.e. that the growth in stocks is independent of their initial values and stronger evidence that immigration densities are diverging over time. Conversely, emigrant stocks are converging in the sense that countries with smaller emigrant stocks are growing faster than their larger sovereign counterparts. Lastly, high skilled immigration and emigration stocks expressed in levels or as densities all exhibit signs of convergence. We conclude by discussing some competing mechanisms that could be driving the observed patterns including: differing fertility rates, reductions in emigration restrictions, migrant sorting and selective immigration policies, immigrant networks and persisting wage differentials. |
| Keywords: | Zipf's Law, Gibrat's Law, international migration |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8747&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre Deschamps (Département d'économie); José de Sousa (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the impact of labor mobility on racial discrimination. We present an equilibrium search model that reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between labor mobility and race-based wage differentials. We explore this relationship empirically with an exogenous mobility shock on the European soccer labor market. The Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice in 1995 lifted restrictions on soccer player mobility. Using a panel of all clubs in the English first division from 1981 to 2008, we compare the pre- and post-Bosman ruling market to identify the causal effect of intensified mobility on race-based wage differentials. Consistent with a taste-based explanation, we find evidence that increasing labor market mobility decreases racial discrimination. |
| Keywords: | Labor market; discrimination; discrimination; mobility; soccer; football; mobilité; marché du travail; equilibrium search model |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6ftmcu468j8a49bft2hrpi6uql&r=ure |