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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Michelle Norris (School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin); Michael Byrne (National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis, Maynooth University,) |
| Abstract: | Ireland and Spain were amongst the European countries which experienced the most severe economic and fiscal problems following the global financial crisis. The proximate causes of these economic crashes have been explored in-depth by researchers and governments, who have highlighted strong parallels between the policy, regulatory and economic factors which underpinned them. In both countries residential property price inflation increased dramatically from the late 1990s driven by increased availability of cheap mortgages but unusually was accompanied by marked growth in new house building. Thus, following the international credit crunch in 2008, a simultaneous contraction in both mortgage credit and house building occurred in Ireland and Spain, which precipitated a marked knock-on decline in the employment, tax revenue and consumer spending which the housing boom had underpinned. This paper argues that the Irish and Spanish housing booms and busts are similar not just in terms of scale and proximate causes but also in terms of fundamental causes. In both countries the housing boom/bust cycle was underpinned by a suite of macroeconomic policies which aimed to use asset price growth to underpin rising demand and economic growth, or in other words achieve what Robert Brenner (2006) terms ‘asset-price Keynesianism’. This approach was particularly attractive to the Irish and Spanish governments because it enabled them to resolve historical legacies of industrial underdevelopment and regional imbalances by generating construction jobs in underdeveloped areas. As a result of the latter, local/regional governments in both countries played a key role in facilitating the implementation of this policy. |
| Keywords: | global financial crisis; economic crash; housing boom and bust; macroeconomic policies; asset price growth; industrial underdevelopment; ‘asset-price Keynesianism’ |
| Date: | 2015–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201514&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (Departement d'Economie de Sciences Po); Bruno Decreuse (Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille); Benoît, Department Of Economics) Schmutz (2441/vcs597o2o8tpqsfunpbgvptj7); Alain Trannoy (Aix-Marseille School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes a novel concept of customer discrimination in the housing market, neighbor discrimination. We build up a matching model with ethnic externalities where landlords differ in the number of apartments they own within the same building. Larger landlords discriminate more often only if some tenants are prejudiced against the minority group. Testing the null hypothesis whereby minority tenants are equally likely to have a large landlord provides a natural test for the existence of neighbor discrimination. In an empirical application, we show that this null hypothesis is rejected for African immigrants in the French private rental market. We then show that the local proportion of large landlords is positively correlated with African tenants’ probability of living in public housing, whereas this is not the case of other demographic groups. |
| Keywords: | Customer Discrimination; Housing Market; Matching Frictions; Neighborhood Externalities |
| JEL: | J71 R21 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6tj1d1vl8a8goacd5b3ogpmn8j&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille); Laurent Gobillon (Institut National d'études Démographiques (INED)) |
| Abstract: | We propose an integrated framework to discuss the empirical literature on the local determinants of agglomeration effects. We start by presenting the theoretical mechanisms that ground individual and aggregate empirical specifications. We gradually introduce static effects, dynamic effects, and workers' endogenous location choices. We emphasise the impact of local density on productivity but we also consider many other local determinants supported by theory. Empirical issues are then addressed. Most important concerns are about endogeneity at the local and individual levels, the choice of a productivity measure between wage and TFP, and the roles of spatial scale, firms' characteristics, and functional forms. Estimated impacts of local determinants of productivity, employment, and firms' locations choices are surveyed for both developed and developing economies. We finally provide a discussion of attempts to identify and quantify specific agglomeration mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration Gains; Density; Learning; Location Choices and Sorting |
| JEL: | J31 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc&r=ure |
| By: | Jordan, Jeffrey L.; Munasib, Abdul; Castillo, Marco; Petrie, Ragan |
| Abstract: | We estimate economically significant peer effects in test scores in the population of eighth grade students from a typical county school district in the U.S. state of Georgia. For identification we utilize the variation across test scores within the individual student to account for individual unobserved heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Test score, peer effect, individual unobserved heterogeneity, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, I2, J01, C31, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205367&r=ure |
| By: | Miller, Cristina; Nikaj, Silda; Pender, John |
| Abstract: | Rural hospitals may be an attractive amenity for retirees, retirement communities, and firms. In many rural communities, hospitals are often one of the largest employers. When a rural hospital closes, this is expected to reduce housing values, although no studies to date have investigated this relationship. As a pilot study for future research, we estimate the impact of White Community Medical Center’s (located in Carmi, Illinois) closure in December 2005 on local housing values, using a repeat sales estimator. We find that the change in housing values for houses that sold before and after the closure was not statistically significantly affected by the distance from the house to the closed hospital. These results are limited by a small number of repeat sales in White County; further research with data from other states is needed to determine the impact of rural hospital closures on housing values. |
| Keywords: | hospital closures, rural hospitals, rural economic development, rural wealth, repeat sales, Community/Rural/Urban Development, O180, R110, R150, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205546&r=ure |
| By: | Antoine Bonleu (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS) |
| Abstract: | Why do some OECD countries have high levels of procedural formalism (PF) in the housing market? We provide an explanation based upon complementarities between the strength of social networks and the stringency of procedural formalism. The interest of social networks is that conflict resolution is independent of the law. When local people belong to social networks whereas foreigners do not, PF may facilitate housing search for locals at the expense of foreigners. To illustrate this mechanism we build a search-theoretic model of the housing market. The model emphasizes that the support for PF increases with the size of social networks, the default probability on the rent, the proportion of foreigners, and market tightness. |
| Keywords: | housing market regulation, search and matching |
| JEL: | R38 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1529&r=ure |
| By: | Shaun Dougherty; Joshua Goodman; Darryl Hill; Erica Litke; Lindsay C. Page |
| Abstract: | To better prepare students for college-level math and the demands of the labor market, school systems have tried to increase the rigor of students’ math coursework. The failure of universal “Algebra for All” models has led recently to more targeted approaches. We study one such approach in Wake County, North Carolina, which began using prior test scores to assign middle school students to an accelerated math track culminating in eighth grade algebra. The policy has reduced the role that income and race played in course assignment. A regression discontinuity design exploiting the eligibility threshold shows that acceleration has no clear effect on test scores but lowers middle school course grades. Acceleration does, however, raise the probability of taking and passing geometry in ninth grade by over 30 percentage points, including for black and Hispanic students. Nonetheless, most students accelerated in middle school do not remain so by high school and those that do earn low grades in advanced courses. This leaky pipeline suggests that targeted math acceleration has potential to increase college readiness among disadvantaged populations but that acceleration alone is insufficient to keep most students on such a track. |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21395&r=ure |
| By: | Piotr Ciżkowicz; Magda Ciżkowicz-Pękała; Piotr Pękała; Andrzej Rzońca |
| Abstract: | We estimate the set of panel and spatial panel data models of employment and investments for 379 Polish counties over the period 2003-2012. We take advantage of a unique firm-level dataset for Polish Special Economic Zones (SSEs), which includes about 30,000 observations. We find that SSEs have substantial positive effects on employment: jobs in a given SSE create jobs outside the SSE in hosting county and even more jobs in neighbouring counties. Effect of SSEs on investments is weaker, but still positive. Investments in a given SSE neither crowd out nor crowd in investments outside the SSE. Thereby, they add one to one to capital stock in hosting county. Our findings are robust to changes in estimation methods, sample composition, set of explanatory variables and selection of spatial weight matrix. |
| Keywords: | special economic zones, regional economic development, economic policy tools, panel data models, spatial panel data models |
| JEL: | H25 H32 R3 C21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbp:nbpmis:208&r=ure |
| By: | Dobis, Elizabeth A.; Delgado, Michael S.; Florax, Raymond J.G.M; Mulder, Peter |
| Abstract: | In much of the literature focusing on the growth and structure of the urban system, the difference between contagious and hierarchical interrelations across cities comprised in the urban system are obfuscated. In this paper, we clearly distinguish and quantify the effects of both. In other words, we focus on how the structure of the urban system influences population growth by using central place theory as a theoretical basis for addressing the research question: what natural and man-made locational characteristics influence population growth? We make three major contributions to the existing literature. First, we utilize a unique dataset of urban areas with decennial observations from 1990 to 2010 which captures the agglomerated economic activity and built extent of urban locations with at least 2,500 inhabitants, to include all but the smallest rural communities. Second, our analysis includes both the hierarchical relationship among cities of differing sizes and the continuous nature of proximity to other cities. The novel use of a spatially-lagged hierarchical linear model allows us to include both these critical aspects of the urban system in our analysis. Third, we include man-made amenities and characteristics of cities, which have been omitted from previous studies in an effort to avoid endogeneity in the analysis. By focusing on the intercept and lagged population variables in the urban area equation, we use this model to empirically explore the debate on whether there is random or deterministic growth in the distribution of cities in the United States. |
| Keywords: | population growth, urban hierarchy, spatial lag, hierarchical linear models, Community/Rural/Urban Development, R110, R120, R150, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205869&r=ure |
| By: | Moira McCullough; Brittany English; Megan Hague Angus; Brian Gill |
| Abstract: | Throughout the country, school districts are scrambling to adhere to new state requirements for teacher evaluation. More than 40 states have mandated that some measure of student achievement growth be included in teacher evaluations. |
| Keywords: | teacher evaluation, teacher effectiveness, alternative assessment, high stakes test, student evaluation, curriculum based assessment, teacher expectations of students, teacher made tests, student educational objectives, case studies, student learning objectives, student growth measures, performance based assessment, value-added model |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–07–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:8a9dfcb1bc6143608448114ea9b69d06&r=ure |
| By: | Markus Nagler; Marc Piopiunik; Martin R. West |
| Abstract: | How do alternative job opportunities affect teacher quality? We provide the first causal evidence on this question by exploiting business cycle conditions at career start as a source of exogenous variation in the outside options of potential teachers. Unlike prior research, we directly assess teacher quality with value-added measures of impacts on student test scores, using administrative data on 33,000 teachers in Florida public schools. Consistent with a Roy model of occupational choice, teachers entering the profession during recessions are significantly more effective in raising student test scores. Results are supported by placebo tests and not driven by differential attrition. |
| JEL: | E32 H75 I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21393&r=ure |
| By: | Tantihkarnchana, Pitchayaporn; Galinato, Gregmar I. |
| Abstract: | This article estimates the amenity value from climate change by analyzing the effect of climatic variables on house prices near ski resorts in different regions in the United States using a hedonic model. We find that higher average winter temperatures tend to increase house price near ski resorts at a decreasing rate. Using the implicit value of average winter temperature, we estimate its demand and find that the crossing point temperature, where the homeowner’s consumer surplus from average winter temperature moves from positive to negative, varies in each region. The highest crossing point temperature is in the Western region at 46°F and lowest is in the Midwest at 8°F. Based on projections in the next 30 years, we find that the consumer surplus from average winter temperature for the median home owner is negative in the Midwest and Northeastern regions where the crossing point temperatures are lowest and it is positive for the West and Mountain regions where the crossing point temperatures are highest. The long run effect of climate change on homeowner’s consumer surplus is negative for all regions. |
| Keywords: | climate change, house price, ski resort, amenity value, hedonic price, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q51, Q54, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:202498&r=ure |
| By: | Angela Parenti; Cristina Tealdi |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study how the determinants of regional commuting in Italy have evolved in the past fifteen years. Using labour force data from 1992 to 2008 we estimate a model where the probability of commuting is regressed on a wide set of individual, job, firm and regional characteristics. Specifically, we focus on understanding how the increased flexibility of the labour market in the late nineties/early twenties have affected the individual decision to commute across regions. Consistent with the previous literature, we identify specific types of individual working in firms with well-defined features who are more keen to commute. However, even though temporary employ-ees tend to commute more than permanent employees, the increased utilization of temporary contracts did not have a strong impact on the commuting decisions of Italian workers. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Labour Mobility, Labour Flexibility, Italian regions |
| JEL: | C25 J41 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2015/203&r=ure |
| By: | Irene Brunetti; Davide Fiaschi; Lisa Gianmoena; Angela Parenti |
| Abstract: | is paper examines the growth rate volatility of per capita GDP of European regions in 1992-2008. We measure the regional volatility using a new methodology based onMarkov matrices and we investigate its main determinants. Volatility displays a geographical pattern and a significant spatial dependence. Output composition appears one of the main driver of volatility; among the other determinants we find a negative impact of the size of regional economies and of the flexibility of labour market, and a positive impact of the sectoral concentration, of the financialization of economy, and of the participation to EMU. |
| Keywords: | Markov Matrix, Asymmetric Fluctuations, Output Com-position, Size Effect, Spatial Dependence. |
| JEL: | C20 E32 O40 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2015/201&r=ure |
| By: | Scherpf, Erik; Tiehen, Laura; Fitzpatrick, Katie |
| Keywords: | Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, local economic conditions, spatial econometrics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205698&r=ure |
| By: | Meng, Ting; Seymour, Lynne |
| Abstract: | Conditionally Auto-regression is employed to investigate the determinants of countylevel poverty rates in Georgia 2011, and also examine whether those poverty rates are spatial correlated. The results indicate that annual income, white person percent, and elder percent have positive effects, while there is no significant spatial correlation. |
| Keywords: | Conditional Auto-regression, socio economic factors, demographic factors, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162426&r=ure |
| By: | Kurt Mitman (Stockholm University); Gianluca Violante (NYU); Greg Kaplan (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we revisit the consumption-house price nexus both empirically (with new data) and structurally (with an equilibrium model). |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:275&r=ure |
| By: | Hu, Chaoran; Chen, Kevin Z.; Reardon, Thomas |
| Abstract: | Nonfarm activities (NFA) are a crucial component of the livelihood strategies of China’s rural households. Empirical evidence shows that 51% of rural households’ income in Asia is from nonfarm earnings (Haggblade, Hazell and Reardon 2007). However, the increasingly uneven spatial distribution of these nonfarm economies has raised the concerns in many countries. It is found that rural towns or intermediate cities play the more important roles in rural poverty reduction than big cities (Berdegué et al. 2015), yet, we still see more migrants concentrating in urban big cities in China. To explore this paradoxical situation will provide some evidences for other developing countries experiencing rapid yet unbalanced urbanization. In this paper, we used a unique data set to find out what are the factors driving rural migrant’s destination choice and whether they are always attracted by large cities. Apart from this main research question, several other contributions are made to the literature. First, this paper performs pioneer research by conducting the estimation of the determinants of Chinese rural off-farm worker’s locational choice, including and comparing both local and migratory NFA, both of which are important among rural households in China, yet the former is generally ignored in the literature. Second, the Nested-Logit Model is used to relax the irrelevant alternatives assumption, proved to be inappropriate if directly adopted traditional Logit or Multinomial Logit model in our case. The results suggested the importance of transportation as well as education to attract rural migrants. We did not see rural migrants preferring larger cities while facing with decreasing travel distances. For rural nonfarm economy, it is also important to improve agricultural performance in rural areas to generate multiplier effects as well as providing education/trainings to rural off-farm workers to be involved in higher-skilled NFA. |
| Keywords: | Rural Nonfarm, Migration, Destination choice, Nested Logit Model, China, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205535&r=ure |
| By: | Acocella Nicola; Di Bartolomeo Giovanni |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0105&r=ure |
| By: | Pender, John; Jo, Young; Miller, Cristina |
| Abstract: | The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest Federal food and nutrition program and the second largest Federal means-tested transfer program. Participation in the program and real average monthly payments grew rapidly in the past decade. We investigate the impacts of changes in SNAP benefit payments on earnings in nonmetro and metro counties during the 2000 to 2010 period using three econometric methods: i) ordinary least squares fixed effects (OLS-FE) regressions, ii) instrumental variables fixed effects (IV-FE) regressions, and iii) spatial discontinuity OLS and IV first difference (SD-OLS-FD and SD-IV-FD) regressions. The estimated impacts vary considerably across the estimation methods, and all methods suffer significant weaknesses. The OLS-FE regressions appear to be affected by unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity biases. The instrumental variables used in the IV regressions (state-level SNAP policy variables) are found not to be exogenous in most cases, and are weak in the SD-IV-FD regressions. The most plausible results are found using the SD-OLS-FD model, but large standard errors in this model limit the statistical power to draw confident conclusions. The most interesting finding is of a more positive (or less negative) association of SNAP payments with earnings during the Great Recession. This difference supports our hypothesis that the positive impacts of SNAP payments are likely to be larger during a recession. Several avenues for further research are suggested. |
| Keywords: | Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Food Stamp Program, economic impacts, spatial discontinuity model, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, R11, R15, H53, |
| Date: | 2015–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205626&r=ure |
| By: | Parvez, Md Rezwanul; Ripplinger, David; Maduraperuma, Buddhika |
| Abstract: | The issue of land use/cover (LCLU) change has become a critical field of investigation for economists. This research is designed to present the underlying causes of land use change due to macroeconomic factors and economic growth in Northern Great Plains (NGP) area. This paper introduces a holistic approach that incorporates spatial econometric modeling and geo-spatial modeling to examine the relation between areas of land use change and level of economic activity. The economic component of this study consider panel data sets (both time series and cross section) and the primary sources of data are National Resources Inventory (land use classes), bureau of economic analysis (GDP per capita data), and U.S. census (population density data). A spatial econometric model (Fixed Effect Model) is used to better understand the relationships between areas in land uses and macroeconomic factors influencing change in land use pattern during 1992-2007 time period. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) is also used here for land use mapping and modeling. The geo-spatial component of this research estimates first-order Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation(MCMC) to calculate transitional probabilities for explaining spatial and temporal patterns of land conversion. The cross sectional analysis reveal the inverse relationship between area of land uses and level of economic activity, as measured by GDP per capita. Also, the fixed effect model indicates the same inverse relation between economic growth and land use change. Key findings also indicate high conversion of urban land and population growth rates have led to an increasingly fragmented land use pattern in the area. Markov chain simulation results for the region also illustrate a change in land use pattern and forest to non-forest conversion over a sixteen year time period. |
| Keywords: | Land Use, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205868&r=ure |
| By: | Goetz, Stephan J.; Han, Yicheol |
| Abstract: | Labor Market Areas (LMAs) are distinctive communities of counties within a nation’s commuting network that are closely connected with one another than with other counties. The overlapping of communities within a hierarchical structure is a crucial feature of real-world networks, including commuting, yet existing methods are inadequate for modeling such overlapping because the concept is inconsistent with hierarchical ordering. Ahn et al. (2010) introduced the link community method to address this problem but did not consider weighted and directed links such as commuting flows. In this paper, we extend the link community method to accommodate directed and weighted networks using the idea that edges can be presented as vectors. We then apply our proposed method to U.S. commuting data. Results suggest that our new method reliably identifies the LMAs that we would expect to find. In our case, however, these LMAs can also overlap one another. |
| Keywords: | labor market area, LMA, link community, complex networks, commuting, Community/Rural/Urban Development, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:204870&r=ure |
| By: | Meriggi, Niccolo F.; Bulte, Erwin |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Political Economy, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2015–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:206136&r=ure |
| By: | Tsvetkova, Alexandra; Partridge, Mark |
| Abstract: | The U.S. shale boom has intensified interest in how the expanding oil and gas sector affects local economic performance. Research has produced mixed results and has not compared how energy shocks differ from equal-sized shocks elsewhere in the economy. What emerges is that the estimated impacts of energy development vary by region, empirical methodology, as well as the time horizon that is considered. This paper captures these dimensions to present a more complete picture of energy boomtowns. Utilizing U.S. county data, we estimate the effects of changes in oil and gas extraction employment on total employment growth as well as growth by sector. We compare this to the effects of equal-sized shocks in the rest of the economy to assess whether energy booms are inherently different. The analysis is performed separately for nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties using instrumental variables. We difference over 1-, 3-, 6-, and 10-year time periods to account for county fixed effects and to assess responses across different time horizons. The results show that in nonmetro counties, energy sector multiplier effects on total county employment first increase up to 6-year horizons and then decline for 10-year horizons. In metro counties, 1-year differences analysis suggests crowding out though the multipliers are insignificant in longer horizons. We also observe positive spillovers to the nontraded goods sector, while spillovers are small or negative for traded goods. Yet, equal-sized shocks in the rest of the economy produce more jobs on average than oil and gas shocks, suggesting that policymakers should seek more diversified development. |
| Keywords: | employment growth, job multipliers, energy boom effects, instrumental variable approach |
| JEL: | O13 Q33 R11 |
| Date: | 2015–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65754&r=ure |
| By: | Prater, Marvin; Sparger, Adam; O'Neil, Daniel Jr. |
| Abstract: | Since the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980, many railroads have merged. The market share of Class I railroads has increased since then, while the number of Class I railroads has fallen to only seven. Through railroad mergers, rail-to-rail competition has been reduced, railroad market power has increased, and rail costs have fallen by over half in real terms. Over much of this period, most of these reduced costs were passed on to shippers as savings through lower rates. Since 2004, however, average rail rates per ton-mile for all commodities have climbed 36 percent, negating some of the savings over the period. Although some of these real rail rate increases have contributed to record rail profitability and capital investment, most of the rate increases are the result of increased railroad costs; real rail costs, adjusted for productivity, increased 29 percent during the same period. Although deregulation of railroads in 1980 produced more than 550 regional and local railroads throughout America, the 7 Class I railroads originated well over half the grain and oilseed shipments in 2011. |
| Keywords: | railroad, train, market share, deregulation, grain, rates, Agribusiness, |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uamsrr:164478&r=ure |
| By: | Panebianco, Fabrizio; Verdier, Thierry |
| Abstract: | We study cultural diffusion in a complex network where the transition probabilities are determined by a cultural transmission technology with endogenous vertical transmission rates (a la Bisin and Verdier, 2001). We derive a two-way epidemic model in which both the infection and the recovery rates are endogenous and depend on the topology of the network. First, we identify a "social structure bias" in cultural transmission that determines the direction of cultural change relating the economic structure of parental socialization incentives to the social network structure. Second, we characterize two balancing conditions satisfied by the network degree distribution and the vertical transmission rate distribution to ensure the sustainability of long run cultural heterogeneity. Third, we show how paternalistic motivations for endogenous cultural transmission interact with the "social structure bias" channel and maintain steady state cultural diversity for any network structure. |
| Keywords: | cultural transmission; diffusion; mean-field; social networks |
| JEL: | C73 L14 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10722&r=ure |