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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Berlingieri, Francesco |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of the size of the local labor market on skill mismatch. Using survey data for Germany, I find that workers in large cities are both less likely to be overqualified for their job and to work in a different field than the one they are trained for. Different empirical strategies are employed to account for the potential sorting of talented workers into more urbanized areas. Results on individuals never moving from the place of childhood and fixed-effects estimates obtaining identification through regional migrants suggest that sorting does not fully explain the existing differences in qualification mismatch across areas. This provides evidence of the existence of agglomeration economies through better matches. However, lower qualification mismatch in larger cities is found to explain only a small part of the urban wage premium. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration,labor matching,qualification mismatch,urban wage |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17055&r=ure |
| By: | Kim, Jun Sung (Monash University); Patacchini, Eleonora (Cornell University, USA); Picard, Pierre M. (CREA, University of Luxembourg); Zenou, Yves (Monash University, Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies social-tie formation when individuals care about the geographical location of other individuals. In our model, the intensity of social interactions can be chosen at the same time as friends. We characterize the equilibrium in terms of both social interactions and social capital (the value of social interactions offered by each agent) for a general distribution of individuals in the urban geographical space. We show that greater geographical dispersion decreases the incentives to socially interact. We also show that the equilibrium frequency of interactions is lower than the efficient one. Using a unique geo-coded dataset of friendship networks among adolescents in the United States, we estimate the model and validate that agents interact less than the social first best optimum. Our policy analysis suggests that, given the same cost, subsidizing social interactions yields a higher total welfare than subsidizing transportation costs. |
| Keywords: | Urban economics; Social interactions; Social capital; Policies |
| JEL: | R10 R23 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1192&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Bailey; Eduardo Dávila; Theresa Kuchler; Johannes Stroebel |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between homebuyers' beliefs about future house price changes and their mortgage leverage choices. From a theoretical perspective, whether more pessimistic homebuyers choose more or less leverage is ambiguous and depends on their willingness to reduce the size of their housing investment. When households primarily maximize the levered return of their property investment, more pessimistic homebuyers reduce their leverage to purchase smaller houses. On the other hand, when considerations such as family size pin down the desired property size, pessimistic homebuyers reduce their financial exposure to the housing market by making smaller downpayments to buy similarly-sized homes. To determine which scenario better describes the data, we empirically investigate the cross-sectional relationship between beliefs and leverage choices in the U.S. housing market. Our data combine mortgage financing information and a housing market expectations survey with anonymized social network data from Facebook. The survey shows that an individual's belief distribution about future house price changes is affected by the recent house price experiences of her geographically distant friends, allowing us to use these experiences as quasi-exogenous shifters of individuals' house price beliefs. We find that more pessimistic homebuyers make smaller downpayments and choose higher leverage, in particular in states where default costs are relatively low, as well as during periods when house prices are expected to fall on average. Overall, our results provide evidence for an important role of heterogeneous beliefs in explaining individuals' financial decision-making. |
| JEL: | D1 D14 G0 G02 G11 G12 G21 R21 R30 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24091&r=ure |
| By: | Gazi Kara; Cindy M. Vojtech |
| Abstract: | We empirically document that banks with greater exposure to high home price-to-income ratio regions in 2005 and 2006 have higher mortgage delinquency and charge-off rates and significantly higher probabilities of failure during the last financial crisis even after controlling for capital, liquidity, and other standard bank performance measures. While high price-to-income ratios present a greater likelihood of house price correction, we find no evidence that banks managed this risk by building stronger capital buffers. Our results suggest that there is scope for improved measures of mortgage loan risk that could be considered for regulatory and risk management applications. |
| Keywords: | Bank failure ; Credit risk ; Mortgage risk ; Residential real estate |
| JEL: | G01 G21 G28 R31 |
| Date: | 2017–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-115&r=ure |
| By: | Juan F. Castro (Universidad del Pacifico); Bruno Esposito (Universidad del Pacifico) |
| Abstract: | Teachers tend to avoid working in places with poor basic services, where transport costs are high and students show low performance. As a result, less advantaged students living in rural areas usually get paired with less qualified teachers. In many developing countries, teachers are offered monetary incentives to work in rural or remote schools. The literature, however, offers very little evidence about their effect on teacher qualifications. Moreover, this is the first study to produce causal evidence about the effect on these incentives on learning outcomes. This paper analyses the effect of unconditional monetary incentives on learning outcomes and the distribution of teacher skill in public rural schools in Peru. Teachers working in a rural school receive, on average, an additional 430 soles each month (around US$ 130 and approximately 30% of the starting salary). Schools are classified as rural based on the population of their community and their distance to the nearest province capital. We use a regression discontinuity design that exploits the exogenous shift in the amount of the bonus that occurs around the population and distance thresholds used to classify a school as rural. We find that the average bonus had a positive effect of around 0.16 standard deviations on reading comprehension and mathematics test scores obtained by second grade students in the 2014 and 2015 national evaluations. One of the mechanisms by which teacher bonuses can have a positive effect on learning is by making rural schools more attractive for talented teachers. We find evidence in favor of this channel. In fact, the bonus caused a shift of 0.38 standard deviations in the average score obtained by rural school teachers in the 2015 recruitment evaluation. |
| Keywords: | Teacher incentives, rural schools, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | I21 C26 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2017-104&r=ure |
| By: | Jing Chen (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: | The empirical relationship between economic diversity and economic stability varies when it is measured at different geographical scales. This paper evaluates the role of geographical scales in assessing this diversity-stability relationship among counties, states, Economic Areas (EAs), metropolitan counties and metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the contiguous U.S. When choosing geographical units to analyze regional economic structure, it is necessary that the geographical units be large enough in population and employment to quantify effectively the regional economic structure. In addition, this paper proposes that geographical units also should be functionally aggregated regions as they better represent spatial interactions than formal regions do, and they consider the possible temporal variations in the boundaries of regional economic structures. |
| Keywords: | Geographical Scale, Industrial Diversity, Economic Stability, Spatial Interactions |
| JEL: | C40 R11 O11 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2017wp03&r=ure |
| By: | Bernhard Enzi |
| Abstract: | Information about teachers’ effectiveness at the hiring stage is particularly scarce despite its importance for personnel decisions. Using the German setting of teacher training, I investigate the relationship of teachers’ pre-service cognitive and pedagogical skills as measured by two state examinations and the high-school GPA on later effectiveness. I apply standard value-added models to rich German student-achievement panel data and find that being in the top quartile in these skill domains is linked with significantly higher teacher effectiveness. Better teacher skills are associated with a more efficient way of classroom management. |
| Keywords: | Teacher, value-added, cognitive skills, student achievement |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J45 H75 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_243&r=ure |
| By: | Florian Kuhlmey (University of Basel) |
| Abstract: | Income and property taxation are among the most prevalent policy instruments to nance local expenditure in countries with a high degree of decentralization. However, little is known about their relative eciency and redistributive properties. This paper compares both tax instruments within the same framework and investigates their relative attractiveness to nance local expenditure. It further allows for inter-municipal spillovers and rivalry in the consumption of the publicly provided good. The analytical model identi es the di erent ineciencies in both tax regimes which include intra- and inter-municipal free-riding. In a numerical illustration, the model is solved for the resulting equilibria. This allows to quantify the gross welfare loss from decentralization and also reveals a decomposition of the welfare loss into its components. |
| Keywords: | Tax competition; normative analysis; income taxation; property taxation; segregation; decentralization; welfare decomposition. |
| JEL: | H3 H7 R1 R2 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2017/18&r=ure |
| By: | Bryan Stuart (George Washington University); Evan Taylor (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of birth town migration networks on location decisions. We study over one million long-run location decisions made during two landmark migration episodes by African Americans from the U.S. South and whites from the Great Plains. We develop a new method to estimate the strength of migration networks for each receiving and sending location. Our estimates imply that when one randomly chosen African American moves from a birth town to a destination county, then 1.9 additional black migrants make the same move on average. For white migrants from the Great Plains, the average is only 0.4. Networks were particularly important in connecting black migrants with attractive employment opportunities and played a larger role in less costly moves. |
| Keywords: | migration networks, location decisions, social interactions, Great Migration |
| JEL: | J61 N32 O15 R23 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2017-26&r=ure |
| By: | Anthony Yezer (George Washington University); Yishen Liu (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | Foreclosure externalities, in which recent foreclosures proximate to a housing unit depress its sales price, are well accepted in the literature. These papers use a ge- ographic differencing strategy to eliminate the problem of selection into treatment. They also assume that the partial and total derivatives of the outcome (house value) with respect to the treatment (foreclosure) are constant and equal. This paper relaxes these assumptions producing very different results. These findings likely generalize to a larger body of research where differencing often in the form of regression discontinuity, propensity score matching, or synthetic controls is used to achieve identification while assuming total and partial derivatives of the outcome with respect to the treatment are constant and equal. |
| Keywords: | Foreclosure; Specification error; Loan-to-value ratio; Externalities |
| JEL: | R23 R30 R31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2017-29&r=ure |
| By: | Davide Castellani (Henley Business School, University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides descriptive evidence of the changing geography of inventive activity and the role of MNEs international R&D activities, with quite an extensive geographical coverage. Results highlight that ‘local buzz’ is crucial for the development of knowledge in local economies, and it leads to persistence in innovative activities. However, ‘global pipelines’ are also becoming a crucial element for the successful development of local knowledge. In particular, we first find that the number of regions involved in patenting has increased threefold since the 1980s. Second, despite this increase in the number of regions patenting, 70% of inventions come from the top 100 regions. Third, although the hierarchy of the top patenting regions is not immobile, the propensity to patent is quite dependent on previous innovation. Fourth, international collaboration in patenting has been steadily on the rise over the last three decades. Fifth, international R&D investments of MNEs are indeed also very concentrated in a few locations, which can also be quite distant from the MNEs headquarters’ location. |
| Keywords: | geography of innovation, MNEs, regions, local buzz, global pipelines |
| JEL: | F23 R11 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:jhdxdp:jhd-dp2017-02&r=ure |
| By: | Yulia Chikish (West Virginia University, Department of Economics); Brad R. Humphreys (West Virginia University, Department of Economics); Crocker H. Liu (Cornell University School of Hotel Administration); Adam Nowak (West Virginia University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between sports events and concerts, important hospitality demand drivers and key components of many urban renewal projects, in the Staples Center in Los Angeles, an arena home to three pro teams, and nearby hotel performance, exploiting exogenous daily variation in the timing of games and concerts from 2002 to 2017. Results show a small positive impact on revenue per available room at hotels within one mile of the arena and an offsetting decrease at hotels located one to four miles away. Granting nearby hotels exemptions from Los Angeles hotel taxes reduces potential tourism-generated hotel tax revenue increases. |
| Keywords: | place based policy, hotel operating performance, professional sports |
| JEL: | H71 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wvu:wpaper:17-32&r=ure |
| By: | Nadir Altinok; Manos Antoninis; Phu Nguyen-Van |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement in mathematics and reading by using a dataset from six Sub-Saharan African countries. By using a difference-indifference between pupils’ and teachers’ scores in two skills, we are able to avoid potential endogeneity bias. In most estimations, we do not find a significant teacher knowledge effect in most countries. The main reason is teacher absenteeism and the need to focus on core knowledge. Indeed, more knowledgeable teachers improve student learning only if certain conditions are met. For instance, a high level of teacher absenteeism and low teacher performance in a subset of items that are also administered to students can dampen the teacher subject knowledge effect on student learning. When these conditions are met, teacher subject knowledge has a significant and positive effect on student achievement in most countries. |
| Keywords: | Teacher knowledge; Africa; Learning; SACMEQ; cognitive skills. |
| JEL: | I2 O12 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2017-35&r=ure |
| By: | Cockx, Bart; Picchio, Matteo; Baert, Stijn |
| Abstract: | A dynamic discrete choice model is set up to estimate the effects of grade retention in high school, both in the short-run (end-of-year evaluation) and in the long-run (drop-out and delay). In contrast to other evaluation approaches, this model captures essential treatment heterogeneity and controls for grade-varying unobservable determinants. In addition, forced track downgrading is considered as an alternative remedial measure. Our results indicate that grade retention has a neutral effect on academic achievement in the short-run. In the long-run, grade retention, just like forced downgrading, has adverse effects on schooling outcomes and, more so, for less able pupils. |
| Keywords: | Education,grade retention,track mobility,dynamic discrete choice models,heterogeneous treatment effects |
| JEL: | C33 C35 I21 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:148&r=ure |
| By: | Florian Kuhlmey (University of Basel) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model of local income tax competition with a progressive tax scheme and a built-in scal equalization scheme. Both aspects are central to policy makers: The progressivity for equity reasons, and the scal equalization to prevent a race to the bottom and to limit the degree of segregation of households according to income. The model is calibrated to the metropolitan area of Zurich (Switzerland), and policy evaluations reveal that a progressive tax scheme as the basis for local tax competition causes strong segregating forces that can only to some extent be compensated by the scal equalization scheme. |
| Keywords: | Tax competition; income taxation; fiscal equalization; progressive taxation; segregation. |
| JEL: | H3 H7 R1 R2 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2017/17&r=ure |
| By: | Davide Castellani (Henley Business School, University of Reading); Katiuscia Lavoratori |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the determinants of the location of MNEs’ overseas R&D activities, by focusing on two major drivers. On the one hand, external location factors lead the firm to separate its activities along the value chain and geographically disperse these activities in different locations. On the other hand, the R&D location choice may be driven by the existence of internal (within-firm) linkages that motivate firms to locate their value chain activities in the same location (co-location within-firm). Using data from the fDi Markets database, the study examines 2,580 location decisions of new R&D greenfield investments made by MNEs in 110 global cities worldwide, over the period 2003-2014. Results from Conditional and Mixed Logit econometric models reveal that both external and internal factors matter. Findings confirm the strong role of external agglomeration economies, but also suggest that previous R&D and production activities of the same MNE increase the probability to locate R&D in a given global city. |
| Keywords: | location of international R&D, empirical methodology |
| JEL: | F23 O30 R30 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:jhdxdp:jhd-dp2017-03&r=ure |
| By: | Luigi Bonatti |
| Abstract: | This paper contains a growth model that incorporates productive assets, residential land and residential structures. Moreover, it accounts for the existence of two social classes: the capitalists, who invest both in productive assets and in housing but do not provide labor services, and the workers, who invest only in housing and decide on how much labor effort to provide. Within this formal setup, it is shown that the relative price of land grows in the long run at the same rate as the economy’s GDP, while both the quantity of housing services and their price grow slower than it. Numerical examples show that i) shifting the taxation away from income and towards the property of land enhances long-term GDP growth and leads in the long-run to a more equalitarian (i.e. more favorable to the workers) income and wealth distribution, ii) a marginal increase in the fraction of investment expenditures in residential structures that is tax deductible reduces inequality in the distribution of income and wealth, iii) a change in agents’ preferences that gives more weight in the utility function to residential services leads in the long run to a distribution of income and wealth that is more favorable to the capitalists, iv) changes in taxation or in preferences increasing the fraction of total investment devoted to the accumulation of residential wealth rather than to the accumulation of productive assets brings about a balanced growth path characterized by a higher wealth-income ratio. Moreover, the paper illustrates how endogenous fluctuations may be generated along the equilibrium trajectory converging to the balanced growth path, in a model where housing wealth—as well as residential land—is distinguished from productive capital and only fundamentals (initial endowments, preferences and technologies) drive the economy’s dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Productive assets, Residential structures, Urban rents, Land value tax |
| JEL: | H24 O18 O41 R31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwprg:2017/01&r=ure |
| By: | Hjalmarsson, Erik (University of Gothenburg); Österholm, Pär (Örebro University School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Household expectations of future mortgage rates elicited over the last few years might appear unrealistically low. However, taking explicit account of the high persistence in interest rates, we find that Swedish households’ implied long-term expectation of mortgage rates is around 4.7 percent. This number lines up well with the long-term expectation that can be deduced from the Riksbank’s assessment of the repo rate in the long run and the typical spread between the mortgage rate and the repo rate. Our analysis makes use of household mortgage rate expectations at three different horizons, which enables an explicit modelling of the “term-structure” of household forecasts. |
| Keywords: | Survey data; Household expectations; Mortgage rates. |
| JEL: | E40 G21 |
| Date: | 2017–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2017_009&r=ure |
| By: | Eduardo Minuci (West Virginia University, Department of Economics); Amir B. Ferreira Neto (West Virginia University, Department of Economics); Joshua Hall (West Virginia University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | West Virginia schools are consistently below the national average on the NAEP. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we estimate the technical efficiency of West Virginia school districts. We find less variation in technical efficiency in West Virginia than in similar studies conducted in other states. This appears to be because of state policy imposing homogeneity of input usage. Due to the limited variation in technical efficiency across districts, we cannot analyze how non-school inputs such as socioeconomic factors affect technical efficiency across districts. Summary statistics organized by county economic status, however, suggest that socioeconomic status plays a role. Our results highlight an important limitation of DEA analysis on schools. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis, Efficiency, Government, Public Schools |
| JEL: | H41 H76 I29 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wvu:wpaper:17-28&r=ure |
| By: | Holger Graf (FSU Jena) |
| Abstract: | The article serves as an introduction to the empirical analysis of innovation or knowledge networks based on patent data with a particular focus on regional networks. I provide a review of the literature of innovation networks and how it connects to systemic approaches within the field of innovation studies. The SNA methodology is introduced by performing a comparative regional network study based on the publicly available OECD patent databases. |
| Keywords: | Regional Innovation, Network Analysis, Patent Data |
| JEL: | L14 O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2017–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2017-016&r=ure |
| By: | Stefan C. Wolter (University of Bern, CESifo, IZA); Maria Zumbuehl (University of Bern) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we follow the students that took the PISA 2012 test in Switzerland and analyze their transition into and progress in upper-secondary education. We observe a substantive difference in the rate of progress between natives and students with a migration background. One year after leaving compulsory school, the gap between the natives and migrants that are on-track - entering the second year of upper-secondary education - is 15 percentage points. Observable differences in cognitive and non-cognitive skills can explain the gap in the success rate within upper-secondary education, but cannot fully explain the difference in the transition rate into upper-secondary education. More refined analyses present results that are consistent with the hypotheses of differences in tastes, aspirations and incomplete or inaccurate information about the education system explaining the gap in the transition into post-compulsory education. |
| Keywords: | education, migration, occupational choice |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J24 J62 J71 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0139&r=ure |
| By: | Colas, Mark (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis); Hutchinson, Kevin (eBay Inc.) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the incidence and efficiency of a progressive income tax in a spatial equilibrium. We use US census data to estimate an empirical spatial equilibrium with heterogeneous workers, landowners, and firms. The US income tax shifts skilled workers out of high-productivity cities, leading to a deadweight loss of 2% of tax revenue. Flattening the tax schedule significantly increases welfare inequality between skilled and unskilled workers and does not increase overall worker welfare, as the efficiency gains are captured by landowners. This suggests that progressive income taxes reduce welfare inequality without reducing total worker welfare. |
| Keywords: | Tax incidence; Worker heterogeneity; Local labor markets |
| JEL: | H22 J31 R13 |
| Date: | 2017–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:0003&r=ure |
| By: | Sawada Yasuyuki; Mahmud Minhaj; Seki Mai; Le An; Kawarazaki Hikaru |
| Abstract: | This paper reports on the results from a field experiment that tests the effectiveness of the globally popular Kumon learning method in improving the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of disadvantaged pupils in Bangladesh. Using a randomized control trial design, we study the impact of this individualized self-learning approach among third and fourth graders studying at BRAC non-formal primary schools. The results show that students of both grades in the treatment schools record substantial and significant improvement in their cognitive abilities as measured by two different mathematics tests (Kumon diagnostic test score per minute and proficiency test score) after a period of 8 months, compared to students in the control schools. In terms of non-cognitive abilities, the results give some evidence of positive and significant impacts, particularly on the self-confidence of the pupils. Interestingly, this intervention also had a positive and significant impact on the ability of teachers’ to assess their students’ performance. Overall our results suggest the wider applicability of a properly designed non-formal education program in solving the learning crisis in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | education, self-learning, cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, developing countries, randomized control trial |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:156&r=ure |
| By: | Sumit Joshi (George Washington University); Sudipta Sarangi (Virginia Tech); Ahmed Saber Mahmud (Johns Hopkins University) |
| Abstract: | Economic agents are typically connected to others in multiple network relationships, and the archi- tecture of one network could be shaped by connections in other networks. This paper examines the formation of one network when connections in a second network are inherited under two scenarios: (i) the inherited network is asymmetric allowing for a wide range of graphs called nested split graphs, and (ii) the inherited network is a symmetric type of network belonging to a subclass of regular graphs. Both the inherited and endogenously formed networks are interdependent because the respective actions in each are (weak) strategic complements. This property is su¢ cient to show that those who inherit high centrality will continue to have high centrality. Additionally, the network formed by the agents induces a coarser partition than the inherited network, suggesting the possibility of being able to improve network centrality, but only in a limited manner. Thus, our analysis explains preferential attachment and why inequality is often entrenched in society, how asymmetries in one network may be magniÖed or diminished in another, and what determines the identity of players occupying the various vertices of asymmetric equilibrium networks. |
| Keywords: | Network formation, multigraphs, strategic complementarities, Katz-Bonacich centrality, nested split graphs |
| JEL: | C72 D85 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2017-27&r=ure |
| By: | BARONE, Adriana (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy); NESE, Annamaria (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy) |
| Abstract: | This study reports new evidence on the association between educational outcomes for young adults in Italy (in terms of both schooling levels and type of education) and selected health behaviours (simultaneously taken). The results indicate the following: i) individuals who decide to stay at school longer also do things that improve their own health, such as not smoking, practicing physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and low consumption of unhealthy food (snacks, cakes, etc.), thereby confirming complementarities between investment in education and health (Fuchs, 2004, Becker 2007); and ii) particularly for females, a positive association is observed between the choice of Sciences vs. Humanities, a normal body weight and the adoption of healthy behaviours (not smoking, practising physical activity, and consuming healthy food). |
| Keywords: | Human capital; Education; Health Behaviour; Gender; Microeconometrics |
| JEL: | C25 I12 I21 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:0146&r=ure |
| By: | Frédéric Docquier (FNRS & IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; FERDI, France); Aysıt Tansel (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Bonn, Germany; Economic Research Forum (ERF) Cairo, Egypt); Riccardo Turati (IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA countries self-select on cultural traits such as religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes.To do so, we use Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs, migration aspirations,short-run migration plans, and preferred destination choices. We find that individuals who intend to emigrate to OECD, high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population.They also share more gender-egalitarian views, although the effect only holds among the young (aged 15 to 30), among single women, and in countries with a Sunni minority. For countries mostly affected by Arab Spring, since 2011 the degree of cultural selection has decreased. Nevertheless,the aggregate effects of cultural selection should not be overestimated. Overall, self-selection along cultural traits has limited (albeit non negligible) effects on the average characteristics of the population left behind, and on the cultural distance between natives and immigrants in the OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | International migration, self-selection, cultural traits, gender-egalitarian attitudes, religiosity, MENA region. |
| JEL: | F22 O15 J61 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1713&r=ure |
| By: | Catia Batista; Julia Seither; Pedro C. Vicente |
| Abstract: | What is the role of international migrants and, more specifically, of migrant networks in shaping the quality of political institutions in migrant sending countries? Our theory proposes that migration might change individual social identities and in this way intrinsic motivation for political participation, while it may also improve knowledge about better quality political institutions. Hence, international migration might increase political awareness and participation both by migrants and by other individuals in their networks. To test this hypothesis, this paper uses several survey and behavioral measures related to political participation and electoral knowledge. These data were purposely collected around the time of the 2009 elections in Mozambique. The empirical results show that the number of migrants an individual is in close contact through regular chatting within a village significantly increase political participation of residents in that village – more so than family links to migrants. Our findings are consistent with both improved knowledge about political processes, and increased intrinsic motivation for political participation being transmitted through migrant networks. JEL codes: D72, F22, O15 |
| Keywords: | International migration, social networks, political participation, information, effects of emigration in origin countries, sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:novafr:wp1701&r=ure |
| By: | Jean Bonnet (Normandie University, UNICAEN, CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France); Sana El Harbi (University of Sousse (Tunisia)); Faten Gazzah (Normandie University, UNICAEN, CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France and University of Sousse (Tunisia)) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between the presence of micro-enterprises and regional development, as measured by a validated index of regional development, at the level of Tunisian delegations (small-scaled regions). Applying spatial measures and spatial econometric techniques on a data set of 262 delegations, our results show that in disadvantaged areas, a higher micro-enterprise presence is positively related to regional development. However, in relatively higher developed areas of Tunisia, micro-enterprises appear to play only a marginal role in regional development. Our results emphasise the importance of attracting large, capital-intensive firms in efficiency-driven economies like Tunisia. Nevertheless, although not quite a replacement for large firms, our results also show the important and positive role that micro-enterprises can play in regions where large, capital-intensive firms are absent. |
| Keywords: | Micro-enterprises, Tunisia, regional development, spatial autocorrelation, spatial heterogeneity |
| JEL: | L26 R11 C21 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:2017-14&r=ure |
| By: | Abdurrahman B. Aydemir (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University, IZA, CREAM-UCL); Hakki Yazici (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides two contributions to the study of intergenerational mobility. First, we render a thorough characterization of education mobility in Turkey at the national level, including a three-generation mobility analysis. We find that the education mobility is significantly lower in Turkey compared to developed economies. Second, by exploiting large regional variation in the level of economic development across Turkey, we find that intergenerational education persistence is lower for females who grow up in more developed regions. The evidence is mixed for males. Interestingly, the development level of place of residence during earlier stages of childhood has much stronger association with education mobility compared to development level of place of residence during later stages. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, education, economic development, three generations. |
| JEL: | J6 I2 R0 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1717&r=ure |
| By: | Giuseppe Attanasi; Alessandro Bucciol; Simona Cicognani; Natalia Montinari |
| Abstract: | We present novel data on the perception of dishonesty in the public sector in Italy, from a survey we carried out in August 2017. They concern a sample of about 1,000 attendees at a mass-gathering music festival in Southern Italy, whose audience includes a relevant fraction of subjects residing in North Italy. The survey includes questions on perceived dishonesty at both an institutional and social dimension. We measure whether regional differences in the perception of dishonesty persist even when controlling for generalized trust, the quality of institutions at the regional level, as well as socio-demographic characteristics. We find that respondents from the North or living abroad perceive lower level of dishonesty in the public sector compared to respondents from the South. Once objective measures of corruption and governance at the regional level are accounted for, the geographical gap disappears, while generalized trust still matters. This evidence suggests that individual and geographic differences in generalized trust must be taken into account as they can affect the support for policy interventions aimed at reducing dishonesty in the public sector. |
| Keywords: | Cultural event; Corruption; Dishonest behavior; Generalized Trust; Italy. |
| JEL: | A13 D73 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2017-32&r=ure |
| By: | Jonathan M.V. Davis |
| Abstract: | Many labor markets have adopted centralized clearinghouses using variants of the deferred acceptance algorithm (DAA) in hopes of improving market outcomes. Despite the prevalence of these clearinghouses, evidence of their impacts is limited. This paper presents the first evidence from a field experiment of the impacts of adopting the DAA on short- and long-run match outcomes from a new application of market design. I worked with Teach for America (TFA) to match high school teachers to schools in Chicago using the DAA at a series of âinterview days,â while keeping its original âFirst Offer Mechanismâ (FOM) unchanged for elementary school teachers. I show that the FOM gives almost no autonomy to teachers and promotes strategic early hiring in theory and in practice. In contrast, the variant of the DAA I implemented allows teachers to pick their most preferred offer and I show that it is non-manipulable via preferences by either teachers or schools. I use a difference-in-difference strategy - comparing changes in outcomes over time for TFA high school teachers to the change among TFA elementary school teachers in Chicago - to measure the impact of adopting the DAA on short-run outcomes, like matches, hiring, sorting across schools, and preferences over matches, and on three long-run outcomes: teachersâ retention, satisfaction, and performance. I find that adopting the DAA reduces attrition through teachersâ two-year commitment to TFA by 9.9 percentage points (pp). This effect is driven by a 7.2 pp reduction in attrition prior to TFAâs initial summer training. While teachers were happier, they were not more productive. Using TFAâs preferred performance metric, I estimate that teachers who could have been matched with the DAA were 0.3 standard deviations less effective in their first year, but were nearly equally effective in their second year. However, up to two thirds of the decline in first-year performance can be attributed to the DAA shifting teachers to schools with lower average performance. The decline is not explained by higher retention among lower performing teachers. Revealed preference suggests the DAA was better for TFA Chicago: it was used at all of its interview days in 2015 and 2016. |
| JEL: | I2 L3 M12 |
| Date: | 2017–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2017:pda791&r=ure |
| By: | Cattan, Sarah (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London,); Kamhofer, Daniel A. (Paderborn University); Karlsson, Martin (CINCH); Nilsson, Therese (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Instructional time is seen as an important determinant of school performance, but little is known about the effects of student absence. Combining historical records and administrative data for Swedish individuals born in the 1930s, we examine the impacts of absence in elementary school on short-term academic performance and long-term socio-economic outcomes. Our siblings and individual fixed effects estimates suggest absence has a moderate adverse effect on academic performance. The detrimental effect fades out over time. While absence negatively correlates with final education, income and longevity, we only find robust evidence that it lowers the probability of employment at age 25–30. |
| Keywords: | Absence in school; Educational performance; Long-term effects; Register data |
| JEL: | C23 I14 I21 |
| Date: | 2017–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1188&r=ure |
| By: | Heeringa, Willem (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | The four essays collected in this PhD thesis concern pay-as-you-go pension schemes, demographics, fiscal policy, credit constraints and house prices. The first essay shows how a pay-as-you-go pension scheme affects an individual’s optimal investment portfolio over the lifecycle. The second essay investigates policy options to keep the pay-as-you-go pension scheme in the Netherlands (AOW scheme) sustainable in the face of increasing longevity, declining fertility rates and changes in labour participation. The third essay demonstrates how tax-benefit policies impact aggregate consumption in a world of heterogeneous consumers, profit maximizing banks and imperfect information about future income shocks. The fourth essay studies the joint effect of changes in credit constraints, user cost and demographic factors on regional house prices in the Netherlands in conjunction with changes in the housing stock. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:da6000ea-c220-46e6-a78d-3ae595abd749&r=ure |
| By: | Luciana Méndez (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the extent to which Uruguayan youths’ economic dissatisfaction drives intention to migrate by exploring those factors that can affect people's economic satisfaction. Causality is explored using instrumental variable analysis and conditional mixed process estimations. The findings of this study point to a causal negative relationship from economic satisfaction to youths’ desires to migrate. Also, results highlight the importance of subjective and objective income, individuals’ perceptions of the opportunities available in the country regarding social mobility, job access, housing, and adequate income, in shaping youths’ reported economic satisfaction and therefore their desire to migrate. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being, intention to migrate, Uruguay |
| JEL: | F22 I31 J10 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-12-17&r=ure |
| By: | Munford, L.A.; Fichera, E.; Sutton, M.; |
| Abstract: | Little is known about the causal effects of home ownership on health. We exploit the 'Right to Buy' policy in England as a source of exogenous variation in the ownership decision. The policy gave secure long-term tenants of publicly rented housing a discount in order to encourage them to buy their home. We assess the health and well-being impacts of this ownership decision by considering a macro and micro level analysis. In both analyses, home ownership is associated with higher levels of health and well-being. At the macro-level, local authorities with higher ownership rates had lower rates of people reporting having a longstanding health condition and also lower average counts of the number of health conditions reported by individuals. At the micro-level, becoming a homeowner reduced the number of self-reported health conditions by 0.65, increased self-assessed health by 0.19 points on a ve-point scale, and increased General Health Questionnaire scores by 1.46 points on a 37-point scale. These results are robust to a number of assumptions. Further models suggest that the mechanisms through which home ownership aects health may operate via the labour markets with new job opportunities, extra time saved travelling and resources available for healthy leisure activities. |
| Keywords: | Home ownership; Health and Well-being; Right to Buy; |
| JEL: | H70 I10 I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:17/28&r=ure |
| By: | Vadym Volosovych (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Carolina Villegas Sanchez (ESADE Business School); Bent Sorensen (University of Houston); Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | We identify knowledge spillovers from foreign investment to domestic firms using novel measures of ``closeness'' of foreign-owned and domestic and domestic firms in product space and in technology space. We rely on a new data set that spans six advanced countries connecting firms internationally in order to, a) separate competition effects on domestic firms from knowledge spillovers when domestic and foreign-owned firms are close in product space, and b) identify spillovers from foreign-owned firms that are close to domestic firms in technology space. We find strong negative competition effects on domestic firms that produce in the same {four-digit} sector as the foreign firms and positive knowledge spillovers to domestic firms operating in the same {two-digit} sector (but in different four-digit sectors). Using a measure of ``technological closeness,'' building on the work of Bloom, Schankerman, and van Reenen (2013), we find significant knowledge spillovers to firms which are close in technology space. On average, knowledge spillovers explain 60 percent of the total factor productivity improvement for domestic firms that are technologically close to foreign firms. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:1194&r=ure |
| By: | Dorothée Allain-Dupré (OECD); Claudia Hulbert (OECD); Margaux Vincent (OECD) |
| Abstract: | Public investment is one of the fiscal tools with the strongest impacts on growth over the long term. However, public investment is in decline compared to the period prior to the 2008 global financial crisis in many OECD countries, and particularly in the EU. The main explanation for the decreased resources available for investment comes from the expenditure side. Subnational governments (SNGs)—defined as all levels of government (regional and local) below the national level, are responsible for a large share of public investment: on average, around 60 per cent in the OECD. Most of this public investment goes to infrastructure. This particular role of SNGs poses specific challenges for both the financing and governance of infrastructure investment. This paper focuses on subnational public investment in OECD countries and the EU, and shows that subnational governments have decreased their capital expenditures after 2010. This adjustment has been larger than at the central government level. The paper argues that only a limited diversification of public investment financing has occurred since 2010. The paper also argues that, beyond the sheer volume of investment spending, the governance of subnational investment is essential to efficient public investment. Based on a 2015 survey of 255 subnational governments in the EU, this paper explores specific challenges that subnational governments encounter in managing capital expenditures, , and possible ways to improve the quality of governance of subnational investments. |
| Keywords: | Cities, Governance, Infrastructure, Investment, Regional, Regional Economics, Territorial |
| JEL: | H7 |
| Date: | 2017–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:govaab:2017/05-en&r=ure |
| By: | Alexander M. Bell; Raj Chetty; Xavier Jaravel; Neviana Petkova; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We characterize the factors that determine who becomes an inventor in America by using de-identified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records. We establish three sets of results. First, children from high-income (top 1%) families are ten times as likely to become inventors as those from below-median income families. There are similarly large gaps by race and gender. Differences in innate ability, as measured by test scores in early childhood, explain relatively little of these gaps. Second, exposure to innovation during childhood has significant causal effects on children's propensities to become inventors. Growing up in a neighborhood or family with a high innovation rate in a specific technology class leads to a higher probability of patenting in exactly the same technology class. These exposure effects are gender-specific: girls are more likely to become inventors in a particular technology class if they grow up in an area with more female inventors in that technology class. Third, the financial returns to inventions are extremely skewed and highly correlated with their scientific impact, as measured by citations. Consistent with the importance of exposure effects and contrary to standard models of career selection, women and disadvantaged youth are as under-represented among high-impact inventors as they are among inventors as a whole. We develop a simple model of inventors' careers that matches these empirical results. The model implies that increasing exposure to innovation in childhood may have larger impacts on innovation than increasing the financial incentives to innovate, for instance by cutting tax rates. In particular, there are many “lost Einsteins” — individuals who would have had highly impactful inventions had they been exposed to innovation. |
| JEL: | E0 H0 J0 O3 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24062&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark; Orla Doyle; Elena Stancanelli |
| Abstract: | A growing literature concludes that terrorism impacts the economy, yet less is known about its impact on utility. This paper estimates the impact of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing on well-being, by exploiting representative U.S. daily data. Using both a regression discontinuity and an event study design, whereby the 2012 Boston marathon serves as a counterfactual, we find a sharp reduction in well-being, equivalent to a two percentage point rise in annual unemployment. The effect is stronger for women and those living in nearby States, but does not persist beyond one week, thus demonstrating the resilience of well-being to terrorism. |
| Keywords: | Well-being; Terrorism; Regression discontinuity design; Differences-in-differences |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J22 F52 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201717&r=ure |