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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Dirk Drechsel (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | In light of the strong increase of house prices in Switzerland, we analyze the effects of mortgage rate shocks, changes in the interplay between housing demand and supply and GDP growth on house prices for the time period 1981- 2014. We employ Bayesian time-varying coefficients vector autoregressions to allow different monetary and immigration regimes over time. A number of structural changes, such as regulatory changes in the aftermath of the 1990s real estate crisis, the introduction of free-labor movements in the 2000s or the zero lower bound interest rate regime in the 2010s might have affected the responses of house prices to influencing factors. We investigate potential parameter changes and their importance in light of the current housing price boom. We find that 40% of house price variations can be explained by changes in demand and supply for housing. Furthermore, the response of house prices to mortgage rate shocks weakened after the 1990s real estate crisis and increased in size again during the recent house price boom. |
| Keywords: | Switzerland, house prices, Time-Varying VAR |
| JEL: | C32 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:15-381&r=ure |
| By: | Chang-Tai Hsieh; Enrico Moretti |
| Abstract: | We study how growth of cities determines the growth of nations. Using a spatial equilibrium model and data on 220 US metropolitan areas from 1964 to 2009, we first estimate the contribution of each U.S. city to national GDP growth. We show that the contribution of a city to aggregate growth can differ significantly from what one might naively infer from the growth of the city’s GDP. Despite some of the strongest rate of local growth, New York, San Francisco and San Jose were only responsible for a small fraction of U.S. growth in this period. By contrast, almost half of aggregate US growth was driven by growth of cities in the South. We then provide a normative analysis of potential growth. We show that the dispersion of the conditional average nominal wage across US cities doubled, indicating that worker productivity is increasingly different across cities. We calculate that this increased wage dispersion lowered aggregate U.S. GDP by 13.5%. Most of the loss was likely caused by increased constraints to housing supply in high productivity cities like New York, San Francisco and San Jose. Lowering regulatory constraints in these cities to the level of the median city would expand their work force and increase U.S. GDP by 9.5%. We conclude that the aggregate gains in output and welfare from spatial reallocation of labor are likely to be substantial in the U.S., and that a major impediment to a more efficient spatial allocation of labor are housing supply constraints. These constraints limit the number of US workers who have access to the most productive of American cities. In general equilibrium, this lowers income and welfare of all US workers. |
| JEL: | E24 J01 R0 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21154&r=ure |
| By: | CHRISTINA KAKDERI (ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI); DIMITRA KONSTANTINIDOU (ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI) |
| Abstract: | The role of human capital for innovation and economic development is widely acknowledged. Yet, though the connection of knowledge and capabilities to innovation has been recognized as early as the theory of Schumpeter (1934), it was the endogenous growth models which emphasized this link and underlined the importance of human capital, due to its effects both on the level of productivity and on the creation of externalities in the form of knowledge spillovers (Romer, 1990). At the same time, along with the growing importance that was given to space and regional economics, different aspects of human capital have come to prominence and were connected to the development, concentration and diffusion of knowledge in space. Knowledge, skills and capabilities, components embedded in human beings, as well as the social networking and the employment mobility, constitute basic components for regional competitiveness in theories of regional innovation that have emerged and expressed with concepts such as the ‘learning region’ (Morgan, 1997; Florida, 1995), ‘innovative milieu’ (Crevoisier, 2001), ‘industrial districts’ (Becatinni, 1992), ‘regional innovation systems’ (Cooke et al., 1997) and ‘intelligent cities/districts’ (Komninos, 2002, 2008, 2014). The paper reviews the literature and describes four basic dimensions of innovation for spatial development (in-house innovation, knowledge spillovers and innovation networks, open innovation, spatial and collective intelligence) which underline the importance of different aspects of human capabilities. Based on a simple methodology similar to the UNDP’s Human Development Index, this paper calculates a measure of regional development in the EU regions giving emphasis to the aspects of human capabilities that contribute to innovation. Conclusions are drawn by comparing the results of this composite indicator with GDP-based development indexes as well as the innovation scoreboard. |
| Keywords: | human capital, human capabilities, innovation, spatial development |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003819&r=ure |
| By: | Linda Rosenberg; Megan Davis Christianson; Megan Hague Angus |
| Abstract: | Low-performing schools in rural settings can face challenges common to all struggling schools, such as low student motivation and maintaining a qualified teaching staff. |
| Keywords: | Rural Schools, SIG, School Improvement Grants |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:5dadf39d9cb04da2ac38f79bc8af1691&r=ure |
| By: | Jeremy Clark (University of Canterbury); Susmita Roy Das (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | Much of the education finance literature is concerned with evaluating policies that seek to lessen the effect of economic disparities outside schools on the disparity of student outcomes within them. Examples include school finance reform to reduce schools’ reliance on local wealth, special education funding for students with physical or learning disabilities, and affirmative action admissions and support. A national funding programme used in New Zealand for all elementary and high schools provides a rare opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of targeting alternative measures of socio-economic disadvantage. New Zealand targets five deprivation factors of the immediate neighbourhoods in which a school’s students live: low household income, lack of educational qualifications, employment in low skill occupations, household crowding, and the proportion receiving welfare. We use school fixed effects regressions to evaluate whether some disadvantage factors are more effective in raising achievement than others, and secondarily whether other measurable factors such as family structure, health or ethnicity retain strong negative covariance with achievement rates. We find that the marginal effectiveness of targeting “low skill occupation” is comparatively high, and of targeting “receiving welfare” is comparatively low, such that New Zealand would raise achievement rates if it raised the weight on the former and lowered it on the latter. In addition to the five disadvantage factors used, we find that single parent status, rural/urban status, and home ownership co-vary significantly with achievement rates. |
| Keywords: | education funding, socio-economic disadvantage, decile funding |
| JEL: | H52 I22 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2015–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:15/10&r=ure |
| By: | Maldonado, Mauricio (University of Chile); Noronha Vaz, Teresa (University of Algarve) |
| Abstract: | Studies of local knowledge spillovers have often focused on empirical evidence for core regions, and been related largely to manufacturing, neglecting behavior in less innovative economic sectors in peripheral regions. Tourism in the Algarve region is the main engine of its regional economy. Although frequently considered as a low-moderate innovative sector, competitive tourism firms are becoming increasingly Knowledge Intensive, which may create positive advantages for regional growth. This may improve conditions for the creation and diffusion of knowledge, with cooperative and collaborative interaction contributing to the consolidation of a regional innovation system (RIS). The goal of this study is to provide preliminary evidence of the main sources and vehicles of regional knowledge spillovers affecting tourism firms in the Algarve, generally considered to be a peripheral region. The main sources of knowledge used by micro and small tourism firms (MSTF) are human resources and formal and informal networks. This study detected specific features of a regional innovation platform which, eventually, may give way to a RIS. |
| Keywords: | Tourism; Innovation; Knowledge Spillover; Knowledge Intensive Services; Regional Innovation System; Algarve Region |
| JEL: | P25 |
| Date: | 2015–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:cieodp:2015_004&r=ure |
| By: | Louis-Philippe Beland; Richard Murphy |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of schools banning mobile phones on student test scores. By surveying schools in four English cities regarding their mobile phone policies and combining it with administrative data, we find that student performance in high stakes exams significantly increases post ban. We use a difference in differences (DID) strategy, exploiting variations in schools’ autonomous decisions to ban these devices, conditioning on a range of student characteristics and prior achievement. Our results indicate that these increases in performance are driven by the lowest-achieving students. This suggests that restricting mobile phone use can be a low-cost policy to reduce educational inequalities. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2015-03&r=ure |
| By: | Bernard Fortin; Myra Yazbeck |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at opening the black box of peer effects in adolescent weight gain. Using Add Health data on secondary schools in the U.S., we investigate whether these effects partly flow through the eating habits channel. Adolescents are assumed to interact through a friendship social network. We propose a two-equation model. The first equation provides a social interaction model of fast food consumption. To estimate this equation we use a quasi maximum likelihood approach that allows us to control for common environment at the network level and to solve the simultaneity (reflection) problem. Our second equation is a panel dynamic weight production function relating an individual’s Body Mass Index z-score (zBMI) to his fast food consumption and his lagged zBMI, and allowing for irregular intervals in the data. Results show that there are positive but small peer effects in fast food consumption among adolescents belonging to a same friendship school network. Based on our preferred specification, the estimated social multiplier is 1.15. Our results also suggest that,in the long run, an extra day of weekly fast food restaurant visits increases zBMI by 4.45% when ignoring peer effects and by 5.11%, when they are taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Obesity, overweight, peer effects, social interactions, fast food, spatial models |
| JEL: | C31 I10 I12 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:criacr:1507&r=ure |
| By: | Romão, João (Lusíada University) |
| Abstract: | Despite the close relationship between tourism and territory, the application of spatial analysis methods in tourism is not abundant in the literature. Nevertheless, the recent developments in the analysis of space-time models, the existence of geo-referenced information and the availability of suitable software tools has created new opportunities for studying the role of space in tourism activities. A space-time panel data model is developed in this work in order to analyse the relations between tourism demand and the existence of infrastructures, cultural assets and natural resources in European regions, including the analysis of spatial effects. The results reveal the positive impacts of the explanatory variables on tourism demand and the clear existence of spatial correlations, suggesting that regional tourism demand benefits from the dynamics registered in neighborhood regions. Policy implications - including the need for a multi-regional approach for planning and promotion of tourism - are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Space-time Model; Panel Data; Spatial Analysis; Tourism Demand |
| JEL: | C21 |
| Date: | 2015–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:cieodp:2015_003&r=ure |
| By: | L. Arrondel; P. Lamarche; F. Savignac |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the heterogeneity of the marginal propensity to consume out of wealth using French household surveys. We find decreasing marginal propensity to consume out of wealth across the wealth distribution for all net wealth components. The marginal propensity to consume out of financial assets tend to be higher compared with the effect of housing assets, excepted in the top of the wealth distribution. Consumption is less sensitive to the value of the main residence than to other housing assets. We also investigate the heterogeneity arising from indebtedness and from the role of housing assets as collateral. |
| Keywords: | Consumption, Marginal propensity to consume out of wealth, Policy distributive effects, Households survey. |
| JEL: | D12 E21 C21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:552&r=ure |
| By: | Xiaogang Wu (Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology); Zhuoni Zhang (Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | Prof. Xiaogang Wu, an HKUST Faculty Associate and Professor of Social Science at HKUST, investigates the earnings disadvantages faced by rural Chinese migrants in urban cities as compared to their local urban counterparts, and uses empirical evidence to conclude that such disadvantages are largely attributable to occupational segregation based on workers' hukou (residency) status. Prof. Wu's findings carry important implications for hukou-related reform policies aimed at better assimilating rural migrants into urban Chinese cities. These findings are particularly important now, as both the Chinese central government as well as local urban governments throughout the country scramble to fix the socioeconomic difficulties faced by the ever-growing influx of rural migrants to urban areas. |
| Keywords: | Hukou, China, Chinese employment, Chinese rural migrants, Chinese residency status, Chinese socioeconomics, Hukou reform |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hku:briefs:201506&r=ure |
| By: | Victor Zbar (Zbar Consulting P/L) |
| Abstract: | Vic Zbar is an Australian education consultant and former senior executive in the Victorian Government who is recognised internationally for his writing on education and range of education reports. He is co-editor of four volumes of Leading the Education Debate, published by the Centre for Strategic Education, and co-author of Better Schools, Better Teachers, Better Results published by the Australian Council for Educational Research. He also wrote the best sellers Managing the Future and Key Management Concepts published by Macmillan. In 2014 he conducted a review of middle schooling for the Minister for Education in the Northern Territory.In this short presentation Vic Zbar will outline research and school practice since 2008 that has helped specify the stages schools need to go through to generate whole school improvement and thereby achieve sustained success. He will begin with research he led into how eight under-performing socio-economically disadvantaged government schools in Melbourne, Australia became and remained high performing schools over a decade or more. Since each achieved this in the same way, the researchers were able to identify a theory of action for how whole-school improvement is initiated and maintained which has been adopted across whole regions in Australia and by a large number of schools. Central to this theory of action is the need to ensure that a set of preconditions are in place for whole-school improvement to take hold.He will then explain how the most disadvantaged region in metropolitan Melbourne, comprising 195 schools, not only took these preconditions to scale and achieved substantial improvements in literacy and numeracy outcomes for the more than 75,000 students they enrol, but transcended the performance plateau that often is reached by ensuring consistently better teaching in each school. This was achieved by using an instructional model to improve teaching practice, along with teacher planning and coaching in triads, or teams of three. Together, these helped drive better teaching practice through the school, thereby supporting more teachers to work like the best, which research has shown to be the greatest source of improvement in any school.The presentation will conclude with an outline of five specific teaching theories of action employed by this larger group of schools to enable the better planning of instruction they initiated to be translated into better, more research-driven practice in each class. |
| Keywords: | School improvement; Preconditions for improvement; Theories of action; Sustained success |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003071&r=ure |
| By: | B. Biagi; MG. Ladu |
| Abstract: | When productivity growth accelerates job destruction and job creation occurs simultaneously. However the results for the whole economy depend on which effect eventually dominates. We investigate what occurs in Italy during the time span 1977-2003, when some waves of labor market reforms have been introduced towards more flexibility. We also investigate if there are any systematic regional differences in the employment/productivity dynamics and whether these dynamics experience any sort of spatial externalities. Findings suggest that overall in Italy job destruction effect prevails and that the labor market reforms have a negative impact on employment. |
| JEL: | J01 J20 O30 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201505&r=ure |
| By: | Giuseppe Arbia; Giuseppe Espa; Diego Giuliani; Rocco Micciolo |
| Abstract: | The presence of knowledge spillovers and shared human capital is at the heart of the Marhall-Arrow- Romer externalities hypothesis. Most of the earlier empirical contributions on knowledge externalities, however, considered data aggregated at a regional level so that conclusions are based on the arbitrary definition of jurisdictional spatial units: this is the essence of the so-called Modifiable Areal Unit Problem. A second limitation of these studies is constituted by the fact that, somewhat surprisingly, while concentrating on the effects of agglomeration on firm creation and growth, the literature has, conversely, largely ignored its effects on firm survival. The present paper aims at contributing to the existing literature by answering to some of the open methodological questions reconciling the literature of Cox proportional hazard with that on point pattern and thus capturing the true nature of spatial information. We also present some empirical results based on Italian firm demography data collected and managed by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration, Firm survival, Spatial econometrics |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpem:2015/05&r=ure |
| By: | Courtney Tanenbaum; Andrea Boyle; Cheryl Graczewski; Susanne James-Burdumy; Lisa Dragoset; Kristin Hallgren |
| Abstract: | This fact sheet from a large-scale, multi-year evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) School Improvement Grants and Race to the Top programs, documents states’ capacity to support school turnaround as of spring 2012 and spring 2013. |
| Keywords: | state capacity, school turnaround, Race to the Top, School Improvement Grants |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:50ff013ae8f84b67802be63bb279ad86&r=ure |
| By: | Backman, Mikaela (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School, & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)); Karlsson, Charlie (Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS), Jönköping International Business School, Blekinge Institute of Technology, & University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyse where people who become self-employed actually start their firms. In the entrepreneurship literature, it is generally assumed that individuals who start a firm start it where they live. We question this general assumption and show that this does not hold for commuters. Our results show that of those individuals that were short-distance commuters in 2007 and become self-employed in 2008, 90.1 percent started their firm in their work munici-pality. Only 9.4 percent started their firm in their residence municipality. For long-distance commuters, the figures were 93.6 and 6.4 percent, respectively. Our econometric estimations show that the probability to start a firm in the work municipality increases with the number of years as a commuter, with commuting to a larger municipality, and with the relative size of the work municipality compared to the municipality of residence. Our results indicate that the entrepreneurship literature must reconsider its general statement that individuals start firms where they live. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; self-employment; location; commuting; networks; micro-level data |
| JEL: | C21 J24 L26 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0404&r=ure |
| By: | Jahn, Vera (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | Politicians frequently emphasize the importance of Mittelstand firms for the economy, thereby parti- cularly referring to their enormous engagement in training apprentices. However, there is yet almost no empirical evidence on the question whether Mittelstand firms are in fact excessively active in trai- ning apprentices. This paper contributes to the literature by studying whether the relative importance of owner-managed SMEs has an effect on firms’ apprenticeship activity. Using a cross section of West German NUTS-3-regions, we find a significantly positive relation between the relative importance of Mittelstand firms and apprenticeship activity on the regional level. However, on the national level an increase in the share of Mittelstand firms turns out to be without effect on apprenticeship activity. |
| Keywords: | apprenticeship; Mittelstand firms; owner-management; SMEs; Germany; regional spillovers |
| JEL: | C21 D23 I21 |
| Date: | 2015–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2015_158&r=ure |
| By: | Bastian, Anne (KTH); Börjesson, Maria (KTH) |
| Abstract: | We study long-term trends in regional car travel demand within and across socio-demographic groups in Sweden, using cross-sectional data from National Travel Surveys, spanning the period from 1978 to 2011. We find that the reduction in per-adult driving in Sweden mainly occurs among urban men. Urban men of all income groups reduced their driving for both commuting and non-commuting trips in conjunction with rising gasoline prices, which may have contributed to this development. We find that driving among those socio-demographic groups, who have better opportunities to reduce their driving, and driving for discretionary rather than commute purposes is being reduced over time. Sweden is ranked among the most gender-equal countries in the world; yet we find a substantial remaining gender gap in the share of adults driving a car on an average day, even when controlling for other socio-economic differences. |
| Keywords: | Travel behavior; Peak car; GDP elasticity; Fuel price elasticity; Car use |
| JEL: | R40 |
| Date: | 2015–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2015_009&r=ure |
| By: | Francois J. Stofberg (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Jan H. van Heerden (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | TERM is used to analyse the short term regional economic impact of an increase in industries’ transport costs when paying E-Tolls. Market-clearing and accounting equations allow regional economies to be represented as an integrated framework; labour adjusts to accommodate increasing transportation costs, and investments change to accommodate capital that is fixed. We concluded that costs from levying E-Tolls on industries are relatively small in comparison to total transport costs, and the impact on economic aggregates and most industries are negligible: investments (-0.404%), GDP (-0.01), CPI (-0.10%). This is true even when considering costs and benefits on industries as well as consumers. Industries that experienced the greatest decline in output were transport, construction, and gold. Provinces which are closer to Gauteng, and have a greater share of severely impacted industries, experienced larger GDP and real income reductions. Mpumalanga’s decrease in GDP was 17% greater than Gauteng’s. |
| Keywords: | Computable General Equilibrium Models, Regional Economics, Policy Modelling, Transport Cost |
| JEL: | C68 L91 R11 R48 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201527&r=ure |
| By: | Raj Chetty; Nathaniel Hendren; Lawrence F. Katz |
| Abstract: | The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment offered randomly selected families living in high-poverty housing projects housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods. We present new evidence on the impacts of MTO on children's long-term outcomes using administrative data from tax returns. We find that moving to a lower-poverty neighborhood significantly improves college attendance rates and earnings for children who were young (below age 13) when their families moved. These children also live in better neighborhoods themselves as adults and are less likely to become single parents. The treatment effects are substantial: children whose families take up an experimental voucher to move to a lower-poverty area when they are less than 13 years old have an annual income that is $3,477 (31%) higher on average relative to a mean of $11,270 in the control group in their mid-twenties. In contrast, the same moves have, if anything, negative long-term impacts on children who are more than 13 years old when their families move, perhaps because of disruption effects. The gains from moving fall with the age when children move, consistent with recent evidence that the duration of exposure to a better environment during childhood is a key determinant of an individual's long-term outcomes. The findings imply that offering families with young children living in high-poverty housing projects vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods may reduce the intergenerational persistence of poverty and ultimately generate positive returns for taxpayers. |
| JEL: | H53 I32 I38 R38 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21156&r=ure |
| By: | Maria Michela Dickson; Yves Tille' |
| Abstract: | In recent years, spatial sampling has been the subject of a flourishing literature. Its use had become widespread due to the availability of topographical information about statistical units, especially in the environmental context. New algorithms enable us to take advantage of spatial locations directly. In this paper, we present a new way of using spatial information by using traditional sampling techniques as systematic sampling. By means of a famous optimization method, the Traveling Salesman Problem, it is possible to order the statistical units in a way that preserves the spatial correlation. Next ordered sampling methods are applied on the statistical units. Therefore we can render spatial some non-spatial methods. An economic application on real data is presented and different spatial and non-spatial methods are tested. Results are compared in terms of variance estimation and spatial balance, in order to establish the possibility of spatializing traditional sampling methods and of implementing them on data of different nature, among which economic ones. |
| Keywords: | sampling methods, TSP, variance estimation, spatial balance |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpem:2015/06&r=ure |
| By: | Roberts, Deborah; Vera-Toscano, Esperanza; Phimister, Euan |
| Abstract: | Energy poverty is a significant policy issue in the UK. An argument often raised is that rural households are more likely to be energy poor due to the nature of rural housing stock and also the more limited choice of energy sources in rural areas. However empirical evidence to support this argument is limited. This paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey to explore whether the incidence and dynamics of energy poverty varies between rural and urban areas in the UK. In addition to descriptive analysis, discrete hazard models of energy poverty exit and re-entry are estimated and used to explore the impact of an increase in energy price. The results indicate that the influence of certain housing and personal characteristics differs by place of residence. After accounting for differences in the observed characteristics, the experience of energy poverty in urban areas was found to be on average longer with a higher probability of energy poverty persistence. Vulnerability to energy price increases was found to be high with a 20% increase in price leading to a 74% increase in the probability rural residents being trapped in energy poverty for five or more years. It is argued that a combination of household type and spatial targeting of policy support is required. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc15:204213&r=ure |
| By: | Pavel V. Derkachev (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article considers the uneven positions of school teachers in different regions of the Russian Federation. There exist numerous research works on the relation of school teachers’ salaries to the characteristics of regional educational systems and regional economies. A range of indicators is used to calculate school teachers’ salaries. It is necessary to consider the ratio of the teachers’ salary to the average salary in the region, the latter serving as a target indicator in government programs, in combination with other indicators, such as the ratio of the salary to the price of a fixed set of goods and services and the ratio of the teachers’ salary fund to total regional government expenditures. Research based on cluster data analysis statistical methods allowed the author to distinguish four types of regions. We used official data provided by Russian Federal State Statistics Service and the Russian Federal Treasury. The recommendations developed for each cluster of regions seek to improve the efficiency of the steps aimed at the implementation of the educational policy tasks through differentiating the support measures by the federal government. |
| Keywords: | Economics of education, labor market, salary, schools teachers’ status, general education, regional educational policy. |
| JEL: | H52 H73 I22 J31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:28/pa/2015&r=ure |
| By: | Tetsuji Okazaki |
| Abstract: | Because of the unstable financial market after World War I, the Japanese financial system experienced a wave of bank mergers, which resulted in an increase in bank scale and the development of branch banking. In this paper, we explored the implications of the expansion of branch banking, using bank-office-level data for Fukushima Prefecture. We found that branch offices that belonged to banks headquartered in other cities, counties, or prefectures tended to have a lower propensity to loan compared with the offices of banks headquartered in the same cities and counties as the offices. We also find that concentration of deposits on bank offices headquartered in other cities, counties, or prefectures had a substantial negative impact on the development of the weaving industry. The structural change in the banking industry after World War I altered the spatial allocation of funds and thereby affected the development of regional industries. |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnn:wpaper:15-001e&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | <ul><li>When choosing a school for their child, parents in all participating countries value academic achievement highly; but they are often even more concerned about the safety and environment of the school and the school’s reputation.</li><li> The children of parents who consider academic achievement very important score 46 points higher in mathematics than the children of parents who consider it not important.</li></ul> |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:51-en&r=ure |
| By: | Simanti Banerjee (University of Nebraska-Lincoln); Timothy N. Cason (Purdue University); Frans P. de Vries (University of Stirling); Nick Hanley (Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews) |
| Abstract: | Agglomeration Bonus (AB) schemes reward private landowners to spatially coordinate land use decisions to enhance the supply of ecosystem services. The AB mechanism creates a coordination game with multiple Pareto ranked Nash equilibria, which correspond to different spatially-coordinated land use patterns. This paper experimentally analyses subjects’ participation decisions, land use choices and AB performance in the presence of transaction costs, with and without the option to communicate with neighboring subjects in a local network setting. The experiment varies transaction costs at two levels (high and low), which affects the risks and payoffs of coordinating on the different equilibria. Results indicate a significant difference in participation under high and low transaction costs in the early stages of the experiment. Increased experience reduces participation rates and AB performance. Costless pre-play communication induces full participation and land use choice pertaining to the efficient Nash equilibrium. If communication is costly, the level of transaction costs affects participation levels, the degree of spatial coordination, and the ecosystem services benefits produced. Our study suggests that performance of Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes in general and the AB scheme in particular can be improved through mechanisms intended to reduce the costs associated with participation and communication. |
| Keywords: | Coordination Games, Lab Experiments, Local Networks, Payment for Ecosystem Services |
| JEL: | C91 D83 D81 Q51 Q |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sss:wpaper:2015-10&r=ure |
| By: | Yekaterina Chzhen; Lucia Ferrone; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | This report presents the results of the National Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (N-MODA) for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The study shows that almost all children aged 0 to 4 (98.1%) are deprived in at least one dimension, and a third (33.2%) are deprived in four or more dimensions at a time. Children in rural areas are more likely to be deprived in Information and Housing (mostly driven by lack of proper sanitation) than urban children, suggesting infrastructural problems. Having a mother with no or only primary education increases the probability of being deprived in all dimensions except Nutrition and Housing. This study also finds a high degree of overlap across dimensions. |
| Keywords: | econometric analysis; statistical analysis; |
| JEL: | I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa775&r=ure |
| By: | Luis Eduardo Arango; Gabriela Bonilla |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence of private returns to education and externalities which jointly render social returns in the labor market of Colombia. The spillover in the cities is generated by the share of college educated workers in the working-age population. Thus, the higher is this share in the cities, the higher the wages. The size of the externality is about 0.66; that is, an increase in the share of one percentage point will increase the wage in 0.66%. For highly educated workers the externality is about 0.75 while for low educated it is not significant. The results change in an important way if Bogotá, the capital city of the country, is excluded from the sample. Resources destined by the Colombian Institute for Educational Credit and Technical Studies Abroad (ICETEX) to fund undergraduate and postgraduate studies in provinces affect the outcomes if Bogotá is within the sample. A positive correlation between the size of cities and human capital agglomeration is also observed in such a way that if the former is substituted for the latter, we can still find the spillover. |
| Keywords: | social returns, private returns, externalities. |
| JEL: | J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2015–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000094:012788&r=ure |
| By: | Anwar, Shamena; Bayer, Patrick; Hjalmarsson, Randi |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the Gothenburg District Court in Sweden and a research design that exploits the random assignment of politically appointed jurors (termed nämndemän) to make three contributions to the literature on jury decision-making: (i) an assessment of whether systematic biases exist in the Swedish nämndemän system, (ii) causal evidence on the impact of juror political party on verdicts, and (iii) an empirical examination of the role of peer effects in jury decision-making. The results reveal a number of systematic biases: convictions for young defendants and those with distinctly Arabic sounding names increase substantially when they are randomly assigned jurors from the far-right (nationalist) Swedish Democrat party, while convictions in cases with a female victim increase markedly when they are assigned jurors from the far-left (feminist) Vänster party. The results also indicate the presence of peer effects, with jurors from both the far-left and far-right parties drawing the votes of their more centrist peers towards their positions. Peer effects take the form of both sway effects, where jurors influence the opinions of their closest peers in a way that can impact trial outcomes, and dissent aversion, where jurors switch non-pivotal votes so that the decision is unanimous. |
| Keywords: | crime; jury; peer effects; politics |
| JEL: | K4 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10589&r=ure |
| By: | Köppl Turyna, Monika |
| Abstract: | Using a unique set of electoral rules present in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, we explore the question whether local electoral rules affect the size of local governments. We find evidence that party--list system is associated with higher levels of expenditure and that direct elections of the mayor are associated with lower size of the public sector. The results are robust to the possibility that electoral rules might be endogenous to the local economic and geographic conditions. |
| Keywords: | local expenditure, opportunistic politicians, electoral rules |
| JEL: | D7 D72 H72 H77 |
| Date: | 2015–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64201&r=ure |
| By: | Joanna Nowakowska-Grunt (Technology University in Czestochowa); Judyta Kabus (Technology University in Czestochowa) |
| Abstract: | Special economic zones in Poland have been created in order to speed up the economic development of municipalities, cities and whole regions, use of post-industrial assets and infrastructure, as well as to create new workplaces. The zones attract Polish and foreign investors. The aim of the present paper is to discuss the Katowice Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) which also covers the areas of Malopolska and Opole provinces. Special attention was paid to Polish legal regulations governing the functioning of zones and to concessions for investors. The article finishes with description of the Czestochowa special economic zone and its benefits for the city. |
| Keywords: | economic zones, investors, economic benefits. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003797&r=ure |
| By: | Collewet M.M.F.; Grip A. de; Koning J. de (GSBE) |
| Abstract: | This paper uncovers conspicuous work as a new form of status seeking that can explain social interactions in labour supply. We analyse how peer working time relates to both labour supply and happiness for Dutch male workers. Using a unique measure of peer weekly working time, we find that mens working time increases with that of their peers and that peer working time is negatively related to mens happiness. These findings are consistent with a conspicuous work model, in which individuals derive status from working time. |
| Keywords: | Externalities; General Welfare; Time Allocation and Labor Supply; |
| JEL: | J22 I31 D62 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2015012&r=ure |
| By: | Georgios Bampinas (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Stilianos FOuntas (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Theodore Panagiotidis (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia) |
| Abstract: | The day-of-the-week effect for the securitized real estate indices is investigated by employing daily data at the global, European and country level for the period 1990 to 2010. We test for daily seasonality in 12 countries using both full sample and rolling regression techniques. While the evidence for the former is in line with the literature, the results for the latter cast severe doubts concerning the existence of any persistent day-of-the-week effects. Once we allow our sample to vary over time, the average proportion of significant coeffcients per day ranges between 15% and 24%. We show that higher average Friday returns evident in previous literature, remain significant in 21% of the rolling samples. We conclude that daily seasonality in the European Real Estate sector is subject to the data mining and sample selection bias criticism. |
| Keywords: | day-of-the-week effect, real estate indices, rolling regressions, GARCH, data mining. |
| JEL: | C33 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2015_02&r=ure |
| By: | Ça TEKE (Sakarya University); Baha GÜNEY (Sakarya University) |
| Abstract: | Planning, conducting and control of maintenance activities enable to the highest level of availability of transport vehicles in the fleet is one of the most important aspects of transportation. Maintenance is a set of activities that carry out to keep a system or equipment in operation. Maintenance activities are basically divided into two types as preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance. Life data analysis is of crucial importance in terms of determining the failure distribution. Failure distribution of machines and equipment has to be known for planning space parts, labour and tools. This can be determined by using failure data and suitable statistical method. In this study, failure distribution parameters of transport vehicles in the rail system fleet were determined by using real failure data. Applied method was shown for the equipment which is vitally important. |
| Keywords: | Life data analysis, Failure distribution parameters, rail system fleet vehicle, maintenance. |
| JEL: | C13 C34 L62 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003824&r=ure |
| By: | Ankinée Kirakozian (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis; GREDEG CNRS); Christophe Charlier (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France; GREDEG CNRS) |
| Abstract: | An important stand of the economic literature focuses on how to provide the right incentives for households to recycle their waste. This body of work includes a growing number of studies inspired by psychology that seek to explain waste sorting, and pro-environmental behavior more generally, and highlight the importance of social approval and peer effect. The present theoretical work explores this issue. We propose a model that considers heterogeneous households that choose to recycle based on three main household characteristics: environmental preferences, opportunity cost of their tax expenditure, and their self-image. The model is original in depicting the interactions among households which enable them to form beliefs on recycling and allows them to assess their self-image. These interaction are explored through the model simulations. We point to how individual recycling decisions depend on these interactions, and how the effectiveness of public policies related to recycling is affected by a crowding-out effect. We consider three complementary policies in the model simulations: provision of incentives to recycle through taxation, provision of information on the importance of selective sorting, and a 'localized' approach that takes the form of a 'nudge'. We use the results of the simulations to quantify the consequences of the crowding out effect on total residual waste. This paper makes an original contribution by showing that when the individual decision is influenced by an internalized peer attention, beliefs about others' intrinsic and extrinsic values can be more important than others' observed behaviors. |
| Keywords: | Household recycling, Waste, Environmental regulation, Behavioral economics, Computational Techniques |
| JEL: | D10 D03 Q53 Q58 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2015-20&r=ure |
| By: | Köppl Turyna, Monika; Kula, Grzegorz; Balmas, Agata; Waclawska, Kamila |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of political business cycles and fiscal autonomy on the expenditure categories of Polish municipalities. Using System GMM technique, we find convincing evidence for strong political business cycles in almost all expenditure categories, and in particular for the categories of expenditure relevant for electoral success such as infrastructure and social expenditure. Transfers to municipalities from the central government accentuate the strength of the electoral cycles, but surprisingly are associated with lower expenditure levels outside of the election periods. The latter results are the main finding: fiscal autonomy although not necessarily reducing the levels of local expenditure, does reduce the level of political manipulation of the budgets. |
| Keywords: | local expenditure, political business cycles, fiscal autonomy, decentralization |
| JEL: | D72 H72 H75 H77 |
| Date: | 2015–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64202&r=ure |
| By: | Gianna Claudia Giannelli; Chiara Rapallini |
| Abstract: | The performance gap in math of immigrant students is investigated using PISA 2012. The gap with respect to non-immigrant schoolmates is first measured. The hypotheses that first (second) generation students coming from (whose parents come from) countries with a higher performance in math fare better than their immigrant peers coming from lower-ranked countries are then tested on a sample of about 13,000 immigrant students. The estimated average immigrant-native score gap in math amounts to -12 points. The results show that immigrant students coming from higherranked origin countries have a significantly lower score gap, and are thus relatively less disadvantaged. For example, coming from a country in the top quintile for math and having attended school there for one year improves the absolute score gap by nearly 39 points, the highest coefficient among the variables that reduce the gap, such as parental education and socio-economic status. |
| Keywords: | mathematical skills, migration, countries of origin |
| JEL: | I25 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:36&r=ure |
| By: | Tuuli Oder (Tallinn University) |
| Abstract: | During the most recent educational reform in Estonia, a new National Curriculum was introduced in 2010 providing new guidelines for education generally and foreign languages specifically. To investigate the understanding that an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher has about professional teaching and whether it matches the principles of the curriculum, a research was conducted amongst EFL teachers at the lower secondary school level. There were two research questions: What perceptions do EFL teachers have regarding effective teaching and learning? What methods and techniques of teaching EFL are most effective according to EFL teachers’ beliefs?The study revealed that generally EFL teachers’ beliefs about professional teaching are in concordance with the principles of the new curriculum, however are aspects that should be addressed by teacher education. Estonian EFL teachers support constructivist learning principles, but only to a certain extent: grammar focus and teacher-centredness are two major issues of concern that should be considered while designing both pre-service and in-service education programmes. Although Estonian EFL teachers generally support communicative principles of language teaching, there may be a further need to raise the profile of pedagogical-psychological courses in teacher preparation to give teachers more confidence in dealing with puberty-age students. |
| Keywords: | educational reform, effective teaching, teachers' beliefs, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003399&r=ure |
| By: | May, Nils G. (DIW Berlin); Nilsen, Øivind Anti (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Globally installed wind power capacity has grown tremendously since 2000. This study focuses on the local economic impacts of wind power deployment. A theoretical model shows that wind power deployment is not necessarily driven by locally-accruing economic payoffs, but also by other factors such as emphasis on environmentally-friendly energy production and its associated benefits. The theoretical analysis is followed by an empirical analysis using German county-level panel data. After controlling for a set of observable and unobservable factors, the results state that wind power installation has no impact on GDP per capita. These findings support the predictions from the theoretical model: local economic impacts cannot alone explain the observed increase in wind power capacity. |
| Keywords: | wind power, economic development, panel data |
| JEL: | Q42 R11 C23 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9025&r=ure |