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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Ayako Wakano (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | Do locally hired teachers benefit pupils f school achievements more than governmental employed teachers? This is the question to examine in this paper. Although social experiment results have shown that the marginal product in terms of test score is positive and significant when pupils are taught by PTA teachers, it is not yet known about the grelative h effectiveness between government teacher and locally hired teachers. This paper is going to find whether the PTA teacher ratio (the ratio of locally hired PTA teachers against total number of teachers in one primary school) has statistically significant explanatory power on pupil test score, after controlling various factors. In Republic of Kenya (below referred as Kenya), there are two types of teachers teaching in public primary schools. One is those teachers employed by the government and the other is those hired by the local school community, named gPTA teacher h. Although wage level for PTA teachers in public primary schools in Kenya is one fourth of that of government teachers, school outcomes of pupils taught by locally hired contract teachers are higher than those of pupils taught in controlled group schools, according to the result of social experiment (Duflo et al. 2012). This paper will examine, by using nationally representing observational data, to estimate the relative effect of PTA teachers on school outcome. In the end, by using Propensity Score Matching Estimation method, the result shows that the effect of PTA teacher ratio is positive and significant on school test score in all three subjects for lower standard grade pupils except Kernel and Radius matching and in Kiswahili subject for all seven different matching algorisms, though the magnitude of coefficient is relatively small. Although background mechanism of this finding is not solely determined, this paper is to assume that the effort level of PTA teacher in teaching tends to be higher than that of governmental teachers, based on several reasons. |
| Keywords: | Absenteeism, PTA teacher, Locally hired teacher, test score |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J18 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1614&r=ure |
| By: | Merriman, David (University of Illinois at Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Conventional economic theory intuitively holds that local business property taxes, which account for over one-third of the state and local taxes that firms pay, should be efficiently structured in order to recover the exact cost of providing public services to these firms. However, this conceptual thinking does not accord with observed geographic and over-time variation in business taxation. To better explain these discrepancies, the author develops an alternative theoretical model with heterogeneous firms, some of which are more profitable than others in certain locations. This model more precisely captures observed business tax revenues and its implications are empirically tested using a nationally-representative database of effective tax rates for commercial property and owner-occupied housing. The alternative model better reflects the political and policy tradeoffs that local government officials face between balancing the need for government revenue while maintaining an attractive profit-making environment for businesses and attracting firms that will supply jobs for their constituents. |
| JEL: | H25 H7 R38 |
| Date: | 2016–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:16-2&r=ure |
| By: | Carlos Carreira (GEMF and Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal); Luís Lopes (GEMF and Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the puzzling question regarding the role of spatial agglomeration of production activities and knowledge on firm’s total factor productivity (TFP). In particular, it addresses the overlooked issue of a plausible non-linear effect and different across industries. Using a panel of Portuguese manufacturing firms, we found that specialization economies have a positive impact on firms’ productivity, especially for those operating in medium-high and high-tech sectors. Diversity externalities, for its part, have an inverted U-shaped relationship with firms’ TFP in low, medium-low and medium-high tech sectors. The relationship between regional R&D employment and productivity differs across sectors: in all manufacturing firms and firms from medium-low and high-tech sectors, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship; in low-tech sector, there is a U-shaped relationship and a positive elasticity for any employment level higher than the 20th percentile. Overall, agglomeration economies differ substantially across industries and they are non-linear. |
| Keywords: | Regional knowledge spillovers, agglomeration economies, low-tech vs. high-tech industries, total factor productivity. JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2016-06.&r=ure |
| By: | Chris Sakellariou (Division of Economics, Nanyang Technological University, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332.) |
| Abstract: | It is known that in most countries, students of private schools perform better in international assessments compared to students in the public school system. However, when one controls for observable socioeconomic background characteristics at the individual and school level, public school students perform equally well. Furthermore, sorting to private vs. public schools based on unobservable characteristics takes place, which biases econometric estimates. I account for selection on unobservables using an approach based on the idea that the amount of selection on the observed explanatory variables in a model provides a guide to the amount of selection on the unobservables (Altonjie et al. 2005; Oster 2013). I use PISA-2012 data for Mathematics to derive bias-corrected estimates of the “true” private-dependent and independent school effect for 40 countries. With few exceptions, public schools outperform private schools (especially independent schools). Accounting for both peer effects and selection is necessary when evaluating school effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | School choice, private school advantage, selection |
| JEL: | C52 I24 L33 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nan:wpaper:1605&r=ure |
| By: | Chambers, Matthew (Towson University); Garriga, Carlos (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis); Schlagenhauf, Don E. (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | Post-World War II witnessed the largest housing boom in recent history. This paper develops a quantitative equilibrium model of tenure choice to analyze the key determinants in the co-movement between home-ownership and house prices over the period 1940-1960. The parameterized model matches key features and is capable of accounting for the observed housing boom. The key driver in understanding this boom is an asymmetric productivity change that favors the goods sector relative to the construction sector. Other factors such as demographics, income risk, and government policy are important determinants of the homeownership rate but have small effect on house prices. |
| Keywords: | Housing finance; first-time buyers; life-cycle |
| JEL: | E2 E6 |
| Date: | 2016–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2016-007&r=ure |
| By: | Simon Franklin |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the link between housing conditions and household income and labour market participation in South Africa. I use four waves of panel data from 2002-2009 on households that were originally living in informal dwellings. I find that those households that received free government housing later experienced large increases in their incomes. This effect is driven by increased employment rates among female members of these households, rather than other sources of income. I take advantage of a natural experiment created by a policy of allocating housing to households that lived in close proximity to new housing developments. Using rich spatial data on the roll out of government housing projects, I generate geographic instruments to predict selection into receiving housing. I then use housing projects that were planned and approved but never actually built to allay concerns about non-random placement of housing projects. The fixed effects results are robust to the use of these instruments and placebo tests. I present suggestive evidence that formal housing alleviates the demands of work at home for women, which leads to increases in labour supply to wage paying jobs. |
| Keywords: | housing; labour supply; time allocation; home production |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66537&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel Rais |
| Abstract: | We study how industry-level agglomeration economies affect government policy. Using administrative data on firm subsidies in economically lagging regions of Great Britain, we test two alternative hypotheses. Economic geography models imply that firms at an industry’s core can sustain higher tax burdens or require lower subsidies than firms in more remote locations. Conversely, political economy models predict firms at the industry’s core to be more successful at lobbying government, particularly at the sub-national level, thus obtaining more favourable fiscal treatment. We find that local government agencies structure subsidy offers to favour pre-existing employment in locally agglomerated industries, behaviour more in line with theories of policy capture than with economic geography models. |
| Date: | 2014–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wti:papers:835&r=ure |
| By: | Riccardo, Borgoni; Alessandra, Michelangeli; Nicola, Pontarollo; |
| Abstract: | Cultural amenities are the expression of a cultural environment, given by a combination of aesthetics factors, styles, rhythms, behaviours, which contribute to make vibrant and more enjoyable a neighbourhood. Within the theoretical framework of the hedonic approach, we propose an empirical strategy to capture the multiple effects of cultural amenities. The results are used to determine whether cultural amenities are optimally provided by the municipality of Milan. It turns out that government should devote far more resources to culture. |
| Keywords: | culture, city, hedonic approach, multilevel models |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–05–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:335&r=ure |
| By: | Jaromir Benes; Douglas Laxton; Joannes Mongardini |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new version of MAPMOD (Mark II) to study the effectiveness of macroprudential regulations. We extend the original model by explicitly modeling the housing market. We show how household demand for housing, house prices, and bank mortgages are intertwined in what we call a deadly embrace. Without macroprudential policies, this deadly embrace naturally leads to housing boom and bust cycles, which can be very costly for the economy, as shown by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles;Credit demand;Credit booms;Household credit;Housing prices;Mortgages;Systemic risk;Macroprudential Policy;Risk management;lending booms, credit crunch, financial crisis, financial cycle, housing market, countercyclical buffers, loan-to-value limits, macroprudential policies |
| Date: | 2016–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:16/87&r=ure |
| By: | Stefano Bosi (EPEE - Centre d'Etudes des Politiques Economiques - Université d'Evry-Val d'Essonne); Cuong Le Van (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IPAG BUSINESS SCHOOL - IPAG BUSINESS SCHOOL PARIS, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Ngoc-Sang Pham (EPEE - Centre d'Etudes des Politiques Economiques - Université d'Evry-Val d'Essonne, LEM - Lille - Economie et Management - Université de Lille, Sciences et Technologies - Fédération Universitaire et Polytechnique de Lille - Université de Lille, Sciences Humaines et Sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers rational land and housing bubbles in an infinite-horizon general equilibrium model. Their demands rest on two different grounds: the land is an input to produce while the house may be consumed. Our work differs from the existing literature in two respects. First, dividends on both these long-lived assets are endogenous and their sequences are computed. Second, we introduce and study different concepts of bubbles, including individual and strong bubbles. |
| Keywords: | housing bubble,infinite horizon,general equilibrium,land bubble |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01314609&r=ure |
| By: | Harker, Patrick T. (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | President Patrick T. Harker provides opening remarks at the Community Reinvestment Act and the White House Promise Zone Initiative: Camden Promise Zone Initiative meeting, organized by the Philadelphia Fed’s Community Development Studies & Education Department, the FDIC, the City of Camden, the Camden Redevelopment Agency, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He discusses how locally developed plans can leverage private-sector investments to promote economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Community Reinvestment Act; Camden Promise Zone |
| Date: | 2016–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpsp:119&r=ure |
| By: | Cletus C. Coughlin; Dennis Novy |
| Abstract: | Trade data are typically reported at the level of regions or countries and are therefore aggregates across space. In this paper, we investigate the sensitivity of standard gravity estimation to spatial aggregation. We build a model in which initially symmetric micro regions are combined to form aggregated macro regions. We then apply the model to the large literature on border effects in domestic and international trade. Our theory shows that larger countries are systematically associated with smaller border effects. The reason is that due to spatial frictions, aggregation across space increases the relative cost of trading within borders. The cost of trading across borders therefore appears relatively smaller. This mechanism leads to border effect heterogeneity and is independent of multilateral resistance effects in general equilibrium. Even if no border frictions exist at the micro level, gravity estimation on aggregate data can still produce large border effects. We test our theory on domestic and international trade flows at the level of U.S. states. Our results confirm the model's predictions, with quantitatively large effects. |
| Keywords: | Gravity, Geography, Borders, Trade Costs, Heterogeneity, Home Bias, Spatial Attenuation, Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) |
| JEL: | F10 F15 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1429&r=ure |
| By: | Hamann, Silke (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Niebuhr, Annekatrin (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Peters, Cornelius (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "We analyse whether the size of the local labour market allows for better matching between job seekers and vacancies, which is thought to enhance productivity. This analysis is based on a large data set providing detailed micro-level information on new employment relationships in Germany. Our results suggest rather small matching benefits. Doubling employment density increases the productivity of new employment relationships by 1.1% to 1.2%. Moreover, the findings indicate that the benefits accrue only to persons experiencing job-to-job transitions and short-term unemployed. We detect no important impact of agglomeration on transitions from long-term non-employed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitsmarktregion, Arbeitsuchende, offene Stellen, Matching, Arbeitsplatzdichte, Produktivitätseffekte, kurzfristige Arbeitslosigkeit, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien |
| JEL: | R23 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201613&r=ure |
| By: | Margherita Russo; Francesco Pagliacci |
| Abstract: | Estimates of macroeconomic effects of natural disaster have a long tradition in economic literature (Albala-Bertrand, 1993a; 1993b; Tol and Leek, 1999; Chang and Okuyama, 2004; Benson and Clay, 2004; Strömberg, 2007; UNISDR, 2009; Cuaresma, 2009; Cavallo and Noy, 2009; Cavallo et al., 2010; The United Nations and The World Bank, 2010). After the seminal contribution of Abadie et al. (2010) in identifying synthetic control groups, with DuPont and Noy (2015) a new strand has been opened in estimating long term effects of natural disaster at a sub-regional scale, at which the Japan case provides plenty of significant economic variables. Although the same methodology has been applied in estimating the impact of earthquakes in Italy (Barone et al. 2013; Barone and Mocetti, 2014), the analysis has been limited to the regional scale. In our paper, due to a lack in long-term time series data at municipality level, this paper cannot adopt the methodology suggested by Abadie et al. (2010). Nevertheless, it provides a test bed for assessing the relevance of a sub-regional counterfactual evaluation of a natural disaster's impact. By taking the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake as a case study, we propose a comprehensive framework to answer some critical questions arising in such analysis. Firstly, we address the problem of identifying the proper boundaries of the area affected by an earthquake. Secondly, through a cluster analysis we show the importance of intra area differences in terms of their socio-economic features. Thirdly, counterfactual analysis is assessed by adopting a pre- and post-earthquake difference-in-difference comparison of average data in clusters within and outside the affected area. Moreover, three frames to apply propensity score matching at municipality level are also adopted, by taking the control group of municipalities (outside the affected area): (a) within the same cluster, (b) within the same region, (c) in the whole country. The four variables considered in the counterfactual analysis are: total population; foreigner population; total employment in manufacturing local units; employment in small and medium-sized manufacturing local units (0 to 49 employees). All the counterfactual tests largely show a similar result: socio-economic effects are heterogeneous across the affected area, where some clusters of municipalities perform better, in terms of increase of population and employment after the earthquake, against some others. This result sharply contrasts with the average results we observe by comparing the whole affected area with the non-affected one or with the entire region. |
| Keywords: | cluster analysis, counterfactual analysis, Emilia-Romagna, earthquake |
| JEL: | C38 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:cappmo:0139&r=ure |
| By: | Bulent Ozel (Department of Economics, Universidad Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Reynold Christian Nathanael (DIME-CINEF, Università di Genova, Italy); Marco Raberto (DIME-CINEF, Università di Genova, Italy); Andrea Teglio (Department of Economics, Universidad Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Silvano Cincotti (DIME-CINEF, Università di Genova, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an enhancement of the Eurace agent-based model by designing a housing market with a related mortgage lending device. The presence of the housing market has some important macroeconomic implications, mainly given by the additional amount of endogenous money injected into the economy through the new mortgage device. This additional money generally helps to increase and stabilize aggregated demand, thus improving the main economic indicators. However, if the mortgage lending regulation is relaxed too much, by raising the debt-service-to-income ratio (DSTI), then the additional supply of mortgages doesn’t increase the macroeconomic performance any more, and undermines the stability of the economic system. Following some recent discussion, a stock control regulation that targets households net wealth (a stock), instead of income (a flow), is designed and analyzed. Results show that stock control regulation can be effectively combined with DSTI in order to increase the stability of the housing market and of the whole economy. Moreover, stock control regulation exhibits the interesting property to directly affect mortgage distribution among households. |
| Keywords: | Computational Techniques, Simulation Modeling, Business Fluctuations, Cycles, Money Supply, Credit, Money Multipliers |
| JEL: | C63 E32 E51 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2016/05&r=ure |
| By: | Raju,Dhushyanth |
| Abstract: | Sri Lanka is increasingly seeking to ensure that its public school system not only delivers greater shares of students who have completed higher secondary and tertiary education, but also that all students obtain a much better education. Raising teacher effectiveness is considered as crucial for achieving these aims. This paper reviews the literature on teacher management in Sri Lanka, and points to what may be critical teacher management issues. The paper also outlines considerations and options for addressing these issues, informed by international evidence on approaches to improve teacher effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Effective Schools and Teachers,Secondary Education,Tertiary Education,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2016–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7651&r=ure |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | CBO reviews the federal government’s current role in the multifamily mortgage market and four broad approaches to modifying that role. |
| JEL: | G18 G28 R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2015–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:510061&r=ure |
| By: | Jianxin Wu (Business School, University of Western Australia and School of Economics, Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development Research, Jinan University, China); Yanrui Wu (Business School, University of Western Australia); Bing Wang (School of Economics, Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development Research, Jinan University, China) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and its determinants in 286 Chinese cities. The findings strongly support an inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita CO2 emission (PCE) and urban development. However the realization of this relationship depends on stringent governmental policy interventions. The regression analysis in this paper shows that city size is positively correlated with CO2 emission efficiency, but negatively correlated with PCE. This result suggests that population restrictions in large cities tend to increase CO2 emission. It is also shown that regional development programs are likely to encourage economic activities in regions with low CO2 emission efficiency and may have significant environmental consequences in the future. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:16-12&r=ure |
| By: | Rafael Wildauer (Kingston University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the factors driving US household borrowing up to 2007. Two popular explanations are tested: First, the expenditure cascades hypothesis based on the assumption of debt-financed expenditures driven by an increasingly polarised distribution of income (‘keeping up with the Joneses’) and second, the hypothesis of Minskyian households which identifies climbing real estate prices as the decisive factor in household debt accumulation (re-mortgaging in order to cash in on capital gains and rising loan-to-value ratios in property purchases). This paper develops a method for obtaining individual household borrowing figures despite the lack of a panel structure from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF); it is the first to use the high quality information the SCF provides to investigate the impact of shifts in the income distribution and asset prices on household borrowing. The findings indicate that it is the interaction between the concentration of income at the top of the distribution and rising real estate prices which explains a large fraction of the increase in household borrowing prior to 2008. Therefore, neither the expenditure cascades hypothesis nor the hypothesis of Minskyian households are, in isolation, sufficient in order to understand household debt accumulation and thus the paper calls for a synthesis: future research should analyse the role of the distribution of income and asset prices together rather than separately. |
| Keywords: | household debt, expenditure cascades, wealth effects, Minsky |
| JEL: | D12 D31 E03 E12 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp1608&r=ure |
| By: | Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University); Schubert, Torben (CIRCLE, Lund University); Srholec, Martin (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The link between knowledge and firm growth has been a core topic in economics of innovation for a long time. However, despite strong theoretical arguments, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. One important reason for this conundrum may be the failure of standard indicators to comprehensively capture firm innovation activities. We contribute to overcoming this limitation by zooming in on the knowledge processes that drive variegated forms of innovation and aim thereby to establish a solid relationship with firm growth. The paper draws on the differentiated knowledge base approach, distinguishing between analytical, synthetic, and symbolic knowledge, and measures these types of knowledge with detailed longitudinal linked-employer-employee micro data from Sweden. Econometric findings indicate positive relationships between the three knowledge types, in particular combinations thereof, and firm growth. These relationships remain robust in a wide range of models. Our analysis therefore suggests that the seemingly weak relationship between firm growth and innovation may be explained by the narrow measurement concepts that have dominated in this literature so far. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge; innovation; firm growth; micro data; Sweden |
| JEL: | C33 D22 O12 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_013&r=ure |
| By: | Mauro Costantini; Iris Meco (Department of Economics and Finance, Brunel University London); Antonio Paradiso (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to investigate the long-run relationship between crime, inequality, unemployment and deterrence using state-level data for the US over the period 1978- 2013. The novelty of the paper is to use non-stationary panels with factor structures. The results show that: i) a simple crime model well fits the long run relationship; ii) income inequality and unemployment have a positive impact on crime, whereas deterrence displays a negative sign; iii) the effect of income inequality on crime is large in magnitude; iv) property crime is generally highly sensitive to deterrence measures based upon police activities. |
| Keywords: | Crime, deterrence, inequality, unemployment, panel cointegration, cross- section dependence |
| JEL: | C33 E20 K40 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2016:14&r=ure |
| By: | Jeffrey A. Groen†; Mark J. Kutzbach?; Anne E. Polivka‡ |
| Abstract: | Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, destroying homes and businesses and causing mass evacuations. The economic effects of disasters are often studied at a regional level, but little is known about the responsiveness of individuals’ employment and earnings to the damages, disruption, and rebuilding—particularly in the longer run. Our analysis is based on data that tracks workers over nine years, including seven years after the storms. We estimate models that compare the evolution of earnings for workers who resided in a storm-affected area with those who resided in a suitable control counties. We find that, on average, the storms reduced the earnings of affected individuals during the first year after the storm. These losses reflect various aspects of the short-run disruption caused by the hurricanes, including job separations, migration to other areas, and business contractions. Starting in the third year after the storms, however, we find that the earnings of affected individuals outpaced the earnings of individuals in the control sample. We provide evidence that the long-term earnings gains were the result of wage growth in the affected areas relative to the control areas, due to reduced labor supply and increased labor demand, especially in sectors related to rebuilding. Despite the short-term earnings losses, we find a net increase in average quarterly earnings among affected individuals over the entire post-storm period. However, those who worked in sectors closely tied to tourism or the size of the local population experienced net earnings losses. |
| Keywords: | Disaster, Hurricane, Employment, Earnings, Local Labor Markets, Katrina, Rita |
| JEL: | J60 Q54 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-21r&r=ure |
| By: | Tadashi Morita (Faculty of Economics, Kindai University,); Yasuhiro Sato (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo); Kazuhiro Yamamoto (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | We examine possible impacts of demographics on outcomes of capital tax compe- tition in political economy. For this purpose, we develop an overlapping generations model wherein public good provision financed by capital tax is determined by majority voting. When a population is growing, younger people represent the majority, whereas when a population is decreasing, older people represent the majority. We show that the race to the bottom is likely to emerge in the population growing economy whereas the race to the top might emerge in the population decreasing economy. |
| Keywords: | tax competition, majority voter, fiscal externality, political externality |
| JEL: | H20 J11 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1613&r=ure |
| By: | Schreiber, Sven; Beblo, Miriam |
| Abstract: | We revisit the alleged retirement consumption puzzle. According to the life-cycle theory, foreseeable income reductions such as those around retirement should not affect consumption. However, we first recall that given higher leisure endowments after retirement, the theory does predict a fall of total market consumption expenditures. In order not to mistake this predicted drop for a puzzle we focus on housing consumption which can be plausibly regarded as complementary to leisure, and we control for the leisure change in our empirical specifications, using micro data for Germany (SOEP), where housing expenditures are observable as rents for the majority (60%), as well as dwelling relocations. We still find significant negative impacts of the retirement status on housing consumption, which is hard to reconcile with the life-cycle theory. For retirees we also find significant effects of the income reduction at retirement on housing. However, the effects are small in quantitative terms, given the lock-in nature of past housing decisions. |
| Keywords: | consumption smoothing,retirement-consumption puzzle,SOEP |
| JEL: | D91 E21 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20168&r=ure |
| By: | Montserrat Pallares-Barbera |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:388801&r=ure |
| By: | Alexander Kunith; Roman Mendelevitch; Dietmar Goehlich |
| Abstract: | The deployment of battery-powered electric bus systems within the public transportation sector plays an important role to increase energy efficiency and to abate emissions. Rising attention is given to bus systems using fast charging technology. This concept requires a comprehensive infrastructure to equip bus routes with charging stations. The combination of charging infrastructure and bus batteries needs a reliable energy supply to maintain a stable bus operation even under demanding conditions. An efficient layout of the charging infrastructure and an appropriate dimensioning of battery capacity are crucial to minimize the total cost of ownership and to enable an energetically feasible bus operation. In this work, the central issue of jointly optimizing the charging infrastructure and battery capacity is described by a capacitated set covering problem. A mixed-integer linear optimization model is developed to determine the minimum number and location of required charging stations for a bus network as well as the adequate battery capacity for each bus line of the network. The bus energy consumption for each route segments is determined based on individual route, bus type, traffic and other information. Different scenarios are examined in order to assess the influence of charging power, climate and changing operating conditions. The findings reveal significant differences in terms of needed infrastructure depending on the scenarios considered. Moreover, the results highlight a trade-off between battery size and charging infrastructure under different operational and infrastructure conditions. The paper addresses upcoming challenges for transport authorities during the electrification process of the bus fleets and sharpens the focus on infrastructural issues related to the fast charging concept. |
| Keywords: | Electric bus, charging infrastructure, fast charging, cost optimization, capacitated set-covering problem |
| JEL: | C61 L92 R42 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1577&r=ure |
| By: | Michal Bernard Pietrzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland); Adam P. Balcerzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland) |
| Abstract: | Improving conditions for sustainable development has been a major aim of every Polish government since the beginning of transformation process. Thus, the aim of the paper is to analyse the level of sustainable development in Poland at re-gional level. The research was conducted at NUTS 3 level for the years 2010-2013. The analysis was based on the data from Central Statistical Office of Poland. It was assumed that the phenomenon of socio-economic sustainability at regional level should be considered as a multivariate latent variable. As a result, it was measured with application of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The proposed model was based on eight observable variables that are often pointed in the literature as measures of socio-economic development and human welfare. Application of SEM model allowed to verify the usefulness of the observable variables for analysis of the phenomenon of sustainable development in Poland at regional level. The conducted research confirmed serious disparities at regional level in the sphere of socio-economic sustainability that must be the subject of special interest and counteractions of Polish government. |
| Keywords: | Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), regional analysis, sustainable de-velopment, Poland |
| JEL: | Q01 C38 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2016:no20&r=ure |
| By: | Albert Y. Liu; Elias Walsh; Dallas Dotter |
| Abstract: | This issue brief provides an overview of the approach that Mathematica Policy Research applied to produce the value-added results used in the evaluation system. It also describes updates to the value-added models that were used to produce the results distributed in spring 2016. |
| Keywords: | teacher, school, value-added, Oklahoma, education |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:6bda5f23e25b489e80785c2ab3c1b0fb&r=ure |
| By: | David Neumark; Judith Rich |
| Abstract: | There have been over 60 field experiments on discrimination in labor and housing markets conducted since 2000, in 16 countries. These studies nearly always find significant levels of discrimination against minority transactors in these markets. A key challenge to these findings, though, is that even in rather ideal conditions, the estimates of discrimination can be biased if there is differential variation in the unobservable determinants of productivity of majority and minority groups, conditional on the characteristics of market participants these experiments reveal to employers or landlords (Heckman, 1998). The potential bias could go in either direction, but naturally raises the question of whether this experimental literature as a whole overstates the evidence of discrimination. To assess this question, we re-assess the evidence from the nine existing studies that have sufficient information to implement a correction for this bias (Neumark, 2012). For the housing market studies, the estimated effect of discrimination is robust to this correction. For the labor market studies, in contrast, the evidence is less robust; in about half of cases covered in these studies, the estimated effect of discrimination either falls to near zero or becomes statistically insignificant. |
| JEL: | J71 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22278&r=ure |
| By: | Philipp Möhlmeier (BiGSEM - University Bielefeld); Agnieszka Rusinowska (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics); Emily Tanimura (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | In a network formation framework, where payoffs reflect an agent's ability to access information from direct and indirect contacts, we integrate negative externalities due to connectivity associated with two types of effects: competition for the access to information, and rivalrous use of information. We consider two separate models to capture the first and the second situations, respectively. In the first model, we assume that information is a non-rivalrous good but that there is competition for the access to information, for example because an agent with many contacts must share his time between them and thus has fewer opportunities to pass on information to each particular contact. The main idea is that the probability that each neighbor receives the information decreases with the number of contacts the sender has. In the second model, we assume that there is not competition for the access to information but that the use of information is rivalrous. In this case, it is assumed that when people receive the information before me, the harmful effect is greater than when others receive the information at the same time as myself. Our results concern pairwise stability and efficiency in both models and allow us to compare and contrast the effects of two kinds of competition for information |
| Keywords: | network formation; connections model; information; negative externalities; pairwise stability; efficiency |
| JEL: | D85 C70 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:16033&r=ure |
| By: | Stefanie Fischer (Department of Economics, California Polytechnic State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether class composition can help explain why women are disproportionately more likely to fall out of the “STEM” pipeline. Identification comes from a standardized enrollment process at a large public university that essentially randomly assigns freshmen to different mandatory introductory chemistry lectures. Using administrative data, I find that women who are enrolled in a class with higher ability peers are less likely to graduate with a STEM degree, while men’s STEM persistence is unaffected. The effect is largest for women in the bottom third of the ability distribution. I rule out that this is driven solely by grades. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Gender, STEM, Classroom Composition Effects |
| JEL: | I20 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpl:wpaper:1605&r=ure |
| By: | Mahé, Clothilde (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Naudé, Wim (Maastricht School of Management, UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the occupational productivity and employment status of individuals living in a household with migrants differ from those living in non-migrant households using the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS6) and the Africa Sector Database (ASD). We find that rural households and households with a head in more productive occupations are more likely to have migrant members, and that rural households and households with a head who are waged-employed are more likely to have a migrant than households with members who are self-employed. While these findings are not suprising, we find some more unexpected results. For instance, migrants do not always migrate to more productive occupations; migration can result in downward occupational mobility. Migrants in our sample do not send back much remittances. Migrant-sending households in Ghana are in fact more likely to send remittances to their relatives currently away, than to receive remittances. In an attempt to explain these somewhat puzzling findings, we argue that a motivation for rural households or households with a head in a more productive occupation to send out relatives is to support younger household members to pursue their education elsewhere. Migration is therefore a long(er)-run income-and-occupational diversification strategy of the more productively employed rural households in Ghana. |
| Keywords: | migration, occupational choice, structural transformation, Africa |
| JEL: | O15 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016018&r=ure |