|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Christoph Basten (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ); Maximilian von Ehrlich (University of Berne, Switzerland ); Andrea Lassmann (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides novel evidence on the role of income taxes for residential rents and spatial sorting. Drawing on comprehensive apartment-level data, we identify the effects of tax differentials across municipal boundaries in Switzerland. The boundary discontinuity design (BDD) corrects for unobservable location characteristics such as environmental amenities or the access to public goods and thereby reduces the estimated response of housing prices by one half compared to conventional estimates: we identify an income tax elasticity of rents of about 0.26. We complement this approach with census data on local sociodemographic characteristics and show that about one third of this effect can be traced back to a sorting of high-income households into low-tax municipalities. These findings are robust to a matching approach (MBDD) which compares identical residences on opposite sides of the boundary and a number of further sensitivity checks. |
| Keywords: | Local taxation, income taxation, housing prices, income sorting, boundary discontinuity design, spatial differencing |
| JEL: | H71 H24 R21 R38 C14 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:14-362&r=ure |
| By: | Tanaka, Kiyoyasu ; Hashiguchi, Yoshihiro |
| Abstract: | The presence of a large informal sector in developing economies poses the question of whether informal activity produces agglomeration externalities. This paper uses data on all the nonfarm establishments and enterprises in Cambodia to estimate the impact of informal agglomeration on the regional economic performance of formal and informal firms. We develop a Bayesian approach for a spatial autoregressive model with an endogenous explanatory variable to address endogeneity and spatial dependence. We find a significantly positive effect of informal agglomeration, where informal firms gain more strongly than formal firms. Calculating the spatial marginal effects of increased agglomeration, we demonstrate that more accessible regions are more likely than less accessible regions to benefit strongly from informal agglomeration. |
| Keywords: | Cambodia, Informal sector, Economic conditions, Agglomeration, Bayesian |
| JEL: | C11 C21 H26 O17 R12 C26 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper495&r=ure |
| By: | Qu FENG (Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332 ); Guiying Laura WU (Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332 ) |
| Abstract: | Rapid house price growth and high price-to-income ratio in major Chinese cities have aroused a hot debate on whether there is an asset bubble in China's residential housing market. To investigate this question, we employ an equilibrium asset-pricing approach, which suggests an non-arbitrage condition on the rent-to-price ratio. This ratio should be equal to the difference between the user cost of housing capital and the expected appreciation in house prices. Using a novel micro-level data set on pair-wise matched price-to-rent ratio collected in the fourth quarter of 2013, and forecasting the expected house price appreciation based on fundamental factors, our empirical exercises do not suggest the existence of a house price bubble at the national level. However, this conclusion highly depends on the expected income growth rate and may not apply to individual markets. |
| Keywords: | House Prices, Asset Pricing Approach, Rent-to-Price Ratio |
| JEL: | R21 G12 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nan:wpaper:1501&r=ure |
| By: | Arauzo Carod, Josep Maria |
| Abstract: | The spatial distribution of economic activity has often been analysed for wide geographical areas such as regions or metropolitan areas, but it has rarely been subject to microanalysis, especially outside the U.S. In this paper we focus on what happens within a large European city (Par is), and analyse how the industrial composition of its districts differs and how these districts evolve. We also analyse suburbanization process for both residents and the workforce and provide empirical evidence about the changing roles of the core and intramuros periphery. Keywords: agglomeration, suburbanization, Paris, micropolitan analysis |
| Keywords: | París (França) -- Condicions econòmiques, Localització industrial, 332 - Economia regional i territorial. Economia del sòl i de la vivenda, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/246965&r=ure |
| By: | Sedita , Silvia Rita (University of Padova, Department of Economics and Management ); de Noni , Ivan (University of Milan, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods ); Pilotti , Luciano (University of Milan, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods ) |
| Abstract: | This contribution attempts to systematize some first evidence on the sustainability and resilience of local production systems in the economic recession and first hypothetical phases of recovery, 2007 to 2013, focusing on the role played by diversified economy, related and unrelated variety and differentiated knowledge bases, as drivers for territorial resilience. The results confirm the importance of related variety to growth and stability during recessions and support the creative capacity of culture, providing evidence that a moderate concentration in cultural/creative economic activities contributes to resilience and that industrial districts and international development play a positive role. |
| Keywords: | Regional economic growth; industrial districts; sustainability; creative capacity of culture; resilience |
| JEL: | O18 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_004&r=ure |
| By: | Joshua K. Abbott ; H. Allen Klaiber ; V. Kerry Smith |
| Abstract: | Urban ecologists have extended the bounds of this field to incorporate both the effects of human activities on ecological processes (e.g., humans as generators of disturbances), and the ways in which the structures, functions, and processes of urban ecosystems, and human alterations to them, in turn alter people’s behavior. This feedback loop from the perspective of urban ecologists offers a natural connection to economic models for human behavior. At their core, housing markets reveal price signals that communicate to developers the tradeoffs consumers are willing to make for the private characteristics of homes and the attributes of the neighborhoods where they are located. These signals together with local land use rules guide the location of development. The characteristics of this development in turn influence the functioning and evolution of urban ecosystems. This paper describes markets as coordination mechanisms and conveyors of information from a complex adaptive systems perspective. It also discusses the way in which physical and biological processes, infrastructural boundaries, and the institutional equivalent of “barbed wire” all simultaneously act to shape the transmission of ecosystem services over the landscape. These processes alter the spatial distribution of housing prices in ways that are both continuous and discrete. |
| JEL: | Q20 Q51 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20959&r=ure |
| By: | Johanna Lacoe Ingrid Gould Ellen |
| Abstract: | The evidence supports the three main theoretical mechanisms that link foreclosure activity to local crime. The investigation of the relationship by crime location suggests that foreclosures change the relative attractiveness of indoor and outdoor locations for crime commission on the blockface. |
| Keywords: | communities and crime, causes/correlates, crime, policy, routine activity theory, criminological theory, social disorganization |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:93858cf01b5a4446b4060d29fddc766c&r=ure |
| By: | Luis Franjo (Chair of International Finance, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland ) |
| Abstract: | Current account deficits and housing prices showed a strong positive correlation throughout the mid-90s to 2007. This paper studies the effect of a decrease in the international interest rate and in the downpayment requirement to buy a house during that period on the joint behavior of the current account and housing prices. To this end, I build a small open economy model with life-cycle heterogeneous agents and two goods: tradable (non-housing) and non-tradable (housing). I calibrate the model to replicate selected aggregate statistics of the U.S. economy and compute the transition after the decrease in the interest rate and in the downpayment. The model is able to match some relevant facts: the boom and the bust (after 2007) in the housing market, where the bust, as the data show, occurs without a reversal in the interest rate; the increase in the homeownership rate; the simultaneous boom - and bust - in non-housing consumption; and the coexistence of borrowing from abroad with a current account deficit throughout the transition. |
| Keywords: | Current account, housing prices, debt, non-housing consumption, home-ownership, collateralized borrowing constraints. |
| JEL: | E21 F41 G11 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cif:wpaper:201501&r=ure |
| By: | Ben Ansell ; Lawrence Broz |
| Abstract: | In recent years, global imbalances have channeled the excess savings of surplus countries toward the real estate markets of deficit countries. By consequence, the deficit countries that attracted lots of foreign capital experienced large run-ups in house prices while the surplus countries that exported capital exhibited flat or slow house price growth. We argue that international capital flows affect the fiscal policy preferences of both voters and political parties by way of their impact on housing prices. Where capital inflows are large and housing prices are rising, we expect voters to respond by demanding both lower taxes and less publicly-provided social insurance. This is because rising house prices allow homeowners to “self insure” against income losses due to unemployment, illness, and old age. We present survey evidence that supports this claim. Furthermore, we find that responses to house prices are mirrored in capital exporting countries: households become more supportive of both taxes and social insurance as home prices remain flat or decline. Finally, we show that political parties are the mechanisms through which the fiscal preferences of households find policy expression. Taxes and social insurance spending tend to fall (rise) where the right (left) is in power and capital inflows are driving up housing prices. In capital exporting nations, by contrast, we find an attenuation of these partisan fiscal policy outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Sovereign Default; Debt Crises; Political Survival; Networks; Voter Behavior. |
| JEL: | R21 |
| Date: | 2015–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:60930&r=ure |
| By: | Hallissey, Niamh (Central Bank of Ireland ) |
| Abstract: | The Central Bank of Ireland consultation paper on macro-prudential policy for residential real estate asked whether adequately insured mortgages should be exempt from the proposed loan-to-value (LTV) limit. An exemption for insured mortgages could alleviate the liquidity constraints associated with a LTV cap, particularly for first-time buyers. However, such an exemption could also reduce the effectiveness of a LTV cap in dampening the pro-cyclicality of property lending. Mortgage insurance is used in several other countries around the world and this Economic Letter examines the structure of the market in some of these countries and considers any policy implications for the Irish market. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbi:ecolet:05/el/15&r=ure |
| By: | Theodore Panagiotidis ; Panagiotis Printzis |
| Abstract: | This study examines the role of the housing market in the Greek economy. We review the literature and assess the interdependence between the housing price index and its macroeconomic determinants within a VECM framework. An equilibrium relationship exists and in the long run the retail sector and mortgage loans emerge as the most important variables for housing. The dynamic analysis shows that the mortgage loans followed by retail trade are the variables with the most explanatory power for the variation of the houses price index. |
| Keywords: | housing market; Greece; VECM; impulse response function; Granger causality |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:61014&r=ure |
| By: | Lúðvík Elíasson |
| Abstract: | Possible explanations for the rapid increase in house prices and housing investment in Iceland between 2004 and 2007 and the subsequent market crash are studied. The boom was driven in part by banking liberalisation, international financial conditions, and domestic policies. A simple demand and supply model, based on the study by Elíasson and Pétursson (2009), is fitted to data through the recent boom-bust period. The model is remarkably robust through the cycle despite its unprecedented amplitude. However, it does not capture fully the turbulence in housing market data for the period since 2003. Different methods to account for the rapid rise in house prices and housing investment dynamics are compared. The price equation (demand) is improved by including net immigration as an explanatory variable showing that demographic factors, in addition to mortgage market restructuring, help in explaining the apparent bubble in the housing market. The sharp fall in housing investment in 2009 cannot, however, be modelled without the introduction of a dummy variable, accounting for the sudden-stop in financing at the beginning of the financial crisis in Iceland in late 2008. |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ice:wpaper:wp66&r=ure |
| By: | Carpenter, Ann (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes and compares the decisions communities made in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to determine to what extent post-Katrina comprehensive plans promote resilience based on built environment factors that have been shown to improve social networking, physical safety, and community building. Levels of recovery are also examined, measured by the current numbers of occupied housing units in each community compared with pre-Katrina numbers. After Katrina, multiple planning documents were produced by a variety of organizations. Mississippi state statute requires each municipality to have a long-range comprehensive plan adopted by the local governing body. Plans establish goals over a 20- to 25-year period of development and are required to address residential, commercial, and industrial development; parks, open space, and recreation; street and road improvements; and public schools and community facilities. To capture the most significant interests and values, the overarching goals and vision statements of post-Katrina plans were compared and analyzed. Plans from four Mississippi communities affected by Hurricane Katrina—Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, and Waveland—indicate that communities in the region understand many of the present strengths and weaknesses with respect to disaster resilience and have outlined a strategy to mitigate damage, reduce vulnerability, and create support networks to speed up recovery for a future disaster on the scale of Katrina. Like any plan, how and to what extent these ideals are implemented is a concern. During interviews in these communities, recurring concerns were public participation and, at the least, attention to the needs of residents in the planning process. |
| Keywords: | Disaster resilience; Hurricane Katrina; Mississippi municipal comprehensive plans; Social networks; Built environment |
| Date: | 2015–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedacd:2015-01&r=ure |
| By: | Hawranek, Franziska ; Schanne, Norbert |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes job referral effects that are based on residential location. We use geo-referenced record data for the entire working population and the corresponding establishments in the German Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area. We estimate the propensity of two persons to work at the same place when residing in the same neighborhood (reported with an accuracy of 500m×500m grid cells), and compare the effect to people living in adjacent neighborhoods. We find a significant increase in the probability of working together when living in the same neighborhood, which is stable across various specifications. We differentiate these referral effects for socioeconomic groups and find especially strong effects for migrant groups from former guest-worker countries and new EU countries. Further, we investigate a number of issues in order to deepen the insight on actual job referrals: distinguishing between the effects on working in the same neighborhood and working in the same establishment - probably the more accurate measure for job referrals - shows that the latter yield larger relative effects. Besides, we find that clusters in employment although having a significant positive effect play only a minor role for the magnitude of the referral effect. We find evidence that informal job markets play the biggest role in small firms and are least important in large firms. When we exclude short distance commuters, we find the same probabilities of working together, which reinforces our interpretation of this probability as a network effect. |
| Keywords: | Job referrals; Labor market; Neighborhood effects; Network effects; Social interaction |
| Date: | 2015–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bay:rdwiwi:31345&r=ure |
| By: | Manville, Michael |
| Keywords: | Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Law |
| Date: | 2014–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt1828g968&r=ure |
| By: | Smith, Andrew Lee (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City ) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a nancial mechanism which integrates housing and the real econ- omy through housing-secured debt. In this environment, movements in home prices are ampli ed through both borrowers and banks' balance sheets, leading to a self-reinforcing credit/liquidity crunch. When placed within a traditional business cycle model, this - financial structure quantitatively captures empirical relationships the traditional nancial accelerator mechanism struggles to explain and the qualitative predictions of the model are consistent with dynamic responses from a VAR. The model provides a framework to examine the ability of QE policies and equity injections into big banks to mitigate a housing bust. Although both are e ective, the nuances of the policies are important. A prolonged asset purchase program is preferable to a short-term equity injection; however, the model suggests the equity injections may have been necessary to prevent an economic collapse at the acute stage of the 2008 Financial Crisis. |
| Keywords: | Financial Crises; Financial Frictions; Unconventional Monetary Policy; Housing |
| JEL: | E32 E44 G01 G21 |
| Date: | 2014–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedkrw:rwp14-12&r=ure |
| By: | Monras, Joan (Sciences Po, Paris ) |
| Abstract: | Previous literature shows that internal migration rates are strongly procyclical. This would seem to imply that geographic relocation does not help mitigate negative local economic shocks during recessions. This paper shows that this is not the case. I document that net in-migration rates decreased in areas more affected by the Great Recession. Using various IV strategies that rely on the importance of the construction sector and the indebtedness of households before the crisis, I conclude that internal migration might help to alleviate up to one third of the effects of the crisis on wages in the most affected locations. This is due to a disproportionate decrease in in-migration into those locations rather than an increase in out-migration. More generally, I show that differences in population growth rates across locations are mainly explained by differences in in-migration rates rather than in out-migration rates. I introduce a model to guide the empirical analysis and to quantify the spill-over effects caused by internal migration. |
| Keywords: | internal migration, local labor demand shocks |
| JEL: | J61 J20 J30 F22 J43 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8840&r=ure |
| By: | Kumar, Anil (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas ) |
| Abstract: | Texas is the only US state that limits home equity borrowing to 80 percent of home value. This paper exploits this policy discontinuity around the Texas’ interstate borders and uses a multidimensional regression discontinuity design framework to find that limits on home equity borrowing in Texas lowered the likelihood of mortgage default by about 1 percentage point for all mortgages and 2-4 percentage points for nonprime mortgages. Estimated nonprime mortgage default hazards within 25 to 100 miles on either side of the Texas’ border are about 15 percent smaller as one crosses into Texas. |
| Keywords: | Home quity; mortgage default; negative equity |
| JEL: | G21 G28 R28 |
| Date: | 2014–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:1410&r=ure |
| By: | Aguirregabiria, Victor ; Suzuki, Junichi |
| Abstract: | We survey the recent empirical literature on structural models of market entry and spatial competition in oligopoly retail industries. We start with the description of a framework that encompasses various models that have been estimated in empirical applications. We use this framework to discuss important specification assumptions in this literature: firm heterogeneity; specification of price competition; structure of spatial competition; firms' information; dynamics; multi-store firms; and structure of unobservables. We next describe different types of datasets that have been used in empirical applications. Finally, we discuss econometric issues that researchers should deal with in the estimation of these models, including multiple equilibria and unobserved market heterogeneity. We comment on the advantages and limitations of alternative estimation methods, and how these methods relate to identification restrictions. We conclude with some issues and topics for future research. |
| Keywords: | econometrics of discrete choice games; market entry and exit; retail industries; spatial competition |
| JEL: | L11 L13 L81 R30 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10410&r=ure |
| By: | Moscarola, Flavia Coda (University of Turin ); Colombino, Ugo (University of Turin ); Figari, Francesco (University of Insubria ); Locatelli, Marilena (University of Turin ) |
| Abstract: | A tax shifting from labour income to housing taxation is generally advocated on efficiency grounds. However, most of the empirical literature focuses on the distributional implications of property tax reforms without paying much attention to potential consequences on the labour market. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by investigating the effects of a tax shifting from labour income to property, guaranteeing revenue neutrality, and to assess the consequences of labour market equilibrium, both on occupation rates and income distribution. We propose to consider a hypothetical tax reform in Italy which uses the revenue of the tax on house property (actually implemented in 2012) for increasing tax credits on low incomes and making them refundable. In order to evaluate the reform we have developed a structural model of household labour supply which takes into account the labour market equilibrium conditions. Overall, the simulated policy provides a more effective income support and better incentives to work for low wage households and determines an improvement in inequality indexes. |
| Keywords: | labour supply, tax shifting, personal tax on labour income, property tax, labour market equilibrium, microsimulation |
| JEL: | C35 C53 D31 J22 H31 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8832&r=ure |
| By: | Boriss Siliverstovs (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ); Konstantin A. Kholodilin (DIW Berlin, Germany ) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of a change in the Swiss franc/euro exchange rate floor, as introduced by the Swiss National Bank in September 2011 using a survey based impulse responses analysis. Survey based impulse responses incorporate experimental settings into representative firm surveys, expose firm executives to treatment or shock scenarios and evaluate the effects of the shocks on executives’ expected firm-level outcomes. Our results suggest that a change in the exchange rate floor from 1.20 to 1.10 Swiss francs per euro and a subsequent appreciation of the Swiss franc by the same magnitude considerably decreases expected turnovers, costs and profits of Swiss firms. Manufacturing turnover decreases by 3.3% within six months and by 4.3% within 18 months. Total costs decline by 1.3% within six months and 2.0% within 18 months, while profits shrink by 3.3% within six months. The effects are substantially lower for the service and the construction sector, but exhibit large variation across sub-sector industries. Panel regression analysis reveals that firm-specific export shares and intermediate goods import shares are key determinants of firms’ turnover, costs and profits reactions. |
| Keywords: | Housing prices and rents, forecast combinations, spatial dependence, Germany |
| JEL: | C21 C23 C53 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:15-372&r=ure |
| By: | Christian Schröder (Europäisches Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (EIIW) ) |
| Abstract: | High innovation capability is indispensable for generating economic growth in developed economies. Cooperations in the innovation process are entered into by companies for reasons of risk diversification or costs and often considered to be an efficient strategy to increase a company’s knowledge basis. Regional economic literature very often believes that regional agglomeration of companies, i.e. cluster formation, will also lead to increased local networking, i.e. also to cooperations between companies or between company and research institutes in the innovation process. A social network analysis of the two German ICT regions performed with patent data was able to show that cluster formation coincides with a dynamic increase of cooperations measured by joint patent applications. However, the cooperations are characterized by integration of extra-regional companies and research institutes rather than being intraregional. |
| Keywords: | Regional science, Cluster, ICT, Knowledge spillover, Social network analysis, Innovation networks |
| JEL: | L10 O18 L63 L86 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:eiiwdp:disbei194&r=ure |
| By: | Maurer-Fazio, Margaret (Bates College ); Connelly, Rachel (Bowdoin College ); Thi Tran, Ngoc-Han (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva ) |
| Abstract: | China's linguistic and geographic diversity leads many Chinese individuals to identify themselves and others not simply as Chinese, but rather by their native place and provincial origin. Negative personality traits are often attributed to people from specific areas. People from Henan, in particular, appear to be singled out as possessing a host of negative traits. Such prejudice does not necessarily lead to wage discrimination. Whether or not it does depends on the nature of the local labor markets. This chapter uses data from the 2008 and 2009 migrant surveys of the Rural-Urban Migration in China Project (RUMiC) to explore whether native-place wage discrimination affects migrant workers in China's urban labor markets. We analyze the question of wage discrimination among migrants by estimating wage equations for men and women, controlling for human capital characteristics, province of origin, and destination city. Of key interest here are the variables representing provinces of origin. We find no systemic differences by province of origin in the hourly wages of male and female migrants. However, in a few specific cases, we find that migrants from a particular province earn significantly less than those from local areas. Male migrants from Henan in Shanghai are paid much less than their fellow migrants from Anhui. In the Jiangsu cities of Nanjing and Wuxi, female migrants from nearby Anhui are paid much less than intra-provincial Jiangsu migrants. |
| Keywords: | migrants, discrimination, wages, China, stereotypes, native-place, labor markets |
| JEL: | J71 J23 J61 J31 O15 O53 P36 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8842&r=ure |
| By: | Olga Alonso-Villar (Universidade de Vigo, Spain ); Coral del Rio (Universidade de Vigo, Spain and EQUALITAS ) |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to investigate the occupational segregation of white women in the U.S. at the local labor market level, exploring whether the segregation of this group is a homogeneous phenomenon across the country or there are important disparities in the opportunities that these women meet with across American urban areas. An important contribution of this paper is that, apart from quantifying the extent of segregation it also assesses the consequences of that segregation taking into account the ''quality'' of occupations that the group tends to fill or not to fill. The analysis shows that between 20% and 40% of white women working in a metropolitan area would have to shift occupations to achieve zero segregation in that area. Differences regarding the nature of that segregation are even stronger. In some metropolitan areas, the uneven distribution of white women across occupations brings them a per capita monetary gain of about 21% of the average wage of the area while in other metropolitan areas this group has a per capita loss of nearly 11%. |
| Keywords: | Occupational segregation, well-being, metropolitan areas, race, gender, U.S. |
| JEL: | R23 J15 J16 J71 D63 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-352&r=ure |
| By: | Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin (CREAM - Université de Rouen ); Emmanuelle Taugourdeau (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics ) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the factors underlying the emergence of Research Cluster (RC), i.e. cooperation (or coordination of research efforts) through spatial proximity between public and private research teams. A ‘public lab’ and a ‘private lab’ interact in a two-stage game to decide on ‘location’ and ‘research effort’. A high level of public subsidies associated to a low asymmetry in the ‘valorisation capability’ between both labs is necessary for the formation of a cluster. We find that RC performs better than non-cooperation in terms of research efforts in a ‘public lab’ (but not in a ‘private lab’) and output gains that can be appropriated by each lab. |
| Keywords: | Research cooperation, spatial location, public subsidy. |
| JEL: | C7 H2 H4 L3 L5 O3 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:15013&r=ure |
| By: | Joan Crespo ; Frédéric Amblard ; Jérôme Vicente |
| Abstract: | The economic return of cluster policies has been recently called into question. Essentially based on a “one size fits all” approach consisting in boosting R&D collaborations and reinforcing network density in regions, cluster policies are suspected to have failed in reaching their objectives. The paper proposes to go back to the micro foundations of clusters in order to disentangle the links between the long run performance of clusters and their structural properties. We use a simple agent-based model to shed light on how individual motives to shape knowledge relationships can give rise to emerging structures with different properties, which imply different innovation and renewal capabilities. The simulation results are discussed in a micro-macro perspective, and the findings suggest reorienting cluster policy guidelines towards more targeted public-funded incentives for R&D collaboration. |
| Keywords: | cluster policy, networks, micro-behaviours, structural properties, agent-based model |
| JEL: | B52 O32 R12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1503&r=ure |
| By: | Pasquale Commendatore (University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Italy ); Ingrid Kubin (Vienna University of Economics and Business ); Pascal Mossay (Newcastle University ); Iryna Sushko (National Academy of Science of Ukraine ) |
| Abstract: | We introduce a 2-country New Economic Geography model with 4 regions. It is defined by a 2D piecewise smooth map that depends on 8 parameters. Using reductions of this map to 1D maps defined on invariant straight lines we obtain stability conditions of the Core-Periphery fixed points, and show how such reductions can be used to describe basins of attraction of coexisting attractors. Typical bifurcation sequences obtained when varying some parameters are discussed. We find patterns that are much richer than those observed in standard NEG models: there are more types of fixed points including fixed points attracting in Milnor’s sense; their basins of attraction are quite complicated; and coexistence is pervasive. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cst:wpaper:10&r=ure |
| By: | John O'Hagan (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland ); Karol Jan BOROWIECKI (Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark ; Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland ) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the 522 most important composers in the last 800 years, as identified by Murray (2003), in terms of their birth location and migration. It also looks at detailed patterns of migration and tendencies to cluster in certain cities for those composers born from 1750 to 1899. This information is compiled from the large on-line Grove encyclopaedia of Music. There is also some discussion of the biases evident in choosing ‘significant’ composers. The data show a marked level of migration of important composers going back many centuries suggesting that phenomenon of globalisation had impacted on composers many centuries before its effects were more widespread. The data also show a marked level of clustering in certain cities. |
| Keywords: | composers, geographic concentration, labour mobility, migration |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0115&r=ure |
| By: | Lisi, Gaetano |
| Abstract: | In light of the recent and growing literature which has extended the use of search and matching models even to the housing market, this paper introduces dynamic analysis to a simple stationary state equilibrium model. Contrary to what occurs in the labour market, the dynamic adjustment to equilibrium depends on the level of matching frictions present in the market. Precisely, if matching frictions are high, sellers bear in mind future expectations regarding total vacancies when deciding how many vacancies to post on the market; as a consequence, the market tensions respond quickly to any changes, immediately reaching the equilibrium value. Instead, with low matching frictions any dynamic adjustment path leads to equilibrium without the need for “forward looking” behaviour on behalf of sellers. |
| Keywords: | Housing Markets, Matching Theory, Equilibrium Dynamics |
| JEL: | J63 J64 R21 R3 R31 |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62317&r=ure |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB) ; (Regional and Sustainable Development Department, ADB ); ; |
| Abstract: | The Urban Operational Plan (UOP) 2012–2020 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) supports ADB developing member countries (DMCs) in expanding their urban economies, improving environmental sustainability, and making pro-poor investments through a 3E approach (Economy, Environment, and Equity). This case study on the Philippines is based on thematic areas of the National Urban Sustainability Assessment framework for developing strategic policy options and targeted investments in the urban sector. This publication shows how the framework acts as a tool for conducting rapid urban assessments at both national and urban region levels for DMCs. |
| Keywords: | urban assessment, housing, transport, urban economies, environmental sustainability, pro-poor, Philippines, urbanization |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt146356&r=ure |
| By: | Francesconi, Marco (University of Essex ); James, Jonathan (University of Bath ) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of binge drinking on accident and emergency attendances, road accidents, arrests, and the number of police officers on duty using a variety of unique data from Britain and a two-sample minimum distance estimation procedure. Our estimates, which reveal sizeable effects of bingeing on all outcomes, are then used to monetize the short-term externalities of binge drinking. We find that these externalities are on average £4.9 billion per year ($7 billion), about £80 for each man, woman, and child living in the UK. The price that internalizes this externality is equivalent to an additional 9p per alcoholic unit, implying a 20% increase with respect to the current average price. |
| Keywords: | alcohol, health, road accidents, arrests, externalities |
| JEL: | I12 I18 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8849&r=ure |
| By: | Peter Cirenza |
| Abstract: | This paper uses empirical evidence drawn from newly constructed datasets to assess the impact of geographic clustering on the assimilation and occupational mobility of Irish immigrants in the United States in the late nineteenth century. It finds that geographic clustering was quite pronounced for Irish immigrants in this time period. Irish immigrants were primarily drawn to the large metropolitan areas of the Northeast, reflecting the importance of these areas as points of entry to the US, areas of prior settlement by previous generations of Irish immigrants, as well as major centres for employment for new immigrants. This paper also finds that higher levels of geographic clustering were associated with both lower degrees of assimilation and lower occupational outcomes. The benefits of geographic clustering in the job market often described in this literature do not appear to have existed for Irish immigrants in the late nineteenth century. These results would also support the view that living in a more ethnically concentrated community, though perhaps improving the initial starting position of Irish immigrants in America, may have come at the expense of slower subsequent assimilation and reduced occupational mobility. |
| Keywords: | international migration; geographic mobility; immigrant; immigrant labour; immigration; economic history |
| JEL: | N0 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:60964&r=ure |
| By: | Piotr Ciżkowicz ; Michał Kowalczuk ; Andrzej Rzońca |
| Abstract: | We identify determinants of large disparities in local unemployment rates in Poland using panel data on NUTS-4 level (poviats) We find that the disparities are linked to local demographics, education and sectoral employment composition rather than to local demand factors However, the impact of determinants is not homogenous across poviats Where unemployment is low or income per capita is high, unemployment does not depend on the late working-aged share in the population but does depend relatively stronger on the share of early working-aged Where unemployment is high or income per capita is low, unemployment does not depend on education attainment and is relatively less responsive to investment fluctuations Where small farms are present, they are partial absorbers of workers laid off due to investment fluctuation |
| Keywords: | local unemployment, Poland, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 J23 R23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbp:nbpmis:188&r=ure |
| By: | Jussila Hammes , Johanna (VTI ); Nilsson, Jan-Eric (VTI ) |
| Abstract: | The choice of transport infrastructure projects to include in the National Transport Infrastructure Plans in Sweden is often said to be motivated by the weighing of cost against social benefits. Examining the projects that are included in the Plans, it is clear, however, that not all projects have positive net present values, and are therefore more costly to build than the benefits they create. This paper studies alternative models that might explain the choice of projects. Two political economy models, the district demand and the swing voter with lobbying, are tested, and a model that accounts for the spatial distribution of the projects, as well as the possibility that priorities are based on welfare concerns, is estimated. No support is found for the political economy models. What explains investment volume is the existence of CBA results for a project, which may indicate that welfare benefits have an impact, as do the spatial spillovers from a project’s benefits and lobbying, especially by the municipalities concerned. |
| Keywords: | Distributive politics; Fiscal federalism; Lobbying; Party competition; Political economy; Transport infrastructure; Spatial analysis; Sweden |
| JEL: | D60 D72 D78 R42 |
| Date: | 2015–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2015_004&r=ure |
| By: | Jorge Guzman ; Scott Stern |
| Abstract: | A central challenge in the measurement of entrepreneurship is accounting for the wide variation in entrepreneurial quality across firms. This paper develops a new approach for estimating entrepreneurial quality by linking the probability of a growth outcome (e.g., achieving an IPO or a significant acquisition) as a function of start-up characteristics observable at or near the time of initial business registration (e.g., the firm name or filing for a trademark/patent). Our approach allows us to characterize entrepreneurial quality at an arbitrary level of geographic granularity (placecasting) and in advance of observing the ultimate growth outcomes associated with any cohort of start-ups (nowcasting). We implement this approach in Massachusetts from 1988-2014, yielding several key findings. First, consistent with Guzman and Stern (2015), we find that a small number of observable start-up characteristics allow us to distinguish the potential for a significant growth outcome: in an out-of-sample test, more than 75% of growth outcomes occur in the top 5% of our estimated quality distribution. Second, we propose two new economic statistics for the measurement of entrepreneurship: the Entrepreneurship Quality Index (EQI) and the Regional Entrepreneurship Cohort Potential Index (RECPI). We use these indices to offer a novel characterization of changes in entrepreneurial quality across space and time. For example, we are able to document changes in entrepreneurial quality leadership between the Route 128 corridor, Cambridge and Boston, as well as more granular assessments that allow us to distinguish variation in average entrepreneurial quality down to the level of individual addresses. Third, we find a high correlation between an index that depends only on information directly observable from business registration records (and so can be calculated on a real-time basis) with an index that allows for a two-year lag that allows the estimate of entrepreneurial quality to incorporate early milestones such as patent or trademark application or being featured in local newspapers. Finally, we find that the most significant “gap” between our index and the realized growth outcomes of a given cohort seem to be closely related to investment cycles: while the most successful cohort of Massachusetts start-ups was founded in 1995, the year 2000 cohort registered the highest estimated quality. |
| JEL: | C43 C51 C81 E27 L25 L26 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20954&r=ure |
| By: | Abhimanyu Gupta ; Peter M. Robinson |
| Abstract: | This paper develops consistency and asymptotic normality of parameter estimates for a higher-order spatial autoregressive model whose order, and number of regressors, are allowed to approach infinity slowly with sample size. Both least squares and instrumental variables estimates are examined, and the permissible rate of growth of the dimension of the parameter space relative to sample size is studied. Besides allowing the number of parameters to increase with the data, this has the advantage of accommodating some asymptotic regimes that are suggested by certain spatial settings, several of which are discussed. A small empirical example is also included, and a Monte Carlo study analyses various implications of the theory in finite samples |
| Keywords: | spatial autoregression; increasingly many parameters; central limit theorem; rate of convergence; spatial panel data |
| JEL: | C21 C31 C33 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:60794&r=ure |
| By: | Le, Thai-Ha |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the effects of oil price and macroeconomic shocks on the Malaysian housing market using a SVAR framework. The specification of the baseline model is based on standard economic theory. The Gregory-Hansen (GH) cointegration tests reveal that there is no cointegration among the variables of interest. Results from performing Toda-Yamamoto (TY) non-Granger causality tests show that oil price, labor force and inflation are the leading factors causing movements in the Malaysian housing prices in the long run. The findings from estimating generalized impulse response functions (IRFs) and variance decompositions (VDCs) indicate that oil price and labor force shocks explain a substantial portion of housing market price fluctuations in Malaysia. |
| Keywords: | housing market fluctuations,oil price shocks,macroeconomic shocks,Malaysia |
| JEL: | Q43 O18 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:20158&r=ure |
| By: | Cristina Lopez-Mayan (Departament d’Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonama de Barcelona ); Ana Hidalgo-Cabrillana (Departamento de Análisis Económico, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid ) |
| Abstract: | Using data from a Spanish assessment program of fourth-grade pupils, we analyze to what extent using certain teaching practices and materials in class is related to achieve- ment in maths and reading. We distinguish using traditional and modern teaching styles. As a novelty, we measure in-class work using two dierent sources of information -teacher and students. Our identication strategy relies on between-class within-school variation of teaching styles. We nd that modern practices are related to better achievement, specially in reading, while traditional practices, if anything, are detrimental. There are dierences depending on the source of information: the magnitude of coecients is larger when practices are reported by students. These ndings are robust to considering al- ternative denitions of teaching practices. We obtain heterogeneous eects of teaching styles by gender and type of school but only when using students' answers. Our nd- ings highlight the importance of the source of information, teacher or students, to draw adequate conclusions about the eect of teaching style on achievement. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1502&r=ure |
| By: | Pal, Rama ; Aneja, Neil ; Nagpal, Dhruv |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses inequality in housing conditions for India for two time period 2008-09 and 2012. Housing conditions are important determinants of health status. Access to descent housing and basic amenities is essential to improve health status of people. Given this backdrop, we examine the distribution of housing and basic amenities, namely, drinking water, toilets and electricity, across regions and over time. We also study the determinants of access to these basic amenities. The results show unequal distribution of housing conditions with rich households having higher access to better housing. Under the Millennium Development Goals, the Indian government has worked towards improving access to safe drinking water and sanitation. However, the results of multivariate analysis show that the economic and social background of household determine the access to basic services even in the year 2012. |
| Keywords: | Basic amenities, housing conditions, inequality, India |
| JEL: | D63 O18 |
| Date: | 2015–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61994&r=ure |
| By: | Luca Colombo (Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ); Herbert Dawid (Universität Bielefeld ) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates firms' optimal location choices explicitly accounting for the role of inwards and outwards knowledge spillovers in a dynamic Cournot oligopoly with firms that are heterogeneous in their ability to carry out cost-reducing R\&D. Firms can either locate in an industrial cluster or in isolation. Technological spillovers are exchanged between the firms in the cluster. It is shown that a technological leader has an incentive to locate in isolation only if her advantage exceeds a certain threshold, which is increasing in firms' discount rate, in industry dispersion, and in the intensity of knowledge spillovers. Scenarios are identified where although it is optimal for the technological leader to locate in isolation, from a welfare perspective it would be desirable that she locates in the cluster. |
| Keywords: | Location Choice, Knowledge Spillovers, Technological Leadership, Markov-perfect Equilibrium |
| JEL: | L13 C73 O31 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def001&r=ure |
| By: | Long Thanh Giang ; Cuong Viet Nguyen ; Tuyen Quang Tran |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the linkage between the firm agglomeration and welfare of local households in Vietnam. We measured the firm agglomeration by per capita firm outputs at the district level, and household welfare by per capita income, expenditure and poverty. We find that the firm agglomeration helps households move from the informal sector to the formal sector. As a result, there is a positive effect of the firm agglomeration on per capita income, per capita expenditure, and poverty reduction, albeit at a small and time-decreasing magnitude. The effect of the firm agglomeration on per capita expenditure tends to be higher for households with male, younger and more educated heads than households with female, older and less educated heads. Households who live in rural areas and do not have crop land are more likely to benefit from the firm agglomeration than those living in urban areas and having cropland. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration, firm performance, poverty, household survey, panel data, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | L11 I31 I30 |
| Date: | 2015–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2015-617&r=ure |
| By: | Branislav Saxa |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the usefulness of Google Trends data for forecasting mortgage lending in the Czech Republic. While the official monthly statistics on mortgage lending come with a publication lag of one month, the data on how often people search for mortgage-related terms on the internet are available without any lag on a weekly basis. Growth in searches for mortgages and growth in mortgages actually provided are strongly correlated. The lag between these two growth rates is two months. Evaluation of out-of-sample forecasts shows that internet search data improve mortgage lending predictions significantly. In addition to forecasting performance evaluation, an experimental indicator of restrictively tight mortgage credit standards and conditions is proposed. Nowadays many countries run bank lending surveys to monitor the tightness of bank lending standards and conditions. The proposed indicator represents a complementary tool to such a survey. |
| Keywords: | Credit demand, credit standards and conditions, credit supply, forecast evaluation, forecasting, Google econometrics, Internet search data, mortgage, smoothing |
| JEL: | C22 C82 E27 E51 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2014/14&r=ure |
| By: | David Marsden |
| Abstract: | From the autumn of 2014, a new performance pay scheme was introduced for school teachers in England and Wales. It makes pay progression for all teachers dependent upon their performance as evaluated by their line managers by means of performance appraisals. This paper reports the results of a the first wave of a survey of teachers' views about performance pay and their beliefs about its effects on their performance and that of their schools before the first decisions about pay awards under the new scheme. Further surveys are planned to follow the scheme over time. School leaders were also surveyed. The results so far confirm a broadly negative view among teachers as to the desirability and likely motivational effects of linking pay progression to performance, but they also show a more positive view of the process of performance appraisal. The results are compared with those of a similar CEP survey carried out in 2000 just before the previous scheme was introduced. |
| Keywords: | Compensation packages, payment methods, public sector labor markets, compensation |
| JEL: | J33 J45 M52 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1332&r=ure |
| By: | Dinh, Hinh T. |
| Abstract: | This paper draws on both successful and failing cases of industrialization in China to analyse the role of local governments in fostering the growth of light manufacturing. The broad spectrum of support types and the intimate knowledge of enterprise condi |
| Keywords: | Africa, China, industrial policy, industrialization, decentralized co-ordination |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2014-153&r=ure |
| By: | Cody Yu-Ling Hsiao (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales ); James Morley (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales ) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of public, private, and external debt in explaining the propagation of nancial shocks during three major nancial crises from 2007-2013. For our analysis, we construct indices of crisis severity in equity markets based on di¤erent tests of contagion and investigate whether the transmission of crises across countries can be related to similar debt conditions. We compare the role of debt stocks and ows to traditional channels for contagion based on regional and trade linkages. Our main nding is that, along with regional linkages, public and external debt play a more important role than trade linkages in driving contagion across equity markets. |
| Keywords: | Contagion, debt, European debt crisis, nancial crisis, Great Recession, trade linkages, regional linkages |
| JEL: | C51 G01 G15 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:swe:wpaper:2015-02&r=ure |
| By: | Mathias Huebener ; Jan Marcus |
| Abstract: | Policy-makers face a trade-off between the provision of higher levels of schooling and earlier labour market entries. A fundamental education reform in Germany tackles this trade-off by reducing high school by one year while leaving the total instructional time unchanged. Employing administrative data on all high school graduates in 2002-2013 in Germany, we exploit both temporal and regional variation in the implementation of the reform and study the overall effectiveness of this reform. We find that compressing the high school track by one year reduces the mean high school graduation age by about 10 months. The probability to repeat a grade level in the course of high school increases by 21 percent (3 percentage points), peaking in the final three years before graduation. However, the high school graduation rate is not affected. The results indicate the reform’s success in reducing the graduation age, though it stays behind its potential benefits for labour markets and social security schemes because of higher grade repetition rates. |
| Keywords: | G12, G8, graduation age, grade repetition, grade retention, graduation rates, learning intensity, diff-in-diff, human capital, instructional time |
| JEL: | I28 J18 D04 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1450&r=ure |
| By: | Yang, Jingjing ; Khalil, Sana |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interlinks between innovation inputs and outputs and between innovation outputs and economic development. Using a panel data-set from 31 regions of China, we show that the difference in regional innovation output can be significantly explained by R&D manpower and expenditure, highly educated students, and public education spending, while GDP is linked to patent, high-tech export share, and new product sales. Our findings provide support for the use of government R&D subsidies and education rebate. |
| Keywords: | innovation; R&D; education; patents; economic development |
| JEL: | O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2014–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62140&r=ure |
| By: | Sauro Mocetti (Bank of Italy ); Eliana Viviano (Bank of Italy ) |
| Abstract: | We examine the delinquency rate for mortgages originated before and after the 2008 financial crisis, using a novel and large representative panel obtained by merging data from tax records and credit registers. First, we estimate the selection into the mortgage market using an exogenous index of local credit supply as exclusion restriction. Second, controlling for selection we estimate the impact of income shocks on the probability of recording a delinquency. We find that since 2008 the selection process operated by banks has led to the halving of the delinquency rate. Conditional on mortgage origination, a job loss nearly doubles the delinquency risk. Estimates uncorrected for selection are subject to severe downward biased. |
| Keywords: | mortgage delinquency, income, selection, lending policies |
| JEL: | D12 E51 G01 G21 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_999_15&r=ure |
| By: | Mihai, Florin-Constantin ; Oiste, Ana-Maria ; Chelaru, Dan-Adrian |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the per capita waste generation rates from from rural areas of Neamț County (Romania) using thematic cartography. Geographical approach of this issue is difficult because the lack of a geostatistic database at commune scale. Spatial analysis of waste indicators reveals several disparities between localities. Comparability of data between communes located in various geographical conditions must be carrefully made according to local waste management systems. Several dysfunctionalities are outlined in order to compare these results, on the one hand, between localities and on the one hand, between recent years. Geographical analysis of waste generation rates is imperative for a proper monitoring of this sector. Data from 2009, 2010 and 2012 shows that rural waste management is in a full process of change towards a more organized, stable and efficient system. |
| Keywords: | waste generation, rural areas, local disparities, geography of waste |
| JEL: | K32 Q51 Q56 Q57 R00 R11 R20 R51 R52 R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62382&r=ure |
| By: | Ruth Lupton ; Stephanie Thomson |
| Keywords: | social policy, education, coalition education policy, educational inequalities, conservative education policy, liberal education policy |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:spccwp:13&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | <ul> <li> The annual number of teaching hours of teachers differs greatly from one country to another and tends to decrease as the level of education increases. </li> <li> On average across countries, teachers spend half of their working time in non-teaching activities including planning lessons, marking and collaborating with other teachers. </li> <li> Keeping order in the classroom, generally the biggest concern for new teachers, occupies an average of 13% of all teachers’ time across countries. </li> <li> Schools could further benefit from developing ways to use teachers’ time more efficiently so that they could devote more time to professional development, teaching-related work and learning. </li></ul> |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:29-en&r=ure |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose ; Yannis Psycharis ; Vassilis Tselios |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses how electoral politics shapes the regional allocation of public investment expenditures per capita in Greece. Using regional public investment data for 10 political periods (1975-2009), combined with electoral data by constituency, a model is proposed which captures the influence of politics on the regional distribution of public investment expenditures. The results of the analysis point to a strong relationship between electoral results and regional public investment spending. Greek governing parties have tended to reward those constituencies returning them to office. Moreover, an increase in both the absolute and relative electoral returns of the governing party in a region has traditionally been followed by greater public investment per capita in that region. Regions where the governing party (whether Liberal or Socialist) has held a monopoly of seats have been the greatest beneficiaries of this type of pork-barrel politics. |
| Keywords: | public investment, elections, pork-barrel politics, political geography, Greece |
| JEL: | H77 H50 R12 R58 Z18 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gov:wpaper:1502&r=ure |
| By: | Jackson, Matthew O. ; Rogers, Brian ; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | We survey the literatures on the economic consequences of the structure of social networks. We develop a taxonomy of 'macro' and 'micro' characteristics of social inter-action networks and discuss both the theoretical and empirical findings concerning the role of those characteristics in determining learning, diffusion, decisions, and resulting behaviors. We also discuss the challenges of accounting for the endogeneity of networks in assessing the relationship between the patterns of interactions and behaviors. |
| Keywords: | centrality measures; contagion; diffusion; endogeneity; homophily; network formation.; social economics; social learning; Social networks |
| JEL: | C72 D85 L14 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10406&r=ure |
| By: | Javier Ortega ; Gregory Verdugo |
| Abstract: | Using a large administrative French panel data set for 1976-2007, we examine how low- educated immigration affects the wages, employment, occupations and locations of blue-collar native workers. The natives in the sample are initially in occupations heterogeneous in the presence of immigrants, which might reflect a different degree of competition with low-educated immigrants. We first show that larger immigration inflows into locations are accompanied by larger outflows of negatively selected natives from these locations. At the same time, larger immigrant inflows into occupations come with larger outflows of positively selected natives towards occupations with less routine tasks. While we find no negative impact on employment, there is substantial evidence that immigration lowers the median annual wages of natives. The estimated negative effects are also much larger in cross-section than in estimates controlling for composition effect, which is consistent with the idea that endogenous changes in occupation and location attenuate the impact of immigration on natives' wages. We also find much larger wage decreases for workers initially in non-tradable sectors and more particularly in the construction sector, which are much less likely to upgrade their occupation or change location in response to immigration inflows. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, wages, employment |
| JEL: | J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1333&r=ure |
| By: | TAKECHI Kazutaka |
| Abstract: | Either quality sorting or the presence of a specific cost (the so-called Alchian-Allen effect) is considered to be the main mechanism for the positive relationship between product quality and the distance to market. However, the reduced-form regressions found in the literature generally fail to reveal which of these two mechanisms (or even whether both are) is the main driving force. In this study, we employ unique Japanese individual goods price data to identify separately the effects of quality sorting and specific costs. Our empirical analysis shows that while high-cost producers produce high-quality goods, as suggested in Baldwin and Harrigan (2011), the quality-sorting mechanism solely is not sufficiently strong to account for the purported positive link between quality and distance. Moreover, we do find that the technology parameter that relates costs to quality is overestimated in the absence of specific costs. On this basis, we confirm that the presence of specific costs is significant, which may generate the positive relationship between quality and distance. We also find that the specific-cost components in transport costs are more distance elastic than any ad valorem components, a finding qualitatively consistent with the trade cost specification in Hummels and Skiba (2004). Finally, our results are robust with respect to various measures of distance and specification. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15018&r=ure |
| By: | Nicolas Contreras (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics ) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I manly seek to test the robustness of Hanushek et al.'s (2013) hypothesis, according to which the impact of autonomy in terms of learning outcomes differs across levels of development, being positive for developed countries but not for developing countries. I do so by constructing a school-level measure of autonomy, which I instrument using the distinction between de jure and de facto autonomy, as laid out by Gunnarsson et al. (2009). I also follow them in differentiating between parents participation and school autonomy, thus providing an explanation to their results, in line with the conceptual framework of Hanushek et al. (2013). |
| Keywords: | School autonomy, Parental participation, PISA, Education quality, Developing countries, panel estimation, instrumental variable. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:15020&r=ure |
| By: | Kyriacou, Maria ; Phillips, Peter C.B. ; Rossi, Francesca |
| Abstract: | Ordinary least squares (OLS) is well-known to produce an inconsistent estimator of the spatial parameter in pure spatial autoregression (SAR). This paper explores the potential of indirect inference to correct the inconsistency of OLS. Under broad conditions, it is shown that indirect inference (II) based on OLS produces consistent and asymptotically normal estimates in pure SAR regression. The II estimator is robust to departures from normal disturbances and is computationally straightforward compared with pseudo Gaussian maximum likelihood (PML). Monte Carlo experiments based on various specifications of the weighting matrix confirm that the indirect inference estimator displays little bias even in very small samples and gives overall performance that is comparable to the Gaussian PML. <br><br> Keywords; bias, binding function, inconsistency, indirect inference, spatial autoregression |
| Date: | 2014–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stn:sotoec:1418&r=ure |
| By: | Vincent Boucher ; Bernard Fortin |
| Abstract: | We study some recent developments and challenges in the empirics of the effects of social networks. We focus in particular on researchers’ ability to make policy recommendations based on a standard linear econometric model. We examine the potential compatibility between this type of econometric model and a microeconomic theoretical approach based on fundamentals, such as preferences, technology and decision processes. We discuss sources of identification for the social multiplier as well as for the identity of the key player. We study the possibility of testing endogeneity in network formation. We analyse the use of proxy variables and their impact for the causal interpretation of the peer effect coefficients. Our analysis suggests that greater care should be taken in grounding econometric network models to sound and credible theoretical underpinnings. |
| Keywords: | Social Networks, Social Multiplier, Network Formation, Identification, Proxy Variables, Policy Analysis |
| JEL: | A14 C33 C36 D85 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:1504&r=ure |
| By: | Amanda Fitzgerald ; Ruth Lupton |
| Abstract: | In the decade to 2010, substantial progess had been made to improve living conditions, and outcomes in the poorest neighbourhoods. But large gaps remained. This paper looks at how the Coalition tackled this issue, and what was achieved. |
| Keywords: | social policy, area deprivation, neighbourhood renewal, area-based initiatives |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:spccwp:19&r=ure |
| By: | Bishop, James |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first to combine data from large nationwide surveys to investigate how commuting and work hours affect sleep. I estimate that 11-21\% of the marginal unit of time spent working and 22-30\% of the marginal unit of time spent commuting replace sleep. Controlling for these effects, commuting before 5 a.m. and after 9 a.m. each increase the likelihood of short sleep. I also find that time spent commuting and working and the prevalence of these strange commute times each contribute to unintentionally falling asleep at some time during the day, while early commuting in particular increases the likelihood of falling asleep while driving. Little of these effects are explained by reduced time spent sleeping, indicating that there are multiple biological channels through which commuting duration and timing impact road safety. None of these effects appear for non-workers as opposed to the employed, supporting the validity of the results. Overall, most of the effects are stronger for women than for men, though the prevalence of early commutes is particularly associated with less sleep among men. |
| Keywords: | Commuting; Sleep; Time Allocation; Gender |
| JEL: | I15 J16 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62162&r=ure |
| By: | Sabatini, Fabio |
| Abstract: | Review of Immigrant Networks and Social Capital by Carl L. Bankston III. Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity. |
| Keywords: | Social capital; social networks; social ties; immigration; United States. |
| JEL: | A1 A10 J6 Y3 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62116&r=ure |
| By: | Mila Davids ; Koen Frenken |
| Abstract: | The proximity concept refers to types of inter-organizational relationships that are expected to facilitate interactive learning and collaborative innovation. Different forms of proximity include geographical, cognitive, social, institutional and organizational proximity. Following an extensive case study of a new diet margarine developed by Unilever, we extent the proximity framework by theorizing how the relative importance of each proximity dimension depends on the type of knowledge being produced, where we distinguish between analytical, synthetic and symbolic knowledge. We argue that our theoretical framework in principle applies to product innovations in all science-based industries. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1504&r=ure |
| By: | Yannis Ioannides |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0803&r=ure |
| By: | Benoît Mahy ; François Rycx ; Guillaume Vermeylen |
| Abstract: | The authors provide first evidence on whether the direct relationship between educational mismatch and firm productivity varies across working environments. Using detailed Belgian linked employer-employee panel data for 1999-2010, they find the existence of a significant, positive (negative) impact of over- (under-)education on firm productivity. Moreover, their results show that the effect of over-education on productivity is stronger among firms: (i) with a higher share of high-skilled jobs, (ii) belonging to high-tech/knowledge-intensive industries, and (iii) evolving in a more uncertain economic environment. Interaction effects between under-education and working environments are less clear-cut. However, economic uncertainty is systematically found to accentuate the detrimental effect of under-education on productivity. |
| Keywords: | Educational mismatch; productivity; linked employer-employee panel data; working environments |
| JEL: | J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/194681&r=ure |