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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Luca Casolaro (Bank of Italy); Cristina Fabrizi (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The national pattern of house price dynamics masks considerable heterogeneity across local areas and markets; disparities are even higher looking at house price levels. In this paper we describe these structural differences across Italy, with particular focus on the role of metropolitan areas over the last 50 years. Our analysis shows that housing cycles differ across geographical areas and urban agglomerations both in depth and length. Cycles reflect metropolises’ price dynamics in all the macro-areas except the South, where the biggest cities and the other towns exhibit similar dynamics. Geographical disparities are even stronger if we turn to price levels: following a period of relative convergence in the second half of the 1990s, the gap between areas widened again. Finally, using data covering the last decade, we analyse house price heterogeneity across areas, including the hinterland of metropolises, taking into account the contribution of a set of relevant socio-economic characteristics, the first one being income, to the distribution of house prices. |
| Keywords: | housing cycles, urban agglomeration, geographical house price gap. |
| JEL: | R10 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_456_18&r=ure |
| By: | Are Oust; Eidjord Ole Martin |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to test whether Google search volume indices can be used to predict house prices and to identify bubbles in the housing market. We analyse the 06/07 U.S. housing bubble, taking advantage of the hetrogenius house price development in different U.S. states with both bubble and non-bubble states. From 204 housing related keywords, we test both single search terms and indexes with sets of search terms and finds that the several keywords preforms very well as a bubble indicator. Google search for Real Estate Agent displayed the most predictive power for the house prices, of all the keywords and indexes tested, globally in the US. Google searches volume outperforms the well-established Consumer Confidence Index as a leading indicator for the housing market. |
| Keywords: | Google search volume; Google Trends; Housing; Housing Bubble; Price predication |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_151&r=ure |
| By: | Lucia Gibilaro; Gianluca Mattarocci |
| Abstract: | The existence of brownfield areas inside a city has negative effects on the real estate market due to the decrease of the demand for real estate assets nearby for both the prices and rents.The impact could be different on the basis of the different type of real estate investment considered and normally the impact is expected to be higher for residential assets. The paper evaluates the economic effect of abandoned real estate in the city of Milan for the time period 1993-2016 and shows that the city is characterised by a concentration of abandoned/dismissed assets in some city districts. Using standard hedonic models, the paper shows that the existence of brownfield areas nearby a real estate asset affects negatively its price and the negative contribution on price could be even higher than some district/building features. |
| Keywords: | Brownfield areas; Hedonic price model; Housing Price |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_271&r=ure |
| By: | Meurers, Martin; Moenius, Johannes |
| Abstract: | We analyze productivity enhancing public expenditure in a spatial economic model with labor mobility, firm-specific increasing returns to scale, and transport costs. Building on Krugman (1991), Fujita, Krugman and Venables (1999) and Redding (2016), we compare optimal investment and tax policies of fiscally autonomous regions to those of a benevolent central planer. We find transport costs and the size of scale effects to influence optimal tax and spending rates under both regimes. For sufficiently low transport costs and low substitutability between manufactured goods, regional fiscal autonomy leads to underinvestment: The lower the transport costs, the lower the local investment, and the higher the potential welfare gain through centralized policies. Our results challenge the view that local public goods should be financed entirely by local governments. They also help explain the recent decline of public investment at the municipal level in fiscally decentralized countries like Germany. |
| Keywords: | quantitative spatial economics,public investment,fiscal federalism |
| JEL: | R12 R53 H72 H77 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181579&r=ure |
| By: | Marcelo Cajias; Anna Heller |
| Abstract: | "Hot" and "cold" market cycles on the real estate market are characterized by co-movements between rents and liquidity. Substantial deviations from these phases signal either overrented or underrented expectations by landlords or drastic changes in tenants' housing demand. Since a general market liquidity indicator is missing, this paper develops hedonic rental and liquidity indices to explore their co-movements along the real estate market cycle. Based on a Granger test the paper determines a lead-lag relation between rent and liquidity indices in order to explain the contemporaneous rent-liquidity causality. By making use of more than half million observations, the paper further explores the response of the indices in presence of exogenous variables from 2013 to 2017. |
| Keywords: | Granger causality; Hot and cold markets; Liquidity index; Rent-liquidity correlation; Rental index |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_54&r=ure |
| By: | Elias Oikarinen |
| Abstract: | This study provides theoretical consideration and empirical estimation of the crowding out effects of subsidized housing supply at the city level. In particular, the aim is to explore the influence of subsidized housing stock on supply and prices in the non-subsidized housing sector. The empirical analysis is based on data for 1995-2015 for a panel of ten largest Finnish cities, all of which have a considerable supply of subsidized housing offering rental dwellings at lower than market rents. The empirical results indicate that, on average, one more subsidized dwelling is associated with 0.4 fewer non-subsidized dwellings. While the influence on non-subsidized housing prices could be either positive or negative in theory, the effect is price decreasing in the Finnish case. The study contributes to the very scarce scientific literature on crowding out effects of subsidized housing and appears to be the first one to distinguish between the crowding out impact that takes place through the influence via demand for non-subsidized housing vs. the supply curve effect. |
| Keywords: | Crowding out; Housing; supply |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_302&r=ure |
| By: | Ferdinand Rauch |
| Abstract: | P. Brandily, F. Rauch Roads are essential to facilitate interactions in cities. A sub-optimal road layout in cities and towns may inhibit interactions and constrain urban population growth. Using data from over 1800 cities and towns from Sub-Saharan Africa, and an instrument based on the history of foundation ages of cities in Africa, we study the relationship between the road layout of a city and its population growth. We show that cities characterised by low road density in the city centre experience less population growth in recent decades. |
| Keywords: | Road layout, Urban planning, Urbanization, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | O18 R4 |
| Date: | 2018–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:859&r=ure |
| By: | Jinghua Lei (School of Finance,Renmin University of China); Jenny Ligthart (deceased); Mark Rider (Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies); Ruixin Wang (School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of fiscal fragmentation on crime and its spatial distribution among jurisdictions in metropolitan areas in the United States. We begin by developing a positive model of local government provision of public safety, in which fiscal fragmentation influences the provision of public safety through three channels: X-efficiency, interjurisdictional-spillover effects, and Tiebout-sorting effects. Our model predicts that fiscal fragmentation creates an efficiency-equity trade-off in the provision of public safety. To investigate this tradeoff, we estimate several a variety of models using U.S. county-level, panel data drawn from a sample of metropolitan areas for census years 1990, 2000, and 2010. Our findings suggest that fiscal fragmentation has a negative effect on the aggregated crime rate in a metropolitan area which we interpret as evidence of an increase in efficiency. We also find that fiscal fragmentation increases the disparities in crime rates among jurisdictions in a metropolitan area. To further explore the underlying mechanisms, we examine interjurisdictional-spillover and Tiebout-sorting effects of fiscal fragmentation in a Spatial-Autoregressive Durbin model with multiplicative spatial interaction terms. Since conventional estimation methods are not suitable for the task at hand, we derive an innovative Maximum Likelihood Estimator for our empirical model. As predicted by the theory, we find strong evidence that both interjurisdictional spillover and Tiebout-sorting effects have a positive effect on the spatial correlation in crime rates among jurisdictions in a metropolitan area. |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1821&r=ure |
| By: | Indaco, Agustín (CUNY Graduate Center); Ortega, Francesc (Queens College, CUNY); Taspinar, Süleyman (Queens College, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the role of food insurance on the housing markets of coastal cities. To do so we have assembled a parcel-level dataset including the universe of residential sales for three coastal urban areas in the United States – Miami-Dade county (2008- 2015), New York city (2003-2016), and Virginia Beach (2000-2016) – matched with their FEMA food maps, which characterize the food risk level for each property. First, we compare trends in housing values and sales activity among properties on the foodplain, as defined by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), relative to properties located elsewhere within the same city. Despite the heightened food risk in the last two decades, we did not find evidence of divergent trends, suggesting that food insurance may have cushioned the effects of the increase in food risk. Secondly, we analyze the effects of the recent reforms to the NFIP. In 2012 and 2014, Congress passed legislation that led to important increases in insurance premia and updates of food maps. We fail to find an effect of increases in premia on the values of foodplain properties in Virginia Beach and Miami-Dade, but we do find evidence of an effect in New York coinciding with the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. We also find some evidence of price changes for properties that experienced a change in risk classification in the new FEMA food maps. We conclude that the full effects of the 2012-2014 food insurance reforms have not yet taken place but will probably materialize in the future. |
| Keywords: | climate change, real estate, cities, flood insurance |
| JEL: | H56 K42 R33 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11810&r=ure |
| By: | Heiko Kirchhain; Joachim Zietz |
| Abstract: | The study demonstrates that real estate prices react in a statistically significant manner to exogenous announcement effects that may affect regional employment opportunities. We analyze the impact of the announcement of the VW emissions scandal on 9/18/2015 on house prices in the vicinity of Chattanooga, TN, the location of the only current VW production plant in the United States using quantile regression-analysis. Our results indicate that the announcement of the VW emission scandal lowered average, quality adjusted sale prices by an average of 3.3 percent 31 to 60 days after the announcement and by 4.5 percent after 61 to 90 days. There are no statistically significant effects after 90 days. The quantile regressions show that in particular the mid-price range is negatively influenced by this exogenous shock. Our robustness checks show that the price impact increases with proximity to the production plant. |
| Keywords: | Announcement effect; Hedonic house price model; Quantile Regression; VW emission scandal |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_204&r=ure |
| By: | Yang Pan (E. J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University,Baton Rouge, LA 70803 U.S.A.); LiangFei Qiu (Warrington College of Business University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32612 U.S.A.) |
| Abstract: | Sharing economy reshapes the distribution of unused or underutilized asset through digital platforms to individuals who are willing to pay for the services. The new economy model has introduced dramatic impact on the traditional industries by matching the demand and supply in real time. In this paper, we examine how the entry of Uber, a ride-sharing services digital platform, influences the demand of public transportation. Significant debate has surrounded whether the new ride-sharing model siphoned riders from public transit, or made transit feasible for more riders. However, limited empirical research has been done to uncover whether Uber is helping or hurting public transportation systems. Leveraging a natural experiment setting, the entry of Uber, with a difference-in-differences approach, we find a significant drop in the number of passenger trips with bus. Further, our results suggest that the effect of Uber is not uniform – the reduction in bus passenger trips is mitigated when the proportion of old age people in a local urban area is large; the decrease is amplified when the populations of disable people, including with language difficulty, and self-employed people are large. However, the moderating effect of poverty is mixed. We discuss the implications for research and practice. |
| Keywords: | Uber, digital platform, sharing economy, ride-sharing services, public transportation, difference-in-differences, natural experiment |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1811&r=ure |
| By: | Markus Mändle; Hannah Schmid |
| Abstract: | During the last few years, several startling mergers have affected the German housing market. This raises the question whether such a concentration process is rational from an economic point of view. A justification of this practice could be the realization of economies of scale, assuming that the average cost for housing companies will reduce perceptibly with the size of the firm. According to Mansley, Ambrose, Fuerst and Wang (2016), economies of scale also exist for European Real Estate Companies. However, they conjecture, that the benefits of increasing scale derive in particular from internal growth, not from M&A activities. Furthermore, they suggest, that the benefits of economies of scale are greater for small companies than for larger companies. We analyze, whether these general across sector findings can be verified in the special case of the German housing industry. Due to eminent data problems, we discuss the possibilities and limits of different methods of measuring economies of scale, such as the cost estimation-approach, the profitability-approach and the survivor-approach. |
| Keywords: | Economies of Scale; Housing; Industrial Organization |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_104&r=ure |
| By: | Brano Glumac; Marcos Herrera-Gomez; Julien Licheron |
| Abstract: | Our objective is to collect a set of variables able to account for the effects of a multitude of land quality factors. In addition, surrounding plots and the natural and built environment might also influence urban land prices. However, most house price and land price indices do not control for any potentially related spatial effects. The urban land price index detailed here is based on land transaction prices for Luxembourg between 2010 and 2014 recorded in notarial deeds and cadastral data, together with geo-spatial characteristics. The proposed index includes many aspects in an initial hedonic and spatial model specification. |
| Keywords: | Hedonic regression; Land Value; Luxembourg; Spatial Durbin error model |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_149&r=ure |
| By: | Andrea Lamorgese (Banca d'Italia); Andrea Petrella (Banca d'Italia) |
| Keywords: | agglomeration economies, urban growth, urban productivity premium |
| JEL: | O18 R11 R23 R30 A A A |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_454_18&r=ure |
| By: | Thies Lindenthal; Joseph Ooi |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether homebuilders take advantage of their local market power by setting higher prices for new units they are selling in the neighbourhood. By virtue of the size of their new developments, homebuilders can often dominate the supply of housing units available for sale in a vicinity. Based on a sample of 854 new private housing developments launched in Singapore between 2003 and 2012, a new development, on average, supplies 44% of the total stock of new unsold housing units in the district. The regression results further show a positive and significant relationship between the market power and the prices of units in the development, which is robust even after controlling for the reputation of the homebuilders. This is consistent with the notion that homebuilders take advantage of their domineering position in the local housing market by setting higher prices. We also observe that homebuilders with strong market power took a longer time to sell their units. The combined findings suggests that homebuilders with strong market power take their time to sell the new units at higher prices. |
| Keywords: | Housing; market power |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_113&r=ure |
| By: | Michelle Norris (School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin); Aideen Hayden (School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The article examines the funding and financial sustainability of local authority provided social housing in Ireland. To do so it draws on: a comprehensive analysis of arrangements for funding the sector and expenditure trends since 1990; comparison of these arrangements with those used to fund social housing in other Western European Countries and case-studies of council housing output, management and maintenance in five local authorities. The argument offered here is that the arrangements used to fund council housing provision are highly unusual in the international context and, although useful in ensuring the affordability of housing for low-income tenants, are very problematic from the perspective of enabling the efficient and affordable delivery, management and maintenance of dwellings. |
| Date: | 2018–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201822&r=ure |
| By: | Doris Hanzl-Weiss (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Mario Holzner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Roman Römisch (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | The German version can be found here. The economies of Vienna and Bratislava have followed quite different development paths over the last decades. While Vienna’s population increased by about 20% within two decades, Bratislava’s population mostly stagnated. However, when measured in GDP per capita at purchasing power parties, average income in Bratislava has surpassed that of Vienna and is now among the top-10 leading regions in Europe. Massive foreign direct investment, particularly in the automotive sector, has created full employment in Bratislava. Nevertheless, Vienna, as one of the world’s most liveable cities, is still attracting more immigration and labour markets are in less favourable conditions. Transport infrastructure between the two close cities has only recently been improving, which has left considerable scope for further reductions in travel time. Regional cooperation is under way and should be reinforced in order to meet the challenges ahead. Mass-emigration of young Slovaks over the last decades will lead to a rapid ageing in Slovakia over the next decades and the working age population is expected to shrink by almost a third by the end of the century, while Austria’s will mostly stagnate. By creating a truly common labour market in the twin-city region, Bratislava could solve the problem of labour shortages and Vienna could solve its youth unemployment problem. Policy recommendations in this respect include inter alia a more substantial improvement of intercity public transport; common educational planning and training programmes; and, commuter allowances during the nominal wage-equalisation-transition. Other major long-run challenges are the ongoing processes of digitalisation and robotisation. Here, policy recommendations include projects of innovation cooperation; coordination of innovation oriented public procurement; and, improvement of transport infrastructure to connect the twin-city region with the rest of the world in order to reap potential future gains from increased economies of scale. |
| Keywords: | Bratislava, Vienna, urban development, regional labour markets, education, R&D, demographic trends, wage differentials, technological change |
| JEL: | O18 R23 I23 J11 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:pnotes:pn:24&r=ure |
| By: | Kwong Wing Chau; Danika Wright; Ervi Liusman |
| Abstract: | Real estate buyers pay a premium for lucky properties. Using a large sample of Hong Kong apartment sales, we show that the transaction price itself is priced as a property attribute when it ends in a lucky 8 digit. This explains our observation of price clustering. Hedonic regression modelling is used to show that properties which sell at a lucky price also sell for a 1.4 percent premium, on average. Unlike lucky floor premium, lucky price premium does not exhibit luxury goods characteristics and is not sensitive property price cycles. This shows that the lucky price premium is attributed to cultural heuristics. The results are robust to alternative model specifications. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics; House Prices; Price endings; Superstition |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_240&r=ure |
| By: | Jonathan Eberle (Department of Geography, Philipps University Marburg); Thomas Brenner (Department of Geography, Philipps University Marburg); Timo Mitze (Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the role played by regional conditioning factors, namely absorptive capacity and economic freedom, for the working of regional policy in Germany. We construct synthetic composite indicators to measure differences in these factors across German regions and stratify regions by their respective values. We then identify the subsample-specific transmission channels of regional policies in a spatial panel vector-autoregressive (VAR) framework and compare the direction and magnitude of effects by impulse-response function analysis and ex-post t-tests. The results point to two main channels of policy impact: While regions with low levels of absorptive capacity and economic freedom benefit from public funding only in terms of a traditional funding channel (i.e. higher investment rates and partly increased human capital levels), the link between regional policy, GDP and technology growth is very weak for these regions. In comparison, our findings hint at significant positive effects on regional GDP per workforce and patent activity for regions with a high absorptive capacity and economic freedom (i.e. a knowledge-based funding channel). This underlines the role of regional conditions for the direction and magnitude of funding effects and should be considered by policy makers as a means to trigger policy effectiveness in times of stagnating or decreasing funding volumes. |
| Keywords: | regional policy, production function, absorptive capacity, economic freedom, SpPVAR, impulse-response functions |
| JEL: | C33 R11 R58 O38 O47 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2018-03&r=ure |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (University College London, Department of Economics and CReAM); Bernd Fitzenberger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin); Markus Zimmermann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we show that, in terms of real disposable income, changes in housing expenditures dramatically exacerbate the trend of income inequality that has risen sharply in Germany since the mid-1990s. More specifically, whereas the 50/10 ratio of net household income increases by 22 percentage points (pp) between 1993 and 2013, it increases by 62 pp for income net of housing expenditures. At the same time, the income share of housing expenditures rises disproportionally for the bottom income quintile and falls for the top quintile. Factors contributing to these trends include a decline in the relative costs of homeownership versus renting, changes in household structure, and residential mobility toward larger cities. Younger cohorts spend more on housing and save less than older cohorts did at the same age, with possibly negative consequences for wealth accumulation, particularly for those at the bottom of the income distribution. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, housing expenditures |
| JEL: | D31 R21 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1816&r=ure |
| By: | Adam Storeygard; Prottoy A. Akbar; Victor Couture; Giles Duranton |
| Abstract: | We develop a methodology to estimate robust city-level vehicular mobility indices, and apply it to 154 Indian cities using 22 million counterfactual trips measured by a web mapping service. There is wide variation in mobility across cities. An exact decomposition shows this variation is driven more by differences in uncongested mobility than congestion. Under plausible assumptions, a onestandarddeviation improvement in uncongested speed creates much more mobility than optimal congestion pricing. Denser and more populated cities are slower, only in part because of congestion. Urban economic development is correlated with better (uncongested and overall) mobility despite worse congestion. |
| Keywords: | urban transportation, roads, traffic, determinants of travel speed, cities |
| JEL: | R41 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0829&r=ure |
| By: | Carolin Fritzsche |
| Abstract: | My goal in researching and writing my dissertation is to learn more about the economic processes that work within the housing market. In Germany, regions differ very drastically in terms of home prices, homeownership rates, vacancy rates and the quality of the housing stock. In my dissertation I attempt to shed light on several of the processes that give rise to or result from this variation. My dissertation is comprised in three main chapters. Although the chapters are distinct works, they are related by their focus on property and housing markets. In particular this thesis tries to understand how differences in vacancy rates, market liquidity and housing prices arise. The overall message that emerges from the body of work is that policy makers should pay close attention to the way that supply and demand interact in markets for property and housing and any regulation can have profound effects which might not be obvious. |
| Keywords: | Housing Economics; Infrastructure; real estate transfer taxes; vacancies |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_322&r=ure |
| By: | Sotirios Thanos; Jean Dubé; Diego Legros |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a comprehensive methodological framework demonstrating that hedonic pricing (HP), comparable sales and nearest neighbours are (constrained) versions of a general spatiotemporal hedonic specification. We meticulously account for existing real estate professional practice, illustrating that it complies with theoretical imperatives and performs well even under informational and computational constraints. The resulting specification of a parsimonious spatiotemporal Durbin model provides superior performance to alternatives, forgoing local submarket issue and multiple sources of bias common in other Hedonic pricing specifications. This framework provides exciting opportunities for further research not only in real estate, but in other applications of HP especially valuing environmental and social externalities. |
| Keywords: | comparable sales; Hedonic Pricing; Spatial econometrics; spatiotemporal; Valuation |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_114&r=ure |
| By: | Tony ShunTe Yuo |
| Abstract: | Tourism has become one of the major strategies for urban or city authority to generate competitiveness. The benefits include increasing incoming tourists, conference and conventional business opportunities, foreign direct investments, establishing operational sites or even headquarters. For local citizens, successful tourism could enhance job opportunities, innovations and normally will induce higher infrastructures qualities. Under current trend of IoT and big data applications, smart tourism is meant to be one of the crucial movements of this century. This research established a spatial database of tourism resources of Taiwan and its major competitors from open data sources to evaluate and reveal the gaps between users’ demands and current tourism data supply. This research focused on Taiwan and its surrounding competitive cities, and examining the methodologies and proper open data environment. The results suggested a more user- orientation open data platform should be considered and the 3D visualized measurements of spatial variety could help users to identify and making tourism decisions. The empirical results also reveal some interesting implications to the determinants of hotel room rates. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration Economies; Data Mining; Spatial Analysis; Visualizing measurements |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_95&r=ure |
| By: | Fan Yang and Jian Xu |
| Abstract: | Many cities around the world are increasingly embedding technological infrastructure in urban spaces. These infrastructures aim to collect vast amounts of data from citizens with an apparent purpose of improving public services. This article discusses privacy concerns generated by China's nationwide smart city campaign and further investigates why China's latest Cybersecurity Law is not adequate to address the risks to citizens' privacy. We argue that there is no functional privacy law in China that would apply to most data collected by smart city infrastructure; nor is there any law that would protect any personal data collected under this framework. We therefore propose practical suggestions to better protect citizens' data in China's ongoing smart city campaign. |
| Keywords: | big data, China, Cybersecurity Law, privacy, smart cities |
| Date: | 2018–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201839&r=ure |
| By: | Makles, Anna; Schneider, Kerstin |
| Abstract: | Noise pollution is detrimental to health and to the cognitive development of children. This is not only true for extreme levels of noise in the neighborhood of an airport but also for traffic noise in urban areas. Using a census of preschool children, we show that children exposed to intensive traffic noise significantly fall behind in terms of school readiness. Being exposed to an additional 10 dB(A) counteracts the benefits to school readiness from about 3 months of kindergarten. We contribute to the literature and the policy debate on noise reduction by working with administrative data and focusing on everyday exposure to noise. The proposed method is easily applied to other regions. We assess the public costs of different abatement instruments and perform a cost-benefit analysis accordingly. It turns out that the commonly used abatement measures—e.g., quiet pavement or noise protection walls in densely populated areas of about 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants per km2—are potentially cost efficient, even under a conservative assessment of the benefits. |
| Keywords: | Noise,child development,early education,abatement,abatement costs |
| JEL: | Q53 I18 H23 H54 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181545&r=ure |
| By: | Stephen Smith (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines the development economics evidence base for insights into policy reforms that would benefit struggling areas in the United States. My focus is on improving education, physical and mental health, infrastructure, and institutions. First, consistent with findings on education policy effectiveness, I propose raising the legal minimum dropout age (prospectively to 19), providing better information about the benefits of completing high school, supporting targeted paraprofessional tutoring, and providing family financial incentives for attending school and graduating from high school. Second, to improve health outcomes in struggling areas, the focus is using and building on existing effective health and nutrition programs and services, identifying ways to include more families who are eligible for but not participating in these programs. Moreover, the recent development and behavioral economics evidence base has extended our understanding of the psychological, cognitive, and economic behavioral lives of the poor; the literature highlights the ways that poverty can impede cognitive functioning, with implications for policies to uplift lagging U.S. areas. Third, a review of evidence on the benefits of improving lagging rural and urban area transportation infrastructure points to the likely benefits of improved connectivity for lagging U.S. areas: reversing the legacy of past discriminatory policies, encouraging sector-based clusters, and extending access to high-speed internet. Finally, the chapter highlights the relevance of some cross-cutting themes in development economics, including the high returns to reliable household microdata and the importance of improving institutions to enable more inclusive, substantial, and lasting progress. |
| Keywords: | Economic Development, Poverty, Household Behavior, Human Development, Education, Health, Health Behavior, Infrastructure, Welfare Programs, Government Policy, Institutions |
| JEL: | D10 H31 I12 I15 I18 I25 I28 I38 H54 O17 O18 O51 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2018-7&r=ure |
| By: | Karlsson, Martin; Schwarz, Nina; Fischer, Martin; Nilsson, Therese |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact on earnings, pensions, and further labor market outcomes of two parallel educational reforms increasing instructional time in Swedish primary school. The reforms extended the annual term length and compulsory schooling by comparable amounts. We find striking differences in the effects of the two reforms: at 5%, the returns to the term length extension were at least half as high as OLS returns to education and benefited broad ranges of the population. The compulsory schooling extension had small (2%) albeit significant effects, which were possibly driven by an increase in post-compulsory schooling. Both reforms led to increased sorting into occupations with heavy reliance on basic skills. |
| Keywords: | Educational reforms,Compulsory schooling,Term length,Returns to Education |
| JEL: | J24 J31 I28 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181576&r=ure |
| By: | Laura Conti (Bank of Italy); Elena Gennari (Bank of Italy); Fabio Quintiliani (Bank of Italy); Roberto Rassu (Bank of Italy); Elena Sceresini (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We study the implementation of the tourist tax in Italian municipalities, highlighting the link between its reach and the inbound tourist flows. The reference period is the year 2016. Municipalities with the tourist tax in 2016 are only one ninth of all Italian municipalities and one sixth of those eligible to do so, but they attract 70 per cent of inbound tourists. Revenues are on average about 4 per cent of all local taxation (around €20 per resident). Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice head the municipalities in terms of revenues. In fact, although these four towns only account for 7 per cent of total nights spent by tourists in Italy, their revenue share is over 50 per cent. A simple econometric estimation shows that the probability of introducing a tourist tax in a municipality is highly correlated to the tourist attractions of the local area and to the same tax being applied in the neighbouring municipalities, suggesting possible strategic interaction between them |
| Keywords: | ecotax, tourist tax, local taxation, lodging tax |
| JEL: | H23 H71 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_453_18&r=ure |
| By: | Anthony Orlando |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the extent to which credit market shocks affect different quantiles in the housing price distribution. We use the new "recentered influence function" methodology to recover the unconditional distribution of housing prices in response to (1) unexpected monetary policy decisions and (2) changes in credit supply. We find that tight monetary policy leads to an increase in housing prices across most of the distribution, with larger increases for higher-priced homes, resulting in an increase in price dispersion. In contrast, increases in loan volume lead to higher home prices across the entire distribution, with the largest increases for the mid-priced homes. Importantly, we show that the credit supply effect changes during the 2000-2006 "bubble" period, leading to higher prices at the bottom of the distribution. These price effects are large and significant -- and can explain much of the change in wealth inequality over time. More generally, they challenge the common assumption that policies can be properly evaluated by average effects and that housing affordability can be sufficiently summarized by median statistics. |
| Keywords: | credit market; Housing Prices; Monetary Policy; Mortgage; wealth inequality |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_182&r=ure |
| By: | Llopis, Oscar; D’Este, Pablo; Adrián A. Díaz-Faes |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between personal network characteristics and innovation performance. Specifically, it investigates the effects of two properties of personal networks on actors’ propensities to engage in innovation activities: network sparseness and network diversity. The study contributes also to decoupling social network structure and individual agency (i.e. tertius iungens orientation) as critical factors influencing engagement in innovation. The study highlights the importance of a particular strategic behavioral orientation of individuals to coordinate and mobilize network resources to foster the implementation of innovative ideas. Our findings show an inverted U-shaped relationship between network sparseness, network diversity and innovation, and a positive moderating role of a tertius iungens orientation on the curvilinear relationship between both network properties and innovation. Our hypotheses are tested on a large sample of Spanish biomedical scientists working in diverse institutional settings. |
| Keywords: | network sparseness, network diversity, brokerage, tertius iungens, innovation |
| Date: | 2018–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201801&r=ure |
| By: | Bothello , Joel (ESSEC Business School); Mehrpouya, Afshin (HEC Paris - Accounting and Management Control Department) |
| Abstract: | Recent contributions in the domains of governance and regulation elucidate the importance of rule-intermediation (RI), the role that organizations adopt to bridge actors playing regulatory or “rule-making” (RM) roles, and those adopting target or “rule-taking” (RT) roles. Intermediation not only enables diffusion and translation of regulatory norms, but also allows for the representation of different actors in policy-making arenas. While prior studies have explored the roles that such RIs adopt to facilitate their intermediation functions, we have yet to consider how field-level structuring processes influence (and are influenced by) the various and changing roles adopted by RIs. In this study, we focus on the mutually constitutive relations between field-level change processes and the evolving roles of RIs by studying the rise of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives/Local Governments for Sustainability), an RI serving as a bridge for sustainable urban development policies between the United Nations and urban authorities. Using ICLEI as an illustrate case, we theorize four different processes of regulatory field consolidation and fragmentation including: problematization, role specialization, marketization and orchestrated decentralization. We discuss their implications for the RI roles in the field and further theorize the changing dynamics of trickle-up intermediation processes as an RI gains power and influence. |
| Keywords: | governance; intermediation; rule‐intermediary; sustainable development |
| JEL: | G34 |
| Date: | 2018–07–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1304&r=ure |
| By: | Dragana Cvijanovic |
| Abstract: | In this paper I study the effect of changes in the value of parental housing wealth during children’s teenage years on the parental and children’s financial outcomes and consumption patterns later in life. Increases in the value of home equity when children are teenagers affect the parents’ ability to finance children’s further education as well as other expenditures. In particular, appreciating house prices increase the value of housing equity, which in turn can increase parental investment in their children’s education due to a “wealth” effect, or because the value of their collateral to be used for financing college debt has increased. By using parental and their children’s demographic and financial information from the Panel of Income Dynamics (PSID), I investigate how increases in the housing value just before children turn 18, affect their indebtedness levels later in life, their likelihood of purchasing a house and their predominant choice of financing house purchases, as well as their consumption choices. In particular, I study whether these intergenerational wealth transfers operate through relaxation of financing constraints (the collateral channel), or through increases in wealth (the wealth channel). |
| Keywords: | Homeownership; House Prices; Housing equity; Wealth transfer |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_167&r=ure |
| By: | Carolin Schmidt |
| Abstract: | Poor sanitation and overcrowding have severe impact on the disease environment. This study analyzes the impact of housing prices on physical health, proxied by adult height, during the late 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Using panel data on 14 advanced economies, the empirical results suggest that improved housing quality significantly contributed to human stature by reducing overcrowding and creating better hygienic standards. To be precise, a one standard deviation increase in real house prices translated to 1--1.2 cm taller adult heights---an amount which at that time was associated with 1.2 to 2.1 years of additional life expectancy on average. Also, 15 percent of the average height increase of 10 cm across all countries can be attributed to housing quality. These findings are robust even when income is controlled for. |
| Keywords: | Biological standard of living; Disease environment; Economic history; Health; Housing |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_33&r=ure |
| By: | Martijn Dröes |
| Abstract: | Using a microeconomic model of housing demand, we show that the effect of price increases on demand depends on whether a household trades up or down the property ladder. For a household that trades up the cost effect of a price increase typically outweighs the capital gains effect of such an increase. For a household that trades down the reverse might hold which can lead – in contrast to the standard model of consumer demand – to an upward sloping housing demand curve. This result is in line with the idea that housing is both a consumption and investment good and occurs even in the absence of down-payment constraints and nominal loss aversion. Nested logit regressions of residential mobility on housing capital gains support these findings. |
| Keywords: | decomposition; housing capital gains; Housing demand; residential mobility; upward sloping demand curves |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_267&r=ure |
| By: | Yanez-Pagans, Patricia (IDB Invest); Martinez, Daniel (Inter-American Development Bank); Mitnik, Oscar A. (Inter-American Development Bank); Scholl, Lynn (Inter-American Development Bank); Vazquez, Antonia (Universidad de San Andrés) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the transportation challenges that urban areas in Latin America and the Caribbean face and reviews the causal evidence on the impact brought by different urban transport system interventions implemented around the world. The objective is to highlight the main lessons learned and identify knowledge gaps to guide the design and evaluation of future transport investments. The review shows that causal studies have been concentrated in certain areas and that an important number have been carried out in developed countries. Empirical challenges due to the non-random placement of these interventions and their possible effects over the entire transport network might explain the reduced amount of causal evaluations. A large part of the literature has focused on the impact of transport systems on housing values, finding overall increases in prices and rents, but with results highly dependent on the quality and perceived permanency of the system. There are few studies that explore socioeconomic effects, and those available have emphasized employment access. There are almost no studies exploring displacement effects, which should be examined to better understand the social inclusion role of transport systems. New avenues of research are emerging that exploit non-traditional sources of data, such as big data. Moreover, studies looking at ways to improve the operational efficiency of systems and those seeking to promote behavioral changes in transport users. |
| Keywords: | urban transport systems, Latin America and the Caribbean, impact evaluation |
| JEL: | O18 R15 R42 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11812&r=ure |
| By: | Sandra Rozo; Juan F. Vargas |
| Abstract: | Several studies have documented negative political attitudes toward immigration among local voters. By examining how episodes of crisis-driven internal and international migration affect electoral as well as socioeconomic outcomes across municipalities in Colombia, we explore whether these attitudes are explained by self-interest or sociotropic motives. Self-interested voters care primarily about the impact of migration inflows on their personal socioeconomic well-being. Sociotropic voters, in contrast, view migrants as a threat to local cultural or social norms and display in-group bias. We take advantage of the fact that both internal migrants (displaced by the armed conflict in Colombia) and international migrants (driven by economic and political downturns in neighboring Venezuela) disproportionately locate in municipalities with early settlements of individuals from their place of origin and find that, while internal migration inflows do not lead to negative electoral results for the incumbent party, international migration reduces support for incumbents and increases support for right-wing candidates. Further, we find that once we control for migration-affected proxies for individual welfare, the electoral effects of international migration are largely unchanged, but those of the internal displacement shock disappear. Taken together, these findings are consistent with a scenario in which political attitudes are driven by sociotropic motives when reacting to international migration and by self-interest when reacting to internal forced migration. This asymmetry has the potential to inform policy responses aimed at maximizing the net benefits of migration. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Electoral Outcomes, Political Economy, Colombia |
| JEL: | D72 F2 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000518:016836&r=ure |
| By: | Owens, Raymond E. (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond); Pinto, Santiago (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) |
| Abstract: | Petersburg, Virginia, prospered over two centuries as a center of production and trade. However, the city experienced economic difficulties beginning in the 1980s as a large number of layoffs at production plants in the area coincided with an erosion of retail trade in the city. Prolonged economic decline followed. In contrast, somewhat similar shocks in other moderate-sized cities in Virginia were followed by gradual economic recovery. We examine these differing outcomes and offer an explanation that hinges on the proximity of Petersburg to its larger neighbor, the greater Richmond area. We find evidence suggesting that after the job declines, higher-skilled residents in Petersburg initially commuted to jobs nearer to Richmond, later relocating from Petersburg toward Richmond--an option not readily available in the other Virginia cities considered. We suggest that, as a result, Petersburg suffered a sharp decline in tax revenues and that municipal costs could not be proportionately scaled down, leading to severe fiscal stress. |
| Keywords: | spatial equilibrium; urban decline |
| JEL: | R23 R40 R51 |
| Date: | 2018–10–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedrwp:18-16&r=ure |
| By: | Kris Hartley, Jun Jie Woo and Sun Kyo Chung |
| Abstract: | This article examines the impact of policies for start†up and entrepreneurship on the developmental model that remains a policy legacy in many Asian countries. The main argument is that the influence of central planning is deeply embedded in the institutions of the Four Asian Tigers, but globalisation and economic liberalisation are disrupting the old developmentalism by incentivising innovation and structural adaptability. In practice, although developmentalism once focused on infrastructure and industrial policy, softer strategies such as attracting educated millennials through urban amenities and creative clustering mimic those of the postindustrial West. Either this trend represents the end of developmentalism or top†down industrial policy is being rebranded to embrace knowledge and service industries. This article examines this issue at the urban scale, examining policies used by Singapore and Seoul to encourage start†ups and entrepreneurship in the context of innovation. Government documents are examined and findings compared. |
| Date: | 2018–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201843&r=ure |
| By: | Kellee Jenkins (Howard Universty) |
| Abstract: | The development of advanced reading skills among adolescents is paramount in order for students to achieve success both in and out of school. If students are to develop an array of advanced literacy skills that are specific to each discipline, then teachers must understand the importance of promoting discipline specific literacy practices in order for students to gain a deep understanding of content specific information. To meet both the literacy and academic needs of adolescent learners, secondary teachers will have to make fundamental changes in the way they think about instruction in their content area and how they go about integrating advanced literacy skills while promoting content area learning. This research will discuss the successes and challenges that teachers experienced as a result of implementing content specific literacy instruction in secondary schools. |
| Keywords: | Literacy Instruction,Teacher Education, Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Knowledge |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:itepro:8309420&r=ure |
| By: | Pawel Strzelecki |
| Abstract: | In the modern history, Poland has never experienced large wave of labour immigration comparable to observed since 2014. Massive immigration provoked a public discussion about the consequences of immigration for the Polish labour market. In this paper we shed some light on that problem by analysing the level of the native-immigrant wage gap in two cities in Poland using two popular methods of filtering off the impact of differences between immigrant and native workers in composition of their individual characteristics and their workplaces. These methods are: Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition and non-parametric decomposition proposed by Nopo (2008). In order to compare native and immigrant workers we use the Polish Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data and the special survey of immigrants ordered by National Bank of Poland and conducted using respondent driven sampling (RDS) method. The results of the decompositions show that the difference in average wages of immigrant and native workers until 2016 is explained mostly by the differences in the composition of features of persons and workplaces. Unexplained wage gap concerned only hourly wages in Warsaw (and amounted to between 4-15% depending on method of decomposition and weighting of the results) but was not significant in Lublin. However unexplained wage gap was significant for occupations with higher wages in both cities. In some cases migrants achieved on average higher wages than native workers. Most immigrants lived in Poland for relatively short period of time and in this early stage of immigration process there were also no signs of narrowing the unexplained wage gap for immigrants who stayed longer than others. |
| Keywords: | wage distribution, wage differentials, immigrants, native workers, wage gap |
| JEL: | J31 J61 J71 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2018041&r=ure |
| By: | Mundra, Kusum; Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth |
| Abstract: | There is a growing trend of buying homes among the single population in the U.S. This trend has been referred to as "Going Solo" and is particularly evident among women who are the focus of our study. In this paper we investigate the hypothesis that homeownership probabilities can be affected by marriage market expectations and pessimistic marriage market expectations may raise home buying probabilities among never married singles. We focus solely on the sub population called the never married single females and our results provide evidence consistent with the above hypothesis. In particular, we find that up to a certain threshold, the probability of homeownership decreases when the marriage market prospect indicator improves and there is evidence of heterogeneity in this relationship across race, education level, age group and motherhood status. |
| Keywords: | Home Ownership,Never Married Singles,Marriage Market,Sex Ratios,Marriage Rates,Single Females |
| JEL: | J1 J12 R21 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:258&r=ure |
| By: | Charles-Olivier Amédée-Manesme; Michel Baroni; Fabrice Barthélémy |
| Abstract: | This research demonstrates the substantial benefits obtained by modeling housing price using a- repeat sales factorial model. In particular, the model is able to give accurate forecast of housing returns on a short or medium run. The index is built-up by determining the weight of 9 economic and financial indices (rental index, short or long-term rate, inflation, stocks index, REITs index, population, Disposable income, population and CPI) to explain capital returns and then to represent housing prices dynamics. The index is computed on Paris housing market from transactions. Mainly the results provide empirical evidence of the ability of the model to forecast short and mid-term changes of the housing prices and more importantly of the housing returns dynamics. Also, the proposed model makes possible to analyze deeply the basic elements that govern the housing market. The developed model also offers applications to regulation and credit risk |
| Keywords: | Dynamics; Forecasting; Housing; HPI |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_42&r=ure |
| By: | Italo Colantone (Bocconi University); Alessia Matano (AQR-IREA, Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics, Universitat de Barcelona); Paolo Naticchioni (Roma Tre University, IZA and INPS) |
| Abstract: | We provide a comprehensive assessment of the effects of new imported inputs on wage dynamics, on the skill-composition of the labor force, on worker mobility, and on the efficiency of matching between firms and workers. We employ matched employer-employee data for Italy, over 1995-2007. We complement these data with information on the arrival of new imported inputs at the industry level. We find new imported inputs to have a positive effect on average wage growth at the firm level. This effect is driven by two factors: (1) an increase in the white-collar/blue-collar ratio; and (2) an increase in the average wage growth of blue-collar workers, while the wage growth of white collars is not significantly affected. The individual-level analysis reveals that the increase in the average wage of blue collars is driven by the displacement of the lowest paid workers, while continuously employed individuals are not affected. We estimate the unobserved skills of workers following Abowd et al. (1999). We find evidence that new imported inputs lead to a positive selection of higher-skilled workers, and to an improvement in positive assortative matching between firms and workers. |
| Keywords: | New imported inputs, wages, matched employer-employee data. |
| JEL: | F14 F16 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2018-6&r=ure |
| By: | Paloma Taltavull de La Paz; Ion Anghel; Stanley McGreal; Costin Ciora |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of business cycle to determine TOM in Bucharest housing market. It explores the relationship between TOM and the price levels in order to identify whether TOM varies depending on the housing quality (revealed by price level) and with the cyclical moment. The database covers 2013-2016 which includes the economic recovery after financial crisis. Data contains more than 32 thousand of microdata with housing transaction in Bucharest city including information about the energy efficiency level in the building. |
| Keywords: | business cycle; Housing Prices |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_143&r=ure |
| By: | Aras KJ; Ole Jakob Sønstebø |
| Abstract: | Energy efficiency in the residential housing market can play an important role in the reduction of global carbon emissions. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) provide actors with information that can be used to make better-informed decisions and integrate energy efficiency into their decision making process. In addition, the information from EPCs should provide an incentive for actors in this market to invest in energy efficiency, as it can be assumed that improving the energy performance of a building may lead to higher transaction prices and rents on the market. This paper reports the first Norwegian evidence on the economic implication of EPCs on rental market prices. Applying the multilevel estimation approach to investigate the relation between energy labeling and rental prices in Norway for 860 000 observations, we find strong evidence of a positive price premium. Moreover, the premium is higher for bigger cities than in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | energy performance certificates; Environmental regulation; Housing rental prices; Information and decisions; Real Estate Economics |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_125&r=ure |
| By: | Marco Alberto De Benedetto (Birkbeck, University of London) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of the electoral system on the quality of politicians, measured by the average educational attainment, at the local level in Italy over the period 1994-2017. Since 1993, municipalities below 15,000 inhabitants vote with a single-ballot system, whereas cities above 15,000 inhabitants threshold are subject to a double ballot.Exploiting the discontinuous policy change nearby the population cut-off we have implemented a RDD and found that runoff elections lead to a decrease in the educational attainment of local politicians by about 2% compared to years of schooling of politicians in municipalities voting with a single-ballot scheme.We speculate that the negative effect is driven by the different selection process of candidates adopted by political parties between runoff and single-ballot system. Findings are similar when we use alternative measures of quality of politicians related both to the previous occupation and to previous political experience, and when we control for different measures of political closeness. |
| JEL: | C31 D72 I20 J42 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbk:bbkcam:1802&r=ure |
| By: | Yu Shi |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies a new mechanism leading to inefficiency in capital reallocation at the extensive margin when an economy experiences a sectoral boom. I argue that imperfections in the financial market and capital barriers to entry in the booming sector create a misallocation of managerial talent. Using comprehensive firm-level data from China, I first provide evidence that more productive firms reallocate capital to the booming real estate sector, and demonstrate that the pattern is likely driven by fewer financial constraints on these firms. I then use a structural estimation to verify the talent misallocation. Finally, I calibrate a dynamic model and find that the without the misallocation, the TFP growth in the manufacturing sector would have improved by 0.5% per year. |
| Date: | 2018–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:18/221&r=ure |
| By: | Nahid Razmjoo (Islamic Azad University of Shiraz); Hossein Kavianpour (Fars Bar Association) |
| Abstract: | Criminal policy, in its broad sense, is related to various economic, social, cultural, political, and scientific factors. It is inter acting with the aforesaid factors in practice. In order to recognize the basis for criminal policy change, the study of the effect of different matters for a proper guideline is needed. Nationality which includes individual relationship to an esteemed government and governmental support, based on migration of individuals all around the world as well residency in foreign lands, is among significant matters which its effect on Criminal Policy can be regarded the basis of change. As in European council, the security and freedom of people which are the most important concerns of governments and citizens, the Council, without any discrimination, through the needed approved laws, tries to guarantee that freedom and security of people. The question of whether nationality is an effective element in criminal policy is of great significance. The present study investigates the effect of Nationality on Criminal Policy in Iran and European council as well as different dimensions, related to the policies, practiced in these two legal systems which have same similarities and differences. |
| Keywords: | Criminal Policy, Nationality, Migration |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:ilppro:7909604&r=ure |
| By: | Ayse Tuna (Trakya University) |
| Abstract: | Children with learning disabilities are generally behind their age related peers in acquiring new skills required for daily activities and academic learning. Children with learning disabilities can learn and develop new skills, but compared to other children of the same age, they possibly need more time and practice. It has been shown that assistive technology tools are efficient ways to assist and teach children with different types of learning difficulties. In this study, state-of-the-art assistive technology tools that can be used for various educational goals are reviewed, novel approaches in this field are presented, and finally research challenges and future directions are reported. |
| Keywords: | Assistive technology tools, Children with learning disabilities, Educational goals, Research challenges, Future directions. |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:itepro:8308821&r=ure |
| By: | Carolin Pommeranz; Bertram Ingolf Steininger |
| Abstract: | In this study, we analyze whether additional payments for energy efficiency are induced by either tenants’ willingness to pay, the market power of landlords, or both. With a German housing dataset from 2011 to 2016, we identify price discrimination for the energy performance certificate using hedonic regressions in a single and double sort setting. Results indicate that a high willingness to pay -– indicated by purchasing power and environmental awareness -– leads to price discrimination effects of 7-8%. These potential extra profits can stimulate investments in energy-based refurbishments by landlords. However, additional market power of landlords –- indicated by housing market conditions –- does not amplify these discrimination effects and is therefore not exploited against tenants. |
| Keywords: | Energy Efficiency; energy performance certificates; green housing; price discrimination |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_134&r=ure |
| By: | Marina Pavan (LEE & Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón-Spain); Iván Barreda-Tarrazona (LEE & Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón-Spain) |
| Abstract: | We study strategic default in the laboratory, i.e. in a controlled experiment. Subjects are initially endowed with a house and a mortgage (we use neutral wording in the experiment), and must decide at each period in which their mortgage is alive among three options: making the mortgage payment, selling the house, or walking away from their house and defaulting on their mortgage. At each point in time, we can observe whether defaulters can afford to make the mortgage payment, and thus, directly compute the number of strategic defaulters. Subjects default in the right periods and quite fast learn what they should consume. We find experimental support for the “double trigger” hypothesis: individuals faced with low income and low house prices are more likely to default. We observe that subjects default less than optimal, and this decision is significantly affected by social norm concerns in the context of the experiment. Individuals under-consume in the first periods of life: they are “cautious” when indebted. Both introducing a 50% probability of recourse and a Responsible Homeowner Reward are very effective in preventing default in the lab, especially by individuals receiving a bad shock to income. |
| Keywords: | Strategic Mortgage Default, Negative Equity, Household Indebtedness, Housing, Laboratory Experiment |
| JEL: | C91 E21 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2018/09&r=ure |
| By: | Anil Kumar; Carles Vergara-Alert |
| Abstract: | In this article we study the effect of change in the market value of corporate real estate (CRE) assets on firms' stock returns. We show that a positive shock in the value of CRE assets positively affects stock returns of real estate owning firms. We further document - "real estate based stock return comovement" - that is, stock returns of firms which either experience increase in their pledgeable collateral, or own higher proportion of CRE assets, or both comove with each other and this comovement is cyclical in nature. We also show that the degree of comovement is higher in the periods of increasing values of CRE, as well as for firms that are financially constrained and headquartered in the same geographical area. |
| Keywords: | comovement; Corporate real estate; stock return |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_251&r=ure |
| By: | Rian Hilmawan; Jeremy Clark (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | Previous research has found that in Indonesia, a resource giant in South East Asia, resource dependence is positively associated with economic growth, contrary to a 'resource curse' hypothesis. We test four potential causal mechanisms for this positive effect: spill overs to manufacturing, higher education provision, improvements in institutional quality, and investment in public capital. We follow 390 districts within Indonesia from 2006 to 2015, using four alternative measures of resource dependence, and instrumenting for their potential endogeneity. We first confirm a positive overall effect of resource dependence on real per capita Gross Regional Domestic Product. We then test the extent to which resource dependence positively affects manufacturing, education, public investment, and district institutional quality. We finally test the extent to which these factors contribute to growth. We find that resource dependence aids growth in part by raising measures of district institutional quality. Resource dependence also raises net high school enrolment rates, though we do not find that this in turn raises growth. Conversely, while higher capital spending by districts raises growth, we find no evidence that this share is affected by resource dependence. In auxiliary analysis, we find little support for the hypothesis that resource dependence benefits growth more (or only) for districts that begin with higher institutional quality. |
| Keywords: | Resource dependence, causal channels, economic growth, institutional quality |
| JEL: | Q32 Q33 Q38 O13 O43 O47 |
| Date: | 2018–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:18/12&r=ure |
| By: | Spalding, Ashley; Kiesel, Kristin |
| Keywords: | Demand and Price Analysis, Food and Agricultural Marketing, Food and Agricultural Policy Analysis |
| Date: | 2018–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea18:273990&r=ure |
| By: | Eliane Monetti |
| Abstract: | All over the world, real estate programs have been following European and north American guidelines, trying to reproduce the “Book of Knowledge” observed in those countries’ disciplines.The aim of this research is (1) to analyze the structure and themes found in Latin American real estate disciplines for graduate students in comparison to a basic framework and (2) to understand Latin American real estate contents according to the level of the real estate market found in different countries in the region.Eighteen disciplines were found, concentrated in eight different countries. Among them, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru were the ones in which discipline programs most matched the BoK, mostly explained by real estate economics found in those countries and by the maturity of the local economies as well. |
| Keywords: | Graduate Course; Latin America; Real Estate Education |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_324&r=ure |
| By: | Burton, Mark; Wilson, Wesley W. |
| Abstract: | Public sentiment routinely supports public-sector investment in infrastructure. Moreover, this view exists in both rural and metropolitan settings. Often, government is expected to directly support or, at least, guide the provision of transportation, telecommunications, and various utility services by supplying some or all of the necessary facilities. The current paper, first develops a more precise economic explanation for why public-sector infrastructure investment is economically efficient public policy. Next, by specifically accounting for the spatial nature of network infrastructures and commerce, we describe why many necessary investments must be sited in and/or available to rural communities. Finally, with an admittedly speculative eye to the future, we offer tentative forecasts regarding the nature and value of efficient, forward-looking rural infrastructure outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ffispa:277659&r=ure |
| By: | Antonio Vezzani (European Commission – JRC); Emanuele Pugliese (European Commission - JRC); Petros Gkotsis (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | In this work we use patent data from the European patent office (EPO) to assess the capabilities of EU regions in developing digital technologies especially focusing on those that are more closely related to the digital transformation. More specifically, we measure ICT patents by considering those containing digital codes, as defined by the OECD. The penetration of digital technologies in the development of innovative products is instead captured by the co-occurrence of digital and non-digital codes within patent documents; we call these patents ICT-combining patents. |
| Keywords: | Industrial transformation, Industry, Digital technologies, ICT, Regional specialisation |
| JEL: | O30 O14 R10 R58 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc112912&r=ure |
| By: | Kim, Elizabeth J. |
| Keywords: | Household and Labor Economics, Food and Agricultural Policy Analysis, Food Safety and Nutrition |
| Date: | 2018–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea18:274156&r=ure |
| By: | Jamal Bouoiyour (CATT - Centre d'Analyse Théorique et de Traitement des données économiques - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour); Amal Miftah (LEDa - DIAL - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Economie de la mondialisation et du développement - Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we empirically investigate the relationship between international migration and education attainment levels. We ask whether rural children who live in households that experience migration or/and receiving remittances are more likely to complete school at a given age than children who live in non-migrant households. Higher secondary and higher education levels are examined separately. Our results clearly show that children in remittance-receiving households complete significantly more years of schooling. In particular, remittances increase the probability of a male child completing high school. However, the evidence suggests that the international migration lowers deeply the chances of children completing higher education. Evidence also indicates the utmost importance of households' socio-economic status in determining to what extent the household mitigates the possible detrimental effects of migration on their children's educational outcomes. |
| Keywords: | International migration,Education,Remittances,Morocco |
| Date: | 2018–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01880328&r=ure |
| By: | Mitsuru Katagiri |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the developments in house price synchronization across countries by a dynamic factor model using a country- and city-level dataset, and examines what drives the synchronization. The empirical results indicate that: (i) the degree of synchronization has been rising since the 1970s, and (ii) a large heterogeneity in the degree of synchronization exists across countries and cities. A panel and cross-sectional regression analysis show that the heterogeneity of synchronization is partly accounted for by the progress in financial and trade openness. Also, the city-level analysis implies that the international synchronization is mainly driven by the city-level connectivity between large and international cities. |
| Keywords: | Housing prices;Econometric models;Regression analysis;Housing price, Dynamic factor model, Financial openness |
| Date: | 2018–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:18/209&r=ure |
| By: | Philipp Kaufmann; Gunther Maier |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between office buildings and their tenants. More specifically, we ask the question, whether the tenants of certified green office buildings differ in terms of credit-worthiness from the tenants of non-certified buildings. For the empirical analysis, we use data for Vienna, Austria. With this study, we want to relate two areas, which according to our knowledge are completely separated both in the theoretical discussion and in the current practice of the real estate and finance industry. This is quite surprising taking into account the central role of finance in real estate economics. Nevertheless, establishing a link between characteristics of buildings (certification as Green building) and of building tenants (credit rating) is potentially very important. Tenants with better credit ratings offer a lower risk of rent default and therefore higher property value when viewed from an income approach perspective. For the empirical analysis, we use data on buildings from public sources and ÖGNI (Austrian Green Building Council). Data on credit ratings come from Creditreform AG. |
| Keywords: | credit rating; Green Building; Valuation |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_144&r=ure |
| By: | Alexey Zhukovskiy; Heidi Falkenbach; Ranoua Bouchouicha |
| Abstract: | The debt structure - and the complexity of it - affects both agency and bankruptcy costs. For bankruptcy costs, the effects of debt complexity channel through increasing negotiation costs and decreasing liquidation value. In this paper we analyse, how debt complexity affects firm valuations. Employing a sample of 215 U.S. equity REITs, we construct a HHI-index based measure of debt complexity and analyse the effect of debt complexity on Tobin’s Q. We find that higher debt complexity is associated with lower firm values during recessions, consistent with our hypothesis that the effect is due to bankruptcy costs. The effect is economically and statistically significant and robust to alternative specifications. |
| Keywords: | Bankruptcy Costs; Debt complexity; debt structure; firm value; REITs |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_10&r=ure |
| By: | Tanner, David; Wolfe, Kent; Robert, Jeffrey; Tomlin, Victoria; O’Looney, John; Shepherd, Tommie |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ffispa:277663&r=ure |
| By: | Beetsma, Roel; Furtuna, Oana; Giuliodori, Massimo |
| Abstract: | The literature on fiscal multipliers finds that spending-based fiscal consolidations tend to have more benign macro-economic consequences than revenue-based consolidations. By directly comparing expost data with consolidation plans, we present evidence of a systematically weaker follow-up of spending-based consolidation plans. Next, using a newly-developed dataset of consolidation announcements, panel VAR regressions confirm the weaker follow-up of spending-based plans and their more benign macro-economic effects compared to those of revenue-based plans. We disentangle the role of the difference in follow-up from that of the difference in the composition of revenue- and spending-based consolidations. While the latter channel, which works through the difference between revenue and spending multipliers, explains the largest fraction of the difference in economic trajectories, the difference in follow-up plays a non-negligible role as well. JEL Classification: E21, E62, H5 |
| Keywords: | fiscal consolidation announcements, fiscal multipliers, follow-up, narrative identification, panel vector auto-regression |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20182178&r=ure |
| By: | Drechsel-Grau, Moritz; Greimel, Fabian |
| Abstract: | We want to explain the rise of household debt in the US since 1980. We present a mechanism that is consistent with the following stylized facts: (i) Real mortgage debt, (ii) debt-service-to-income ratios and (iii) house sizes (in sqft) have increased since the 1980 across all income quintiles. This is despite (iv) real incomes have stagnated for the bottom 50% since the 1980s. Our mechanism is based on other-regarding preferences. Rich agents upgrade their houses to match their risen incomes. Poorer agents want to substitute future consumption for a bigger house today (in order to “keep up with the richer Joneses”). Holding prices constant, debt will necessarily increase since houses are durable and require large payment upfront, but only low maintenance costs in the future. We build a tractable model consistent with these facts and extend it to quantitative a model to show that the partial equilibrium results go through in general equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | household debt,debt boom,social comparisons,consumption network,keeping up with the Joneses |
| JEL: | D14 D31 E21 E44 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181585&r=ure |
| By: | W. Raphael Lam; Jingsen Wang |
| Abstract: | Local governments play a significant role in China’s public finance and fiscal operations. The size of local government debt has grown rapidly over the past years, exceeding the stock of sovereign debt in China. How does this development compare to other countries and what policies can foster the sound development of the bond markets? This paper finds that despite its rapid growth, the local government bond market is still underdeveloped. Severe impediments—low liquidity, weak credit discipline, structural fiscal deficit in local governments—have become more visible. Reforms to develop a sound local government bond market should harmonize tax and regulations, build liquidity, and advance fiscal reforms to tighten off-budget borrowing and address intergovernmental imbalances. |
| Date: | 2018–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:18/219&r=ure |
| By: | Bartlomiej Marona; Annette van den Beemt |
| Abstract: | Public real estate management (PREM) is a part of corporate real estate management (CREM) literature which deals with real estate management at the disposal of private and public organizations which are not primarily in the real estate business (Bon, 1992, pp. 13). However the CREM concept is based mostly on research made in the private sector and therefore not always fit for public sector specifics, public regulations and public values. In this context, very valuable and interesting is PREM research which are based not only on CREM theory but also on the public management approach.The main goal of this paper is to present a role of individual concepts of public management in the process of real estate management in Polish and Dutch municipalities. Special attention is given to New Public Management and Public Governance. |
| Keywords: | municipal real estate; public management; public real estate; Real Estate Management |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2018_317&r=ure |
| By: | Hean, Oudom |
| Keywords: | Household and Labor Economics, Productivity Analysis and Emerging Technologies, Rural/Community Development |
| Date: | 2018–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea18:274176&r=ure |