|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Marta Widłak; Joanna Waszczuk; Krzysztof Olszewski |
| Abstract: | The aim of our article is to analyze the dynamics of housing prices in the secondary housing market in Warsaw from Q1 2006 to Q3 2013, taking into account the spatial relationship between prices. In the first part of this research we compare the geographically weighted regression with a linear regression estimated using OLS with spatial variables. In the second part, we combine the geographically weighted regression with the penalized spline regression to extract the effect of time on prices. With this method we obtain a nonlinear and more precise measure of time effects and improved goodness-of-fit statistics. We obtain a hedonic index, that is more robust against short-term changes in house prices than the usual, linear hedonic index. This is a novel approach, which has not been applied before in the case of the Polish housing market. The index allows us to show how interest rates or the housing policy influenced house prices. |
| Keywords: | hedonic price indices, housing prices, spatial influence on prices, geographically weighted regression, penalized splines |
| JEL: | D12 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbp:nbpmis:197&r=ure |
| By: | Combes, Pierre-Philippe (GREQAM, University of Aix-Marseille); Démurger, Sylvie (CNRS, GATE); Li, Shi (Beijing Normal University) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact of internal migration in China on natives' labour market outcomes. We find evidence of a large positive correlation of the city share of migrants with natives' wages. Using different sets of control variables and instruments suggests that the effect is causal. The large total migrant impact (+10% when one moves from the first to the third quartile of the migrant variable distribution) arises from gains due to complementarity with natives in the production function (+6.4%), and from gains due to agglomeration economies (+3.3%). Finally, we find some evidence of a stronger effect for skilled natives than for unskilled, as expected from theory. Overall, our findings support large nominal wage gains that can be expected from further migration and urbanisation in China. |
| Keywords: | migration, urban development, agglomeration economies, wage disparities, China |
| JEL: | O18 J61 R23 J31 O53 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8923&r=ure |
| By: | Seth Gershenson; Erdal Tekin |
| Abstract: | Community traumatic events such as mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural or man-made disasters have the potential to disrupt student learning in numerous ways. For example, these events can reduce instructional time by causing teacher and student absences, school closures, and disturbances to usual classroom routines. Similarly, they might also disrupt home environments. This paper uses a quasi-experimental research design to identify the effects of the 2002 “Beltway Sniper” attacks on student achievement in Virginia’s public schools. In order to identify the causal impact of these events, the empirical analysis uses a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits geographic variation in schools’ proximity to the attacks. The main results indicate that the attacks significantly reduced school-level proficiency rates in schools within five miles of an attack. Evidence of a causal effect is most robust for third grade reading and third and fifth grade math proficiency, suggesting that the shootings caused a decline in school proficiency rates of about five to nine percentage points. Particularly concerning from an equity standpoint, these effects appear to be entirely driven by achievement declines in schools that serve higher proportions of racial minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Finally, results from supplementary analyses suggest that these deleterious effects faded out in subsequent years. |
| JEL: | I12 I21 I24 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21055&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel Avdic; Christian Bünnings |
| Abstract: | Indirect psychological effects induced by crime are likely to contribute significantly to the total costs of crime beyond the financial costs of direct victimization. Using detailed crime statistics for the whole of Germany and linking them to individual-level mental health information from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze whether local crime rates affect the mental health of residents. We estimate that a one standard deviation increase in local violent crime rates significantly decreases individual mental well-being among residents by, on average, one percent. Smaller effects are found for property and total crime rates. Results are insensitive to migration and not isolated to urban areas, but are rather driven by less densely populated regions. In contrast to previous literature on vulnerability to crime, we find that men, more educated and singles react more to variation in violent crime rates in their neighborhoods. One potential explanation could be that those who are more fearful of crime have developed better coping strategies and, hence, react less to changes in crime. |
| Keywords: | Fear of crime; spillover effect; mental health; vulnerability; neighborhood effects; panel data |
| JEL: | C23 I18 K42 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0540&r=ure |
| By: | Atila Abdulkadiroğlu; Nikhil Agarwal; Parag A. Pathak |
| Abstract: | Centralized and coordinated school assignment systems are a growing part of recent education reforms. This paper estimates school demand using rank order lists submitted in New York City's high school assignment system launched in Fall 2003 to study the effects of coordinating admissions in a single-offer mechanism based on the deferred acceptance algorithm. In the previous mechanism, students were allowed to rank five choices and admissions offers were not coordinated across schools. While 18% of students obtained multiple first round offers, the mechanism's uncoordinated offers led more than a third of students to be unassigned after the main round and ultimately administratively assigned. Under the new mechanism, there is a 7.2 percentage point increase in matriculation at assigned school and students are assigned to schools that are on average 0.69 miles further from home. Even though students prefer nearby schools, our estimates suggest substantial heterogeneity in willingness to travel for school. The new mechanism generates higher utility on average and across numerous subgroups of students compared to either a neighborhood school alternative or the previous uncoordinated mechanism. Across a range of estimates, we find that the average student's welfare gain from coordinating assignment is substantially more than the disutility from increased travel. These gains are significantly larger than those from relaxing mechanism design constraints within the coordinated system. Preference heterogeneity implies that choice is far from zero-sum and coordinating admissions offers across schools increases allocative efficiency. |
| JEL: | C78 D50 D61 I21 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21046&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew Dustan (Vanderbilt University); Alain De janvry (University of California at Berkeley); Elisabeth Sadoulet (University of California at Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | Winning admission to an elite school both promises modest rewards and imposes substantial risks on many students. Using variation in school assignment generated by the allocation mechanism, we find that admission to a system of elite public high schools in Mexico City raises end-of-high school test scores by an average of 0.17 standard deviations for the marginal admittee. On the other hand, for these students admission increases the probability of high school dropout by 9.5 percentage points. Students with weaker middle school grades and whose commute is lengthened by admission experience a larger rise in dropout probability, suggesting that the additional dropout risk is a result of both higher academic rigor and greater opportunity costs of attendance. |
| Keywords: | Elite schools, Academic achievement, School dropout |
| JEL: | O1 I2 |
| Date: | 2015–03–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:vuecon-15-00002&r=ure |
| By: | Chris McDonald |
| Abstract: | Previous studies have shown that limits on loan-to-value (LTV) and debt-to-income (DTI) ratios can stabilise the housing market, and that tightening these limits tends to be more effective than loosening them. This paper examines whether the relative effectiveness of tightening vs. loosening macroprudential measures depends on where in the housing cycle they are implemented. I find that tightening measures have greater effects when credit is expanding quickly and when house prices are high relative to income. Loosening measures seem to have smaller effects than tightening, but the difference is negligible in downturns. Loosening being found to have small effects is consistent with where it occurs in the cycle. |
| Keywords: | loan-to-value limit, debt-to-income limit, housing credit, house-price-to-income ratio |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:496&r=ure |
| By: | Falck, Oliver (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Lameli, Alfred (University of Marburg); Ruhose, Jens (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Ever since Sjaastad (1962), researchers have struggled to quantify the psychic costs of migration. We monetize psychic cost as the wage premium for moving to a culturally different location. We combine administrative social security panel data with a proxy for cultural difference based on historical dialect dissimilarity between German counties. Conditional on geographic distance and pre-migration wage profiles, we find that migrants demand a (indexed with respect to local rents) wage premium of about 1 (1.5) percent for overcoming one standard deviation in cultural dissimilarity. The effect is driven by males and those who earn above average occupational wages before migration, more pronounced for geographically short moves, and persistent over time. |
| Keywords: | migration costs, culture, internal migration, psychic cost |
| JEL: | D51 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8922&r=ure |
| By: | Linda Rosenberg; Megan Davis Christianson; Megan Hague Angus; Emily Rosenthal |
| Keywords: | Rural Schools, School Improvement Grants, SIG |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:691d44976682441b810b56e7e0c5612c&r=ure |
| By: | Bassanini, Andrea (OECD); Brunello, Giorgio (University of Padova); Caroli, Eve (Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of local social pressure in shaping the geographical pattern of firms' firing decisions. Using French linked employer-employee data, we show that social pressure exerted by the local communities where firms' headquarters are located induces CEOs to refrain from dismissing at short distance from their headquarters. More specifically, we find that, within firms, secondary establishments located further away from headquarters have higher dismissal rates than those located closer, taking into account the possible endogeneity of plant location. We also find that the positive effect of distance on dismissals increases with the visibility of the firm in the local community of its headquarters. These effects are stronger the greater the degree of selfishness of the community in which the headquarters are located. This suggests that local social pressure at headquarters is a key determinant of the positive relationship between distance to headquarters and dismissals. We show that our results cannot be entirely accounted for by alternative explanations of the distance-dismissal relationship that are put forward in the literature – e.g. monitoring costs or asymmetric information. |
| Keywords: | social pressure, layoffs, adjustment costs, selfishness, firm visibility, distance to headquarters |
| JEL: | J23 J63 M51 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8910&r=ure |
| By: | Jane Wilburne (Penn State Harrisburg); Denise Meister (Penn State Harrisburg) |
| Abstract: | The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 in the United States mandated standardized testing to measure student achievement. Over time, this act began close scrutiny and criticism of curriculum and instruction. As schools struggled with meeting the mandate, Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion United States Department of Education contest, was created in 2009 to spur innovation and reforms in state and local district K-12 education. States were awarded points for satisfying certain educational policies, such as implementing performance-based standards for teachers and principals, complying with Common Core standards, turning around the lowest-performing schools, and building data systems. In order to apply for this competitive grant, school districts had to demonstrate a systematic evaluation of teachers’ performance through their students’ achievement. This initiative has led to mandated teacher evaluation systems that include one component tying student test scores to teacher performance. With teachers’ yearly evaluations now being tied to student test scores, district administrators are weary of supporting student teachers in their schools. A way to allow teachers to continue to have a teaching presence with a student teacher placement is through co-teaching. This method of instruction allows the mentor teacher to collaborate with the student teacher in various instructional strategies.Committed to making co-teaching an integral part of our clinical practice, our faculty members trained in the co-teaching model and, in turn, trained student teachers, mentor teachers, principals, and college supervisors in the model. We will share the principles of co-teaching and their first efforts at co-teaching Spring 2014. We will explain why we adopted this model and how we formed partnerships with school districts. We will share what we learned, what curriculum changes we made, the assessment instruments we used, and our next steps. Finally, we will share the findings of a research study. This study included three in-depth interviews with six mathematics and social studies student teachers and their mentor teachers to study their perceptions of co-teaching |
| Keywords: | Co-Teaching, Secondary Education, Clinical Experience |
| JEL: | I29 I23 I20 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0701835&r=ure |
| By: | Gabor Pinter (Bank of England; Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM)) |
| Abstract: | Why are house prices -80% correlated with job losses over the UK business cycle? My paper studies this striking fact together with the strong comovements between house prices and labour market variables in general. First, a regional panel is estimated to quantify the impact of house prices on the unemployment, job finding and job separation rates, whereby rejection rates of planning applications are used as instruments to find exogenous variation in house prices. Second, an orthogonalised VAR is used to estimate the aggregate impact of house price shocks. Both methods confirm the large impact of house price shocks on labour market variables and credit supply. To understand the mechanism, a general equilibrium model with collateral constraints, endogenous job separation and housing shocks is confronted with macroeconomic data via Bayesian methods. The results suggest that shocks to house prices (i) explain about 10% of output fluctuations and about 20% of fluctuations in corporate credit, unemployment and job separation rates via the collateral channel over the forecast horizon, and (ii) were a major cause in triggering the 1990 and 2008 recessions in the UK. |
| Keywords: | business cycle, house prices, financial frictions, labour market frictions |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfm:wpaper:1507&r=ure |
| By: | Duranton,Gilles; Ghani,Syed Ejaz; Goswami,Arti Grover; Kerr,William Robert |
| Abstract: | This paper quantifies the misallocation of manufacturing output and factors of production between establishments across Indian districts during 1989-2010. It first distills a number of stylized facts about misallocation in India, and demonstrates the validity of misallocation metrics by connecting them to regulatory changes in India that affected real property. With this background, the study next quantifies the implications and determinants of factor and output misallocation. Although more-productive establishments in India tend to produce more output, factors of production are grossly misallocated. A better allocation of output and factors of production is associated with greater output per worker. Misallocation of land plays a particularly important role in these challenges. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Urban Housing,Urban Slums Upgrading,Urban Services to the Poor |
| Date: | 2015–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7221&r=ure |
| By: | Randall Jackson (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University); Mulugeta Kahsai (College of Engineering and Technology, Virginia State University); Peter Schaeffer (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University); Mark Middleton (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University); Junbo Yu (School of Administration, Jilin University) |
| Abstract: | The study provides a framework to develop economic resilience index for West Virginia counties based on the premise that county economic resilience depends on its physical and human resources, structure and diversity of its economic base (employment and income diversity), entrepreneurial activity and business dynamics and scale and proximity (spatial issues). Using 17 indicators along four of the six pro-posed dimensions, a preliminary economic resilience index has been created for West Virginia counties between for the years 2000 and 2005. Geospatial maps are also developed to explore the evolution of the geographical patterns of economic resilience across time. The effectiveness of the index is further affirmed in correlation analyses where the contribution of economic resilience to unemployment reduction and employment growth is highly signi?cant. These preliminary results are encouraging and appear to be pointing in a useful direction. The discussion in this study can serve as a starting point for building a broad-based, standardized, and consistent de?nition and measure of economic resilience. |
| Keywords: | regional economic development, economic structure, resilience |
| JEL: | R11 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2015wp03&r=ure |
| By: | H. Allen Klaiber; Joshua Abbott; V. Kerry Smith |
| Abstract: | The Urban Heat Island (UHI) provides direct evidence of how human activities contribute to a feedback loop that can result in multiple changes in ecosystem services by creating localized warming as well as differences in vegetated landscapes in areas surrounding the urban core. This paper develops a new spatial-temporal panel estimator to recover consistent estimates of household valuation of coupled landscape and temperature ecosystem services. Using data from Phoenix, AZ, we estimate a hedonic price function using an extension of the Hausman-Taylor model. The framework adapts the earlier Abbott Klaiber [2011] proposal to overcome challenges associated with the varying spatial scales of capitalization of landscape and temperature variables and the likelihood of spatially and temporally varying omitted variables. We find a positive and economically significant marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for measures of green landscaping at multiple spatial scales and a separate, MWTP for a one degree (F) reduction in outdoor temperatures of $56 monthly. |
| JEL: | H23 H44 Q51 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21051&r=ure |
| By: | Crescenzi R.; Pietrobelli C.; Rabellotti R. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the current debate in both Economic Geography and International Business on the nature and strategies of Multinational Enterprises MNEs from emerging countries EMNEs. The paper fills a very relevant gap in the existing literature by shedding new light on the location strategies of EMNEs at the national and regional level, looking at their investment drivers and systematically comparing them with those of multinationals from advanced countries AMNEs. The empirical analysis looks at the location choices of MNEs in the European Union EU-25 regions and unveils that EMNEs follow distinctive location strategies. Their attraction into large regional markets is similar to AMNEs as well as their irresponsiveness to efficiency seeking motives. Conversely, the most knowledge-intensive investments of EMNEs respond mainly to two attraction factors strategic assets in the form of local technological dynamism and the agglomeration of foreign investments in the same business functions. In addition, both the national and the regional levels are simultaneously relevant to EMNEs decisions. |
| Keywords: | International Investment; Long-term Capital Movements; Multinational Firms; International Business; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes; Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Regional Development Planning and Policy; |
| JEL: | F21 F23 O33 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2015009&r=ure |
| By: | Fernando Botelho; Ricardo Madeira, Marcos A. Rangel |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether racial discrimination taking the form of the biased assessment of students is prevalent within Brazilian schools. Robust evidence is drawn from unique data pertaining to middle-school students and educators. After holding constant performance in blindly scored tests of proficiency and behavioral traits, we find that teacher-assigned Mathematics grades suffer from cardinal and ordinal biases. We unveil strong indications that these effects result from incomplete information issues highlighted in models of statistical discrimination which are made particularly salient by social promotion schemes currently operational in our context. |
| Keywords: | race; schooling; grading; standardized tests; statistical discrimination |
| JEL: | I21 J15 I24 |
| Date: | 2015–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2015wpecon4&r=ure |
| By: | Xing, Chunbing (Beijing Normal University); Xu, Jianwei (Beijing Normal University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the regional variation of minimum wage in China. We first introduce the institutional background of China's minimum wage policy, and then describe the regional variation of the minimum wages using detailed minimum wage data since the late 1990s. Large regional variation exists in the period studied, and the regional variation has been declining since the late 1990s. Economic factors, including GDP, economic structure, consumption level, are the main determinants for the large regional variation in the minimum wages. There is weak evidence suggesting that the regional variation is influenced by political factors, such as competition of local officials. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, regional variation, China |
| JEL: | J3 E2 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8931&r=ure |
| By: | Beltratti, Andrea E; Benetton, Matteo; Gavazza, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of mortgage prepayment penalties on borrowers' prepayments and delinquencies by exploiting a 2007 reform in Italy that reduced penalties on outstanding mortgages and banned penalties on newly-issued mortgages. Using a unique dataset of mortgages issued by a large Italian lender before and after the reform, we provide evidence that: 1) before the reform, mortgages issued to riskier borrowers included larger penalties; 2) higher prepayment penalties decreased borrowers' prepayments; 3) higher prepayment penalties did not affect borrowers' delinquencies; and 4) prepayment penalties indirectly affected prepayments and delinquencies through borrowers' mortgage selection at origination, especially for riskier borrowers. |
| Keywords: | mortgages; prepayment penalties |
| JEL: | G21 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10504&r=ure |
| By: | Jan Bruha; Jiri Polansky |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyse the dynamics of the housing sector over business cycles. First, we provide an empirical analysis of the relationships between housing sector data and the main macroeconomic variables both on Czech data and on a sample of advanced economies. We document that in most countries the housing sector co-moves with the rest of the economy. In the past, the Czech housing market showed temporary episodes during which the housing sector was seemingly disconnected, but since 2005 the housing sector has become more cyclical. Second, we develop a cascade of increasingly complex DSGE models to assess the relative merits of each additional mechanism. Contrary to the popular framework with collateral constraints, we concentrate on the housing sector as an additional production sector via the standard supply and demand mechanisms. Our results confirm that these standard mechanisms are sufficient to replicate the observed comovements of housing market variables. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles, DSGE, housing sector |
| JEL: | E32 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2014/12&r=ure |
| By: | Dasso, Rosamaría (IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute); Fernandez, Fernando (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Nopo, Hugo (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of electrification on educational outcomes in Peru by taking advantage of a program that rapidly increased electricity coverage in rural areas. Using household survey panel data from 2007-2010, we document that: i) girls living in treated districts are more likely to be enrolled in school, and this effect is larger among younger girls; ii) this positive effect on female enrollment does not translate into higher attendance rates; iii) households in treated areas spend more money on younger girls' education. In addition, we use school-level panel data from 2007-2012 on Math and Reading test scores to show that treatment is associated with a reduction in learning. But, among treated schools, longer treatment exposure increases scores in Reading for boys and girls; and improves performance in Math, only among boys. Finally, our estimates are robust to controlling for other confounding interventions. |
| Keywords: | education, rural electrification, Peru |
| JEL: | I25 O13 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8928&r=ure |
| By: | Maria Teresa Punzi (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Karlo Kauko (Bank of Finland, PO Box 160, 00101 Helsinki, Finland) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents VAR results on the recent economic history of the U.S and focuses on the dependence of U.S. macrofinancial variables on international capital flows. Both gross and net flows are included in the analysis. The results indicate that cross-border funding has affected the build-up in the U.S. housing market irrespective of how these flows are defined and measured. Both the savings glut hypothesis and the banking glut hypothesis are supported by these findings. However, net banking flows appear to explain the higher volatility in the increase in house prices as well as the mortgage loan boom. |
| Keywords: | Global Banking Glut, Global Savings Glut, Cross-Border Banking Transactions, House Prices, Mortgage Loans, VAR model |
| JEL: | F32 F33 F34 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp194&r=ure |
| By: | Norman Loayza (World Bank); Jamele Rigolini (World Bank and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of mining activity on socioeconomic outcomes in local communities in Peru. In the last two decades, the value of Peruvian mining exports has grown by fifteen times; and since a decade ago, one-half of fiscal revenues from mining have been devolved to local governments in producing regions. Has this boom benefitted people in local communities? We find evidence that producing districts have larger consumption per capita and lower poverty rates than otherwise similar districts. However, these positive impacts decrease drastically with administrative and geographic distance from mining centers. Moreover, consumption inequality within producing districts is higher than in comparable nonproducing districts. This dual effect of mining is partially accounted for by the better educated immigrants required and attracted by mining activity. The inequalizing impact of mining, both across and within districts, may explain the social discontent with mining in Peru, despite its enormous revenues. |
| Keywords: | Natural resources, Mining, Poverty, Inequality, Commodity Boom, Peru |
| JEL: | D7 H7 O1 Q3 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2015-033&r=ure |
| By: | Jonsson, Lina (WSP); Björklund, Gunilla (VTI) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between train traffic and the accident risk for road users at level crossings. The marginal effect of train traffic on the accident risk can be used to derive the marginal cost per train passage that is due to level crossing accidents. Based on Swedish data from 2000 to 2012 on level crossing accidents, train volume and crossing characteristics, the marginal cost per train passage is estimated at SEK 1.28 (EUR 0.13) on average in 2012. The cost per train passage varies substantially depending on type of protection device, road type and the traffic volume of the trains. |
| Keywords: | Railway; Marginal cost; Accident probability; Level crossings |
| JEL: | D62 H23 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2015_007&r=ure |
| By: | Elert, Niklas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Andersson, Fredrik (Statistics Sweden); Wennberg, Karl (Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long-term impact of entrepreneurship education and training in high school on entrepreneurial entry, performance, and survival. Using propensity score matching, we compare three Swedish cohorts from Junior Achievement Company Program (JACP) alumni with a matched sample of similar individuals and follow these for up to 16 years after graduation. We find that while JACP participation increases the long-term probability of starting a firm as well as entrepreneurial incomes, there is no effect on firm survival. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship Education; Quasi-experiment; Performance |
| JEL: | D22 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2015–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1063&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel Montolio (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB); Simón Planells-Struse (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the temporal profile of crime in the urban context of Barcelona (Spain) for the period 2007-2011 using a unique micro dataset with police reported crime. Additionally, we assess the temporal effect that a leisure activity clearly bounded in time, namely the matches played by Football Club Barcelona (FCB), exert on criminal activities. We obtain a detailed time profile for the crime recorded in the city of Barcelona and the displacement effect attributable to the football matches. The latter was found to be notable in the case of thefts, criminal damage, robberies and gender violence. Instances of gender violence were more prevalent after a FCB defeat. |
| Keywords: | Hourly data, reported crime, crime displacement, gender violence, football |
| JEL: | K42 R1 L83 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2015-10&r=ure |
| By: | Kai Barron; Luis Fernando Gamboa; Paul Rodriguez-Lesmes |
| Abstract: | Abstract This paper makes use of a short, sharp, unexpected health shock in the form of the 2010 Colombian Dengue outbreak to examine the direct and indirect impact of negative health shocks on behaviour of households in affected areas. Our analysis combines data from several sources in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the influence of the outbreak, and furthermore to understand the underlying mechanisms driving the effects. Our initial analysis indicates that the outbreak had a substantial negative effect on the health status of adults and adversely affected their ability to function as usual in their daily lives. In our aggregated school data, in areas with high levels of haemorrhagic Dengue we observe a reduction in national exam attendance (last year of secondary school) and on enrolment rates in primary education. Further analysis aims to exploit detailed individual level data to gain a more in depth understanding of the precise channels through which this disease influenced the behaviour and outcomes of the poor in Colombia. |
| Keywords: | Education, Dengue, Colombia |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2015–03–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:012646&r=ure |
| By: | Aliriza Arënliu (University of Prishtina, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Psychology); Linda Hoxha (University of Prishtina, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Psychology); Dashamir Bërxulli (University of Prishtina, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Psychology); Liridona Jemini-Gashi (University of Prishtina, Philosophical Faculty, Department of Psychology) |
| Abstract: | The study investigated the relation of specific parenting (maternal) styles with the motivation orientation of 610 high school students from 6 regions of Kosovo. In the literature there is evidence that certain types of parenting styles and the motivation orientations of the students are related to the school success of the students. More specifically authoritative parenting style that is characterized with high demandingness and high responsiveness tends to be more positively associated with schools success and with intrinsic motivation compared to authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. Intrinsic motivation often refers to motivation of students " to know", to be oriented "toward accomplishment" and "experience stimulation" while learning. The results showed significant positive correlation between authoritative parenting style scores with intrinsic motivation orientation "to know"( r=.38, p<.001), with motivation toward accomplishment (r=.34, p<.001) and with motivation toward experience of stimulation( r=.36, p<.001) (similar findings were found for both genders). Other two types of parenting resulted with no significant correlation with intrinsic motivation subscales. School success of students was significantly positively correlated with authoritative parenting style (r=.16, p<.001) scores whereas negatively with other two types of parenting style.. Additionally we looked at the association of three subscale of intrinsic motivation separately as dependent variables with parenting styles using a linear regression model and the results were in line with existing literature where authoritative parenting style and school success was positively associated with intrinsic motivation. More specifically the regression analysis indicated that only authoritative parenting from three different parenting styles significantly predicted [β=.368, p<.001] scores of subscale for measuring intention to learn of intrinsic motivation F=35.39, p<.001, R2=.055. For the subscale measuring accomplishment as part of intrinsic motivation the regression analysis F=27.48, R2=.117 indicated both authoritative [β=.348, p<.001] and authoritarian [β =.70, p<.001] parenting styles to predict the accomplishment scores. The last model also indicated that authoritative parenting style predicted scores of "experience of stimulation" while learning [β =.322, p<.001] F=25.32, p<.001, R2=108. The findings are discussed in terms of relation of parental styles and intrinsic motivation and its implication for the education system, also the findings are discussed in terms of cross-cultural issues where authoritarian parenting might be considered as appropriate parenting style. Also findings are discussed on how teachers should deal with different parenting styles in educational context. |
| Keywords: | parenting styles; motivation orientation; intrinsic motivation; school success |
| JEL: | I29 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0100957&r=ure |
| By: | Duddy, Conal |
| Abstract: | In a school choice problem each school has a priority ordering over students. These priority orderings depend on criteria such as whether a student lives within walking distance or has a sibling already at the school. We argue that by including just the priority orderings in the problem, and not the criteria themselves, we lose crucial information. This loss of information results in mechanisms that discriminate between students in ways that are difficult to justify. We propose an alternative school choice problem and adaptations of the Gale-Shapley student optimal stable mechanism and the top trading cycles mechanism. |
| Keywords: | School choice; matching; justified envy |
| JEL: | C78 |
| Date: | 2015–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63316&r=ure |
| By: | Hirokazu Yoshikawa; Diana Leyva; Catherine E. Snow; Ernesto Treviño; M. Clara Barata; Christina Weiland; Celia J. Gomez; Lorenzo Moreno; Andrea Rolla; Nikhit D’Sa; Mary Catherine Arbour |
| Abstract: | The authors assessed impacts on classroom quality and on 5 child language and behavioral outcomes of a 2-year teacher professional-development program for publicly funded prekindergarten and kindergarten in Chile. This cluster-randomized trial included 64 schools (child N = 1,876). The program incorporated workshops and in-classroom coaching. We found moderate to large positive impacts on observed emotional and instructional support as well as classroom organization in prekindergarten classrooms after 1 year of the program. After 2 years of the program, moderate positive impacts were observed on emotional support and classroom organization. No significant program impacts on child outcomes were detected at posttest (1 marginal effect, an increase in a composite of self-regulation and low problem behaviors, was observed). Professional development for preschool teachers in Chile can improve classroom quality. More intensive curricular approaches are needed for these improvements to translate into effects on children. |
| Keywords: | Teacher Professional Development, Chile, Preschool Classroom Quality, Child Outcomes, International, Early Childhood |
| JEL: | F Z |
| Date: | 2015–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:79a54e7d62e84932a7ccf214454adb09&r=ure |
| By: | TODO Yasuyuki; Petr MATOUS; INOUE Hiroyasu |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of the structure of supply chain networks on productivity and innovation capability through knowledge diffusion, using large firm-level panel data for Japan. We find that ties with distant suppliers improve productivity, as measured by sales per worker, possibly attributed to intermediates from distant firms embodying more diversified knowledge than from neighboring firms. Ties with neighboring clients also improve productivity, which may be a result of diffusion of disembodied knowledge from neighboring clients being more effective than from distant clients. By contrast, ties with distant suppliers and clients improve innovative capability, as measured by the number of patent applications, suggesting the importance of a diversity of knowledge from distant firms for innovation. In addition, the density of a firm's ego network, which is measured by how densely its supply chain partners transact with each other, is found to have a negative effect on productivity and innovative capability, implying knowledge redundancy in dense networks. Overall, our results emphasize the importance of diversified partners in knowledge diffusion through supply chain networks. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15034&r=ure |
| By: | Jie He (Departement d'economique, Faculte d'administration, Universite de Sherbrooke); Anping Huang (Lingnan (University College), University of Sun Yat-sen, China); Â Luodan Xu (Lingnan (University College), University of Sun Yat-sen, China) |
| Abstract: |  This article examines whether and how transboundary river water pollution spillover may affect resident’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) for a river water quality improvement project. Based on a CVM survey conducted in 20 cities located in the Xijiang river basin located in south China, our study demonstrates that the downstream city respondents report lower WTP when the water quality in the immediate upstream city is more polluted. This negative externality decreases with distance and relative bargaining power of downstream city. The simulated potential gain in social benefit if an integrated river basin management (IRBM) were installed, which is supposed to remove respondents’ concerns about negative externality of transboundary river pollution is found to be significant. We can consider this social benefit as upper bound for the transfer from downstream to upstream regions to ensure the reduction of transboundary river pollution spillovers in the Ecological Service Payment (ESP) regime, a hotly debated market-based environmental policy which is under polit project in some regions in China. |
| Keywords: | Â transboundary water pollution, river, negative externality, spatial, contingent valuation, river water management, ecological service payment, China |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:15-04&r=ure |
| By: | Zaman, Gheorghe; Georgescu, George |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the issue of regional resilience against the recent financial and economic crisis in the case of Romania, taking the county as territorial unit of observation. Based on the idea that the shock of a crisis impact spreads asymmetrically in the territory, with different contagion effects, the study advance a new approach of the speed and duration of GDP decline recovering. Data analysis showed that, at macroeconomic level, Romania has not proved resilient to the crisis impact, after two years of recession and a recovery period of 4 years succeeding barely in 2014 to return to the GDP level achieved in 2008. The research highlighted the differentiated recovery duration of the economic decline in territory, in 2014 many counties having to recover in the coming years remained GDP gaps, up to 10 pp or even more. The study paid a specific attention to the crisis impact on employment, focusing on R&D sector as revealing the endogenous growth generating potential at county level. |
| Keywords: | global crisis; regional economic resilience; economic decline recovery; employment; knowledge-based re-industrialization |
| JEL: | G01 I28 O18 O33 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63246&r=ure |
| By: | Seyedeh Maedeh Ghorashi (Azad University in Science and Research Branch); Pejman Pashmchi Zadeh (Municipality); masih rahimabadi (Ministry of Finance) |
| Abstract: | Tehran over the past several decades have had a rapid growth and extensive development and the result of such rapid growth, is the weaken the balance between social stability and trust and social capital of citizens.This particular issue was raised at the neighborhood level and this is one of the main reasons for the managers to manage urban neighborhoods and thriving discussion centered in this area in the recent.In this context, this paper, based on the findings of a survey in the region 3 of Tehran Municipality has been carried out, Sought to examine the impact of neighborhood management based on the trust of the citizens of the municipal entity.The findings of this study show that the "participation rate", "SPM", "responsibility", "Networking - Building" and "interpersonal trust", according to the theoretical model of neighborhood management component can be ignited, and there is a range of social trust relations Also, examine the multivariate relationships among the five indicators that show mentioned, the only indication of "interpersonal trust" direct communication with the citizens' trust in city management and an indirect effect through other variables as interpersonal trust can be. |
| Keywords: | Neighborhood -based management, social trust, urban management, cognitive value of the trust |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0201382&r=ure |
| By: | Dunia López-Pintado (Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | We consider a model of social interactions in which agents are assumed to acquire information from others through a certain sampling process that generates an influence network. These networks comprise a wide array of options depending on the level of correlation assumed between agents' in and out degree. We study the provision of public goods in influence networks and show that the equilibrium (of the corresponding best-shot game) always exists and it is unique. We derive further insights for this problem by performing a comparative statics analysis. |
| Keywords: | influence networks; public goods; out-degree; in-degree; best-shot game |
| JEL: | D85 H41 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:15.04&r=ure |
| By: | Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett; Bonikowska, Aneta |
| Abstract: | Canada and the United States have recently experienced an increase in the regional dispersion of entering immigrants. American research suggests that a mixture of economic push factors (away from states like California) and pull factors (toward states with growth of low-wage jobs), as well as changing government policies and regulations contributed to the development of the `New Gateways.? Very few studies have been conducted to determine why the regional dispersion of entering immigrants occurred in Canada. This paper assesses the relative importance of immigrant selection programs and immigrant source regions in accounting for changes in the regional dispersion of entering immigrants during the 2000s. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Immigrants and non-permanent residents, Income, pensions, spending and wealth, Labour, Labour market and income, Low income and inequality, Wages, salaries and other earnings |
| Date: | 2015–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2015366e&r=ure |
| By: | Stefan Schönfelder (WIFO); Gerhard Streicher (Austrian Institute of Economic Research); Johan Gille (ECORYS Holding BV); Frank Trosky (Planco) |
| Abstract: | The promotion of Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) is one of the political priorities of the "European Union Strategy for the Danube Region". A growing share of IWT within the regional freight transport market is expected to raise the sustainability of the transport system and provide beneficial regional economic effects. Relatively high energy efficiency and good environmental performance, together with low specific costs, rank among the primary advantages of this transport mode. The study "Danube+20" initiated by the European Commission looked at the employment effects of a 20 percent increase in IWT transport volume in the Danube region by 2020 compared to 2010. The results of the simulation using the multi-regional input-output model ADAGIO indicate that IWT offers a source of moderate additional employment for the river's bordering regions. The employment growth mainly results from induced economic effects, i.e., reduced average transport costs for the entire economy. |
| Keywords: | Freight Transport, Inland Waterway Transport, Danube, Employment Modelling |
| Date: | 2015–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2015:i:497&r=ure |
| By: | Chihiro Shimizu (Reitaku University); W. Erwin Diewert (University of British Columbia); Kiyohiko G. Nishimura (University of Tokyo); Tsutomu Watanabe (University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | We propose a new method to estimate quality adjusted commercial property price indexes using real estate investment trust (REIT) data. Our method is based on the present value approach, but the way the denominator (i.e., the discount rate) and the numerator (i.e., cash flows from properties) are estimated differs from the traditional method. We run a hedonic regression to estimate the quality adjusted discount rate based on the share prices of REITs, which can be regarded as the stock market’s valuation of the set of properties owned by the REITs. As for the numerator, we use rental prices associated only with new rental contracts rather than those associated with all existing contracts. Using a dataset with prices and cash flows for about 400 commercial properties included in Japanese REITs for the period 2001 to 2013, we find that our price index signals turning points much earlier than an appraisal-based price index; specifically, our index peaks in the second quarter of 2007, while the appraisal-based price index exhibits a turnaround only in the third quarter of 2008. Our results suggest that the share prices of REITs provide useful information in constructing commercial property price indexes. |
| Keywords: | REIT; quality adjusted price index; hedonic regression; Tobin’s q; risk premium |
| JEL: | E3 G19 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upd:utppwp:048&r=ure |
| By: | Malgorzata Renigier-Bilozor (University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn); Andrzej Bi³ozor |
| Abstract: | The growing significance of the real estate market prompts investors to search for factors and variables which support cohesive analyses of real estate markets, market comparisons based on diverse criteria and determination of market potential. The specificity of the real estate market is determined by the unique attributes of property. The Author’s assume that developing real estate market ratings identifies the types of information and factors which affect decision-making on real estate markets. The main objective of real estate market ratings is to create a universal and standardized classification system for evaluating the real estate market. One from the most important problem in this area is collection of appropriate features of real estate market and development dataset. The main problem involves the selection and application of appropriate features, which would be relevant to the specificity of information related to the real estate market and create a kind of coherent system aiding the decision-making process. The main aim of this study is to optimization of variables set that were used to develop the real estate market ratings. To this purpose Hellwig’s method of integral capacity of information was applied. In this particular case, this method shows what set of variables provides information most sufficiently. The results lead to obtain the necessary set of features that constitute essential information which describes the situation on the local real estate market. |
| Keywords: | real estate market rating, optimization of the variables selection, Hellwig’s method |
| JEL: | B16 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no24&r=ure |
| By: | Markéta Poláková (The Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences); VÄ›ra PatoÄková (The Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences); KateÅ™ina Vojtíšková (The Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | According to the Committee on culture of the world association of United Cities and local Governments and its document “Agenda 21 for culture†(2004), culture should be considered as one of the four pillars of sustainable development on an equal footing with the others. This paper will focus on the process of developing cultural planning process in two small and medium sized towns (Louny and DÄ›Äín) situated in the northwest part of the Czech Republic. We conceive a cultural planning as an integrated planning process based on thorough understanding of local cultural resources and effective use of the cultural potential of the area. The benefits of the culture for the individual and the community place identification are widely recognized. In two mentioned towns the authors carried out an action research characterized by a tight connection between the researchers and the local self-governement and other local participants, which strives to find a common solution how to encourage the development of culture and use its potential for strengthening of local communities and tourism. The aim of the partnership was to analyse and discuss the role of culture and mutual cooperation among actors from different sectors in two towns, identify the local cultural resources, to raise engagement and participation of residents in planning procedures, and – in consequence – to contribute to the change of perception of planning techniques. Throughout the process we emphasize the importance of partnership with (among) local actors and community, which enables the stakeholders to understand better the needs of diverse groups and can make an effective and sustainable planning of culture in the city. The opportunity to participate directly on the planning process, increase responsibility of local actors for the implementation of the plan, as well as increase their identification with the town and region. |
| Keywords: | culture, planning, sustainable development, community, partnership |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0902959&r=ure |
| By: | Cong Wang (Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark); Bodo Steiner (Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Motivated by theoretical arguments that assert a negative impact of ethnolinguistic diversity on social capital, this paper aims to provide some empirical evidence on the relationship between the two variables. In particular, using a cross section sample of 68 developed and developing countries, this paper has found a significant negative effect of ethnolinguistic diversity on social capital. Countries with fractionalized ethnic and linguistic groups as captured by both log number of languages and Desmet et al. (2012) and La Porta et al. (1999)’s measures on linguistic diversity tend to have lower levels of social trust, fewer memberships in social organizations, deteriorated social norms and structure, hence, lower overall social capital stock. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity, Social Capital, Economic Growth |
| JEL: | E0 D72 Z10 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sdn:wpaper:6&r=ure |
| By: | Werner L. Hernani-Limarino (Fundación ARU) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the impact of Bolivia’s school subsidy program, Bono Juancito Pinto (BJP), on school attendance. BJP is a relatively small cash transfer (less than 30 dollars per child per year) given conditional on being enrolled into a public school and on regular school attendance. Since there are no feasible alternatives of a control group, we use simple structural behavioral models to understand the school-work decision and derive counterfactuals of interest. Estimation is conducted using two dimensional kernel regression estimators. Our results suggest that BJP has been successful increasing school attendance only for young children – 6 to 8 years old, and particularly for girls. We conclude that BJP has only encourage households to enroll children to school at the proper age but has not give an additional incentive to attend to those already enrolled for the first time. |
| Keywords: | impact evaluation, conditional cash transfers, education |
| JEL: | C14 I2 I3 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aru:wpaper:201506&r=ure |
| By: | BARONE, Adriana (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy); NESE, Annamaria (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy) |
| Abstract: | Taking into account the economic consequences of obesity highlighted in literature (Cawley, 2004), this study investigates the association between overweight and skill attainment at the university of Salerno in Italy, with particular focus on gender differences. Our findings indicate a significant negative relationship between body mass index and academic achievement only for female students thus suggesting that, during late adolescence, physicality plays different roles according to gender. We also investigated gender differences in relation to psychological factors and we find that i)only females consider "being attractive" as an important factor for their well-being and ii) peers' behavior matters on individual eating habits only when female students are considered |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Body weight; Educational Economics; Microeconometrics |
| JEL: | C25 D01 I12 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:0129&r=ure |
| By: | Monras, Joan (Sciences Po, Paris) |
| Abstract: | How does the US labor market absorb low-skilled immigration? I address this question using the 1995 Mexican Peso Crisis, an exogenous push factor that raised Mexican migration to the US. In the short run, high-immigration states see their low-skilled labor force increase and native low-skilled wages decrease, with an implied local labor demand elasticity of -.7. Internal relocation dissipates this shock spatially. In the long run, the only lasting consequences are for low-skilled natives who entered the labor force in high-immigration years. A simple quantitative many-region model allows me to obtain the counterfactual local wage evolution absent the immigration shock. |
| Keywords: | international and internal migration, local shocks, local labor demand elasticity |
| JEL: | F22 J20 J30 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8924&r=ure |
| By: | Natalia Ilyniak (University of Manitoba) |
| Abstract: | Do Manitoba elementary schools’ history and social studies textbooks contain racist knowledge towards Indigenous peoples in Canada? Data is collected from a range of textbooks that are published between 1960 and 2013; all were found in schools’ libraries and classrooms within the past year. Youth are using even the dated books for research, and therefore consider them legitimate academic sources. The more recent publications are listed on the Manitoba Textbook Bureau, a government agency that designates acceptable books for teachers to use in the province. Surveying these textbooks illuminates various problematic ways that race and Indigenous peoples are taught and portrayed. Older textbooks rely on overtly racist rhetoric, such as labelling Indigenous peoples “barbarians,†“Noble Savages,†or suggesting that white settlers were the first people to live in Canada. More recent textbooks move away from this open racism towards a new subtle racism that blurs the lines between learned cultural traits and biological characteristics, essentializing social features. The notion that skin colour provides any deep genetic meaning has long been scientifically disproven. A result of this new, covert racism found in schools’ textbooks, combined with the accessibility of old overtly racist ones, is that racialized thinking becomes normalized amongst youth early on. |
| Keywords: | Racism; Indigenous peoples; Canada; textbooks |
| JEL: | F54 I21 Y90 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0302039&r=ure |
| By: | Anping Chen (School of Economics, Jinan University China); Nicolaas Groenewold (Business School, University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | The extent of inter-regional disparities is an important policy issue in China and the sources of these disparities have been subject to considerable empirical research. Yet we have relatively little empirical knowledge of the effects on the regional distribution of output of shocks to national macroeconomic variables such as GDP and investment. This is an important gap in the empirical literature since much government policy seeks to influence variables such as GDP or uses variables such as investment expenditure as a macroeconomic instrument. It is likely that national shocks will have differential regional impacts and policy-makers need to know the sign, size and timing of such effects before making policy decisions at the national level. We simulate the effects of aggregate shocks on individual provinces’ GDP within the framework of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model restricted in a manner following Lastrapes (Economics Letters, 2005). We use annual data from 1953 to 2012 to estimate the model which includes 28 of China’s provinces and simulate the effects of shocks to aggregate output and investment on provincial outputs. We find great diversity of effects across the provinces and also variability across the effects of different aggregate shocks but little evidence of a systematic influence of aggregate shocks on the distribution of their effects across the provinces. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:14-13&r=ure |
| By: | Nina Drange; Kjetil Telle (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Proficiency in the language spoken by the majority population may be crucial for the cognitive development of children from immigrant families. High-quality child care is believed to promote such language skills, and it is thus of concern that children from immigrant families are underrepresented in formal child care across OECD countries. How can we increase their participation, and can such participation improve family integration? We study an intervention in some districts of Oslo where children aged four and five were eligible for twenty hours of free childcare weekly. Taking advantage of the intervention being available in some city districts and not in others, we estimate the effect of the intervention on the enrollment of children and on their parents' employment and education, using outcomes measured for the same family before and after the child's age of eligibility. We find that the intervention increased the participation for children from immigrant families by 15 percent. However, we do not find support for effects on parental employment or education. The performance in tests at school entry (age six) for children from immigrant families in city districts with free child care is better than that of similar children in comparison districts. Overall, our results suggest that subsidizing center based child care can improve the cognitive development of children from immigrant families. |
| Keywords: | child care; education; immigrant children; integration; assimilation |
| JEL: | J13 J15 H52 I28 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:799&r=ure |
| By: | Ji Ung Sun (Department of Industrial & Management Engineering, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) |
| Abstract: | Hub and spoke (H&S) network reflecting the scale economies through consolidation and a large amount of freight transportation is widely used to reduce total transportation costs. H&S network has transportation routes that go to the final destination point pass through hub linking destination from hub linking origin. In this paper we deal with a capacitated hub location-routing problem (HLRP). The HLRP not only considers the locations of the capacitated p-hubs but also deals with the vehicle routing problem for collection and delivery of goods. This problem is formulated as an integer programming model with the objective of the minimum total transportation cost and the fixed cost associated with the establishment of hubs. As the HLRP has impractically demanding for the large sized problems, we develop a solution method based on ant colony optimization algorithm which solves hub location and vehicle routing problem hierarchically. Its performance is examined through a comparative study. |
| Keywords: | Hub and Spoke Network, Hub Location-Routing, Integer Programming, Ant Colony Optimization |
| JEL: | C61 R40 C52 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0100680&r=ure |
| By: | Ferrone, Lucia (UNICEF); Giannelli, Gianna Claudia (University of Florence) |
| Abstract: | In many Sub-Saharan African countries, a large number of people migrate internally or abroad because of demographic, economic and political factors. This pronounced mobility is likely to have consequences for child education, which is still a matter of concern in the region. We study this issue for Uganda, investigating whether the migration of household members affects child primary education and in what direction. Using the Uganda National Panel Survey for 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011, we estimate conditional fixed effects logit models of school attendance and primary school completion. We find that migration of children has a significant positive impact on child school attendance rates while that of adults has a significantly negative effect, and that remittances have no influence. These findings suggest that migration of children is indeed beneficial, since it may contribute to matching the demand and supply of schooling. The absence of adults, instead, has controversial effects when children are left behind. In fact, lack of supervision and children working substituting adults in their tasks might reduce the rate of school attendance. However, the migration of neither children nor adults seem to increase the rate of primary school completion, evidence that points to the problem of the low quality of primary education in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | migration, schooling, panel data models with fixed effects, Uganda |
| JEL: | I25 J13 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8927&r=ure |
| By: | BENSON MBONU OGBONNA (Department of Economics, Abia State University,); Kalu Ebi Uma (Department of Economics & Development Studies, Federal University, Ndufu Alike-Ikwo, Ebonyi State,) |
| Abstract: | The paper examined the effect of transportation network in Nigeria over the years using sub-sector output time series data (road transport, rail transport, air transport and water way) ranging from 1981-2009. We ascertain the impact of the sub-sectors outputs on the real gross domestic product, a measure of economic development. The time series property was ascertained using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root tests. Almost all the variables were integrated of order two as shown by the ADF statistic, which led to the examination for long-run relationship using Johansen rank co-integration test. The outcome implies a long-run relationship. Ordinary least square approach was employed in the data analysis. The results revealed that only road transport impacted significantly on the real gross domestic product (RGDP). However, the joint effect of the variables on the economy was statistical significant based on the F-statistic. Hence, we made the following recommendations, among others: sufficient and consistent resources should be budgeted and allocated to transportation capital expenditure; private domestic and foreign investors can be contracted to establish transport infrastructure and given a period of time to recoup cost of investment and profit margin. |
| Keywords: | Economic development, impact, transport sector, infrastructure |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0100855&r=ure |
| By: | Andrea Uszkai (HAS Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Institute of Regional Studies West-Hungarian Scientific Department); László Jóna (HAS Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Institute of Regional Studies West-Hungarian Scientific Department) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the Central and Eastern – European (CEE) region. Its background means an analysis related to the automotive industry, which is a part of a large Hungarian, EU supported research project*. Our aim was to explore what kind of features all of the European settlements have got, where we can find the automotive sector. Based on the results of our cluster analysis, the CEE area has got the weakest social and economic indicators in this international comparison. For this reason, it is essentially important to search for instruments and methods to support the economy of this region. One of the possibilities is the transport infrastructure and network development, because there are a lot of potentials in this branch. |
| Keywords: | automotive industry, Central and Eastern Europe, transport infrastructure development |
| JEL: | R11 R40 R42 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0801463&r=ure |
| By: | Yuichiro Ito (Bank of Japan); Ichiro Muto (Bank of Japan); Yasutaka Takizuka (Bank of Japan) |
| Abstract: | Large movements in the real estate market not only magnify fluctuations in the real economy but also destabilize the financial system. For this reason, it is quite important for central banks to monitor real estate market trends both in terms of monetary policy and prudential policy. Based on recently enhanced statistics, this article presents a data analysis for monitoring the real estate market from three perspectives: 1) real estate transactions; 2) real estate prices; and 3) real estate finance. In so doing, we explain that dispersions in real estate prices are valuable indicators in detecting overheating of the real estate market. |
| Date: | 2015–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boj:bojrev:rev15e02&r=ure |
| By: | William DUPONT IV; Ilan NOY; OKUYAMA Yoko; SAWADA Yasuyuki |
| Abstract: | In this study, we aim at quantifying the permanent socio-economic impacts of the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake in 1995. We employ a large scale panel data of 1,719 wards (shi, ku, cho, son) from Japan over almost three decades. In order to overcome a fundamental difficulty of obtaining a clean control group, i.e., the Kobe economy without the earthquake, we adopt the synthetic control method of Abadie et al. (2010). Three important empirical findings emerged from our empirical analyses. First, the income level and the population size of the Kobe economy have been significantly lower than the counterfactual level without the earthquake over 15 years, indicating a significant permanent negative effect of the earthquake. Such a negative impact can be found especially in the central areas such as Chuo, Hyogo, and Nagata wards in Kobe, which are close to the epicenter. Second, the surrounding areas such as the city of Nishinomiya encountered positive permanent impacts with short-run negative effects of the earthquake. Third, the relatively outside areas such as the north (kita) wards of Kobe, the city of Akashi, and the city of Himeji seem to be insulated from the large direct and indirect impacts of the earthquake. In sum, there seem to be significant heterogeneities of the short-run and long-run losses caused by the earthquake even within the affected areas, suggesting that different market and non-market mechanisms function significantly to weather the impact of the earthquake spatially. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15035&r=ure |
| By: | Morimoto, Yu; Takeda, Kohei |
| Abstract: | We show that monopoly is better than competition in term of social welfare for low frequency routes. Competition affects both flight schedules and airfares. Flight schedules get un-even interval by competition and this leads to large scheduling delay cost (SDC). The increment of SDC is large when the number of flights is small. For low frequency routes, the increment of SDC by competition overwhelms the decreasing in the airfare, so monopoly is better than competition. |
| Keywords: | Scheduling Delay Cost, Airline Competition, Scheduling |
| JEL: | R41 |
| Date: | 2015–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63258&r=ure |
| By: | Klasen,Stephan; Pieters,Janneke |
| Abstract: | Female labor force participation rates in urban India between 1987 and 2011 are surprisingly low and have stagnated since the late 1980s. Despite rising growth, fertility decline, and rising wages and education levels, married women's labor force participation hovered around 18 percent. Analysis of five large cross-sectional micro surveys shows that a combination of supply and demand effects have contributed to this stagnation. The main supply side factors are rising household incomes and husband's education as well as the falling selectivity of highly educated women. On the demand side, the sectors that draw in female workers have expanded least, so that changes in the sectoral structure of employment alone would have actually led to declining participation rates. |
| Keywords: | Primary Education,Labor Markets,Gender and Development,Labor Policies,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2015–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7222&r=ure |