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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Eleonora Patacchini (Cornell University); Edoardo Rainone (Banca d'Italia); Yves Zenou (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether, how, and why individual education attainment depends on the educational attainment of schoolmates. Specifically, using longitudinal data on students and their friends during the school years in a nationally representative set of US schools, we consider the impact of different types of peers on education outcomes. We find that there are strong and persistent peer effects in education, but peers tend to be influential in the long run only when their friendships last more than one year. This evidence is consistent with a network model where convergence of preferences and the emergence of social norms among peers require long-term interactions. |
| Keywords: | spatial autoregressive model, heterogeneous spillovers, 2SLS estimation, Bayesian estimation, education |
| JEL: | C31 D85 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1048_16&r=ure |
| By: | Lerbs, Oliver; Hiller, Norbert |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the long-run relationship between the size and age structure of a city s resident population and the price of local housing. For estimation purposes, we combine city-level demographic information with housing price data for 87 cities in Germany over 1995-2012. Employing a panel error correction framework that accounts for the evolution of city in-come and housing financing costs, we find that real urban house prices per-form stronger in cities that age less rapidly. A combination of the empirical estimates with current population projections suggests that population aging will exert considerable downward pressure on urban house prices in upcoming years. |
| JEL: | G12 J11 R31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113136&r=ure |
| By: | van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology); Tammaru, Tiit (University of Tartu) |
| Abstract: | The term segregation has a strong connotation with residential neighbourhoods, and most studies investigating ethnic segregation focus on the urban mosaic of ethnic concentrations in residential neighbourhoods. However, there is now a small, but growing, literature, which focusses on segregation in other domains of daily life where inter-ethnic encounters and social interaction might take place, such as: workplaces; family/partner relationship; leisure time; education; transport, and virtual domains such as social media. The focus on residential segregation is understandable. Ethnic residential segregation is easily visible in cities as segregated neighbourhoods often have their own distinct identity and reputation. Residential segregation is also relatively easy to investigate by using register or census data on where different ethnic groups live. However, if the interest in segregation stems from the idea that we want to measure the integration of ethnic minorities in society, and from an interest in social interaction between ethnic groups, then just investigating where people live is far too limited and other domains such as workplaces should be taken into account. In this paper we present an integrated conceptual framework of ethnic segregation in different life domains in which we combine elements from the life course approach and from time geography. |
| Keywords: | ethnic segregation, neighbourhoods, work places, life course approach, time geography, domains approach |
| JEL: | I32 J15 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9663&r=ure |
| By: | Berlingieri, Francesco |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of the size of the local labour market on skill mismatch. Using survey data for Germany, we find that male workers in large cities are both less likely to be overqualified for their job and to work in a different field than the one they are trained for. Different empirical strategies are employed to account for the potential sorting of talented workers into more urbanized areas. Results on individuals never moving from the place of childhood and fixed-effects estimates obtaining identification through regional migrants suggest that sorting does not fully explain the existing differences in qualification mismatch across areas. This provides evidence of the existence of agglomeration economies through better matches. However, better job matching in larger cities seems to explain only a small part of the urban wage premium. |
| JEL: | R23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113102&r=ure |
| By: | Clément Bosquet; Henry G. Overman |
| Abstract: | We consider the link between birthplace and wages. Using a unique panel dataset we estimate a raw elasticity of wage with respect to birthplace size of 4.6%, two thirds of the 6.8% raw elasticity with respect to city size. We consider a number of mechanisms through which this birthplace effect could arise. Our results suggest that inter-generational transmission (sorting) and the effect of birthplace on current location (geography) both play a role in explaining the effect of birthplace. We find no role for human capital formation at least in terms of educational outcomes (learning). Our results highlight the importance of intergenerational sorting in helping explain the persistence of spatial disparities. |
| Keywords: | place of birth, spatial sorting, lifetime mobility |
| JEL: | J61 J62 R23 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0190&r=ure |
| By: | Löffler, Max; Siegloch, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Although being heavily analyzed and discussed, there is neither a theoretical nor an empirical consensus on the incidence of the property tax in rental markets. In this paper, we suggest a novel theoretical approach by introducing property taxation into a Rosen-Roback type local labor market model. Besides the standard relative elasticity result, we find that the tax incidence depends on location preferences. The advantageous institutional setting of property taxation in Germany enables us to test our theoretical predictions and provide a clean estimate of the tax incidence using a non-parametric event study research design. Using a panel of roughly 540 communities over up to 20 years, we show that in the short run, the incidence is borne by landlords since housing supply is inelastic. As housing supply becomes more elastic over time, landlords are able to shift the burden onto tenants. After six years, net rents are on the pre-reform level, implying full shifting of the tax. |
| JEL: | H22 H71 R31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112967&r=ure |
| By: | Hener, Timo; Rainer, Helmut; Bauernschuster, Stefan |
| Abstract: | There is widespread concern that major cities and their inhabitants are highly vulnerable to transit strikes. Governments in many countries have addressed this concern by limiting the right of transit workers to strike. Whether or not this can be justified depends, in turn, on whether strikes by transit workers implicate the safety or health of urban populations and impose disproportionate costs on non-involved third parties. We use time series and cross-sectional variation in powerful registry data in order to quantify the effects of public transit strikes in five population-relevant domains: traffic volumes, travel times, accident risk, pollution emissions, and health. The context of our study are the five largest cities in Germany, allowing us to exploit 71 public transit strikes over the period from 2002 to 2011. Generalized difference-in-differences models suggest that strikes lead to a significant increase in car traffic, congestion, accident risk and air pollution. There is also evidence for a substantial increase in accident-related injuries and pollution-related health problems. The third party congestion costs of public transit strikes exceed the private costs of struck employers by at least a factor of four. |
| JEL: | J00 J58 K31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112957&r=ure |
| By: | Diette, Timothy M. (Washington and Lee University); Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth |
| Abstract: | There is a perception among native born parents in the U.S. that the increasing number of immigrant students in schools creates negative peer effects on their children. In North Carolina there has been a significant increase in immigrants especially those with limited English language skills and recent data suggest that North Carolina has the 8th largest ELL student population with over 60 percent of immigrants coming from Latin America and the Caribbean. While past research suggests negative though negligible peer effects of Limited English (LE) students on achievement of other students, potential peer effects of student from Latin America in general has not been considered. In this paper we attempt to identify both LE student and Latin American (LA) student peer effects separately utilizing fixed effects methods that allow us to deal with the potential selectivity across time and schools. On average we find no evidence of negative peer effects of LE students on females and white students but note small negative effects on average on males and black students. We also find that, holding constant other factors, an increase in the share of LA students share does not create negative peer effects on native students' achievement. Rather, it is the limited English language skills of some of these students that leads to small, negative peer effects on natives. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, student achievement, peer effects, education, race, gender, Limited English students, Latino peer effects, Hispanic peer effects |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9661&r=ure |
| By: | Brunow, Stephan; Grünwald, Luise |
| Abstract: | Theoretical and empirical contributions on export behavior highlight the importance of firms' productivity and their levels of economies of scale on firms' export success in `foreign markets. In the context of agglomeration economies, firms enjoy produc-tivity gains when they are located close to competitors or upstreaming industries and they benefit from knowledge spillovers and other positive externalities. In such a stimulating environment, firms become more prone to be exporters. Beyond the role played by externalities, firms may benefit when they employ a diverse workforce and when the interaction of distinct knowledge and related problem-solving abilities increases productivity and secures export success. In this paper, we ask whether German firms (i.e., establishments) benefit from localization and urbanization exter-nalities and face higher export proportions. We also control for a variety of estab-lishment characteristics and workforce diversity. For this purpose, a comprehensive German data set that combines survey data and administrative data is used. While controlling for firm heterogeneity in a fractional response model, we provide evi-dence that manufacturing establishments and smaller establishments (up to 250 employees) benefit most from externalities and especially from knowledge spillover. There is weak evidence supporting the benefit of workforce diversity; however, that factor could explain between-establishment variation. |
| JEL: | D22 F14 M14 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113182&r=ure |
| By: | Tatsi, Eirini |
| Abstract: | This paper compares endogenous social interactions models to determine which one fits the classroom reality best. The analysis uses data from German 9th-graders and considers the effect of the best and worst peers scores, the peers sum and peers average scores on own achievement. Although each model seems plausible when estimated separately, comparison and a selection test point to the classmates average model, meaning that group-based policies are effective. The worst peers model comes second, followed by the best peers and the sum of peers models. Examination of different-ability students responses to increases of average peer achievement reveals either competition for the first place or last-place aversion. Conditional on own course preferences, own and peer characteristics, spillovers transmit only through cognitive ability. Therefore, regrouping on the basis of characteristics such as immigration background is obsolete. Policies should aim at low achievers in small enough classrooms because only then single-student influences can change the social norm. By improving the average through the worst, the best become even brighter. |
| JEL: | C31 I20 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113168&r=ure |
| By: | Sander Hoogendoorn; Joost van Gemeren; Paul Verstraten; Kees Folmer |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of accessibility on house prices, based on a natural experiment in the Netherlands: the Westerscheldetunnel. We exploit the fact that the opening of the tunnel caused a substantial shift in accessibility for people and firms in the connected regions. Our results indicate that the elasticity between house prices and accessibility is equal to 0.8. We also find support for the idea of anticipation: about half of the accessibility effect already materializes more than one year before the opening of the tunnel. Moreover, our analyses suggest that the impact of accessibility differs across regions. |
| JEL: | R2 R4 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:322&r=ure |
| By: | Meyer, Tobias; Thomsen, Stephan |
| Abstract: | Most German states have reformed university preparatory schooling by reducing duration from 13 to 12 years with unchanged graduation requirements. The reform was implemented in the states during the last decade in several consecutive years. In this paper, we use nationwide data on high school graduates to evaluate the reform effects on post-school education decisions. The results show that the reform has reduced (or at least delayed) university enrollment of females, but increased the probability of starting vocational education. A similar trend is found for male students, but only in the first year after school graduation. In addition, students are slightly more likely to do voluntary service or spend a year abroad after high school graduation. |
| JEL: | I21 J18 C21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112910&r=ure |
| By: | Musterd, Sako (University of Amsterdam); Marcińczak, Szymon (University of Lodz); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology); Tammaru, Tiit (University of Tartu) |
| Abstract: | Socio-economic inequality is on the rise in major European cities as are the worries about that, since this development is seen as threatening social cohesion and stability. Surprisingly, relatively little is known about the spatial dimensions of rising socioeconomic inequality. This paper builds on a study of socio-economic segregation in twelve European cities: Amsterdam, Athens, Budapest, London, Madrid, Oslo, Prague, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Vienna, and Vilnius. Data are used from national censuses and registers for the years 2001 and 2011. The main conclusion is that socio-economic segregation in Europe has grown. This paper develops a rigorous multi-factor approach to understand segregation and links it to four underlying universal, partially overlapping, structural factors: social inequalities, globalization and economic restructuring, welfare regimes, and housing systems. The paper provides an in-depth discussion of these factors to come to a better understanding of the differences between the hypothesized and actual segregation levels measured. It is suggested that introducing time-lags between structural factors and segregation outcomes improve the theoretical model. |
| Keywords: | socio-economic segregation, inequality, capital cities, Europe, comparative research, census data |
| JEL: | N94 O18 P25 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9603&r=ure |
| By: | Findeisen, Sebastian; Dauth, Wolfgang; Lindner, Attila |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of regional mobility on individual employment prospects and wages, exploiting rich German social security data spanning over 30 years. Our focus is on unemployed workers with strong labor force attachment who search for employment after being exposed to a mass layoff. By that we concentrate on a group of individuals who are plausibly searching for employment for exogenous reasons. Comparing individuals who stay in the local labor market to movers, we find that employment rates are around 15 percentage points higher for movers three years after the layoff. Large differences in employment rates persist even 10 years after the layoff. In contrast, there are no effects of regional mobility on wages conditional on finding employment. |
| JEL: | J61 J63 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112908&r=ure |
| By: | Oberfichtner, Michael; Hirsch, Boris; Jahn, Elke J. |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data for West Germany, we investigate whether part of the urban wage premium stems from fierce competition in thick labour markets. We first document fewer search frictions in denser labour markets. We further show that controlling for search frictions lowers the wage premium from a one standard deviation rise in log population density by 1.3 1.4pp in specifications including worker fixed effects. We lastly find less monopsony power in denser markets. Regional differences in monopsony power predict a wage premium of 1.4 1.9%, thereby accounting for the observed drop in the premium when controlling for labour market frictions. |
| JEL: | R23 J42 J31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113003&r=ure |
| By: | Klarl, Torben Alexander |
| Abstract: | Many cities in developing countries suffer from bad health and environmental conditions due to urbanization. The paper shows that increasing urban manufacturing congestion costs do not necessarily imply a reduction of a city's health as well as of environmental quality as one could expect ex-ante. The model distills a range of the urban manufacturing sector size which generates a triple dividend: a situation in which the government can simultaneously improve health, reduce pollution, and increase the productivity of labour by investing in either green capital or urban infrastructure that reduces congestion costs. |
| JEL: | R13 R23 Q52 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112829&r=ure |
| By: | Wößmann, Ludger; Fack, Oliver; Mang, Constantin |
| Abstract: | Most studies find little to no effect of classroom computers on student achievement. We suggest that this null effect may combine positive effects of computer uses without equivalently effective alternative traditional teaching practices and negative effects of uses that substitute more effective teaching practices. Our correlated random effects models exploit within-student between-subject variation in different computer uses in the international TIMSS test. We find positive effects of using computers to look up information and negative effects of using computers to practice skills, resulting in overall null effects. Effects are smaller for low-SES students and mostly confined to developed countries. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 I20 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113157&r=ure |
| By: | Moczall, Andreas |
| Abstract: | What happens to the wages of regular workers in establishments subsidized with hiring subsidies? Does hiring programme participants result in windfalls that are dis-tributed among regular workers? Do these reduce their wage demands to avoid be-ing substituted by subsidized workers? Using linked employer-employee data from Germany, I estimate the effects of subsidizing an establishment on regular workers' wages using spell fixed effects regression. I find that hiring subsidy schemes do increase the daily wages of regular workers by up to almost one per cent in the manufacturing sector. These effects are limited to large establishments and above-median local unemployment rates. They occur within the establishment itself and are not merely the result of varying regional exposure to ALMP programmes. I conclude that hiring subsidies have a notable impact on regular workers beyond mere substitution. |
| JEL: | J38 H25 C23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113225&r=ure |
| By: | Zaharieva, Anna; Stupnytska, Yuliia |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a search model with heterogeneous workers, social networks and endogenous search intensity. There are three job search channels available to the unemployed: costly formal applications and two costless informal channels - through family and professional networks. The gain from being employed is increasing in the productivity, so the lowest motivation for preparing formal applications is proved to be among the least productive worker types. We assume that professional contacts exhibit a strong degree of homophily, thus it is profitable for firms to direct their network search towards more productive incumbent employees. So the probability of a professional referral is increasing in the productivity of the worker, which mitigates the incentives to use the formal channel of search. Therefore, the model predicts that workers in the right (left) tail of the productivity distribution have the highest propensity of finding a job with a help of professional (family) contacts, whereas the formal channel of search is mostly utilized by workers in the middle range of the distribution. This explains the U-shaped referral hiring pattern in the model. Endogenous sorting of workers across channels also implies that professional (family) referrals are associated with wage premiums (penalties) compared to the formal channel of search. |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112992&r=ure |
| By: | Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Heiland, Frank (Baruch College, City University of New York); Korenman, Sanders (Baruch College, City University of New York) |
| Abstract: | We study how native-immigrant (second generation) differences in educational trajectories and school-to-work transitions vary by gender. Using longitudinal Belgian data and adjusting for family background and educational sorting, we find that both male and female second-generation immigrants, especially Turks and Moroccans, lag natives in finishing secondary education and beginning tertiary education when schooling delay is taken into account, though the female gap is larger. The same is true for residual gaps in the transition to work: native males are 30% more likely than comparable Turkish males to be employed three months after leaving school, while the corresponding female gap is 60%. In addition, we study demographic behaviors (fertility, marriage and cohabitation) related to hypotheses that attribute educational and economic gaps to cultural differences between immigrants and natives. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment, school-to-work transitions, dynamic selection bias, ethnic minorities, gender differentials, economic sociology |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J16 J70 Z10 C35 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8752&r=ure |
| By: | Borck, Rainald; Tabuchi, Takatoshi |
| Abstract: | We study the optimal and equilibrium size of cities in a monocentric city model with environmental pollution. Pollution is related to city size through the effect of population on production, commuting, and housing consumption. If pollution is local, we find that equilibrium cities are too large, mirroring standard results in the theory of city systems. When pollution is global and per capita pollution declines with city size, however, equilibrium cities may be too small. |
| JEL: | R12 Q54 R13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113124&r=ure |
| By: | Weinhardt, Felix; Faber, Benjamin; Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa |
| Abstract: | Governments around the world are making it a priority to upgrade information and communication technologies (ICT) with the aim to increase available internet connection speeds. This paper proposes a new empirical methodology to estimate the causal effect of these policies, and applies it to the question of how upgrades in ICT affect educational attainment. We draw on a new and unique collection of UK microdata that allows us for the first time to link administrative test score records for the population of English primary and secondary school students to the available ICT at their home addresses. To base estimations on exogenous variation in ICT, we notice that capacity constraints at telephone exchange stations lead to invisible and essentially randomly placed boundaries of station-level catchment areas that give rise to substantial and discontinuous jumps in the available ICT across space. Using this design across more than 20 thousand boundary segments in England, we find that even very large changes in available internet connection speeds have a precisely estimated zero effect on educational attainment, and that the estimates are causally identified: house prices, student socioeconomic characteristics and local amenities are flat across the boundaries. Guided by a simple theoretical framework we then bring to bear additional microdata on student time use and internet use to quantify the microeconomic channels underlying the zero reduced form effect. We find that faster connection speeds lead to a significant increase in student consumption of online content, but do not affect the amount of time spent online or the amount of time spent studying. We conclude that the elasticity of student demand for online content with respect to its per unit time cost is negative but bounded at -1, and that increased consumption of online content has no effect on learning productivity per unit of time spent studying. |
| JEL: | I21 D83 F15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113105&r=ure |
| By: | Fausto Brito (Cedeplar-UFMG); Breno A. T. D. de Pinho (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | The urban network spatially organizes the municipalities and their changes, mark an increasingly integrated economy, incorporating new spaces, and at the same time, ensuring the permanence of serious and historical regional imbalances. The immigration point of view , the hierarchical integration of different areas of migratory influence is nationally controlled by the metropolitan regions of São Paulo, mainly , and Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, combining with regional and state hierarchies , guaranteed by the centrality of the other metropolitan areas and medium-sized cities . Analysis of the spatial distribution of the population of over five thousand cities, linked by internal migration and organized by lush urban structure, is the purpose of this article. |
| Keywords: | spatial distribution of population; urbanization; metropolization; internal migration |
| JEL: | Y80 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td524&r=ure |
| By: | Oestmann, Marco; Bennöhr, Lars |
| Abstract: | There is a broad literature on determinants of house prices, which received increasing attention in the aftermath of the subprime crisis. Additional to macroeconomic standard variables, there might be other hard to measure or even unobservable factors influencing real estate price dynamics. Using quarterly data, we try to increase the informational input of conventional models and capture such effects by including Google search engine query information into a set of standard fundamental variables explaining house prices. We use the house price index (HPI) from Eurostat to perform fixed-effects regressions for a panel of 14 EU-countries comprising the years 2005-2013. We find that Google data as a single aggregate measure plays a prominent role in explaining house price developments and substantially improves the accuracy of forecasts. |
| JEL: | R21 R31 C23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113198&r=ure |
| By: | Puhani, Patrick |
| Abstract: | With girls having overtaken boys in many education indicators, the feminization of elementary school teaching is causing debates across the globe about disadvantages for male students. Using administrative panel data on the universe of students, teachers and schools for a German state, I exploit within school and within teacher variation to determine teacher characteristics effects on students tracking outcomes. Germany tracks students at age 10 into more or less academic school types. I find hardly any effects of teacher s gender, age, pay level, qualifications, or working hours on boys or girls school track recommendations or school choice. Even when following students into middle school, no effects of teacher gender on school type change or grade repetition can be detected. |
| JEL: | I21 J45 J78 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113167&r=ure |
| By: | Vogler, Jan; Liesenfeld, Roman; Richard, Jean-Francois |
| Abstract: | PRELIMINARY DRAFT We discuss maximum likelihood (ML) analysis for panel count data models, in which the observed counts are linked via a measurement density to a latent Gaussian process with spatial as well as temporal dynamics and random effects. For likelihood evaluation requiring high-dimensional integration we rely upon Efficient Importance Sampling (EIS). The algorithm we develop extends existing EIS implementations by constructing importance sampling densities, which closely approximate the nontrivial spatio-temporal correlation structure under dynamic spatial panel models. In order to make this high-dimensional approximation computationally feasible, our EIS implementation exploits the typical sparsity of spatial precision matrices in such a way that all the high-dimensional matrix operations it requires can be performed using computationally fast sparse matrix functions. We use the proposed sparse EIS-ML approach for an extensive empirical study analyzing the socio-demographic determinants and the space-time dynamics of urban crime in Pittsburgh, USA, between 2008 and 2013 for a panel of monthly crime rates at census-tract level. |
| JEL: | C15 C01 C23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113131&r=ure |
| By: | Serafinelli, Michel |
| Abstract: | A consensus has emerged that agglomeration economies are an important factor explaining why firms cluster next to each other. Yet disagreement remains over the sources of these agglomeration effects, given non-trivial measurement challenges. This paper is the first to present direct evidence showing how localized knowledge spillovers arise from workers changing jobs within the same local labor market. Specifically, I as-sess the extent to which firm-to-firm labor mobility enhances the productivity of firms located near highly productive firms, using a unique dataset combining Social Security earnings records and balance sheet information for Veneto, a region of Italy with many successful industrial clusters. I first identify a set of highly productive firms, then show that hiring workers with experience at these firms significantly increases the productivity of other firms. To address identification threats, primarily due to unobservable firm-level productivity shocks correlated with hiring, I use a novel instrumental vari- able strategy, which exploits downsizing events at highly productive firms, in addition to control function methods in the spirit of the productivity literature. My findings from both approaches imply that worker flows can explain around 10 percent of the productivity gains experienced by other firms when new highly productive firms are added to a local labor market. |
| JEL: | R10 D24 J31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113063&r=ure |
| By: | Dascher, Kristof |
| Abstract: | Urban policy visibly molds city shape. This paper's interest is in how city shape (less visibly) molds urban policy. The paper finds: A sufficiently skewed city will look after its center. That is, the more skewed a city's shape towards the city periphery, the more likely an urban majority against any policy that could take away from the city center. This, when broadly interpreted, complements Sullivan's (1896) ''form follows function'' view prominent in architectural theory. Function (building uses) also follows form (building contours). Ultimately combining both views may help explain further how, and when, cities sprawl. |
| JEL: | R50 D78 R12 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112924&r=ure |
| By: | Grohmann, Antonia Charlotte; Sakha, Sahra |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a clean experiment to investigate the impact of peer observation on the consumption decisions of rural households in Thailand. We find that those groups that observe each other show lower within group standard deviation in their decisions. At the same time, we also find that individual choice is influenced by group choice. We find that unfamiliarity with product is counteracted by peer effects. Those in a group that have higher cognitive ability are able to resist peer temptation. |
| JEL: | D12 C21 D85 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113084&r=ure |
| By: | Siekmann, Manuel; Haucap, Justus; Heimeshoff, Ulrich |
| Abstract: | Price levels and movements on gasoline and diesel markets are heavily debated among consumers, policy-makers, and competition authorities alike. In this paper, we empirically investigate how and why price levels differ across gasoline stations in Germany, using eight months of data from a novel panel data set including price quotes from virtually all German stations. Our analysis specifically explores the role of station heterogeneity in explaining price differences across gasoline stations. Key determinants of price levels across fuel types are found to be ex-refinery prices as key input costs, a station's location on roads or highway service areas, and brand recognition. A lower number of station-specific services implies lower fuel price levels, so does a more heterogeneous local competitive environment. |
| JEL: | L11 L71 L13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113040&r=ure |
| By: | Zerrahn, Alexander; Krekel, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of wind turbines on residential well-being in Germany, using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and a unique, novel data set on wind turbines for the time period between 2000 and 2012. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS), it calculates the distance from households to the nearest wind turbines to determine whether an individual is affected by disamenities, e.g. through visual pollution. The depth of our unique, novel data set on wind turbines, which has been collected at the regional level and which includes, besides their exact geographical coordinates, their construction dates, allows estimating the causal effect of wind turbines on residential well-being, using difference-in-difference propensity-score and spatial matching techniques. We demonstrate that the construction of a new wind turbine in a treatment area of 4000 metres around households has a significantly negative impact on life satisfaction. Moreover, this effect is found to be of transitory nature. Contrasting the implicit monetary valuation with the damage through CO2 emissions avoided by wind turbines, wind power turns out to be a favorable technology despite robust evidence for negative externalities. |
| JEL: | C23 Q51 R20 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112956&r=ure |
| By: | Elias Einiö; Henry G. Overman |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impacts of a significant area-based intervention (LEGI) that aimed to increase employment and entrepreneurial activity in 30 disadvantaged areas across England. We examine the spatial pattern of effects at a fine spatial scale using panel data for small geographic units and a regression discontinuity design that exploits the programme eligibility rule. The results indicate considerable local displacement effects. Employment increases in treated areas close to the treatment area boundary at the cost of significant employment losses in untreated localities just across the boundary. These differences vanish quickly when moving away from the boundary and do not persist after the programme is abolished. These findings support the view that area-based interventions may have considerable negative displacement effects on untreated parts of the economy. This displacement can substantially reduce (or in this case eliminate) any net benefits. |
| Keywords: | place-based policy, programme evaluation, displacement, employment, industrial policy |
| JEL: | R11 H25 J20 O40 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0191&r=ure |
| By: | Freund, Florian; Hawranek, Franziska; vom Berge, Philipp; Heuermann, Daniel F. |
| Abstract: | Tax legislation in virtually all OECD countries foresees tax breaks for commuters. Such commuting allowances are implemented with the aim to raise matching efficiency in the labor market and / or to promote an equalization of net wages for workers independent of the length of their commute. Despite the fiscal magnitude of these subsidies (e.g. in Germany the sum of foregone tax income from commuting tax breaks amounts to 6 billion Euros annually) little is known about their effects on worker and firm behavior. In this paper we use the unexpected repeal of commuting subsidies in Germany between 2007 and 2009, which has affected different groups of workers to a different extent, as a natural experiment. Drawing on a large data set of geo-referenced employer-employee data and applying a difference-in-difference approach, we estimate the effect of commuting subsidies on wages and employment. Beyond the direct effect of the commuting tax break our results allow to draw inference on three key variables in labor economics: wage elasticity of labor supply, bargaining power of workers, and the wage elasticity of locational choice. We find that workers who lose some of their net wage as a result of the reform experience increases in gross wages of .6 per cent. Adjustments in gross wages differ, however, substantially across industries and across educational status, which can be taken as evidence for differential bargaining power across worker groups. |
| JEL: | J22 J38 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:114560&r=ure |
| By: | Patterson, Christina (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Sahin, Aysegül (Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Topa, Giorgio (Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Violante, Giovanni L. (New York University) |
| Abstract: | The UK experienced an unusually prolonged stagnation in labor productivity in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This paper analyzes the role of sectoral labor misallocation in accounting for this "productivity puzzle." If jobseekers disproportionately search for jobs in sectors where productivity is relatively low, hires are concentrated in the wrong sectors, and the post-recession recovery in aggregate productivity can be slow. Our calculations suggest that, quantified at the level of three-digit occupations, this mechanism can explain up to two thirds of the deviations from trend-growth in UK labor productivity since 2007. |
| Keywords: | misallocation, productivity |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9629&r=ure |
| By: | Gornig, Martin; Goebel, Jan |
| Abstract: | The tertiarization, or perhaps more accurately, the deindustrialization of the economy has left deep scars on cities. It is evident not only in the industrial wastelands and empty factory buildings scattered throughout the urban landscape, but also in the income and social structures of cities. Industrialization, collective wage setting and the welfare state led to a stark reduction in income differences over the course of the twentieth century. Conversely, deindustrialization and the shift to tertiary sectors could result in increasing wage differentiation. Moreover, numerous studies on global cities, the dual city, and divided cities have also identified income polarization as a central phenomenon in the development of major cities. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we find an increasing polarization of household income structures since the mid-1990. In agglomerations, this income polarization is even more pronounced than in the more rural regions. The income polarization in Germany is likely to have multiple causes, some of which are directly linked to policies such as the deregulation of the labor market. But extensive deindustrialization is probably also one of the drivers, that has led directly to the weakening of middle income groups. |
| JEL: | R20 Z13 R11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112894&r=ure |
| By: | Michelsen, Claus; Kholodilin, Konstantin |
| Abstract: | Concerns about global warming and growing scarcity of fossile fuels require substantial changes in energy consumption patterns and energy systems, as targeted by many countries around the world. One key element to achieve such transformation is to increase energy efficiency of the housing stock. In this context, it is frequently argued that private investments are too low in the light of the potential energy cost savings. However, heterogenous incentives to invest in energy efficiency, particularly for owner-occupants and landlords, may serve as one explanation. This is particularly important for countries with a large rental sector, like Germany. Nevertheless, previous literature largely focuses on the pay offs owner-occupants receive, leaving out the rental market. This paper addresses this gap by comparing the capitalization of energy efficiency in selling prices (rents) for both types of residences. For this purpose data from the Berlin housing market are analyzed in hedonic regressions. The estimations reveal that energy efficiency is well capitalized in apartment prices and rents. The comparison of implicit prices and the net present value of energy cost savings/rents reveals that investors anticipate future energy and house price movements reasonably. However, in the rental segment, the value of future energy cost savings exceeds tenants' implicit willingness to pay by factor 2.98. This can either be interpreted as a result of market power of tenants, uncertainty in the rental relationship, or the "landlord-tenant dilemma." |
| JEL: | R21 R31 Q40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112881&r=ure |
| By: | Martin, Thorsten; Arnold, Felix; Freier, Ronny |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of citizen initiatives on finished residential area in the German federal state of Bavaria. There is already a prominent literature on the fiscal effect of initiatives and political economic reasons that drive urban development. Yet, there is almost no literature that links the effect of citizen participation to local land use patterns. This paper attempts to fill this gap. By using neighboring initiatives as an instrument for the occurrence of an initiative in a given municipality, we identify a negative impact of initiatives on finished residential area per capita. Evaluated at the mean, this effect amounts to about 10\% regarding the finished residential area per capita. This effect takes place five to nine years after the initiative was conducted. |
| JEL: | D72 Q15 R52 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112952&r=ure |
| By: | Trimborn, Timo; Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical research has shown that income per capita in the aftermath of natural disasters is not necessarily lower than before the event. In many cases, income is not significantly affected and surprisingly, can even respond positively to natural disasters. Here, we propose a simple theory based on the neoclassical growth model that explains these observations. Specifically, we show that GDP is driven above its pre-shock level when natural disasters destroy predominantly residential housing (or other durable goods). Disasters destroying mainly productive capital, in contrast, are predicted to reduce GDP. Insignificant responses of GDP can be expected when disasters destroy about equally residential structures and productive capital. We also show that disasters, irrespective of whether their impact on GDP is positive, negative, or insignificant, entail considerable losses of aggregate welfare. |
| JEL: | E20 O40 R31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113016&r=ure |
| By: | Dahmann, Sarah |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates two mechanisms through which education may affect cognitive skills in adolescence: the role of instructional quantity and the timing of instruction with respect to age. To identify causal effects, I exploit a school reform carried out at the state level in Germany as a quasi-natural experiment: between 2001 and 2007, academic-track high school (Gymnasium) was reduced by one year in most of Germany's federal states, leaving the overall curriculum unchanged. To investigate the impact of this educational change on students' cognitive abilities, I conduct two separate analyses: first, I exploit the variation in the curriculum taught to same-aged students at academic-track high school over time and across states to identify the effect of the increase in instructional time on students' crystallized and fluid intelligence scores. Using rich data on seventeen year-old adolescents from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, the estimates show that fluid intelligence remained unaffected, while crystallized intelligence improved for male students. Second, I compare students' competences in their final year of high school using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Preliminary results suggest that students affected by the reform catch up with their non-affected counterparts in terms of their competences by the time of graduation. However, they do not provide any evidence for the timing of instruction to matter in cognitive skill formation. Overall, secondary education therefore seems to impact students' cognitive skills in adolescence especially through instructional time and not so much through age-distinct timing of instruction. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112917&r=ure |
| By: | Scheufele, Rolf; Bäurle, Gregor |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes credit supply and demand shocks for the Swiss economy. Using a medium scale BVAR model we are able to take into account various interactions of housing prices, credit supply and demand, interest rates and real activity measures. To identify meaningful economic shocks, we used a combination of zero and sign restrictions. Generally, the empirical analysis implies that the effects of credit supply and demand shocks on real activity are limited, only playing a substantive role in specific episodes. Furthermore, the credit supply shocks (i.e. bank lending shocks and monetary policy shocks) explain a large fraction of housing price and credit fluctuations. Indeed, they tend to be more important for housing prices than housing demand shocks. There is further evidence that shocks related to credit supply, monetary policy shocks dominate bank lending shocks. For Switzerland as a small open economy it turns out to be very crucial to take into account foreign demand which is able to explain a substantial variation in real and financial variables. |
| JEL: | C11 C32 E44 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112931&r=ure |
| By: | Seiffert, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This contribution investigates the role spatial agglomeration of economic in explaining difference in comparative development of the African hinterland. In order to overcome the paucity with regards to disaggregated data concerning economic activity as well its spatial distribution, this approach relies on geo-referenced satellite data. Using information about the intensity of nocturnal lights at a spatial resolution of one square kilometre, it integrates the fields of spatial economics and the research concerning the fundamental causes of economic growth. It is shown that introducing measures of spatial dispersion in economic activity can help explaining a considerable amount of unobserved heterogeneity. I show that higher levels of spatial agglomeration are associated with significantly higher levels of local development in the African hinterland. These findings are robust to controlling for both national legal institutions as well as unobservable cross-ethnicity differences. |
| JEL: | O10 O40 R12 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113186&r=ure |
| By: | Steger, Thomas; Knoll, Katharina; Schularick, Moritz |
| Abstract: | How have house prices evolved in the long-run? This paper presents, for the first time, annual house prices for 14 advanced economies since 1870. Based on extensive data collection, we show that the past decades have seen a historically unprecedented boom in global house prices. Real house prices in most industrial economies stayed constant from the 19th to the mid-20th century, but rose strongly during the second half of the 20th century. Land prices, not replacement costs, hold the key to understanding the trajectory of house prices in the long-run. Rising land prices explain about 80 percent of the global house price surge since World War II. In the past 30 years alone, land prices in advanced economies approximately doubled in real terms. We also show that gains in the value of land have been the key driver of the increasing wealth-to-income ratios in advanced economies over the past decades. |
| JEL: | N10 O10 R30 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112848&r=ure |
| By: | Grossmann, Volker; Schäfer, Andreas; Steger, Thomas M. |
| Abstract: | We theoretically investigate the effects of interregional labor market integration on the dynamic interaction between migration flows, capital formation, and the price for housing services. The nature of this interaction depends on initial conditions at the time of labor market integration. In an initially capital-poor economy, there may be a reversal of migration flows during the transition to the steady state, like observed in Eastern Europe after 1990. In a high-productivity country which attracts immigrants, the price for housing services and the rental rate of land increase along with (residential) capital investments. Welfare effects are heterogeneous: whereas landless individuals lose from immigration because of increases in the price for housing services, landowners may win because of an increasing rental rate of land. |
| JEL: | O10 F20 D90 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113172&r=ure |
| By: | Smajlbegovic, Esad |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the impact of regional economic conditions on stock returns. I identify all U.S. states that are economically relevant for a firm through textual analysis of annual reports and construct a novel proxy for regional economic activity. Using this proxy, I find that economic conditions of firm-relevant U.S. regions positively influence stock returns on a monthly basis. This finding is robust to short-term reversal, individual stock momentum, industry momentum, geographic dispersion and a list of standard controls. Additionally, these results indicate that information arising from all relevant states matters over and above the information content of the mere headquarter state. Furthermore, I show that forecasts on regional economic activity predict stock returns. A zero-cost trading strategy based on this new predictive variable generates a risk-adjusted return of 6.3 (8.3) percent per year using an equal-weighted (value-weighted) portfolio. Evidence indicates that forecasts of regional activity also predict firms' real operations, suggesting that economic conditions of U.S. regions capture an important cash flow component of stock returns. Finally, this study shows that information on regional economic activity is gradually incorporated into stock prices and that the return predictability is stronger among difficult-to-arbitrage firms. |
| JEL: | G12 G14 R11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112854&r=ure |
| By: | Mägi, Kadi (University of Tartu); Leetmaa, Kadri (University of Tartu); Tammaru, Tiit (University of Tartu); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Most studies of the ethnic composition of destination neighbourhoods after residential moves do not take into account the types of moves people have made. However, from an individual perspective, different types of moves may result in neighbourhood environments that differ in terms of their ethnic composition from those in which individuals previously lived. We investigate how the ethnic residential context changes for individuals as a result of different types of mobility (immobility, intra-urban mobility, suburbanisation, and long-distance migration) for residents of the segregated post-Soviet city of Tallinn. We compare the extent to which Estonian- and Russian-speakers integrate in residential terms. Using unique longitudinal Census data (2000-2011) we tracked changes in the individual ethnic residential context of both groups. We found that the moving destinations of Estonian- and Russian-speakers diverge. When Estonians move, their new neighbourhood generally possesses a lower percentage of Russian-speakers compared with when Russian-speakers move, as well as compared with their previous neighbourhoods. For Russian-speakers, the percentage of other Russian-speakers in their residential surroundings decreases only for those who move to the surburbs or who move over longer distances to rural villages. By applying a novel approach of tracking the changes in the ethnic residential context of individuals for all mobility types, we were able to demonstrate that the two largest ethnolinguistic groups in Estonia tend to behave as 'parallel populations' and that residential integration in Estonia is therefore slow. |
| Keywords: | residential mobility, migration, suburbanisation, ethnicity, longitudinal data, Estonia |
| JEL: | J15 J61 R20 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9602&r=ure |
| By: | Schäffler, Johannes; Hecht, Veronika; Moritz, Michael |
| Abstract: | On the basis of a unique dataset the regional distribution of German multinationals and their Czech affiliates is analysed for both countries. The investigation covers market size and agglomeration features, distance issues, and labour market characteristics. Apart from the vital role of large markets and a low transport distance there are further crucial findings regarding joint foreign direct investment (FDI) projects that can be revealed from a home-host country perspective: the strong position of the common border region, the non-relevance of a relatively high wage gap between the site of the headquarters and the location of the affiliate in coincidence with the great importance of the availability of high-skilled employees in the target country, and differences in the significance of sectoral employment shares. |
| JEL: | F15 F23 R12 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112891&r=ure |
| By: | Stijepic, Damir |
| Abstract: | I derive a measure of job mobility that reflects individuals ability to sort into the preferred jobs. Relying on the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I find that educational attainment tends to have a strong positive effect on internal (i.e., within firms) and external (i.e., between firms) job mobility. General experience and occupation-specific human capital have only a limited effect on both internal and external mobility. The impact of being versatile on an individual s external job mobility is substantial and similar in magnitude as the effect of a college degree on a high school dropout s external mobility. |
| JEL: | J62 J24 I24 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112821&r=ure |
| By: | Chen, Joyce J (Ohio State University); Kosec, Katrina (IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute); Mueller, Valerie (IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | The migrant selection literature concentrates primarily on spatial patterns. This paper illustrates the implications of migration duration for patterns of selection by integrating two workhorses of the labor literature, a search model and a Roy model. Theory and empirics show temporary migrants are intermediately selected on education, with weaker selection on cognitive ability. Longer migration episodes lead to stronger positive selection on both education and ability, as its associated jobs involve finer employee-employer matching and offer greater returns to experience. Networks are more valuable for permanent migration, where search costs are higher. Labor market frictions explain observed complex network-skill interactions. |
| Keywords: | migration, search costs, networks, Pakistan |
| JEL: | J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9639&r=ure |
| By: | Breno A. T. D. de Pinho (Cedeplar-UFMG); Fausto Brito (Cedeplar-UFMG); Alane Siqueira Rocha (FEAAC/UFC) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to analyze migration flows involving the municipalities of the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. Investigates the direction and size of immigrant and migrant flows and migratory balances. The data used come from the Demographic Census for the years 1991, 2000 and 2010. The results reveal some detachable differences between the metropolitan center and its periphery in relation to the net population gains, not only due to net migration between these spatial units in metropolitan, but also by migratory balances of these units in population exchanges with the interior cities in the state of Minas Gerais and other states context. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte; Demographic Census. |
| JEL: | Y80 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td527&r=ure |
| By: | Amin, Vikesh (Central Michigan University); Flores, Carlos A. (California Polytechnic State University); Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso (Syracuse University); Parisian, Daniel J. (Mississippi State University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of educational attainment on criminal behavior using random assignment into Job Corps (JC) – the United States' largest education and vocational training program for disadvantaged youth – as a source of exogenous variability in educational attainment. We allow such random assignment to violate the exclusion restriction when used as an instrument by employing nonparametric bounds. The attainment of a degree is estimated to reduce arrest rates by at most 11.8 percentage points (about 32.6%). We also find suggestive evidence that the effects may be larger for males relative to females, and larger for black males relative to white males. Remarkably, our 95 percent confidence intervals on the causal effect of education on arrests are very similar to the corresponding confidence intervals on the same effect from studies exploiting changes in compulsory schooling laws as an instrumental variable in the estimation of the effect of education on arrest rates (e.g., Lochner and Moretti, 2004). |
| Keywords: | degree attainment, arrests, crime, social experiments |
| JEL: | I2 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9695&r=ure |
| By: | Kamhöfer, Daniel A.; Cattan, Sarah; Karlsson, Martin; Nilsson, Therese |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the effect of missed instruction time in school on short-term educational performance as well as long-term retirement income and mortality. Using self-gathered Swedish register data, we are able to distinguish total days of absence within a school year and missed instructional time due to sickness. Using various fixed effects strategies and an instrumental variables approach we find that individual absence leads on average to a decrease of 4.4% of standard deviation in educational performance per school year. Our results suggest that the negative effect of sickness is mainly driven by missed instructional time. The sign of the long-run consequences of absence are in line with economic theory but the effect size is rather small. |
| JEL: | C23 I14 I21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113180&r=ure |
| By: | Nagler, Markus; Piopiunik, Marc; West, Martin R. |
| Abstract: | Can policymakers hire more effective teachers by increasing the relative economic benefits of teaching? We investigate this question by exploiting business cycle conditions at career start as a source of exogenous variation in the outside labor market opportunities of potential teachers. Using administrative data on 33,000 teachers in Florida s public schools, we find that teachers who entered the profession during recessions have significantly higher math value-added measures than teachers who entered the profession during non-recessionary periods. We explain these findings with a simple Roy model of occupational choice. Results are not driven by differential attrition or by any single recession. |
| JEL: | J24 I20 H75 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112949&r=ure |
| By: | Elsner, Benjamin; Isphording, Ingo |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of a student's ordinal rank in a high-school cohort on educational attainment several years later. To identify a causal effect, we compare multiple cohorts within the same school, exploiting exogenous variation in cohort composition. We nd that a student's ordinal rank in high-school signi cantly affects educational outcomes later in life. If two students with the same ability have a different rank in their respective cohort, the student with the higher rank is signi cantly more likely to nish high-school, to attend college, and to complete a 4-year college degree. These results suggest that students under- invest in their human capital if they have a low rank within their cohort even though they have a high ability compared to most students of the same age. Exploring potential channels, we nd that students with a higher rank have higher expectations about their future career, and feel that they are being treated more fairly by their teachers. |
| JEL: | I23 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112928&r=ure |
| By: | Hernæs, Øystein (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We exploit supply-driven heterogeneity in the expansion of cable television across Norwegian municipalities to identify developmental effects of commercial television exposure during childhood. We find that higher exposure to commercial television reduces cognitive ability and high school graduation rates for young men. The effects are largest for exposure during pre-school and elementary school age. We find no effect on high school completion for women, suggesting availability of non-educational media content as a factor in the widening educational gender gap. Based on time-use data, we show that a possible explanation is that television-watching crowds out reading more for boys than girls. |
| Keywords: | human capital, media, education gender gap |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J24 L82 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9645&r=ure |
| By: | Blien, Uwe; Sanner, Helge |
| Abstract: | An examination of regional unemployment rates reveals that there are vast differences which cannot be explained by different institutional. Our paper traces these differences in the regions labour market performance back to the regions specialisation in products that are more or less advanced in their product cycle. The model we develop shows how profit maximisation and its interaction with individual preferences endogenously lead to initially increasing and then decreasing employment in the presence of process innovation. We show how processes of structural change develop in time and how they are linked to technological progress. |
| JEL: | O41 J23 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113162&r=ure |
| By: | Hirsch, Barry (Georgia State University); Husain, Muhammad M. (Georgia State University); Winters, John V. (Oklahoma State University) |
| Abstract: | Multiple job holding rates differ substantially across U.S. regions, states, and metropolitan areas. Rates decrease markedly with respect to labor market size. These patterns have been largely overlooked, despite being relatively fixed over (at least) the 1998-2014 period. This paper explores explanations for these persistent differences. We account for over half of the mean absolute deviation in multiple job holding across local labor markets (MSAs). Most important in explaining variation in multiple job holding are worker characteristics, commute times, MSA ancestry shares, and, to a lesser extent, labor market churn. City size accounts for little of the variation once we condition on commute times. |
| Keywords: | multiple job holding, local labor markets, city size and regional differences, commuting costs |
| JEL: | J21 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9631&r=ure |
| By: | Fuchs, Benjamin |
| Abstract: | A growing body of research suggests that, even after controlling for cognitive abilities, personality predicts economic success in later life. The learning environment at school focuses on knowledge and cognitive skills. The transmission of character skills, however, is not at the center of attention. Leisure activities as informal learning activities outside of school may affect the formation of personality. E.g. working while attending school is seen as a stepping stone toward independence and adulthood and can foster important character skills by providing opportunities to promote responsibility and further character skills. However, the channel of the positive influence has not been identified empirically. I suggest that employment during adolescence affects character skills that are known to have a positive effect on labor market outcomes and educational achievements. Employing a flexible strategy involving propensity score matching combined with regression adjustment, I find beneficial effects on character skills. Working while attending secondary school leads to a higher internal locus of control. In addition to promoting character skills, teenage employment improves knowledge on which skills and talents school students have and also the importance of parents' advices with respect to their future career. These results are robust to several model specifications and varying samples and robust to including family-fixed effects. |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113030&r=ure |
| By: | Bredtmann, Julia; Smith, Nina |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate sibling correlations in educational outcomes, which serve as a broad measure of the importance of family and community background. Making use of rich longitudinal survey and register data for Denmark, our main aim is to identify the parental background characteristics that are able to explain the resemblance in educational outcomes among siblings. We find sibling correlations in educational outcomes in the range of 15 to 33 percent, suggesting that up to a third of the variation in educational achievement can be explained by family and community background. Our results further reveal that parents socio-economic background (i.e., their education, occupation, and income) can explain up to 44 percent of the sibling correlation. However, non-economic factors such as family structure, the incidence of social problems, and parents educational preferences also play an important role for sibling similarities in educational outcomes. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112861&r=ure |
| By: | Holzmann, Carolin; von Schwerin, Axel |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence for tax mimicking among unicipalities by exploiting a quasi-experiment in the German local fiscal equalization scheme. We show for the metropolitan area FrankfurtRheinMain that, besides neighborhood, the degree of economic integration of municipalities determines the interdependency among their tax policies. As the metropolitan area spreads across municipalities located in the two German federal states, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, we can show that Rhineland-Palatine municipalities statistically significantly respond in their local tax rates to an exogenous change in the Hessian local fiscal equalization scheme. However, we find tax rate interdependency only for Rhineland-Palatine metropolitan municipalities which are arguably strongly economically integrated with Hessian metropolitan municipalities. The results suggest that regional economic integration is a key determinant for tax mimicking. |
| JEL: | H20 H71 H70 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112893&r=ure |
| By: | Mechtel, Mario; Bäker, Agnes |
| Abstract: | Recent research has shown that the presence of peers can increase individual output both in the lab and the field. As a new explanation for higher individual output levels, we test whether peer settings are particularly prone to cheating even if peer settings do not provide additional monetary benefits of cheating. Participants in our real effort experiment had the opportunity to cheat when declaring their output levels. Although cheating did not have different monetary consequences when working alone than when working in the presence of a peer, we find that cheating on task performance is a more severe problem in peer settings. Our results potentially have far-reaching repercussions regarding organizational design in the context of group settings where principals are not fully able to observe agents' output levels. |
| JEL: | M50 J20 D20 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113093&r=ure |
| By: | Streif, Frank |
| Abstract: | Corporate tax levels have fallen substantially in Europe during the last decades. There is a broad literature on tax competition which has been identified as one reason for the decline in corporate tax levels. However, none of these studies explicitly ask the question whether tax competition within regions is di erent from tax competition across regions, e.g. due to "global regionalism" of foreign direct investments. This is a crucial question to answer in order to discuss the desirability of (local) tax harmonization, for example, within the European Union. Therefore, the study aims to give hints on the following questions: Is the decline in corporate tax levels in Europe mainly driven by inner-European tax competition? Or is it (also) due to pressure from other world regions? The results of this study which makes use of tax reaction functions (spatial econometrics) indicate that there is evidence for tax competition within Europe (with respect to effective average tax rates) whereas there is no evidence that European countries compete with countries from other regions. |
| JEL: | H20 H77 H87 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112832&r=ure |
| By: | Balkan, Binnur (Central Bank of Turkey); Tumen, Semih (Central Bank of Turkey) |
| Abstract: | We exploit the regional variation in the unexpected (or forced) inflow of Syrian refugees as a natural experiment to estimate the impact of immigration on consumer prices in Turkey. Using a difference-in- differences strategy and a comprehensive data set on the regional prices of CPI items, we find that general level of consumer prices has declined by approximately 2.5 percent due to immigration. Prices of goods and services have declined in similar magnitudes. We highlight that the channel through which the price declines take place is the informal labor market. Syrian refugees supply inexpensive informal labor and, thus, substitute the informal native workers especially in informal labor intensive sectors. We document that prices in these sectors have fallen by around 4 percent, while the prices in the formal labor intensive sectors have almost remained unchanged. Increase in the supply of informal immigrant workers generates labor cost advantages and keeps prices lower in the informal labor intensive sectors. |
| Keywords: | immigration, consumer prices, Syrian refugees, natural experiment, informal employment |
| JEL: | C21 E31 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9642&r=ure |
| By: | Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza); Velilla, Jorge (University of Zaragoza) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study self-employment in a theoretical setting derived from wage-efficiency spatial models, where leisure and effort at work are complementary. We develop a spatial model of self-employment in which effort at work and commuting are negatively related, and thus the probability of self-employment decreases with "expected" commuting time. We use time-use data from the American Time Use Survey 2003-2014 to analyze the spatial distribution of self-employment across metropolitan areas in the US, focusing on the relationship between commuting time and the probability of self-employment. Our empirical results show that the probability of self-employment is negatively related to the "expected" commuting time, giving empirical support to our theoretical model. Furthermore, we propose a GIS model to show that commuting and self-employment rates are, in relation to unemployment rates, negatively related. |
| Keywords: | wage-efficiency, self-employment, commuting, leisure, American Time Use Survey |
| JEL: | J21 J22 R12 R41 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9634&r=ure |
| By: | Broekel, Tom; Brachert, Matthias; Duschl, Matthias; Brenner, Thomas |
| Abstract: | Subsidies for R&D are an important tool of public R&D policy, which motivates extensive scientific analyses and evaluations. The paper adds to this literature by arguing that the effects of R&D subsidies go beyond the extension of organizations monetary resources invested into R&D. It is argued that collaboration induced by subsidized joint R&D projects yield significant effects that are missed in traditional analyses. An empirical study on the level of German labor market regions substantiates this claim showing that collaborative R&D subsidies impact regions innovation growth when providing access to related variety and embedding regions into central positions in cross- regional knowledge networks. |
| JEL: | L14 O31 R12 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112808&r=ure |
| By: | Höckel, Lisa Sofie (RWI); Santos Silva, Manuel (University of Göttingen); Stöhr, Tobias (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) |
| Abstract: | Educational outcomes of children are highly dependent on household and school-level inputs. In poor countries remittances from migrants can provide additional funds for the education of the left behind. At the same time the absence of migrant parents can affect families' time allocation towards education. Previous work on education inputs often implicitly assumed that preferences for different kinds of education inputs remain unchanged when household members migrate. Using survey data and matched administrative school-level public expenditures from the World Bank's Open Budget Initiative (BOOST) from Moldova, one of the countries with the highest emigration rates in the world, and an instrumental variable approach we find that the strongest migration-related response in private education expenditure are substantially lower informal payments to public school teachers. This fact is at odds with a positive income effect due to migration. In addition we find that migration slightly increases caregivers' time spent on their children's education. We argue that our results are likely to be driven by changing preferences towards educational inputs induced by migration. |
| Keywords: | migration, emigration, corruption, education spending, social remittances, children left behind |
| JEL: | F22 I22 H52 D13 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9687&r=ure |
| By: | Burret, Heiko T.; Feld, Lars P. |
| Abstract: | Formal fiscal rules have been introduced in many countries throughout the world. While most studies focus on the intra-jurisdictional effects of fiscal rules, vertical effects on the finances of other levels of government have yet to be explored thoroughly. This paper investigates the influence of Swiss cantonal debt brakes on municipal finances during the years 1980-2011 by examining aggregated and disaggregated local data. A Difference-in-Differences estimation (twoway fixed effects) provides little evidence that budget constraints at the cantonal level affect average municipal finances and fiscal decentralization. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal Rule,Vertical Effect,Fiscal Shock,Decentralization,Sub-national Finances |
| JEL: | H60 H77 H74 H72 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:aluord:1601&r=ure |
| By: | Haskamp, Ulrich; Setzer, Ralph; Belke, Ansgar |
| Abstract: | The financial crisis affected regions in Europe in a different magnitude. We examine whether regions which incorporate banks with a higher intermediation quality grow faster using a sample which includes the aftermath of the financial crisis. We measure the intermediation quality of a bank by estimating a its profit and cost efficiency. Next, we aggregate the efficiencies of all banks within a NUTS 2 region to obtain a regional proxy for financial quality in twelve European countries. Our results show that relatively more profit efficient banks foster the economic growth in their region. The link between financial quality and growth is valid in normal times as well as in bad ones. |
| JEL: | G21 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112824&r=ure |
| By: | Verhaest, Dieter (KU Leuven); Bogaert, Elene (Ghent University); Dereymaeker, Jeroen (KU Leuven); Mestdagh, Laura (KU Leuven); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | We test the basic assumption underlying the job competition and crowding out hypothesis: that employers always prefer higher educated to lower educated individuals. To this end, we conduct a randomised field experiment in which duos of fictitious applications by bachelor and master graduates are sent to real vacancies requiring only a bachelor degree. Our design allows to look at whether employers' preferences for overqualified versus adequately qualified applicants depend on the demand and supply context, sectoral activity and type of organisation, and characteristics of the posted vacancy. For the overall sample, we find that master graduates are 19% more likely to be directly invited for a job interview. Nonetheless, we conclude that eventual crowding out of bachelor graduates as a consequence of this selection policy is unlikely to be large since the advantage for master graduates is particularly observed for jobs with high overall invitation rates. |
| Keywords: | job competition, recruitment, hiring, youth labour market, mismatch, underemployment, overqualification, field experiments |
| JEL: | I21 J24 M51 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9654&r=ure |
| By: | Plum, Alexander; Knies, Gundi |
| Abstract: | There is considerable debate on whether the prospects of entering a high-paid job are better for those in low-paid jobs compared to the unemployed. Whilst some scholars argue that there is a scarring effect of unemployment others highlight that low pay might signal a low productivity and furthermore reduce the time searching for a better paid job. Using longitudinal data for working age men in England matched with local labor market indicators, we estimate several random-effects probit models and find no difference in the probability of becoming high-paid employed between low-paid workers and the unemployed in areas with low unemployment. However, in areas with high unemployment and high pay, low-paid workers have a higher probability of entering high-paid employment than the unemployed. Moreover, there is a penalty for low-wage workers compared to the unemployed in low-pay areas in their probability of entering high-paid employment. |
| JEL: | J64 J62 J31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112845&r=ure |
| By: | Kleinhans, Reinout (Delft University of Technology); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | In many European countries, community entrepreneurship is increasingly considered as a means to initiate small-scale urban regeneration. However, residents in deprived communities are often viewed to lack key entrepreneurial attributes and skills. This paper reports a unique experiment in the Netherlands with nascent community enterprises which received start-up support from a private foundation. This paper investigates how active citizens perceive the benefits and drawbacks of this support. In depth analysis of transcriptions of repeated semi-structured interviews (panel design with the same respondents) with representatives of established community enterprises and resident groups were analysed. While we find positive feedback on provided support, our research provides strong evidence for a 'support paradox': the support that was intended to overcome a number of entry barriers and difficulties on the road to community entrepreneurship has in fact significantly hampered progress among several of the studied CEs. |
| Keywords: | community enterprises, community entrepreneurship, active citizenship, support, urban regeneration, self-organisation, The Netherlands |
| JEL: | D71 L26 L31 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9625&r=ure |
| By: | Preugschat, Edgar; Kaas, Leo; Kocharkov, Georgi |
| Abstract: | The nine largest countries in the Euro area have surprisingly different degrees of wealth inequality. At the same time, there is a strong negative correlation between wealth inequality and homeownership rates across countries. To account for this fact, we first analyze decompositions of the Gini coefficient across subgroups of households. The main contributing factor for the negative correlation with homeownership appears to be inequality between homeowners and renters. In a second step, we estimate the effects of homeownership on the Gini using a Recentered Influence Function (RIF) regression approach. The coefficients on homeownership are significantly negative and are positively correlated with between group Ginis (owners vs renters) across countries. To better understand the effect of ownership on inequality we regress ownership on individual quantiles. For most countries the effect of ownership is strongest for quantiles below the median. This suggests that policies promoting homeownership for lower wealth groups should have the largest impact wealth inequality. |
| JEL: | D31 E21 G11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113026&r=ure |
| By: | Rydzek, Benedikt; Egger, Peter; Riezman, Raymond |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a model to analyze the effects of (country-pair-specific) costs of creating, transferring and accessing intangible assets for multi-unit firms. These costs might vary with the cultural distance between countries, such as the difference in language, work ethics or other moral values. We argue that these costs are an important factor to explain why most firms are single unit firms, most multi-unit firms have only one affiliated unit and why multinational firms are only a tiny fraction of all firms in a country. Therefore, we develop a model with heterogeneous firms that produce differentiated goods in different firm units. The number of units depends on the costs of transferring intangible assets. If these costs are relatively high, most firms will be single unit firms. Furthermore, if costs of transferring intangible assets to an affiliated firm in a foreign country are even higher, only the most productive firms will be multinational firms. Additionally, multinational firms will be open more affiliated firms in countries that are culturally closer to their home country. These findings square with stylized facts and estimation results presented in the paper. |
| JEL: | F23 L11 L25 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112925&r=ure |
| By: | Hiller, Sanne; Bitzer, Jürgen; Gören, Erkan |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of immigrant employees for a firm's capability to absorb international knowledge. Using matched employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1999 to 2009, we are able to show that non-Danish employees from technological advanced countries contribute significantly to firm's economic output through their ability to access international knowledge. The empirical results suggest that the immigrants' impact increases if they come from technological advanced countries, have a high educational level, and are employed in high-skilled positions. However, the latter does not hold for immigrant managers. |
| JEL: | D20 J82 L20 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113205&r=ure |
| By: | Anger, Silke; Dahmann, Sarah |
| Abstract: | Western labor markets face major challenges caused by demographic changes. They increasingly experience a shortage of skilled workers and face the problem of an increasing disparity between a reduced group of active workers contributing to the pension scheme and a rising share of an older population receiving pension benefits. Starting in 2001, Germany therefore introduced an educational reform enabling high school graduates earlier labor market entry. By shortening the length of upper secondary school leaving the overall curriculum unchanged, the reform did not only make German graduates more competitive on the international labor market and reduce costs in the German education system, but also increased the labor force by one birth cohort, relieving the shortage of skilled workers and disburdening the pension scheme. However, the reform may have led to unintended consequences on individuals' human capital. This paper investigates this reform's short-term effects on students' personality exploiting the variation in high school duration over time and across states as a quasi-natural experiment. Using rich data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study on adolescents' Big Five personality traits and on their locus of control, our estimates show that shortening high school caused students on average to be less emotionally stable. Moreover, the personality of male students and students from disrupted families changed more strongly following the reform: they became more agreeable and more extroverted, respectively. We conclude that the educational system plays a role in shaping adolescents' personality, which in turn impacts labor market success and further later life outcomes. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112902&r=ure |
| By: | Lorenz, Olga; Goerke, Laszlo |
| Abstract: | Commuting is an important and growing component of workers daily life and demands a lot of time. Given the importance of commuting, it is crucial to understand its consequences for different aspects of individual labour supply. In this paper, we focus on the causal effect of commuting on sickness absence from work using German panel data. According to theory, the effect of commuting on the number of workers absence days may be positive or negative. Empirical tests of this effect are not standard, due to reverse causation and lack of good control variables. To address reverse causation, estimates of commuting on absenteeism are derived using changes in commuting distance for workers who stay at the same workplace and who have the same residence during the period of observation. Keeping the workers employer and residence constant allows us to address endogeneity of commuting distance. Our results show that employees, who commute long distances (more than 50 kilometres), are absent more often than comparable employees with shorter commutes. |
| JEL: | I10 J22 R40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113173&r=ure |