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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Bilal Nasim (Institute of Education, University College London) |
| Abstract: | Between 1997 and 2008, approximately one million social housing dwellings in England were voluntarily transferred from local authority to housing association ownership. In exchange, housing associations were committed to managing, renewing and regenerating the stock of housing under their control. This paper is the first to investigate the impact of these large scale voluntary transfers (LSVTs) of social housing stock on the educational attainment of pupils. To address issues of endogeneity, I employ both a Difference-in-differences and a Difference-in-difference-in-differences approach. In London local authorities, LSVTs improved the average educational outcomes of pupils aged between 14 and 16 by approximately 1% and the outcomes of free school meal pupils aged between 14 and 16 by between 1% and 3.5%. The positive impact of LSVTs was smaller and less robust across Metropolitan local authorities, and there was no impact of LSVTs in Unitary local authorities. I find little or no improvement in the age 7 and 11 educational outcomes of pupils in local authorities which had conducted LSVTs. Overall, the results suggest that the LSVTs, and subsequent regeneration, of social housing stock improved the educational outcomes of pupils in London but not elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | Educational attainment; Social housing; Large Scale Voluntary Transfers |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1609&r=ure |
| By: | Seah, Kelvin (National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | Using a dataset which allows students to be linked to their teachers, this paper examines how educators with an immigrant background affect the academic achievements of secondary school students in the United States. To account for the possibility that immigrant and native teachers may be assigned to different types of schools, and even within schools, to different types of students, two estimation strategies are employed. The first estimates the immigrant teacher impact by comparing the achievements of students with immigrant teachers to the achievements of observationally similar students with native teachers, within schools. The second compares the achievement of a student with an immigrant teacher in one subject to the achievement of the same student with a native teacher in another subject. The results suggest that, overall, immigrant teachers do not have a negative impact on the educational achievements of native students. Additional tests suggest that this non-adverse effect is due to the greater effectiveness of White immigrant teachers relative to native teachers. |
| Keywords: | education economics, immigrant teacher, academic achievement |
| JEL: | I21 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10032&r=ure |
| By: | Adams, Zeno; Blickle, Kristian |
| Abstract: | Since house prices govern the consumption decisions of renters and owners alike, changing house prices can have far-reaching macroeconomic consequences. We analyze how the disposable income and consumption decisions of households are affected by exogenous house price changes in Switzerland. We look at consumption of both housing and non-durable goods to establish a comprehensive picture. We ensure that our house price variation is exogenous by instrumenting house prices with origin-shift immigration. Our unique dataset includes information on every immigrant that entered Switzerland between 1990 and 2013, house price data for every community, and detailed survey data for over 5000 households. We can show three things. Firstly, different types of immigrants influence house prices to different degrees. This finding allows us to structure a valid instrument while also contributing to an ongoing European discussion over the effects of immigration. Secondly, rising house prices reduce the disposable income of renters. This is particularly pronounced for renters who are forced to relocate in times of rising prices. We find, therefore, that renters consume less while owners do not necessarily consume more. This is different from the US/UK context and may reflect the inability of households to extract home equity in central Europe. Thirdly, households transition to ownership less frequently or move away more often following an exogenous price increase. We add novel insights on household consumption and tenure-/location choice in response to exogenous changes in the cost of housing. |
| Keywords: | immigration, home ownership, consumption, house prices, gentrification |
| JEL: | D14 D9 J61 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:sfwpfi:2016:15&r=ure |
| By: | Timur Hulagu; Erdi Kizilkaya; Ali Gencay Ozbekler; Pinar Tunar |
| Abstract: | In the 2010Q1-2015Q1 period, housing prices increased 78.8 percent in Turkey, which raises a need to monitor the housing market dynamics carefully. This increase is widespread across the country where prices have even doubled in some regions. Our study performs a hedonic price adjustment for the housing market in Turkey, where we control for the price effects of improvements in observed house characteristics in time. Results show significant increases in the quality of houses sold, which in turn suggests that attributing all the price increase to a real appreciation may be misleading. In particular, we estimate that one fourth of nominal changes and one half of relative changes in house prices stem from quality improvements in general. |
| Keywords: | House price index, Hedonic regression, Characteristic price approach, Quality adjusted price index |
| JEL: | C32 C43 R31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1603&r=ure |
| By: | Julia Chabrier; Sarah Cohodes; Philip Oreopoulos |
| Abstract: | We take a closer look at what we can learn about charter schools by pooling data from lottery-based impact estimates of the effect of charter school attendance at 113 schools. On average, each year enrolled at one of these schools increases math scores by 0.08 standard deviations and English/language arts scores by 0.04 standard deviations. There is wide variation in impact estimates. To glean what drives this variation, we link these effects to school practices, inputs, and characteristics of fallback schools. In line with the earlier literature, we find that schools that adopt an intensive “No Excuses” attitude towards students are correlated with large gains in academic performance, with traditional inputs like class size playing no role in explaining charter school effects. However, we highlight that “No Excuses” schools are also located among the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country. After accounting for performance levels at fallback schools, the relationship between the remaining variation in school performance and the entire “No Excuses” package of practices weakens. “No Excuses” schools are effective at raising performance in neighborhoods with very poor performing schools, but the available data have less to say on whether the “No Excuses” approach could help in nonurban settings or whether other practices would similarly raise achievement in areas with low-performing schools. We find that intensive tutoring is the only “No Excuses” characteristic that remains significant (even for nonurban schools) once the performance levels of fallback schools are taken into account. |
| JEL: | I20 I24 I28 J18 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22390&r=ure |
| By: | Christoph Eder; Martin Halla |
| Abstract: | As a consequence of World War II, Austria was divided into four different occupation zones for 10 years. Before tight travel restrictions came into place, about 11 percent of the population residing in the Soviet zone moved across the demarcation line. We exploit this large internal migration shock to further our understanding of why economic activity is distributed unevenly across space. Our analysis shows that the distorted population distribution across locations has fully persisted until today (60 years after the demarcation line become obsolete). An analysis of more direct measures of economic activity shows an even higher concentration in the former non-Soviet zone. This gap in economic activity is growing over time, mainly due to commuting streams out of the former Soviet zone. This shows that a transitory shock is capable of shifting an economy to a new spatial equilibrium, which provides strong evidence for the importance of increasing returns to scale in explaining the spatial distribution of economic activity. |
| Keywords: | spatial equilibrium, agglomeration effects, population shock, World War II, Austria |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R23 J61 N44 N94 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2016-23&r=ure |
| By: | Agata M. Lozinskaia (National Research University Higher School); Evgeniy M. Ozhegov (National Research University Higher School); Alexander M. Karminsky (National Research University Higher School) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the distribution of relative credit losses given mortgage default for loans provided by a major government-sponsored creditor in a local area. We use borrower’s individual and loan-level data on residential mortgages originated in the period 2008–2012. Our numerical analysis indicates that mortgages bunching at certain Loan-to-Value ratios (LTV) led to a discontinuity in relative credit loss given mortgage default. Through regression analysis, we demonstrate discrete jumps in the approximated historical credit losses generated by loans with a high LTV ratios and find thresholds allowing the segmentation of loans according their credit risk. In addition, our results suggest that mortgage insurance is a potentially valuable instrument for compensation for expected loss in certain risk segments. |
| Keywords: | discontinuity; credit risk; mortgage default; government mortgage lending programs; loss evaluation. |
| JEL: | C21 G21 G32 R20 R58 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:55/fe/2016&r=ure |
| By: | Hémet, Camille; Malgouyres, Clément |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at determining whether and how the level of origins' diversity of a community affects its members' employment prospects. Relying on detailed data from the French Labor Force Survey, we measure diversity at two geographic levels: the neighborhood and the local labor market. The correlation between diversity and employment varies accordingly: it is negative at the former level but positive at the latter level. We then tackle the endogenous location selection issue in two ways. First, we rely on a standard instrumental variable approach to deal with diversity at the local labor market level, and propose a new instrument: diversity in the public housing sector. After correcting for endogeneity, the positive effect of diversity at this level is driven down to zero, revealing that it was mostly due to self-selection. Second, regarding neighborhood diversity, we adopt the strategy developed by Bayer, Ross and Topa (2008) which takes advantage of the very precise localization of the data. The negative effect of diversity on employment at the neighborhood level is reinforced. We also show that diversity in terms of nationalities (a proxy for cultural diversity) matters more than diversity based on parents' origins (a proxy for ethnic diversity). These results reveal that local diversity may act as a barrier to communication, preventing job information transmission, and hence reducing employment prospects. |
| Keywords: | diversity; employment; neighborhood effects |
| JEL: | J15 J60 R23 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11396&r=ure |
| By: | Stefanie Fischer (Department of Economics, California Polytechnic State University); Daniel Argyle (FiscalNote) |
| Abstract: | Little is known regarding the extent to which school changes youth criminal behavior in the short-term, if at all, and even less in known on this issue in rural areas. We leverage a unique policy, the adoption of the four-day school week across rural counties and years in Colorado, a school schedule that is becoming more common nationwide especially in rural areas, to examine the causal link between school and youth crime. Those affected by the policy spend the same number of hours in school each week as students on a typical fiveday week, however treated students have Friday off. This policy allows us to learn about two aspects of the school-crime relationship that have previously been unstudied; one, the effects of a more frequent and long lasting schedule change on short-term crime, and two, the impact that school has on youth crime in rural areas. Our difference-in-difference estimates indicate that switching all students in a county from a five-day week to a four-day week increases juvenile arrests for property crimes, in particular larceny, by about 73%. We show that larceny and property crimes increase on all days of the week and are not driven by crime shifting from one day to another, i.e. Wednesday to Friday. |
| Keywords: | Crime, Inequality, Rural Public Policy, Education Policy |
| JEL: | R1 H7 I0 I2 H4 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpl:wpaper:1606&r=ure |
| By: | Steven C. BOURASSA (Florida Atlantic University); Donald R. HAURIN (Ohio State University); Martin HOESLI (University of Geneva and Swiss Finance Institute) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of housing conditions on the educational outcomes of young persons in Switzerland. We focus on children ages 15 to 19, who are potentially enrolled in or graduates of high school or vocational training programs, and young adults ages 20 to 24, who are potentially students in or graduates of university or other tertiary institutions. Housing conditions are characterized in three ways: whether the parents rent or own the dwelling, the type of dwelling (house or apartment), and a measure of crowding (occupants per room). We find that the density of residents in the dwelling is the only influential housing characteristic. Crowding directly affects the outcomes of children ages 15 to 19 and presumably indirectly affects the outcomes of young adults given that admission to university study requires completion of high school. None of the other housing characteristics affects children’s outcomes. In particular, homeownership is not statistically significant in any of our estimations. |
| Keywords: | child outcomes, crowding, homeownership, educational attainment |
| JEL: | R31 I31 I24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1542&r=ure |
| By: | Adelino, Manuel (Duke University); Gerardi, Kristopher S. (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta); Hartman-Glaser, Barney (UCLA) |
| Abstract: | A central result in the theory of adverse selection in asset markets is that informed sellers can signal quality by delaying trade. This paper uses the residential mortgage market as a laboratory to test this mechanism. Using detailed, loan-level data on privately securitized mortgages, we find a strong relation between mortgage performance and time-to-sale. Importantly, this finding is conditional on all observable information about the loans. This effect is strongest in the "Alt-A" segment of the market, where loans are often originated with incomplete documentation. The results provide some of the first evidence of a signaling mechanism through delay of trade. |
| Keywords: | securitization; mortgage default; adverse selection; signaling; asymmetric information |
| JEL: | G17 G21 G23 |
| Date: | 2016–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2016-08&r=ure |
| By: | Steven C. BOURASSA (Florida Atlantic University); Martin HOESLI (University of Geneva, GFRI, Swiss Finance Institute, University of Aberdeen Business School, and Kedge Business School); Elias OIKARINEN (University of Turku) |
| Abstract: | Using data for six metropolitan housing markets in three countries, this paper provides a comparison of methods used to measure house price bubbles. We use an asset pricing approach to identify bubble periods retrospectively and then compare those results with results produced by six other methods. We also apply the various methods recursively to assess their ability to identify bubbles as they form. In view of the complexity of the asset pricing approach, we conclude that a simple price-rent ratio measure is a reliable method both ex post and in real time. Our results have important policy implications because a reliable signal that a bubble is forming could be used to avoid further house price increases. |
| Keywords: | Housing; Bubble; Overvaluation; Asset Pricing; Price-Rent Ratio; Policy Measures |
| JEL: | R31 G12 E58 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1601&r=ure |
| By: | Landaud, Fanny; Ly, Son-Thierry; Maurin, Eric |
| Abstract: | French students have to choose a major field of study at the end of their first year of high school. This is a very important decision as students have little leeway to change their field of study during the two last years of high school. Building on a RD design, this paper reveals that enrollment at a more selective high school, with higher-achieving peers, has no impact on boys' choices, but a very significant impact on girls' ones: they turn away from scientific fields and settle for less competitive and prestigious ones. Estimated effects are very large: an increase of about 10% of a SD in the ability level of high school peers induces a reduction of about 10 percentage points in the proportion of girls who choose to specialize in science. Effects are even larger for girls at the top of the ability distribution. |
| Keywords: | Gender gap in science; selective school |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11411&r=ure |
| By: | Dana Rotz; Brian Goesling; Molly Crofton; Christopher Trenholm; Jennifer Manlove; Kate Welti |
| Abstract: | Teen PEP, an in-school, peer-to-peer sexual health promotion program that combines peer-led interactive workshops and peer-driven school-wide initiatives in an effort to reduce sexual risk behaviors and associated outcomes among high school students. |
| Keywords: | Sex education, adolescent health, peer-led, school-wide, teen pregnancy, unprotected sex, HIV, STIs, teens, contraceptives, abstinence |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:74b7aa859c364d8c920644a131a769f8&r=ure |
| By: | Nicholas Turner (U.S. Department of the Treasury); Eric Zwick (University of Chicago); David Berger (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of the 2009 and 2010 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit program on house purchases and prices using variation across local geographies in ex ante exposure to the program. Using this instrument and a difference-in-differences design, we find that the program induced a cumulative increase in home purchases in high exposure places nearly double that of low exposure places. We find little evidence of a sharp reversal in the post period; instead, demand appears to come from several years in the future. While the policy had a limited impact as direct fiscal stimulus, it sped the process of reallocating homes from distressed sellers to fundamental buyers, stabilized house prices, and enabled substantial deleveraging. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:227&r=ure |
| By: | John Jerrim (Department of Social Science, Institute of Education, University College London); Gill Wyness (Department of Social Science, Institute of Education, University College London and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an important international study of 15 year olds academic achievement. Although PISA has traditionally been used to draw comparisons across countries, there is growing interest in the production of regional (i.e. city, state or provincial level) results. In this paper we present the first attempt to benchmark London in the PISA rankings. Pooling data across the 2009 and 2012 survey waves, we estimate a 90 percent confidence interval for London's mathematics, reading and science PISA scores. These are compared not only to country-level averages, but also to the scores of other major world cities and states. The paper concludes by discussing how these results should be interpreted, and possible directions for future research. |
| Keywords: | PISA, London |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2016–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1604&r=ure |
| By: | Jörn-Steffen Pischke |
| Abstract: | Many economists suspect that downward nominal wage rigidities in ongoing labor contracts are an important source of employment fluctuations over the business cycle but there is little direct empirical evidence on this conjecture. This paper compares three occupations in the housing sector with very different wage setting institutions, real estate agents, architects, and construction workers. I study the wage and employment responses of these occupations to the housing cycle, a proxy for labor demand shocks to the industry. The employment of real estate agents, whose pay is far more flexible than the other occupations, indeed reacts less to the cycle than employment in the other occupations. However, unless labor demand elasticities are large, the estimates do not suggest that the level of wage flexibility enjoyed by real estate agents would buffer employment fluctuations in response to demand shocks by more than 10 to 20 percent compared to completely rigid wages. |
| Keywords: | wage setting, wage rigidity, commissions, real estate agents, architects, construction workers |
| JEL: | E24 J20 J44 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1440&r=ure |
| By: | Revoltella, Debora; Brutscher, Philipp-Bastian; Tsiotras, Alexandra; Weiss, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Infrastructure investment in Europe has been adversely affected by the economic crisis, undermining both the immediate recovery and longer-term growth potential. This paper discusses recent trends before focusing on how transport infrastructure - arguably the hardest hit sector during the crisis - contributes to regional growth. It shows that firms in regions with a more developed transport network are better placed to benefit from positive growth opportunities than firms in other regions. This advantage is most pronounced in times of economic stress, making a good transport infrastructure a key ingredient for economic recovery. This indicates one channel through which the activities of the EIB can foster growth and enhance competitiveness in Europe. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:eibwps:201601&r=ure |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (CIRCLE, Lund University); Bengtsson, Lars (LTH, Lund University); Karlsson, Charlie (CESIS, KTH) |
| Abstract: | The literature in the Strategic Entrepreneurship (SE) is increasingly embracing the concept and implications of knowledge spillovers. In this paper, we add to the theoretical repertoire on SE and knowledge spillovers by investigating the types of knowledge spillovers and what they imply for various dimensions of SE. On the one hand, we distinguish between spatial and aspatial knowledge spillovers. On the other hand, we distinguish between three dimensions of SE, i.e. inputs, resource orchestration, and output. Finally, we conceptually link the various types of knowledge spillovers and dimensions of SE and discuss the implications. Doing so, we argue that spatial knowledge spillovers (inter-firm) has received the major attention in previous research in increasing the amount of ‘inputs’ dimension of SE, while the aspatial knowledge (either inter-regional or intra-firm) has been relatively neglected not only for ‘inputs’, but also for ‘resource orchestration’ dimension. At the end, the paper provides suggestions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Strategic entrepreneurship; knowledge spillovers; spatial; aspatial |
| JEL: | D21 D80 L10 L26 |
| Date: | 2016–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_021&r=ure |
| By: | Mohamed Arouri; Adel Ben-Youssef; Cuong Nguyen |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether there are racial and ethnic disparities in children.s education in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Viet Nam. We find that in all the four countries, and especially in Viet Nam, children from small ethnic groups have lower education attainment and cognitive ability. The gap in educational attainment and cognitive ability among ethnic children is larger than the gap in school enrolment, and the gap tends to be wider for older children. Using the OaxacaBlinder decomposition, we find that the main contribution to the gap in education between children from small ethnic groups and large ethnic groups in India, Peru, and Viet Nam is the difference in endowments (i.e. characteristics of children and their families) rather than in the coefficients of endowments. However, in Ethiopia, the difference in the coefficients contributes more than the difference in endowments to the gap in education. Child health, parental education, household expenditure, and an urban environment are important variables for explaining the gap in education between children from small and large ethnic groups. |
| Keywords: | children.s education, racial disparities, low-income countries, Ethiopia, India, Peru, Viet Nam |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2016-087&r=ure |
| By: | Binnur Balkan Konuk; Semih Tumen |
| 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 J46 J61 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1601&r=ure |
| By: | María Pilar Martínez-García (Facultad de Economía y Empresa. University of Murcia); Jose Rodolfo Morales (Facultad de Economía y Empresa. University of Murcia) |
| Abstract: | This paper developes an extension of Krugman’s (1991) Core-Periphery model, by considering the traditional sector as a competitive primary sector that makes use of a renewable natural resource. The natural resource can be consumed or used as a raw material in the industrial sector. Three results stand out. First, the dynamics of the resource and its use as a raw material give rise to new dispersion forces: the resource and the primary price index effects. Second, the pattern that arises reverts the usual stability behavior in core-prephery models. And third, different types of bifurcationsarise, resulting in different patterns of agglomeration-dispersion. In addition to transport costs, the productivity of the resource sector plays a key role in the bifurcation diagrams. |
| Keywords: | natural resources, new economic geography. |
| JEL: | F12 F18 R12 Q01 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cst:wpaper:201607&r=ure |
| By: | François Rycx; Yves Saks; Ilan Tojerow |
| Abstract: | This paper is one of the first to estimate how the region in which an establishment is located affects its productivity, wage cost and cost competitiveness (i.e. its productivity-wage gap). To do so, we use detailed linked employer-employee panel data for Belgium and rely on methodological approaches from both Hellerstein and Neumark (1995) and Bartolucci (2014) to estimate dynamic panel data models at the establishment level. Our findings show that inter-regional differences in productivity and wages are significant but vanish almost totally, both in industry and services, when controlling for a wide range of covariates, establishment fixed effects and endogeneity. Thus, our results suggest that wage cost and productivity differentials are ceteris paribus relatively well aligned across regions. |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201606-300&r=ure |
| By: | Kim, Jinhyoung; Johnson, Thomas; Pender, John; Fannin, J. Matthew |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:242362&r=ure |
| By: | Elena Koncheva (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Nikolay Zalesskiy (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Russian cities are traditionally characterized by high levels of public transport ridership, compared to the Western cities. Moreover, the cities were intensively developing during the Soviet era when the private transport was literally absent. Thus, it can be assumed that the spatial structure of Russian cities (as well as the spatial structure of the majority of the former USSR cities) is a perfect illustration of the Transit Oriented Development (TOD). In this paper the spatial development patterns of 13 Russian cities are analyzed to assess the current situation and the prospects for transit oriented development in the Russian Federation. À brief history of urban spatial development during the Soviet period is provided. Fundamental differences between TOD and Soviet Style Development (SSD) are discussed, such as the absence of competition between the private and public transport and the absence of private ownership of land. |
| Keywords: | urban spatial development, urban land use, land use and transportation, Soviet Style Development, Transit Oriented Development |
| JEL: | R14 R41 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:04/urb/2016&r=ure |
| By: | Marcelo Gordillo,Darwin; House,Ruth Schuyler |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between multilateral support and contract cancellation in long-term infrastructure public-private partnerships. The analysis draws on a large data set and employs a multi-level econometric model to define propensity scores and matching estimators to compare rates of cancellation between projects with multilateral support and a comparison group of public-private partnership projects without multilateral support. The results suggest that multilateral support has a positive effect on the survival of long-term public-private partnership infrastructure contracts. Whereas observed the data suggest that multilateral support has no effect on cancellation rates, a quasi-experimental approach shows that the cancellation rate for projects with multilateral (6 percent) would have been about 48 percent higher without support from multilateral development organizations. |
| Date: | 2016–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7751&r=ure |
| By: | Christoph Eder |
| Abstract: | A shock to the sector composition of the local labor market can affect long-run economic development of a location. Because structural change ultimately shifts labor from agriculture to services, an early transition to manufacturing may hamper long-run prosperity. The identification strategy exploits military World War II (WWII) casualties in Austrian municipalities as an exogenous shock to the local labor market. WWII casualties shifted labor out of agriculture into manufacturing in the short-run, which eventually led to a differential path of structural change. In the long-run, I find a strong and robust negative effect of WWII casualties on subsequent economic output. |
| Keywords: | structural change, local labor markets, spatial equilibrium, World War II, Austria |
| JEL: | O14 J40 N14 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2016-22&r=ure |
| By: | Gangadhar Dahal (University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | The modern world is more competitive and complex one in terms of getting a quality education and forwarding the countries into the development path. This research contends that system-wide excellence in student learning should be attainable with reasonable cost, using education policies differing from conventional market-oriented reform strategies predominant in many other countries. In this regards, Finland and Singapore are the examples of the best education model that have developed from an out-of-the-way agricultural and industrial state in the 1950s for Finland and 1960s for Singapore to the models knowledge economy, by means of education as the key to economic and social change and development. Believing on data from international student assessments and earlier policy analysis, this article describes how balanced improvement in student learning has been attained through Finnish and Singaporean education policies based on equity, flexibility, creativity, innovative, teacher professionalism, effective policy making from the government side and the most importantly trustworthy. Contrasting to many other education systems, significant accountability conveyed by high-stakes testing and externally determined learning standards has not been part of Finnish and Singaporean education policies. The insight is that Finnish and Singaporean education policies intended to enhance student achievement have been built upon ideas of sustainable leadership that place strong importance on teaching and learning, smart accountability, encouraging schools to craft the best teaching and learning environments and bring into practice educational content that best helps to their students reach the apex goals of education. |
| Keywords: | Educational Policy, Finish education, Singaporean education system |
| JEL: | I21 I28 I25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:itepro:3906631&r=ure |
| By: | Stephanie Moulton; Donald R. Haurin; Wei Shi |
| Abstract: | For many U.S. households, Social Security benefits and 401(k) assets will not provide enough for a comfortable retirement. To supplement these sources, homeowners could turn to their other major asset: home equity. One way to tap home equity is through a reverse mortgage, which does not need to be paid back until the borrower dies, sells the house, or moves. The most common reverse mortgage is the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), which is regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HECM program insures both borrowers and lenders against certain risks but, in the wake of the financial crisis, rising loan defaults raised concerns about the program’s solvency. In response, HUD announced new rules in 2013 to limit a borrower’s initial withdrawals and require an up-front assessment of an applicant’s ability to pay property taxes and homeowner’s insurance. The goal of these changes is to lower default risk without significantly restricting access to reverse mortgages. This brief summarizes the results of a recent study that estimates the effects of such changes on both defaults and take-up of reverse mortgages using a unique dataset of applicant and borrower characteristics and loan activity. The brief proceeds as follows. The first section provides a primer on reverse mortgages and the recent HUD changes. The second section describes the dataset. The third section examines which borrower characteristics help predict defaults and take-up. The fourth section simulates how policy changes to impose initial withdrawal limits and underwriting standards – similar to those enacted by HUD – could affect defaults and take-up. The final section concludes that both policy changes are likely to reduce defaults, with only a modest impact on take-up. |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2016-11&r=ure |
| By: | Marie Hyland (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin and Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Anna Alberini (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland); Seán Lyons (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the system of energy performance certificates in place in Ireland. We find that having a system with discrete energy-efficiency thresholds causes “bunching” among properties just on the more favorable side of the label cut-off points. This indicates that, in the region around the label thresholds, assessors tend to be extra lenient when evaluating the energy performance of dwellings. We examine possible reasons for this finding, including the market returns to energy efficiency using home sales data from the Irish property price register, and conclude that most likely assessors are trying to ingratiate homeowners to get repeat business. We find evidence of a partial “disconnect” between sellers' expectations and buyers' valuation of properties labeled as more efficient. |
| Keywords: | Residential energy efficiency; Energy Performance Certificates; Bunching |
| JEL: | Q40 Q48 R21 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0516&r=ure |
| By: | Diego ARDILA (ETH Zurich); Dorsa SANADGOL (ETH Zurich); Peter CAUWELS (ETH Zurich); Didier SORNETTE (ETH Zurich and Swiss Finance Institute) |
| Abstract: | We present a hybrid model for diagnosis and critical time forecasting of real estate bubbles. The model combines two elements: 1) the Log Periodic Power Law (LPPL) model to describe endogenous price dynamics originated from positive feedback loops between economic agents; and 2) a diffusion index method that creates a parsimonious representation of multiple macroeconomic variables. We examine the behavior of our model on the housing price indices of 380 US metropolitan areas, using 15, 35, and 90 national-level macroeconomic time series and a dynamic forecasting methodology. Empirical results suggests that the model is able to forecast the end of the bubbles and to identify variables highly relevant during the bubble regime. In addition, the same methodology is applied to the national housing price index of Switzerland, diagnosing a bubble in which global imbalances and Switzerland's status as a safe haven seem to be playing a dominant role. |
| Keywords: | real-estate bubbles, USA and Switzerland, diffusion index, forecasting, log-periodic power law, criticality, positive feedback, sparse partial least squares |
| JEL: | C12 C22 C52 G01 G17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1444&r=ure |
| By: | Pavel Ciaian; d'Artis Kancs; Dusan Drabik |
| Abstract: | In this chapter, we review land market institutions in the European Union (EU) and their potential impact on land markets. We first review land tenure-/ownership regulations and find that they vary heavily across EU Member States. Four types of tenure-/ownership measures are implemented in the EU: to protect the tenant, to protect the owner, to protect the (non-farm) land owner, and to prevent land fragmentation. We then examine EU land-related environmental regulations whose general objective is to address land market failures linked to externalities and the provision of public goods. Despite possibly reducing private benefits of land owners or users, environmental regulations may generate welfare gains to society by improving the environmental services on land. Finally, we investigate how area-based subsidies affect land prices. These subsidies are empirically found to be partially capitalized into land values, albeit at a lower rate than suggested by theory. |
| Keywords: | Land markets, institutions, tenure, ownership, externalities, public goods. |
| JEL: | H22 L11 Q11 Q12 Q15 Q18 P32 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2016_10&r=ure |
| By: | Philip M. Gleason |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes research on charter school impacts on achievement, and examines which factors and policies are most strongly associated with successful charter schools. |
| Keywords: | charter school policies, charter school impacts, literature review |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:eea6e24d9bf1409f92f60ae29cab5892&r=ure |
| By: | Guriev, Sergei; Speciale, Biagio; Tuccio, Michele |
| Abstract: | We study wage adjustment during the recent crisis in regulated and unregulated labor markets in Italy. Using a unique dataset on immigrant workers, we show that before the crisis wages in the formal and informal sectors moved in parallel (with a 15 percent premium in the formal labor market). During the crisis, however, formal wages did not adjust down while wages in the unregulated informal labor market fell so that by 2013 the gap had grown to 32 percent. The difference was particularly salient for workers in "simple" occupations where there is high substitutability between immigrant and native workers. Calibrating a simple model of spillovers between formal and informal markets, we find that less than 10 percent of workers who lost a formal job during the crisis move to the informal sector. We also find that if the formal sector wages were fully flexible, the decline in formal employment would be in the range of 1.5-4.5 percent - much lower than 16 percent decline that we observe in the data. |
| Keywords: | great recession; Immigration; Labor market regulation; wage rigidity |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11403&r=ure |
| By: | Martin HOESLI (GSEM, University of Geneva, Swiss Finance Institute, University of Aberdeen and Kedge Business School); Alain CHANEY (University of Geneva or IAZI AG) |
| Abstract: | We show that a proper assessment of the linkages between real estate markets and the economy requires state of the art modelling techniques, which treat economic variables endogenously and allow for a number of long run relationships. We therefore use a long run structural modelling approach, which incorporates equilibrium relationships that are predicted by economic theory, in an otherwise unrestricted vector autoregressive model. The application of this approach to Swiss multifamily residential data shows that four long run equilibrium relations exist among inflation, long- and short-term interest rates, real M2, real GDP, real construction expenditures, real market rents, and capitalization rates. Disturbances to the equilibria last for approximately five years before they completely vanish. The analysis of the short run dynamics additionally suggests that the linkages between real estate and economic variables are bi-directional. Our findings should provide for a better understanding of the linkages and feedback mechanisms between a developed economy and its real estate markets and thereby help in the identification and quantification of both market interventions by policy makers and risks borne by investors. |
| Keywords: | multifamily residential, macroeconomy, error correction models, cointegrated VAR, long run equilibrium modelling |
| JEL: | R13 R15 R32 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1432&r=ure |
| By: | John V. Duca; Lilit Popoyan; Susan M. Wachter |
| Abstract: | From a broad macro-financial structure perspective, overly easy credit conditions gave rise to house price booms and busts in several advanced economies (e.g., Ireland, Spain, and the U.S.), and, more specifically in the U.S., an underpricing of risk made possible by regulatory arbitrage and shadow financing fueled the credit and twin real estate bubbles of the mid-2000s. Across countries and over time bubbles have been particularly acute in real estate markets reflecting not only the relatively inelastic supply of land and thin trading of real estate, but also the amplification of shocks via backward-looking price expectations and the funding of consumption off distorted and elevated prices. The macro-prudential lessons from the Great Crisis highlight the need to prevent the build-up of excess real estate financing and limit the amplification and correlation of real estate risks. And progress has been made in each of these areas through imposing tougher or new restrictions on the choice sets of lenders or of borrowers, with particulars varying across advanced economies. While regulatory reform of banking is going forward, significant challenges remain especially in dealing with correlated risks associated with securitization. |
| Keywords: | Macro-prudential policy, nancial crises, credit crunches, real estate bubbles, regulatory arbitrage, risk-taking |
| Date: | 2016–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2016/30&r=ure |
| By: | Yavuz Arslan; Gazi Kabas; Ahmet Ali Taskin |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of loan-to-value restriction on automobile loans using primary market car sales in Turkey. We identify the effect of the policy using the specific nature of the regulation that imposes higher downpayment restriction for automobile loans with higher prices. We observe that the drop in automobile sales growth is higher for more expensive cars net of other controlled factors. |
| Keywords: | Macroprudential policy, Loan-to-value policy, Automobile loans, Car sales |
| JEL: | G21 G28 E44 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1535&r=ure |
| By: | Francesco Vona (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques); Giovanni Marin (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the nature and the key empirical regularities ofgreen employment in US local labor markets between 2006 and 2014. Weconstruct a new measure of green employment based on the task contentof occupations. Descriptive analysis reveals the following: 1. the share of green employment oscillates between 2 and 3 percent, and its trend isstrongly pro-cyclical; 2. green jobs yield a 4 percent wage premium; 3.despite moderate catching-up across areas, green jobs remain more geographically concentrated than similar non-green jobs; and 4. the top greenareas are mostly high-tech. As regards the drivers, changes in environmental regulation are a secondary force compared to the local endowment of green knowledge and resilience in the face of the great recession. To assess the impact of moving to greener activities, we estimate that one additional green job is associated with 4.2 (2.4 in the crisis period) newjobs in non-tradable activities in the local economies. |
| Keywords: | Green employment; Local labor markets; Environmental regulation; Environmental technologies; Local multipliers |
| JEL: | J23 O33 Q52 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2lpvf5mlr48dkah5qda4hh4e9g&r=ure |
| By: | John J. Horton; Richard J. Zeckhauser |
| Abstract: | Workers respond to the output choices of their peers. What explains this well documented phenomenon of peer effects? Do workers value equity, fear punishment from equity-minded peers, or does output from peers teach them about employers’ expectations? We test these alternative explanations in a series of field experiments. We find clear evidence of peer effects, as have others. Workers raise their own output when exposed to high-output peers. They also punish low-output peers, even when that low output has no effect on them. They may be embracing and enforcing the employer’s expectations. (Exposure to employer-provided work samples influences output much the same as exposure to peer-provided work.) However, even when employer expectations are clearly stated, workers increase output beyond those expectations when exposed to workers producing above expectations. Overall, the evidence is strongly consistent with the notion that peer effects are mediated by workers’ sense of fairness related to relative effort. |
| JEL: | J01 J24 J3 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22386&r=ure |
| By: | Pawel Gajewski (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at shedding some light on the sources of regional inflation in Poland. More specifically, it investigates the role of external, national and idiosyncratic shocks. In a two-step procedure, we estimate orthogonal components corresponding to each of these shocks, while performing variance decomposition to assess their relative importance in explaining inflation in individual regions. In the course of the paper we develop two ad hoc hypotheses. First, that regional inflation rates are largely driven by national shocks, while the impact of external shocks is smaller. Second, that shocks to inflation which are asymmetric between Poland and its external environment contribute to the cross-regional divergence of inflation rates in Poland. Empirical evidence supports both of these assertions. Indeed, we show that the importance of idiosyncratic shocks in the Polish regions is strikingly low. However, regional differences in inflation co-movements can be attributed to the diverse importance of global and national shocks. In auxiliary regressions we confirm that shocks which strongly and asymmetrically affect inflation in Poland and the EU, also contribute to crossregional inflation divergence in Poland. To the best of our knowledge this is the first attempt to investigate sources of regional inflation in a CEE country. |
| Keywords: | regional inflation, principal components, parallel analysis, regional economic dynamics |
| JEL: | E31 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ann:wpaper:5/2016&r=ure |
| By: | Dongwoo Kim (University of Missouri); Cory Koedel (University of Missouri); Shawn Ni (University of Missouri); Michael Podgursky (University of Missouri); Weiwei Wu (University of Missouri) |
| Abstract: | A vast research literature is devoted to analyzing causes of and potential remedies for early-career teacher attrition. However, much less attention has been paid to late-career attrition among experienced teachers, which is driven primarily by retirement plan incentives. Although there is some variation across states, it is generally the case that late-career teachers retire at much younger ages than their professional counterparts. Moreover, given the well-documented returns to teaching experience, late-career exits are on average more costly to students in K-12 schools than early-career exits. This study uses structural estimates from a dynamic retirement model to simulate the effect of targeted retention bonuses for senior teachers rated as effective or teaching in high-need fields. While the cost per incremental year of instruction is expensive in the short run, it declines over time. Moreover, because labor supply decisions are forward-looking, a temporary bonus has much smaller effects than a permanent one. These findings highlight the value of stability in policies aimed at extending teachers’ careers. Overall our results suggest that carefully-targeted retention bonuses can be useful tool in raising the quality of the teaching workforce and closing achievement gaps. |
| Keywords: | public pensions, retirement, worker retention, teacher retention |
| JEL: | H5 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:1608&r=ure |
| By: | Ron Boschma, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken, Bernhard Truffer; Lars Coenen; Koen Frenken; Bernhard Truffer |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework on regional diversification. Combining insights from the evolutionary economic geography literature and the transition literature, we argue that a theory of regional diversification should build on the current understanding of conditions for related diversification but additionally start to tackle processes of unrelated diversification by accounting for (1) the role of agency (institutional entrepreneurship) and the dynamic interplay between agency and context; (2) enabling and constraining factors at various spatial scales. We propose a typology of four regional diversification processes by cross-tabulating related versus unrelated diversification with niche creation versus regime adoption. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economic geography, transition studies, regional diversification, unrelated diversification, institutional entrepreneurship, institutional change |
| JEL: | B52 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1617&r=ure |
| By: | Martin Hoesli (University of Geneva - Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM); University of Aberdeen - Business School; Swiss Finance Institute; University of Geneva - Geneva Finance Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the evolution from 2000 to 2015 in the proportion of papers published by authors with a European affiliation in the three main international real estate journals. Then, we analyze papers with at least one European author and/or concentrating on Europe published from 2008 to 2015 in the two main European real estate journals by authors’ country of affiliation, by country of study and by theme. Finally, we analyze linkages between country of affiliation and country of study and theme, respectively. Our results show that the proportion of papers published by European authors in the three main international real estate journals has increased during the 2000-2015 period. Our analyses of papers published in the two European real estate journals suggest that U.K.-based researchers are the most prolific. There is also a strong ‘home bias’ in that authors largely focus on the country in which they are based. The interest in housing and valuation increased markedly during the period. Finally, we report linkages between country of affiliation and theme. |
| Keywords: | Real Estate Research; Europe; Research Themes |
| JEL: | R39 I23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1640&r=ure |
| By: | Vassilis Monastiriotis |
| Abstract: | The EU association framework provides European businesses with an entry advantage into the associated countries by facilitating production links and encouraging institutional convergence. It is believed that this has multiple beneficial effects for the associated countries, including ones related to productivity spillovers accruing to domestic firms. However, no empirical evidence exists to show that the presence of European firms produces larger productivity spillovers in recipient economies compared to firms from other world regions. We examine this question using firm-level data covering 28 transition countries over the period 2002-2009. We estimate the intra-industry productivity effects of foreign ownership and examine how these differ across regional blocks (CEE, SEE and ENP), by origin of investor (EU15 versus non-EU15), across geographical scales (national versus regional) and for different types of locations (capital-city regions versus the rest). Our results suggest that investments of EU origin play a distinctive role, helping raise domestic productivity in the associated countries unlike investments from outside the EU. However, this process operates in a spatially selective manner, potentially enhancing regional disparities and spatial imbalances. This assigns a particular responsibility for EU policy to devise interventions that will help redress these problems within its existing association framework. |
| Keywords: | EU neighbourhood; FDI spillovers; institutional proximity; regional disparities |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2016–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66141&r=ure |
| By: | Steven C. Bourassa (Florida Atlantic University); Martin Hoesli (University of Geneva - Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM); University of Aberdeen - Business School; Swiss Finance Institute; University of Geneva - Geneva Finance Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | We show how a method that has been applied to commercial real estate markets can be used to produce high frequency house price indexes for a city and for submarkets within a city. Our application of this method involves estimating a set of annual robust repeat sales regressions staggered by start date and then undertaking an annual-to-monthly (ATM) transformation with a generalized inverse estimator. Using transactions data for Louisville, Kentucky, we show that the method substantially reduces the volatility of high frequency indexes at the city and submarket levels. We demonstrate that both volatility and the benefits from using the ATM method are related to sample size. |
| Keywords: | House Prices, High-Frequency Price Indexes, Repeat Sales Method, Scarce Data |
| JEL: | R31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1627&r=ure |
| By: | Enriqueta Camps; Stanley L. Engerman |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present results for educational achievement in the different economic regions of Latin America (Big countries: Mexico and Brazil; Southern Cone; Andean countries; Central America; and others) during the twentieth century. The variables we use to measure education are average years of education, literacy, average years in primary school, average years in secondary school, and average years in university. To attain a broader perspective on the relationship of education with human capital and with welfare and wellbeing we relate the educational measures to life expectancy and other human capital variables and GDP per capita. We then use regressions to examine the impact of race and ethnicity on education, and of education on economic growth and levels of GDP per capita. The most significant results we wish to emphasize are related to the importance of race and racial fractionalization in explaining regional differences in educational achievement. Southern Cone countries, with a higher density of white population, present the highest levels of education in average terms, while countries from Central America and Brazil, with a higher proportion of Indigenous Americans and/or blacks, have the lowest levels. In most countries the major improvements in educational achievement are: the expansion of primary education during the first half of the twentieth century, and the expansion of secondary education after 1950. In all cases, average years in university are low, despite improvements in university quality during the last decades of the century when professors exiled during dictatorships returned to their countries of origin. International comparisons (continental averages for years of education weighted by country population size) place twentieth-century Latin America in an intermediate position between the USA and Europe at the top, and countries from Asia and Africa at the bottom. |
| Keywords: | LA, regional educational achievement, welfare, race and ethnicity, economic growth. |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:914&r=ure |
| By: | Roland G. Fryer, Jr |
| Abstract: | This paper explores racial differences in police use of force. On non-lethal uses of force, blacks and Hispanics are more than fifty percent more likely to experience some form of force in interactions with police. Adding controls that account for important context and civilian behavior reduces, but cannot fully explain, these disparities. On the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account. We argue that the patterns in the data are consistent with a model in which police officers are utility maximizers, a fraction of which have a preference for discrimination, who incur relatively high expected costs of officer-involved shootings. |
| JEL: | J01 K0 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22399&r=ure |
| By: | Francesco Cinnirella; Erik Hornung |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between the concentration of large landownership and the expansion of mass education in nineteenth-century Prussia. Cross-sectional estimates show a negative association of landownership concentration with enrollment rates. Panel estimates with county-ï¬ xed effects indicate that regions with an initially stronger concentration of large landownership exhibit increasing enrollment over time. These results are consistent with the erosion of large landowners’ feudal power due to agricultural reforms and the resulting emancipation of the peasantry which occurred throughout the nineteenth century. We present evidence consistent with the hypothesis that emancipation from labor coercion increased the private demand for education. |
| Keywords: | Land concentration, Education, Serfdom, Peasants' emancipation, Prussian economic history |
| JEL: | O43 Q15 I25 N33 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2015-02&r=ure |
| By: | Pavel Ciaian; d'Artis Kancs; Maria Espinosa |
| Abstract: | Decoupled direct payments were introduced in the European Union (EU) by the 2003 CAP reform in form of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) and the Single Area Payment System (SAPS). The 2013 CAP reform changed both the implementation of decoupled payments as well as its budget. We assess the possible effects of the 2013 CAP reform on the capitalization of decoupled payments in land rental values. Our estimates suggest that the CAP reform leads to an increase in the capitalization of decoupled payments by additional 16 cents for each EUR of decoupled payments relative to the pre-reform situation. However, there is a relatively large variation in the reform effects between MS particularly between Old Member States (OMS) and New MS (NMS). In NMS the capitalization rate slightly reduces from 76% in the pre-reform period to 72% in the post-reform period. Although, the rate is significantly lower in OMS, it almost doubles (from 20% to 39%) due to the reform. The main source of the post-reform capitalization in the EU are the entitlement stock changes accounting for 19% of total post-reform capitalization level, followed by the internal convergence of payments with 18%, the budget change (including external convergence) with 1%, and the differentiation of payments (redistributive payment) with -7%. Overall, our estimates suggest that on average in the EU, the non-farming landowners’ policy gains are 25% of total decoupled payments in the post-reform period compared to 17% in the pre-reform period. |
| Keywords: | Capitalization, Decoupled subsidies, CAP reform, Land market, Land prices, Land rents, EU. |
| JEL: | H22 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2016–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2016_04&r=ure |
| By: | Chai, Shijun (School of Economics, Xinyang Normal University); Chen, Yang (Division of Economics, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University); Huang, Bihong (Asian Development Bank Institute); Ye, Dezhu (School of Economics, Jinan University) |
| Abstract: | Using the 2011 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) database, this article explores the heterogeneous impacts of social networks on informal financial inclusion for rural and urban households and identifies two mechanisms through which the informal institution changes households’ financial market decisions. The IV-Probit and IV-Tobit estimation results indicate that social networks significantly increase the probability of the household’s informal financial market participation, the size of informal lending and financing and the ratio of informal lending over the total household assets. By reducing risk aversion and the precautionary saving, we find social networks play a larger role in the urban area of China compared to the rural counterpart. And notably, the effects of informal institution, shaped by various cultural factors and kinships, remain strong and persistent even with formal institutions being firmly established. |
| Keywords: | Social Networks, Informal financial inclusion, Risk attitude, Precautionary saving, Formal institutions |
| JEL: | G21 O16 P34 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xjt:rieiwp:2016-04&r=ure |
| By: | Hwang, Jackelyn (Princeton University); Lin, Jeffrey (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | Since 2000, strengthening gentrification in an expanding section of cities and neighborhoods has renewed interest from policymakers, researchers, and the public in the causes of gentrification. The identification of causal factors can help inform analyses of welfare, policy responses, and forecasts of future neighborhood change. We highlight some features of recent gentrification that popular understandings often do not emphasize, and we review progress on identifying some causal factors. However, a complete account of the relative contribution of many factors is still elusive. We suggest questions and opportunities for future research. |
| Keywords: | Gentrification; Neighborhood change; |
| JEL: | R23 |
| Date: | 2016–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:16-20&r=ure |
| By: | John Lynham (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii) |
| Abstract: | Fishers pay attention to where other fishers are fishing, suggesting the potential for peer effects. But peer effects are difficult to identify without an exogenous shifter of peer group membership. We propose an identification strategy that exploits a shifter of peer group membership: gold rushes of new entrants. Following an exchange-rate-induced gold rush in an American fishery, we find that new entrants are strongly influenced by the location choices of their peers. Over-identification tests suggest that the assumptions underlying identification hold when new entrants are inexperienced but identification is lost as new entrants start to potentially influence their peers. |
| Keywords: | Peer Effects, Gold Rushes, Resource Extraction |
| JEL: | J0 Q0 D8 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201609&r=ure |
| By: | Jean-Christophe Delfim (University of Geneva); Martin Hoesli (University of Geneva - Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM); University of Aberdeen - Business School; Swiss Finance Institute; University of Geneva - Geneva Finance Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | This research contributes to a better assessment of risk factors impacting non-listed real estate fund returns. Both macroeconomic and fund-specific factors are considered, additionally taking into account the phase of the real estate cycle. Using a rich database of fund-level data for Europe, we apply panel regression techniques with random effects. Our results highlight the significant impacts of real GDP growth, interest rates, inflation components, money supply and stock market returns in explaining non-listed fund returns. Size, gearing, investment style, vehicle structure and vintage also affect returns, whereas property type does not appear to matter. For comparison purposes, the same analysis is performed for listed and direct real estate. The three kinds of real estate exposure are found to react broadly in the same way to macroeconomic risk factors although our analyses suggest that non-listed real estate is more akin to direct real estate than it is to securitized real estate. |
| Keywords: | Non-listed real estate; real estate funds; risk factors; macroeconomy; European markets. |
| JEL: | R33 G12 C33 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1637&r=ure |
| By: | Argentesi, Elena; Buccirossi, Paolo; Cervone, Roberto; Duso, Tomaso; Marrazzo, Alessia |
| Abstract: | Unlike most retrospective merger studies that only focus on price effects, we also estimate the impact of a merger on product variety. We use an original dataset on Dutch supermarkets to assess the effect of a merger that was conditionally approved by the Dutch Competition Authority (ACM) on prices and the depth of assortment. We find that the merger did not affect prices but it led the merging parties to decrease the depth of their assortment, thereby reducing consumer choice. This effect is mainly driven by a reduction in variety for stores that were not re-branded after the merger, suggesting that the merging firms reposition their product offerings in order to avoid cannibalization. We also find that the reduction in variety for the merging parties is partially compensated by competitors increasing variety, except in very concentrated markets where all firms decrease variety. The issuance of divestitures partially outweighed the negative effect of the merger. Yet, it appears that additional divestitures would have been necessary to remove completely the adverse effect of the merger on the depth of assortment. |
| Keywords: | Mergers,Variety,Ex-post Evaluation,Retail sector,Supermarkets,Grocery |
| JEL: | L1 L41 L66 L81 D22 K21 C23 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:225&r=ure |