|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | John R. Madden |
| Abstract: | Does the presence of a local university affect the economic development of an area within a large city? This paper focuses on the Western region of Melbourne, which accounts for 18 per cent of the city's population of 4.5 million. Only one of Melbourne's seven universities has located campuses in Western Melbourne, a region containing many areas of social disadvantage. The importance of the University to the region's economy in 2013 is analysed with the aid of a 6-region CGE model, four of the regions covering Greater Melbourne. The analysis is undertaken by simulating a counterfactual that there was no university in the region during the period 1992 to 2013. Under the counterfactual, students who in actuality had studied in Western Melbourne in the period are assumed to have either attended a university in another Melbourne region or forgone a university education. The simulation accounted for a relocation of both the University's demand-side impacts (operating expenditures and student living costs) and its supply-side impacts (knowledge effects). A particular feature of the analysis was the estimation of the interregional relocation of local productivity effects flowing in 2013 from returns to the stocks of human capital and research knowledge accumulated over the years from 1992. For the human capital effects this involved, for each Melbourne region, undertaking detailed estimates of changes in annual university completions, annual migration rates, labour force participation rates, interregional commuting and returns to university qualifications. Key assumptions related to the effects of university proximity on tertiary participation and of place of study on regional attachment. For local R&D effects, regional estimates were made of annual R&D expenditure, knowledge decay, returns to R&D expenditure and regional knowledge spillovers. The simulation results suggested that the presence of a university in Western Melbourne had a significant effect on the region's GDP, but due to interregional commuting the local university had a more muted effect on the real consumption of the region's households. |
| Keywords: | Regional development, higher education, spatial distribution of urban economic activity, regional CGE modelling |
| JEL: | D58 I23 I25 O15 O18 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-272&r=ure |
| By: | Emma Howard |
| Abstract: | This paper uses panel data to assess the relative importance of social networks and geographic proximity to micro, small, and medium enterprises in Viet Nam. The results suggest that a larger social network, and hiring employees mainly through social networks, are both correlated with higher value added per worker. The number of government officials and civil servants in a firm’s network emerges as particularly important. When the quality of contacts is controlled for, firms with tighter social networks have, on average, higher value added per worker. The analysis of spatial networks reveals that firms with a lower percentage of customers and suppliers in the same district actually have higher value added per worker. The results suggest that for micro, small, and medium firms in Viet Nam, strong social networks are much more important than geographic proximity. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-69&r=ure |
| By: | Karla Münzel; Wouter Boon; Koen Frenken; Jan Blomme; Dennis van der Linden |
| Abstract: | We analyze the diffusion of carsharing across 177 cities in five Western European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom) and identify the influence of spatial, socio-demographic and institutional city characteristics. Carsharing can partially replace private ownership of vehicles with a service that allows the use of a car temporarily on an on-demand basis. It has the potential to satisfy individualized transportation demands in a sustainable and socially beneficial way and reduces urban problems like traffic and parking pressure in growing cities. We present the first study that explains the number of shared cars present in a city, while distinguishing between the traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) business model and the more recent peer-to-peer (P2P) business model. We find that carsharing per capita is highest in the largest cities. Moreover, carsharing is popular in cities with high educational level and many green party votes, and less popular in cities with many car commuters. Particularly striking are the differences between countries, with peer-to-peer carsharing being especially popular in French cities and business-to-consumer carsharing in Germany. We reflect on the findings in the light of (sustainable) mobility policy options. |
| Keywords: | sharing economy, carsharing, business-to-consumer, peer-to-peer, policy |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uis:wpaper:1703&r=ure |
| By: | Kingdon, Geeta G. (University College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the size, growth, salaries, per-pupil-costs, pupil achievement levels and cost-effectiveness of private schools, and compares these with the government school sector. Official data show a steep growth of private schooling and a corresponding rapid shrinkage in the size of the government school sector in India, suggesting parental abandonment of government schools. Data show that a very large majority of private schools in most states are 'low-fee' when judged in relation to: state per capita income, per-pupil expenditure in the government schools, and the officially-stipulated rural minimum wage rate for daily-wage-labour. This suggests that affordability is an important factor behind the migration towards and growth of private schools. The main reason for the very low fee levels in private schools is their lower teacher salaries, which the data show to be a small fraction of the salaries paid in government schools; this is possible because private schools pay the market-clearing wage, which is depressed by a large supply of unemployed graduates in the country, whereas government schools pay bureaucratically determined minimum-wages. Private schools' substantially lower per-student-cost combined with their students' modestly higher learning achievement levels, means that they are significantly more cost-effective than government schools. The paper shows how education policies relating to private schools are harmful when formulated without seeking the evidence. |
| Keywords: | private schooling, learning achievement, value for money, India |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10612&r=ure |
| By: | An, Xudong (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Cordell, Lawrence R. (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | The average loss rate for conventional mortgages rose from less than 10% pre-crisis to more than 30% during the crisis, reaching and sustaining greater than 40% post-crisis. Using a novel database that contains the components of mortgage losses, we identify a regime shift in loss severities caused by various government interventions and changes in business practices in the servicing industry. This regime shift helps explain the persistently high loss severities post-crisis, even after a strong recovery in the housing market. Our findings have implications for loss modeling, pricing, and, potentially, mortgage credit availability. (First Draft Oct. 2016; This Draft March 2017) |
| Keywords: | Mortgage; Loss; Regime Shift |
| Date: | 2017–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:17-8&r=ure |
| By: | Christiaensen, Luc (World Bank); Kanbur, Ravi (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | This review is framed around the exploration of a central hypothesis: A shift in public investment towards secondary towns from big cities will improve poverty reduction performance. Of course the hypothesis raises many questions. What exactly is the dichotomy of secondary towns versus big cities? What is the evidence for the contribution of secondary towns versus cities to poverty reduction? What are the economic mechanisms for such a differential contribution and how does policy interact with them? We find preliminary evidence and arguments in support of our hypothesis, but the impacts of policy on poverty are quite complex even in simple settings, and the question of secondary towns and poverty reduction is an open area for research and policy analysis. |
| Keywords: | secondary towns, poverty reduction, mega cities, urbanization, rural-urban migration, Zipf's Law |
| JEL: | I32 J61 O18 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10637&r=ure |
| By: | Llanto, Gilberto M.; Gerochi, Hope A. |
| Abstract: | The EDSA bus market is fiercely competitive. In theory, allowing competition among many bus operators is expected to result in cost-effective and reliable transport services, and efficient use of roads. However, in reality, the outcomes are far different: daylong traffic jam and poor bus service along Metro Manila's most important road artery. This paper examined an option proposed by some quarters that consolidating bus operation along EDSA will solve road congestion. It was thought that having fewer but bigger bus operators will be the solution. Based on a review of country experiences, this paper argues that one way to address road congestion and other market failures in the bus markets is to shift the regulatory framework for bus transport services from the current competition "in the market" (the status quo) toward competition "for the market". Bus consolidation is an initial step to relieve the roads of traffic congestion, but it is not a sufficient condition for sustainable quality bus service. However, casting bus consolidation within a competition for the market regulatory framework presents a better and more workable option for improving bus transport services in EDSA. The alternative regulatory approach called "competition for the market framework" provides a stronger incentive for bus operators to consolidate because a competitive tendering mechanism is used to select an optimum number of formal bus transport operators that will serve the market. Government takes more control of critical aspects of bus services (design of the bus network, quality standards, frequency, among others), which, thus, provide an opportunity to address the market failures that are inherent in liberalized urban bus markets. The government via its pipeline of bus rapid-transit (BRT) projects--including one being prepared for EDSA--seems to lean in favor of this framework. To be effective and to encourage the application of this new framework also to non-BRT corridors, complementary reforms have to be implemented in parallel and these would include improving the capacity of regulatory agencies, institutions (rules of the game), procurement, contract monitoring, and traffic management. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, urban bus market, market failures, consolidation, competition-for-the-market, competitive tendering, bus-rapid-transit system (BRTS), competition-in-the market, bus transport, traffic management, bus regulation, urban transport |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2017-10&r=ure |
| By: | Rema Hanna; Gabriel Kreindler; Benjamin A. Olken |
| Abstract: | In cities worldwide, the widespread use of single occupancy cars often leads to traffic congestion and its associated ill effects. Using high frequency data from Google Maps, we test whether high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) policies can be an effective tool to combat congestion. Using the unexpected lifting of Jakarta’s HOV policy, we show that after the policy was abandoned delays rose about 39 percent on affected roads during the morning peak—and nearly 69% during the evening peak. Importantly, this was not due to simply a substitution from other roads to the former HOV routes: the lifting of the policy led to worse traffic throughout the city, even on roads that had never been restricted or at times of the day when restrictions had never been in place. The increase in traffic persisted long after the policy was lifted. In short, we find that HOV policies can greatly improve traffic conditions. |
| JEL: | O18 R41 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23295&r=ure |
| By: | Alireza Ermagun; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests a group decision-making model to examine the school travel behavior of students 6-18 years old in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area. The school trip information of 1,737 two-parent families with a student is extracted from Travel Behavior Inventory data collected by the Metropolitan Council between the Fall 2010 and Spring 2012. The proposed model has four distinct characteristics including: (1) considering the student explicitly in the model, (2) allowing for bargaining or negotiation within households, (3) quantifying the intra-household interaction among family members, and (4) determining the decision weight function for household members. This framework also covers a household with three members, namely, a father, a mother, and a student, and unlike other studies it is not limited to dual-worker families. To test the hypotheses we developed two models, each with and without the group-decision approach. The models are separately developed for different age groups, namely students 6-12 and 12-18 years old. This study considered a wide range of variables such as work status of parents, age and gender of students, mode of travel, and distance to school. The findings of this study demonstrate that the elasticities of the two modeling approaches differ not only in the value, but in the sign in some cases. In 63 percent of the cases the unitary household model underestimates the results. More precisely, the elasticities of the unitary household model are as large as 2 times more than that of the group-decision model in 20 percent of cases. This is a direct consequence of model misspecification that misleads both long- and short-term policies where the intra-household bargaining and interaction is overlooked in travel behavior models. |
| Keywords: | Travel behavior, Group decision, School trips, Escorting children, Model misspecification |
| JEL: | R40 I20 C78 C35 D13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:intrahouseholdbargaining&r=ure |
| By: | Joachim Vandercasteelen; Seneshaw Tamru Beyene; Bart Minten; Jo Swinnen |
| Abstract: | Urbanization is happening fast in the developing world and especially so in sub-Saharan Africa where growth rates of cities are among the highest in the world. While cities and, in particular, secondary towns, where most of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa resides, affect agricultural practices in their rural hinterlands, this relationship is not well understood. To fill this gap, we develop a conceptual model to analyze how farmers’ proximity to cities of different sizes affects agricultural prices and intensification of farming. We then test these predictions using large-scale survey data from producers of teff, a major staple crop in Ethiopia, relying on unique data on transport costs and road networks and implementing an array of econometric models. We find that agricultural price behavior and intensification is determined by proximity to a city and the type of city. While proximity to cities has a strong positive effect on agricultural output prices and on uptake of modern inputs and yields on farms, the effects on prices and intensification measures are lower for farmers in the rural hinterlands of secondary towns compared to primate cities. |
| Keywords: | urbanization, cities, secondary towns, Ethiopia, sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural prices, intensification |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:579601&r=ure |
| By: | Bruno Cardinale Lagomarsino (Universidad de San Andrés); Martín Rossi (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres) |
| Abstract: | We exploit the random assignment rule implemented by the government of the municipality of Salto (Argentina) in its program of social housing in order to identify the effect of the program on subsequent domestic violence. Beneficiaries receive a finished house in exchange for a long-term credit at a heavily subsidized rate, and are entitled to legal ownership after full payment. Using administrative records from the population of applicants, we find that subsidized home-ownership programs to low-income households are associated to an increase in reported domestic violence. We explore various potential mechanisms and we conclude that the empirical evidence only favors the mechanism of an increase in transaction costs associated to exiting a relationship. |
| Keywords: | transaction costs, marriage, domestic violence |
| JEL: | K36 H31 J12 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sad:wpaper:129&r=ure |
| By: | Joy Kutaka-Kennedy (National University) |
| Abstract: | In today?s word, we are becoming more wired and tech savvy every day. Whole cities, metro systems, universities and school districts have free internet access as we become more technologically embedded in our interconnected world. Many schools offer K-12 students online classes, some districts even requiring that students take an online class before graduating and other districts becoming fully online with no ?brick and mortar? classrooms. Despite the growing demand for online teachers, university teacher preparation programs are slow to develop programs to meet the need. Many options exist to broaden the field experience with supervision using online technologies and supports like online synchronous and asynchronous discussion boards, collaborative or self-reflective video analysis and review, and live, real time chats and feedback. Tools such as these can lead the way to program development and expansion to better prepare future teachers for teaching in the K-12 online environment. |
| Keywords: | online teaching, online supervision, online video tools |
| JEL: | I29 I23 I20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:4707563&r=ure |
| By: | Robert Alexander; Rui-cong Sang; Sajid Anwar |
| Abstract: | An important part of Chinese economic development, especially of the Eastern Coastal provinces, has been the relocation of industry from Western countries. More recently, the Chinese Government has encouraged the development of Central, Western and Northern provinces and local governments in these regions have been making efforts to attract investment from companies from Eastern China. We investigate the factors that drive the investment decisions of such companies. Using data on the investment decisions of 498 listed Chinese companies headquartered in the provinces of Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu over the period 2000-2010, we estimate a Probit model to investigate the factors that drive their investment decisions. The model controls for market factors and firm-specific factors, We find strong positive effects on investment from the provision of both transport and communications infrastructure and strong negative effects from a higher proportion of state-owned enterprises and higher local government administrative expenses but no significant effect from taxation. |
| Keywords: | China, Regional modeling, Developing countries |
| Date: | 2016–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ekd:009007:9277&r=ure |
| By: | Francis Ziba; Mwanda Phiri |
| Abstract: | The last two decades have seen rapid economic growth in Zambia and the proliferation of foreign supermarket chain stores. However, this growth has translated into neither significant job creation nor significant poverty reduction. Furthermore, while the expansion of supermarket chains in Zambia has continued, local processing firms’ participation in supermarket value chains remains limited. This paper assesses the hindrances to local processing firms’ participation in supermarket value chains and how those firms’ participation might stimulate growth through regional trade. Our results show that local processing firms’ participation in regional supermarket value chains is constrained by a number of factors that pose either strategic or structural barriers to entry. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-58&r=ure |
| By: | J. Ignacio, Giménez-Nadal; Jose Alberto, Molina; Jorge, Velilla |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study self-employment in a theoretical setting derived from urban efficiency wages spatial models, where leisure and effort at work are complementary. Our model shows that unemployment tends to concentrate far from business districts, in contrast to employment and self-employment. The self-employed tend to live closer to workplaces than do the employed, as commuting has relatively negative effects, given that it affects productivity and thus earnings. We use data from the American Time Use Survey 2003-2014 to analyze the spatial distribution of self-employment, employment, and unemployment across metropolitan areas in the US, focusing on the relationship between commuting time and the probability of employment and self-employment. Our results show that employment and self-employment are negatively related to commuting, in comparison to unemployment, while self-employment is associated with shorter commutes, in contrast to those of employees, giving support to the theoretical background. |
| Keywords: | Employment, self-employment, commuting, leisure, shirking, American Time Use Survey. |
| JEL: | J21 J22 R12 R41 |
| Date: | 2017–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77972&r=ure |
| By: | Arthur Grimes (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Judd Ormsby (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Kate Preston (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the relationships between subjective wellbeing (SWB), wages and internal migration. Our study addresses whether people make (revealed preference) location decisions based on SWB and/or wage prospects. We present both a theoretical intertemporal location choice model and empirical analyses using the Australian longitudinal HILDA dataset. Our theory predicts considerable heterogeneity in location choices for individuals at different life stages depending on their individual characteristics, including their rate of time preference. We find a significant and sustained uplift in SWB for migrants, which holds across a range of sub-samples. By contrast, wage responses are muted albeit with heterogeneity across groups. Our theory and results show that migration decisions are considered within a life-cycle context. The estimated pronounced upturn in SWB for migrants substantiates the usefulness of SWB both as a concept for policy-makers to target and for researchers to incorporate in their studies. |
| Keywords: | Regional migration, wages, subjective wellbeing, non-pecuniary amenities. |
| JEL: | D91 H75 I31 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:17_07&r=ure |
| By: | Kyle McNabb |
| Abstract: | This study combines household survey data from the Beninese Demographic and Health Survey with school supply statistics in order to investigate regional and gender disparities in primary school attendance rates in Benin. Despite almost unparalleled increases in enrolment since the 1990s, Benin remains virtually ignored in the literature surveying school attendance. Results of a logistic regression model highlight the important role played by factors such as household wealth and religion and show that, despite progress, gender disparities in education persist in Benin. The opportunity cost of attending school is also investigated and, in order to account for regional disparities in attendance, a multilevel model is estimated; results from a random slopes model highlight those communes where reductions in the cost of schooling could see the greatest improvements in attendance rates. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-70&r=ure |
| By: | Fløgstad, Cathrin (Department of Economics, University of Bergen); Hagen, Rune Jansen (Department of Economics, University of Bergen) |
| Abstract: | Excessive dispersion of development assistance has been high on the Paris Agenda on aid effectiveness. However, there is no agreement in the existing literature on how aid dispersion should be measured and few studies of the extent of the problem. We argue for using the Theil Index for both recipients and donors. This relative inequality measure has a major advantage: it allows for a perfect decomposition into variation between and within entities. Exploiting this property, we can rank official donors and recipients not only in terms of the total spread, but also assess the contributions of geographic and sectoral dispersion. We provide a detailed picture of developments along various dimensions (globally as well as for countries, income groups, and regions, over 1998-2013). We further distinguish between bilateral and multilateral donors. Consistent with other studies using more limited samples, we find little effect of the Paris Agenda overall. Aid is more fragmented in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the poorest countries. Globally as well as for most donor and recipient countries, between variation is the main driver of the spread, lending support to the geographic concentration policies many donor countries have adopted. Bilateral aid has been somewhat more dispersed than multilateral aid and in both cases the large number of donors controlling similar shares of total funds is a major driver of the total spread. The latter suggests that concentration could also be achieved through a reduction of the number of actors on the donor side of the aid industry, a perspective that previous studies using other measures have been unable to capture. |
| Keywords: | Foreign aid; aid dispersion; transaction COSTs; Paris Agenda; Theil Index |
| JEL: | F35 H87 |
| Date: | 2017–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2017_003&r=ure |
| By: | Ira Nichols-Barrer; Nicholas Ingwersen; Elena Moroz; Matt Sloan |
| Abstract: | Design report for the evaluation of MCC’s Training Educators for Excellence activity of MCC’s in the Republic of Georgia. The proposed evaluation includes an evaluation of the performance of teacher and school director training and the impact on teacher and school director practices. |
| Keywords: | primary education, teacher training, school director training, propensity score matching, student-centered learning, formative assessment |
| JEL: | F Z I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:21f897e1a65a4a9faee5d894cc6675df&r=ure |
| By: | Julie Le Gallo (AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement); Anne Plunket (BETA - Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates, in a regional context, the impact of gatekeepers on the quality of inventions at the patent team level based on a social network analysis. Given the lack of consensus in the literature, we explore two definitions of gatekeepers and distinguish their impact from external stars. Our results show that gatekeepers indeed influence the quality of the patents to which they participate. However, the quality of their patents is reduced if gatekeepers and their team members are located in the same region compared to multi-location teams and this holds for both definitions. External stars do not contribute to inventive quality even if they work within multi-location teams. Finally, inventor teams benefit from socially close gatekeepers located within their region, even if they have no gatekeepers within their team. |
| Keywords: | teams,global pipelines,inventor networks,technological gatekeepers,patent quality |
| Date: | 2016–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01422916&r=ure |
| By: | Wallin, Tina (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to study the firms’ internal knowledge in combination with the external knowledge diversity in their region to examine their joint relation to export diversification. Using a data set of the full population of Swedish manufacturing exporters for the period 2003-2013, allows for identifying when firms introduce new products on the export market. The results indicate that firms in the medium-high tech and the medium-low tech manufacturing sectors only benefit from a larger external knowledge diversity if they themselves have some internal knowledge increasing their absorptive capacity. Changing spatial scale or increasing the time lag yields mostly the same results, but extending the external knowledge diversity to include all types of education subjects does not. This further supports the suggested importance of an absorptive capacity to facilitate the acquisition, assimilation and usage of related external knowledge in producing new products. |
| Keywords: | new product; export diversification; absorptive capacity; related knowledge |
| JEL: | C33 D22 D83 F14 J24 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0452&r=ure |
| By: | Sandra Sequeira; Nathan Nunn; Nancy Qian |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of European immigration to the United States during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1920) on economic prosperity today. We exploit variation in the extent of immigration across counties arising from the interaction of fluctuations in aggregate immigrant flows and the gradual expansion of the railway network across the United States. We find that locations with more historical immigration today have higher incomes, less poverty, less unemployment, higher rates of urbanization, and greater educational attainment. The long-run effects appear to arise from the persistence of sizeable short-run benefits, including greater industrialization, increased agricultural productivity, and more innovation. |
| JEL: | N31 N32 N61 N62 N71 N72 N91 N92 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23289&r=ure |
| By: | Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Mª Teresa Balaguer-Coll (Department of Accounting and Finance, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | In the recent years of international economic crisis, Spanish local governments have come under increasing pressure to accommodate severe economic restrictions while maintaining (or even increasing) their provision of local public services. This paper aims to analyse overall cost efficiency in Spanish local governments during the period of the economic crisis (2008–2013) which has scarcely been examined to date. To this end, we measure efficiency, for which we consider four different non-parametric methodologies. Moreover, given how problematic it is to precisely define the bundle of services and facilities that municipalities must provide, we compare three different output models in which we consider measures of quantity as well as quality. Our results suggest that Spanish local government efficiency improved over the crisis period 2008–2013 since budget expenditures (inputs or costs) fell while local public services and facilities (outputs) were maintained. We also find evidence of the possible implications of service quality when measuring local governments’ cost efficiency, and of structural differences in the average efficiency between municipalities located in different Spanish regions and provinces. Finally, our results confirm that the level and variation of efficiency scores are affected by the approach taken. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, local government, non-parametric frontiers |
| JEL: | C14 H11 H70 R15 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2017/05&r=ure |
| By: | Volker Grossman; Thomas Steger |
| Abstract: | There are, by now, several long term, time series data sets on important housing & macro variables, such as land prices, house prices, and the housing wealth-to-income ratio. However, an appropriate theory that can be employed to think about such data and associated research questions has been lacking. We present a new housing & macro model that is designed specifically to analyze the long term. As an illustrative application, we demonstrate that the calibrated model replicates, with remarkable accuracy, the historical evolution of housing wealth (relative to income) after World War II and suggests a further considerable increase in the future. The model also accounts for the close connection of house prices to land prices in the data. We also compare our framework to the canonical housing & macro model, typically employed to analyze business cycles, and highlight the main differences. |
| Date: | 2017–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:17/80&r=ure |
| By: | Christophe Muller |
| Abstract: | For the first time in Indonesia, we jointly analyse several economic statistics and ethnic diversity indicators at national and local levels. Nationally, we find very high levels of economic inequality, measured from household asset values or consumption expenditure. In contrast, the levels of ethnic diversity, while non-negligible, are much lower, whether they reflect fractionalization, polarization, or ethnic inequality based on individual living standards. All ethnic inequality indicators surged after the Asian economic crisis. Ethnic inequality based on education is much lower and decreasing. In panel data models, individual participation in community activities is found to be much determined by local patterns of ethnic diversity. Different dimensions of ethnic diversity generate distinct effects. Ethnic polarization stimulates participation in strategic activities. Instead, ethnic fragmentation and ethnic inequality depress most local activities. Finally, we provide tentative explanations of local ethnic inequality in regressions that show a mixed pattern of socioeconomic influences. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2016-170&r=ure |
| By: | Margit Osterloh; Bruno S. Frey |
| Abstract: | We propose an immigration policy based the model of cooperatives. Incoming migrants have to acquire a participation certificate. In exchange, the immigrants may enter the country of choice without danger. The revenue goes to the country of the recipient nation rather than to human smugglers. The cost would be much lower than today’s efforts to secure the borders. Asylum seekers get back the money paid for the certificate. Immigration is therewith regulated more efficiently than today. Not all entrance barriers and coercive measures to prevent illegal entry would disappear. However, the pressure of illegal migrants is strongly reduced. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; asylum; cooperatives; participation certificates; borders |
| JEL: | D71 F22 F66 J46 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2017-04&r=ure |
| By: | BOUSSELIN Audrey |
| Abstract: | The economic literature provides mixed evidence of the relationship between local childcare provision and maternal employment. We document this question further by focusing on the role of the provision of childcare services close to the family?s residential location. We use a simultaneous equations approach to estimate the employment and childcare decisions of mothers of children aged 0-3, conditional on their residential location. Our estimates are based on a rich data set, which matches household and individual level microdata for Luxembourg in conjunction with municipality level data (provision of childcare services and other local amenities) and travel time distances for the year 2011. In line with the evidence provided by the recent literature, we find that, in a context where the female employment rate and the availability of childcare have increased over the last years, policies that make childcare services more widely accessible have no effect on maternal employment. |
| Keywords: | childcare; labour supply; residential location; simultaneous equations model |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2017-05&r=ure |
| By: | Li, Hao-Ching; Lee, Wen-Chieh; Ko, Bo-Ting |
| Abstract: | This paper sounds an alarm about disparate efficiencies among China’s regions in the allocation of innovation inputs. A theoretical measure of misallocation is adopted to gauge the distortions that exacerbate the inefficiency of resource allocations across geographic innovation units; these units’ usage of innovative inputs reveals the level of misallocations prevalent within the Chinese economy. The measure of innovation misallocation is computed by utilizing a micro dataset based on information from the China Statistical Yearbook for Science and Technology (CSYST) from 1999 to 2012. In addition, this paper probes the factors that co-move with China’s innovation resource misallocations. We find that, although an advanced financial market is beneficial to innovation efficiency in China, both the government’s extensive development of transportation infrastructure and the preferential treatment given to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) negatively correlate with innovation efficiency. We conclude that emerging economies that are experiencing R&D input expansion, such as China, should be cautious in ensuring efficient resource allocations. |
| Keywords: | Resource misallocation; Innovation efficiency; Financial market; Infrastructure investment; Preferential treatment |
| JEL: | O11 O32 O47 |
| Date: | 2016–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77998&r=ure |
| By: | Blanchet, Adrien; Degond, Pierre |
| Abstract: | We consider systems of agents interacting through topological interactions. These have been shown to play an important part in animal and human behavior. Precisely, the system consists of a finite number of particles characterized by their positions and velocities. At random times a randomly chosen particle, the follower adopts the velocity of its closest neighbor, the leader. We study the limit of a system size going to infinity and, under the assumption of propagation of chaos, show that the limit kinetic equation is a non-standard spatial diffusion equation for the particle distribution function. We also study the case wherein the particles interact with their K closest neighbors and show that the corresponding kinetic equation is the same. Finally, we prove that these models can be seen as a singular limit of the smooth rank-based model previously studied in [10]. The proofs are based on a combinatorial interpretation of the rank as well as some concentration of measure arguments. |
| Keywords: | rank-based interaction, spatial diffusion equation, continuity equation, concentration of measure |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:31577&r=ure |
| By: | Aleh Mazol |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the wage inequality in Belarus' districts from 2000 till 2015 following the multistep and multi-mechanism framework. The empirical results show: first, that wage disparities across the districts decreased in the 2000-2012 period and then increased from 2013 to 2015; second, there is the spatial dependency in district wages and increasing separation between districts, and between rural and urban population in Belarus; third, the main economic factors that contribute to decrease in district wage inequality are industrial development, retail trade and agricultural development. Finally, from theoretical point of view this research rejects the inverted U-shaped relationship between spatial inequality and economic development for Belarus and supports the hypothesis made by French economist Thomas Piketty that slow growth rates lead to rising inequality. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, quantile regression, spatial dependence, stochastic kernel, wage inequality, Belarus |
| JEL: | C30 C46 I30 J31 O18 Q53 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bel:wpaper:35&r=ure |
| By: | OKADA, Yoshimi; NAITO, Yusuke; NAGAOKA, Sadao |
| Abstract: | While patent scope defined by patent claims provides crucial information on the contribution of underlying inventions to the state of the art, its existing measures do not seem to appropriately capture it, especially with respect to the generality of the inventive concept. This study investigates how significantly the breadth of the first claim can predict the patent's knowledge impact on subsequent inventions in complex and discrete technologies using the inverse of the first claim length as the indicator. There are two major findings. First, this indicator has very significant predictive power for the knowledge impact of the underlying invention as measured by applicant forward citations, controlling for two existing indicators of patent scope (the number of patent claims and the number of different patent classification codes assigned) in both technology areas. Second, its predictive power for the incidence of top-ranked patents increases in higher quantiles in the complex but not the discrete technology area, unlike the other indicators. This is consistent with an economic model predicting that the knowledge impact of an invention with broad scope has a high variance, depending on the emergence of complementary inventions that enhance the impact of the initial invention. |
| Keywords: | patent scope, claim breadth, first claim length, knowledge, complex technology |
| JEL: | O34 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:iirwps:17-03&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a critical discussion of ex-post impact evaluation of policies that affect regional economic development, with a particular emphasis on drawing useful implications for policy making. In particular, it discusses the importance of setting clear and measurable objectives in designing policies and the need for equally clear policy levers; it highlights the main advantages of “counterfactual” evaluation; it analyses the methodological specificities of the evaluation of programmes that have a regional or urban dimension; and it provides a survey of some of the most relevant examples in the empirical economics literature. The ultimate goal is to “bridge” the perceived distance between policy discussions on the one side, and academic debates on the other. Some specific recommendations conclude the report. |
| Date: | 2017–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaac:38-en&r=ure |
| By: | Backman , Mikaela (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School, Sweden); Wallin, Tina (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | We examine whether low access to financial intermediaries works as an obstacle acquiring financial capital for Swedish firms by using information from the Community Innovation Survey indicating whether firms perceive the acquisition of external capital to be difficult. This perception is explained by the distance to the firms’ nearest financial intermediaries and their total local supply. The results indicate that the distance to banks is related to a larger problem of obtaining external financial capital in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | financial capital; bank offices; geographical distance; Community Innovation Survey |
| JEL: | D53 G21 G23 L25 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0454&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew S. Green; Mark J. Kutzbach; Lars Vilhuber |
| Abstract: | Commuting flows and workplace employment data have a wide constituency of users including urban and regional planners, social science and transportation researchers, and businesses. The U.S. Census Bureau releases two, national data products that give the magnitude and characteristics of home to work flows. The American Community Survey (ACS) tabulates households’ responses on employment, workplace, and commuting behavior. The Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program tabulates administrative records on jobs in the LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES). Design differences across the datasets lead to divergence in a comparable statistic: county-to-county aggregate commute flows. To understand differences in the public use data, this study compares ACS and LEHD source files, using identifying information and probabilistic matching to join person and job records. In our assessment, we compare commuting statistics for job frames linked on person, employment status, employer, and workplace and we identify person and job characteristics as well as design features of the data frames that explain aggregate differences. We find a lower rate of within-county commuting and farther commutes in LODES. We attribute these greater distances to differences in workplace reporting and to uncertainty of establishment assignments in LEHD for workers at multi-unit employers. Minor contributing factors include differences in residence location and ACS workplace edits. The results of this analysis and the data infrastructure developed will support further work to understand and enhance commuting statistics in both datasets. |
| Keywords: | U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD, LODES, ACS, Employer-employee matched data, Commuting, Record linkage |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:17-34&r=ure |
| By: | Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Mª Teresa Balaguer-Coll (Department of Accounting and Finance, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Marko Petrovic (LEE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | We analyse overall cost efficiency in Spanish local governments during the crisis period (2008–2013). To this end, we first consider some of the most popular methods to evaluate local government efficiency, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and FDH (Free Disposal Hull), as well as recent proposals, namely the order-m partial frontier and the non-parametric estimator proposed by Kneip, Simar and Wilson (2008), which are also non-parametric approaches. Second, we compare the methodologies used to measure efficiency. In contrast to previous literature, which has regularly compared techniques and made proposals for alternative methodologies, we follow recent proposals (Badunenko et al., 2012) with the aim of comparing the four methods and choosing the one which performs best with our particular dataset, that is, the most appropriate method for measuring local government cost efficiency in Spain. We carry out the experiment via Monte Carlo simulations and discuss the relative performance of the efficiency scores under various scenarios. Our results suggest that there is no one approach suitable for all efficiency analysis. We find that for our sample of 1,574 Spanish local governments, the average cost efficiency would have been between 0.54 and 0.77 during the period 2008–2013, suggesting that Spanish local governments could have achieved the same level of local outputs with about 23% to 36% fewer resources. |
| Keywords: | OR in government, efficiency, local government, nonparametric frontiers |
| JEL: | C14 C15 H70 R15 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2017/06&r=ure |
| By: | Eugenia Bessonova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Gonchar Ksenia (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of court conditions on multinational decisions on entry, subsidiary size and entry mode across subnational regions in Russia. We apply the literature on heterogeneous firms and the institution-based view of investor behavior, which predict that higher institutional costs raise the size and productivity cut-off of start-up subsidiaries. Our empirical results based on microestablishment data of foreign-owned firms in Russia show that a weaker judicial framework and stronger political power of the local governor significantly de-stimulate entry. The majority of multinationals enter Russia, which is viewed as a high-risk country, through large and very large subsidiaries wholly owned by the foreign parents. Variation of the business strategies of multinationals between regions is largely explained by regional court conditions, as foreign investors adapt their strategic decisions to compensate court deficiencies by increasing the size of the subsidiary and acquiring local institutional knowledge through partnership with resident firms. We also find that structural adjustments to court risks are typical for horizontal investments, which only serve the host market |
| Keywords: | Multinational enterprise, foreign direct investment, production location decision, affiliate size decision, entry mode decision, institutions, Russia |
| JEL: | F10 F23 L22 R30 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:161/ec/2017&r=ure |
| By: | Guney, Ibrahim Ethem; Hacihasanoglu, Yavuz Selim; Tumen, Semih |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of a substantial minimum wage increase, which became effective in January 2016, on consumer loans in Turkey. Using bank-level data and designing an original identification strategy, we ask whether the loans provided by banks with a historically high share of low-wage loan customers have increased relative to those provided by banks with a historically low share of low-wage loan customers after January 2016. Our results suggest that consumer loan flows have displayed a limited but statistically and economically meaningful increase following the minimum wage hike. This increase mostly comes from the increase in long-term general-purpose loans. Vehicle loans have also increased, while there is no change in housing loans. In the overall, the minimum wage hike has generated a moderate and transitory increase in the flow of consumer loans extended to low-wage earners in Turkey|perhaps due to delayed consumption effect. Consumption of durables, which can further increase household borrowing capacity through collateralized debt channel, has only slightly and temporarily increased. The underlying long-term trends in the stock of consumer loans have hardly changed. |
| Keywords: | Consumer loans,labor income shocks,minimum wages,triple difference |
| JEL: | D14 E24 G21 J31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:58&r=ure |
| By: | Hien Thu Pham (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Shino Takayama (School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates empirically the relationship between firm size and production effi- ciency and inefficiency associated with the production scale. We study the possible sources of the missing middle phenomenon, which refers to the fact that most employment in developing countries is located in either small-sized or large-sized firms. Using Vietnamese data, we show that middle-sized firms’ production efficiencies tend to be lower than small-sized or large-sized firms in most of the manufacturing industries, that the least efficient firm tends to be middle-sized, and that efficiency scores are more diverse for middle-sized firms, which is arguably associated with the uncertainty that a small firm faces when increasing its size. Our work also indicates that the large-sized firms may be unable to fully utilize their inputs. |
| Keywords: | firm size distribution, missing middle, productivity, efficiency, data envelopment analysis, free disposal hull |
| JEL: | D21 D22 L25 |
| Date: | 2017–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:580&r=ure |
| By: | Fredrick M. Wamalwa (School of Economics, University of Cape Town); Justine Burns (School of Economics, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of private schools on literacy (language) and numeracy (maths) skill acquisition among children drawn from lower primary grades in Kenya. We use a comprehensive household survey data that allows us to apply a number of econometric techniques to deal with the challenge of the endogeneity of private school choice. We begin with the OLS as a baseline model. We then estimate the village and household fixed effects (FE) models that control for unobservables at the village and household levels, respectively. We supplement the OLS and FE models with the propensity score matching (PSM) technique. We find positive and significant private school effect throughout all these methodologies. However, assessing the impact of omitted variable bias on the estimated coefficient of private schools by use of recent techniques, we find that the estimated bias in household FE is quite small in magnitude relative to the bias based on other estimation techniques. Since (private) schooling decision is made at the household level, it is likely that a substantial part of the unobservable component is pertaining to the household. |
| Keywords: | Private schools, student learning achievements, Kenya |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:202&r=ure |
| By: | Reena das Nair; Shingie Chisoro |
| Abstract: | Since the early 2000s, there has been rapid growth in the number and spread of supermarkets in southern Africa. This paper is a synthesis of key findings of studies undertaken in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe on the expansion of supermarkets and the impact this has had on suppliers and the competitive landscape in the region. Supermarkets are driving trade patterns in processed foods and household consumables within the region, opening up large markets for suppliers. If supermarkets are to become a key route to regional markets for suppliers, national policies and laws that currently exist need to be harmonized across the region with a wider view of developing regional value chains. Among key findings of the studies, supermarket procurement and sourcing strategies as well as buyer power are seen to affect the participation of suppliers in supermarket value chains, and affect the development of their capabilities. The impact on the competitive landscape of the spread of supermarkets in each country is also assessed, highlighting concerns of strategic behaviour that dominant supermarkets can engage in to exclude rivals. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2016-169&r=ure |
| By: | Bjerk, David J. (Claremont McKenna College); Helland, Eric (Claremont McKenna College) |
| Abstract: | We show that under arguably plausible assumptions regarding the DNA exoneration process, in expectation, the ratio of DNA exoneration rates across races among defendants convicted for the same crime in the same state provides an upper bound on the ratio of wrongful conviction rates across races among these defendants. Our estimates of this statistic reveal that among those sentenced to incarceration for rape in the United States between 1983 and 1997, the wrongful conviction rate among white defendants was less than two-thirds of what it was for black defendants. Our results with respect to murder are inconclusive. |
| Keywords: | wrongful convictions, racial bias, judicial bias, exonerations, DNA evidence |
| JEL: | K14 J15 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10631&r=ure |