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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Cook, Jason B. (University of Pittsburgh) |
| Abstract: | We know surprisingly little about the influence of race-blind school admissions on student outcomes. This paper studies a unique reform where a large, urban school district was federally mandated to adopt a race-blind lottery system to fill seats in its oversubscribed magnet schools. The district had previously integrated its schools by conducting separate admissions lotteries for black and non-black students to offset the predominantly black applicant pools. The switch to race-blind lotteries dramatically segregated subsequent magnet school cohorts. I show that race-blind admissions caused the more segregated schools to enroll students with lower average baseline achievement and to employ lower value-added teachers due to sorting. I also find that segregation is further exacerbated by "white flight" as white students transfer out of the district after attending more segregated schools. Ultimately, the mandated segregation decreases student standardized test scores and four-year college attendance. I provide suggestive evidence that the impact of racial segregation is partially mediated by changes to peer baseline achievement. |
| Keywords: | race-blind school admissions, school racial segregation, magnet schools, peer effects, school admissions lotteries |
| JEL: | I24 I28 J15 J48 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11909&r=ure |
| By: | takashi nakamura (tokyo city university) |
| Abstract: | Japan has been facing problems related to decline of population and aging. Also Tokyo metropolitan area is estimated depopulation and hard aging. Additionally a new urban planning that targets the reduction of automobile dependence and the use of public transit is required for realization of sustainable city. Tokyo metropolitan area is originally excellent in railway usage on commuting transit. Under this situation it is important that railway passengers preserve. I study the influence of land use patterns, aging and traffic means to railway station around above 580 railway stations on railway passengers from the viewpoint of sustainable rail transit service, especially viewpoint of TOD (Transit Oriented Development) using multiple regression analysis. In this study I set railway station influence area 800m in land use analysis and 500m in population aging analysis. I use railway passenger?s data from 1999 to 2015. In this study land use classification is farmland, forest, low-rise housing, crowd low-rise housing, middle and high-rise housing, commercial and business use, park and green land, manufacturing, public institution and development land. Traffic means to railway station in this study analysis are bicycle, bus, motor bicycle and working. As a result, it?s found that aging around railway station affect decrease railway passengers and mixed land use around railway stations has a constant effect on the increase and retention of the number of railway passengers. On the other hand, traffic means to railway station is not related to maintenance of the railway user. In addition aging around railway station is related to land use. Namely, in high component of low-rise housing areas hard aging is advancing. I will introduce success example of railway passengers? maintenance. It is important to perform mixed land use around railway station, urban redevelopment around railway station at high component of low-rise housing area, especially, unplanned sprawl area. |
| Keywords: | TOD; land use pattern; passengers of railway station; mixed land use; population aging. traffic means to railway station, multiple regression analysis |
| JEL: | R58 R14 L92 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:7009185&r=ure |
| By: | Nicolas Pazos Navarro |
| Abstract: | Academics have thought of many ways to reduce the gaps in academic achievement for ethnic minorities, one of which is through manipulating the classroom composition. Many studies show that there are positive spill-overs or peer effects of sharing space with better performing students (Sacerdote, 2001). However, other studies find that students from ethnic minorities tend to be negatively affected by ethnically diverse classes, either because of racial stereotypes or segregation (Steele and Aronson, 1995). This study applies Lee’s (2007) linear-in-means model with fixed effects to a sample of approximately 140 thousand students from a national education census in Peru to disentangle endogenous peer effects from contextual peer effects, while solving for self-selection and the reflection problem. The study focuses on the effects of ethnic diversity on Peruvian indigenous students. Results suggest that the effect of class composition on ethnically diverse classes is driven by two distinct and opposing channels, one related to abilities spill-overs and one to stereotypes and segregation. Endogenous peer effects are negative, possibly due to incentives faced by teachers and school directors to focus on better students and neglect the poorer performing ones, thus enlarging the gap between them. In terms of ethnic composition, results are heterogeneous: indigenous students benefit from a large proportion of similar peers, but the effect is the opposite for non-indigenous students. The study concludes that the current composition of the average Peruvian class is suboptimal, and a larger proportion of indigenous students could help reduce the current gaps in achievement due to ethnicity. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2018-16&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (Département d'économie); Gilles Duranton (Pennsylvania State University); Laurent Gobillon (Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques) |
| Abstract: | We develop a new methodology to estimate the elasticity of urban costs with respect to city population using French house and land price data. After handling a number of estimation concerns, we find that the elasticity of urban costs increases with city population with an estimate of about 0.03 for an urban area with 100,000 inhabitants to 0.08 for an urban area of the size of Paris. Our approach also yields a number of intermediate outputs of independent interest such as the share of housing in expenditure, the elasticity of unit house and land prices with respect to city population, and within-city distance gradients for house and land prices. |
| Keywords: | Urban costs; House prices; Land prices; Land use; Agglomeration |
| JEL: | R31 R21 R14 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6bmhhi42888fj8hn1okddaqsab&r=ure |
| By: | Price Fishback; Sebastián Fleitas; Jonathan Rose; Kenneth Snowden |
| Abstract: | Foreclosures led to severe disruptions in home mortgage lending during the recent Great Recession and the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is difficult to measure these impacts in the modern market where origination, funding and servicing are separated within complex lending structures, but during the 1930s local building & loans (B&Ls) combined all three functions. We measure the impact of foreclosures on new mortgage lending using a panel of all B&Ls in 4 states. The foreclosure overhang explains about 30 percent of the drop in new mortgage lending by B&Ls as the housing crisis intensified between 1930 and 1935. |
| JEL: | E32 E44 G23 N12 N22 R31 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25246&r=ure |
| By: | Goulas, Sofoklis (Stanford University); Megalokonomou, Rigissa (University of Queensland); Zhang, Yi (University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | Gender peer effects are potentially important for optimally organizing schools and neighborhoods. In this paper, we examine how the gender of classmates and neighbors affects a variety of high school outcomes and choice of university major. Given that students are assigned to schools based on proximity from their residential address, we define as neighbors all same-cohort peers who attend any other school within a 1-mile radius of one's school. To control for potentially confounding unobserved characteristics of schools and neighborhoods that might be correlated with peer gender composition, we exploit within-school and -neighborhood idiosyncratic variation in gender composition share across consecutive cohorts in the 12th grade. Using data for the universe of students in public schools in Greece between 2004 and 2009, we find that a higher share of females in a school or neighborhood improves both genders' subsequent scholastic performance, increases their university matriculation rates, renders them more likely to enroll in an academic university than a technical school, and affects their choice of university study. In addition, we find that only females are more likely to enroll in STEM degrees and target more lucrative occupations when they have more female peers in school or neighborhood. Based on our back-of-the-envelope calculations, a 10 percentage point increase in the proportion of females in a school or neighborhood reduces the gender gap in STEM enrollments by 2% and 3%, respectively. We also find that (1) neighborhood peer effects are as large as school peer effects, and (2) the effects are nonlinear-namely, the effects are larger for school and neighborhood cohorts with a large majority of female peers. |
| Keywords: | gender peer effects, neighborhood effects, STEM university degrees |
| JEL: | J24 J21 J16 I24 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11910&r=ure |
| By: | de Graaff, Thomas (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Ozgen, Ceren (University of Birmingham); Roth, Duncan (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We assess how changes in youth cohort sizes effect employment rates in German labour market regions. Replicating the conventional approach, we estimate that a percentage increase in the youth share reduces regional employment rates by −0.2%. We challenge the assumption that cohort size effects are homogenous across space and find robust evidence that the negative effect of youth cohort size is more pronounced in the labour markets of metropolitan regions. These results suggest an upward pressure on urban regional employment rates as a result of the projected decrease in the size of the German youth share. |
| Keywords: | employment rate, youth share, Germany, regional heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J1 J2 R1 R2 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11932&r=ure |
| By: | Stephan Luck; Thomas Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of the Federal Reserve's unconventional monetary policy on employment via a bank lending channel. We find that banks with higher mortgage-backed securities holdings issued relatively more loans after the first and third rounds of quantitative easing (QE1 and QE3). While additional volume is concentrated in refinanced mortgages after QE1, increases are driven by newly originated home purchase mortgages and additional commercial and industrial lending after QE3. Using spatial variation, we show that regions with a high share of affected banks experienced stronger employment growth after both, QE1 and QE3. While the ability of households to refinance mortgages after QE1 spurred local demand, the resulting additional employment growth was relatively weak and confined to the non-tradable goods sector. In contrast, the increase in overall employment after QE3 is sizable and can be attributed to the supply of additional credit to firms. To s upport this finding, we use new confidential loan-level data to show that firms with stronger ties to affected banks increased employment and capital investment more after QE3. Altogether, our findings suggest that unconventional monetary policy can, similar to conventional monetary policy, affect real economic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Bank Lending ; Central Banking ; Employment ; Financial Crisis ; Quantitative Easing ; Real Effects ; Unconventional Monetary Policy |
| JEL: | E4 E00 E5 G00 G21 |
| Date: | 2018–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2018-71&r=ure |
| By: | Seth Gershenson; Cassandra M. D. Hart; Joshua Hyman; Constance Lindsay; Nicholas W. Papageorge |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of having a same-race teacher on students' long-run educational attainment. Leveraging random student-teacher pairings in the Tennessee STAR class-size experiment, we find that black students randomly assigned to a black teacher in grades K-3 are 5 percentage points (7%) more likely to graduate from high school and 4 percentage points (13%) more likely to enroll in college than their peers in the same school who are not assigned a black teacher. We document similar patterns using quasi-experimental methods and statewide administrative data from North Carolina. To examine possible mechanisms, we provide a theoretical model that formalizes the notion of “role model effects” as distinct from teacher effectiveness. We envision role model effects as information provision: black teachers provide a crucial signal that leads black students to update their beliefs about the returns to effort and what educational outcomes are possible. Using testable implications generated by the theory, we provide suggestive evidence that role model effects help to explain why black teachers increase the educational attainment of black students. |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25254&r=ure |
| By: | Öner, Özge (Department of Land Economy); Klaesson, Johan (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Science, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping) |
| Abstract: | The relevance of residential segregation and ethnic enclaves for labor market sorting of immigrants has been investigated by a large body of literature. Previous literature presents competing arguments and mixed results for the effects of segregation and ethnic concentration on various labor market outcomes. The geographical size of the area at which segregation and/or ethnic concentration is measured, however, is left to empirical work to determine. We argue that ethnic concentration and segregation should not be used interchangeably, and more importantly, the geographical area at which they are measured relates directly to different mechanisms. We use a probabilistic approach to identify the likelihood that an immigrant is employed or a self-employed entrepreneur in the year 2005 with respect to residential segregation and ethnic concentration at the level of the neighborhood, municipality and local labor market level jointly. We study three groups of immigrants that accentuate the differences between forced and pulled migrants: (i) the first 15 member states of European Union (referred to as EU 15) and the Nordic countries, (ii) the Balkan countries, and (iii) countries in the Middle East. We find that ethnic enclaves, proxied by ethnic concentration at varying levels indicate mixed results for the different immigrant groups we study, both for their employment and entrepreneurship probability. Whereas residential segregation has a more uniformly distributed result where its relationship to any of the two labor market outcomes is almost always negative or insignificant. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant entrepreneurship; Ethnic enclaves; Segregation; Push entrepreneurship; Local labor market |
| JEL: | F22 L26 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1251&r=ure |
| By: | Chen, X.; Ye, J. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the existence and magnitude of air pollution spillovers in Chinese cities. Estimation of this spillover effect is complicated because neighboring cities share similar business/pollution cycles and changes in wind direction can be fairly frequent. To circumvent these empirical challenges, we exploit spatial and temporal variations in PM10 concentrations for 108 major cities in China s Eastern Monsoon Region during the East Asian winter and summer monsoon seasons. We find large pollution spillover effects: a city s average PM10 concentration increases by 0.09-0.21 units during the winter monsoon season and by 0.06-0.10 units during the summer monsoon season, if PM10 concentrations in cities upwind of this city increase by one unit. The percentage contributions of PM10 pollution from upwind cities to local PM10 levels vary by region and can be as large as 30%. These findings are comparable to the existing atmospheric evidence. Our findings suggest that pollution control policies must be coordinated between cities to abate urban air pollution. Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277146&r=ure |
| By: | Josue Cox; Sydney C. Ludvigson |
| Abstract: | Two potential driving forces of house price fluctuations are commonly cited: credit conditions and beliefs. We posit some simple empirical calculations using direct measures of credit conditions and beliefs to consider their potentially distinct roles in house price fluctuations at the aggregate level. Changes in credit conditions are positively related to the fraction of riskier non-conforming debt in total mortgage lending, while measures of beliefs are unrelated to this ratio. Credit conditions explain quantitatively large magnitudes of the variation in quarterly house price growth and also predict future house price growth. Beliefs bear some relation to contemporaneous house price growth but have little predictive power. A structural VAR analysis implies that shocks to credit conditions have quantitatively important dynamic causal effects on house price changes. |
| JEL: | R0 R21 R3 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25285&r=ure |
| By: | Oliver Krebs |
| Abstract: | This paper quantifies the surprisingly large heterogeneity of real income and employment effects across German counties in response to local productivity shocks. Using a quantitative model with imperfect mobility and sector-specific labor market frictions together with an outstanding data set of county level goods shipments, I identify the sources of the heterogeneity in Germany’s complex interregional linkages. I find that population mobility reduces the magnitude of local employment rate responses by a striking 70 percent on average. In all but a few counties, changes in the sectoral composition of production have a much milder effect on employment elasticities. National employment rates are less dependent on mobility with worker in- and outflows in individual counties partially cancelling out effects. For productivity shocks affecting individual sectors across all regions the composition effect is substantially magnified, the mobility effect reduced. In line with recent real world observations I find that real income and employment effects, while correlated, do not need to be of the same sign. Finally, the spatial propagation of real income effects closely follows trade linkages whereas employment effects are more complex to predict. |
| Keywords: | Quantitative spatial analysis, unemployment, migration, search and matching, labor market frictions |
| JEL: | F16 F17 R13 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:183_krebs&r=ure |
| By: | Shawn Ni (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Michael Podgursky (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Xiqian Wang (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia) |
| Abstract: | We analyze late-career teacher turnover induced by pension incentives. Using longitudinal data with performance measures for Tennessee public school teachers, we find higher quality teachers are less likely to retire conditional on age and experience. To quantify the effects of pension incentives, we estimate a structural model for retirement and find that high quality teachers have a lower disutility for teaching relative to retirement. We use the structural estimates to simulate the effect of changes in retirement incentives. Enhancements to traditional plans accelerate teacher retirement, whereas targeted retention bonuses delay retirement and retain high quality teachers at relatively modest cost. |
| Keywords: | Teacher Pensions, Teacher Quality, Teacher Retirement |
| JEL: | I21 J26 J38 |
| Date: | 2018–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:1815&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel Garcia |
| Abstract: | I pool data from all large multimarket lenders in the U.S. to estimate how many of the over seven million jobs lost in the Great Recession can be explained by reductions in the supply of mortgage credit. I construct a mortgage credit supply instrument at the county level, the weighted average (by prerecession mortgage market shares) of liquidity-driven lender shocks during the recession. The reduction in mortgage supply explains about 15 percent of the employment decline. The job losses are concentrated in construction and finance. |
| Keywords: | Great Recession ; Credit supply ; Employment |
| JEL: | E44 G21 R31 |
| Date: | 2018–11–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2018-74&r=ure |
| By: | Gerard, Francois (Columbia University); Lagos, Lorenzo (Columbia University); Severnini, Edson R. (Carnegie Mellon University); Card, David (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | A growing body of research shows that firms' employment and wage-setting policies contribute to wage inequality and pay disparities between groups. We measure the effects of these policies on racial pay differences in Brazil. We find that nonwhites are less likely to work at establishments that pay more to all race groups, a pattern that explains about 20% of the white-nonwhite wage gap for both genders. The pay premiums offered by different employers are also compressed for nonwhites relative to whites, contributing another 5% of the overall gap. We then ask how much of the under-representation of nonwhites at higher-paying workplaces is due to the selective skill mix at these establishments. Using a counterfactual based on the observed skill distribution at each establishment and the nonwhite shares in different skill groups in the local labor market, we conclude that assortative matching accounts for about two-thirds of the under-representation gap for both men and women. The remainder reflects an unexplained preference for white workers at higher-paying establishments. The wage losses associated with unexplained sorting and differential wage setting are largest for nonwhites with the highest levels of general skills, suggesting that the allocative costs of race-based preferences may be relatively large in Brazil. |
| Keywords: | assortative matching, discrimination, firm policies, racial wage differences, Brazil |
| JEL: | E24 J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11923&r=ure |
| By: | Tilman Graff |
| Abstract: | Are roads in Africa connecting the right places to promote bene?cial trade? I assess the e?ciency of transport networks for every country in Africa. Using rich data from satellites and online routing services, I simulate optimal trade ?ows over a comprehensive grid of more than 70,000 links covering the entire continent. I employ a recently established framework from the optimal transport in economics literature to maximise over the space of networks and ?nd the optimal road system for every African state. Where would the social planner ideally build new roads and which roads are super?uous in promoting trade? My simulations predict that the entire continent would gain more than 1.1% of total welfare from better organising its national road systems. Comparing current and optimal networks, I then construct a novel dataset of local network ine?ciency for more than 10,000 African grid cells. I analyse roots of the substantial imbalances present in this dataset. I ?nd that colonial infrastructure projects from more than a century ago still persist in signi?cantly skewing trade networks towards a sub-optimal equilibrium. Areas close to former colonial railroads have about 1.7% too much welfare given their position in the network. I also ?nd evidence for regional favouritism, as the birthplaces of African leaders are overequipped with unnecessary roads. Lastly, I uncover a descriptive relationship whereby large transport infrastructure projects from The World Bank are not allocated to regions most in need of additional roads. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2018-17&r=ure |
| By: | Donna, Javier D. |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a structural model of urban travel to estimate long-run price elasticities. A dynamic discrete choice demand model with switching costs is estimated, using a panel dataset with public market-level data on automobile and public transit use for Chicago. The estimated model shows that long-run own- (automobile) and cross- (transit) price elasticities are more elastic than short-run elasticities, and that elasticity estimates from static and myopic models are downward biased. The estimated model is used to evaluate the response to a gasoline tax. Static and myopic models mismeasure long-run substitution patterns, and could lead to incorrect policy decisions. |
| Keywords: | Long-run price elasticities, Dynamic demand travel, Hysteresis |
| JEL: | L71 L91 L98 |
| Date: | 2018–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90260&r=ure |
| By: | Mahamud Akash (Alhaj Abdul Gani College, Bangladesh); Akter Jesmin (China University of Geo-Sciences); Tahera Tamanna (University of Dhaka, Bangladesh); Md Rezwanul Kabir (China University of Geo-Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The main purpose of this study is to focus on the urban growth and environmental impacts on Dhaka city for the sustainable development of urbanization policymaking. The study has found that the Dhaka city is expanding rapidly and environmental issues are the main problem for urbanization. Because there is huge pollution in Dhaka city through unawareness of human activities. The local government can increase the public participation in sustainable development for urban growth in Dhaka city. The policymaker can formulate a strategy for urbanization growth and green environment by training on public participation and facilitation for urban people. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization, Environment, Dhaka |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:fpaper:010&r=ure |
| By: | Bertocchi, Graziella; Brunetti, Marianna; Zaiceva, Anzelika |
| Abstract: | Using rich Italian data for the period 2006-2014, we document sizeable gaps between native and immigrant households with respect to wealth holdings and financial decisions. Immigrant household heads hold less net wealth than native, but only above the median of the wealth distribution, with housing as the main driver. Immigrant status reduces the likelihood of holding risky assets, housing, mortgages, businesses, and valuables, while it increases the likelihood of financial fragility. Years since migration, countries of origin, and the pattern of intermarriage also matter. The Great Recession has worsened the condition of immigrants in terms of wealth holdings, home ownership, and financial fragility. |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13339&r=ure |
| By: | Arnaud Herault (GRANEM, University of Angers); Eva Moreno Galbis (Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, EHESS, Centrale Marseille, AMSE); Francois-Charles Wolff (LEMNA, University of Nantes and INED) |
| Abstract: | There is a large consensus in the literature on the major role of social networks as a helpful instrument to find a job. In this paper, we study the social network matching rate along the economic cycle both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Using the French Labor Force Survey for the period 2003-2012, we find that the relationship between the network matching rate based on direct ties and the job finding rate is decreasing and convex as predicted by our theoretical setup. Results are completely modified when we consider a measure of the network matching rate based on indirect ties related to the share of peers in a job. In this case, we find a linearly increasing relation between the network matching rate and the job finding rate. This underlines not only the heterogeneous ways through which network membership may influence the individuals’ performance on the labor market, but also the different behaviors of these driving factors along the economic cycle. |
| Keywords: | employment, network matching rate, direct and indirect ties, job finding rate, immigrants |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J15 A14 D85 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1832&r=ure |
| By: | William J. Collins; Ariell Zimran |
| Abstract: | The repeated failure of Ireland's potato crop in the late 1840s led to a major famine and a surge in migration to the US. We build a dataset of Irish immigrants and their sons by linking males from 1850 to 1880 US census records. For comparison, we also link German and British immigrants, their sons, and males from US native-headed households. We document a decline in the observable human capital of famine-era Irish migrants compared to pre-famine Irish migrants and to other groups in the 1850 census, as well as worse labor market outcomes. The disparity in labor market outcomes persists into the next generation when immigrants’ and natives’ sons are compared in 1880. Nonetheless, we find strong evidence of intergenerational convergence in that famine-era Irish sons experienced a much smaller gap in occupational status than their fathers. The disparities are even smaller when the Irish children are compared to those from observationally similar native white households. A descriptive analysis of mobility for the famine-era Irish sons indicates that more Catholic surnames and birth in Ireland were associated with less upward mobility. Our results contribute to literatures on immigrant assimilation, refugee migration, and the Age of Mass Migration. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J62 N31 O15 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25287&r=ure |
| By: | Fischer, Marcel; Khorunzhina, Natalia |
| Abstract: | We build a realistically calibrated life-cycle model of housing decisions under divorce risk. As observed in the data, our model predicts the recent increase in divorce rates leads to reduced homeownership rates. The event of a divorce negatively affects homeownership, and this effect is long-lasting. The risk of a divorce triggers a precautionary savings motive. However, this motive is weaker when individuals can invest in owner-occupied homes because homeowners’ higher savings partially substitute for precautionary savings. When young, the larger asset accumulation due to divorce-risk induced precautionary savings enables households to buy homes earlier, whereas the presence of transaction costs leads to reduced homeownership for middle-aged and older households when divorce risk goes up. |
| Keywords: | household finance, real estate, life cycle, divorce risk, family economics |
| JEL: | D91 E21 G11 J12 R21 |
| Date: | 2018–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90090&r=ure |
| By: | Steinhubel, L. |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a flexible conceptual and methodological framework to model the dynamics of agricultural transition in the increasingly complex rural-urban interfaces of large cities. Our empirical analysis is based on data of a household survey conducted in the rural-urban interface of Bangalore, India. In our analysis we follow a polycentric perspective of urbanization introducing a two-dimensional variable measuring the effect of urbanization. Furthermore, we accommodate high input and crop diversity by applying a Structured Additive Regression (STAR) model. Our results show that satellite towns and road infrastructure are the main channels of urbanization to accelerate agricultural transition. The access to satellite towns seems to be even more important for smallholders to modernize their management systems than the access to the actual main city of Bangalore. Finally, our study implies that more flexible models are necessary to understand the dynamics of agricultural transition in the surroundings of fast-growing large towns, the kind of town expected to be dominating the urbanization trend in the coming decades. Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277430&r=ure |
| By: | J. Malte Zoubek |
| Keywords: | optimal taxation, urban wage premium, commuting, deduction, local labour markets, spatial taxation, regional inequality, multi-dimensional screening |
| JEL: | H21 R12 R23 R51 C61 J61 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sie:siegen:187-18&r=ure |
| By: | Fritz Schiltz (Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium); Deni Mazrekaj (Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium); Daniel Horn (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences); Kristof De Witte (Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium and Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research, Maastricht, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Elite schools in Hungary cherry pick high achieving students from general primary schools. The geographical coverage of elite schools has remained unchanged since 1999, when the establishment of new elite schools stopped. We exploit this geographical variation in the immobile Hungarian society and estimate the impact of high achieving peers leaving the class on student achievement, behaviour, and aspirations for higher education. Our estimates indicate moderate but heterogeneous effects on those left behind in general primary schools. |
| Keywords: | peer-effects, early-selection, IV estimates, FE estimates |
| JEL: | I21 I24 P36 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1804&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew M. Dumont |
| Abstract: | Recently, there has been significant interest in the high levels of rental cost burden being experienced across the United States. Much of this scholarship has focused on rental cost burdens in larger urban areas, or at the national level, and has not explored differences in the prevalence of rental cost burden in urban versus rural communities. In this paper, I find that rental cost burdens are a challenge facing both urban and rural communities. However, despite the need for affordable rental housing in rural communities identified, I find the amount of resources made available by the federal government to address this challenge are at a low point relative to recent history. My analysis of federal resource availability also finds one program has been an important and resilient tool for the development and preservation of affordable housing in urban and rural communities: the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. Congress delegated much of the LIHTC program’s implementation to the states, whereby states choose many of the factors to prioritize when allocating LIHTCs to specific projects. Therefore, I explored each state’s qualified allocation plan to identify whether specific factors make it more or less likely rural areas will receive a “fair share” of LIHTC allocations based on their need relative to non-rural areas. My analysis did not identify a specific factor or set of factors that systematically increased or decreased the likelihood of allocations being proportionate to the relative needs of a state’s rural communities. However, I did identify a number of factors that by their very design appeared to affect positively or negatively the likelihood that specific types of projects or project locations would receive allocations. Interviews with industry stakeholders confirmed that many of these factors are affecting developer decisions and may be unintentionally disadvantaging smaller, more remote rural projects. |
| Keywords: | Government expenditures (federal) ; Housing affordability ; Housing supply ; Rural ; Tax credits |
| JEL: | R21 I32 R31 I38 H53 I31 R10 |
| Date: | 2018–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2018-77&r=ure |
| By: | Muinelo-Gallo, Leonel; Azar, Paola |
| Abstract: | In this paper we seek to complement the scarce empirical evidence for middle-income countries about the effects of unconditional central government transfers on subnational fiscal behaviour. To this end, we have used an unbalanced panel of 18 Uruguayan regional governments from 1991 to 2016. Our database includes data from the regional budget and other sources of information, which allows us to investigate the role of political economy factors. The application of panel data techniques with the use of instrumental variables highlights the presence of a sizeable flypaper effect and a significant role of variables related with the political economy design of sub-national finances. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal federalism, Intergovernmental transfers, Flypaper effect, Endogeneity, Uruguay |
| JEL: | E62 H7 |
| Date: | 2018–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90245&r=ure |
| By: | Gørtz, Mette (University of Copenhagen); Johansen, Eva Rye (Aarhus University); Simonsen, Marianne (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses register based data covering the entire population of Danish children enrolled in preschool in 2006-2007 to investigate whether the gender composition of preschool staff members affects the timing of school start and subsequent academic performance. To estimate effects of the share of male staff member in preschools, we exploit within-preschool differences in teacher gender composition across time. We find that the share of male staff improves child outcomes and that gains are larger for boys who did not have access to male teachers previously and among children with less readily access to male role models. |
| Keywords: | preschool, teacher gender, redshirting, child development |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11913&r=ure |
| By: | Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa (Collegio Carlo Alberto); Kuehn, Zoë (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether individuals tend to migrate to countries where their skills are scarce or abundant. Focusing on English language skills, we test whether immigrants who are proficient in English choose to move to countries where many or few individuals speak English. We use the introduction of English classes into compulsory school curricula as an exogenous determinant for English proficiency of migrants of different ages, and we consider cohort data on migration among 29 European countries, where English is not the official language and where labor mobility is essentially free. Our estimation strategy consists of refined comparisons of cohorts, and we control for all variables traditionally included in international migration models. We find that immigrants who are proficient in English move to countries where fewer individuals speak English, and where hence their skills are scarce. We also show that similar results hold for general skills. |
| Keywords: | migration, English language skills, choice of destination country |
| JEL: | F22 I20 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11907&r=ure |
| By: | Emde, Simon; Gendreau, Michel |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:109727&r=ure |
| By: | Tran, Long (American University); Gershenson, Seth (American University) |
| Abstract: | Student attendance is both a critical input and intermediate output of the education production function. However, the malleable classroom-level determinants of student attendance are poorly understood. We estimate the causal effect of class size and observable teacher qualifications on student attendance rates by leveraging the random classroom assignments made by Tennessee's Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) class size experiment. A ten-student increase in class size raises the probability of being chronically absent by about three percentage points (21%). For black students, random assignment to a black teacher reduces the probability of chronic absence by 3.1 percentage points (26%). These suggest that a small, but nontrivial, share (about 5%) of class-size and race-match effects on student achievement are driven by changes in students' attendance habits. |
| Keywords: | education production function, student attendance, chronic absence, class size |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11911&r=ure |
| By: | José Jorge (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Joana Rocha (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence showing that industries with intense strategic complementarities exhibit stronger sensitivity to economic shocks. The Portuguese credit crunch of 2009 represents a negative shock for nonfinancial firms, which has created negative spillover effects among firms. Corporate investment declines significantly in industries with strong strategic complementarities following the onset of the crisis, controlling for firm fixed effects, time varying measures of financial constraints and investment opportunities. Consistent with a causal effect, the decline is greatest for firms in industries with strong strategic complementarities. To address sample selection concerns we consider several sample splits and apply a matching approach to find the best counterfactual, and confirm similar results. |
| Keywords: | Banking; Financial Crises; Industry Spillovers; Production Externalities; Agglomeration |
| JEL: | G21 D22 G01 D62 C23 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:0115&r=ure |
| By: | Gebrehiwot, D.; Holden, S.T. |
| Abstract: | We investigate the extent of variation in output sharing in land rental contracts and alternative hypotheses to explain this variation. Close to half of the rental contracts in our study in northern Ethiopia have output shares that deviate from the dominant 50-50 equal sharing. Variation in land quality, the relative bargaining power of landlords and tenants, production risks and shocks are hypothesized to influence output shares. Matched data of landlords and tenants are used. The importance of endogenous matching of landlords and tenants is investigated by assessing how endogenous tenant characteristics are correlated with landlord characteristics. We find evidence of negative assortative matching for key resource characteristics. A control function approach is used to control for endogenous matching in the output share models. The results reveal that production risks as well as relative bargaining power affect output shares in the reverse tenancy setting with tenants being relatively wealthier and influential than landlords. Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Land Economics/Use |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277362&r=ure |
| By: | Hoen, Maria F. (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Using Norwegian administrative data, we examine how exposure to immigration over the past decades has affected natives' relative prime age labor market outcomes by social class background. Social class is established on the basis of parents' earnings rank. By exploiting variation in immigration patterns over time across commuting zones, we find that immigration from low‐income countries has reduced social mobility and thus steepened the social gradient in natives' labor market outcomes, whereas immigration from high‐income countries has leveled it. Given the large inflow of immigrants from low-income countries to Norway since the early 1990s, this can explain a considerable part of the relative decline in economic performance among natives with lower class background, and also rationalize the apparent polarization of sentiments toward immigration. |
| Keywords: | immigration, intergenerational mobilty |
| JEL: | J62 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11904&r=ure |
| By: | Lin, Carl (Bucknell University); Sun, Yan (Beijing Normal University); Xing, Chunbing (Beijing Normal University) |
| Abstract: | We use several datasets to study whether son preference prevails in the human capital investment among Chinese rural-urban migrant households. We find that son preference exists among the rural migrants' households and that it caused lower probabilities relative to that of their boy counterparts that school age girls will migrate with their parents - a difference that is absent for children of preschool age. We also find that (1) boys are more likely to migrate following the reduction in the number of rural primary schools, (2) migrant households with multiple children tend to take their sons to migrate more than they take their daughters, and (3) the fact that parents of boy students spend more on their children's education can be largely explained by the extra costs of schooling for migrant households. Finally, we show that the parents of rural children have higher expectations for boys than they do for girls. Our results suggest that son preference is detrimental to the human capital investment in girls in contemporary China when institutional arrangements result in high costs of schooling for migrants. |
| Keywords: | rural-urban migration, China, children, son preference, human capital |
| JEL: | J13 J17 J61 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11930&r=ure |
| By: | Cuffe, Harold E; Wills, Olivia |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effects of a large unanticipated natural disaster on high schoolers’ university enrolment decisions and subsequent medium-term labour market outcomes. Using national administrative data after a destructive earthquake in New Zealand, we estimate that the disaster raises tertiary education enrolment of recent high school graduates by 6.1 percentage points. The effects are most pronounced for males, students who are academically weak relative to their peers, and students from schools directly damaged by the disaster. As relatively low ability males are overrepresented in sectors of the labour market helped by the earthquake, greater demand for university may stem from permanent changes in deeper behavioural parameters such as risk aversion or time preference, rather than as a coping response to poor economic opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Natural disasters, New Zealand, Christchurch, Tertiary education, Earthquakes, Causal effects, Labour market, High School students, |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwecf:7891&r=ure |
| By: | Nicholas W. Papageorge; Seth Gershenson; Kyung Min Kang |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a joint model of the education and teacher-expectation production functions that identifies both the distribution of biases in teacher expectations and the impact of those biases on student outcomes via self-fulfilling prophecies. Our approach leverages a unique feature of a nationally representative dataset: two teachers provided their educational expectations for each student. Identification of causal effects exploits teacher disagreements about the same student, an idea we formalize using lessons from the measurement error literature. We provide novel, arguably causal evidence that teacher expectations affect students' educational attainment: Estimates suggest an elasticity of college completion with respect to teachers' expectations of about 0.12. On average, teachers are overly optimistic about students' ability to complete a four-year college degree. However, the degree of over-optimism of white teachers is significantly larger for white students than for black students. This highlights a nuance that is frequently overlooked in discussions of biased beliefs: less biased (i.e., more accurate) beliefs can be counterproductive if there are positive returns to optimism or if there are socio-demographic gaps in the degree of teachers' optimism; we find evidence of both. |
| JEL: | D84 I2 J15 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25255&r=ure |
| By: | Zoltan Hermann (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Corvinus University of Budapest); Marianna Kopasz (Institute for Political Science, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Girls tend to outperform boys in reading tests, while they usually lag behind boys in math. However, the size of the gender gap varies to a great extent between countries. While the existing literature explains these differences as being mainly due to cultural factors, this paper explores whether this cross-country variation is related to educational policies like tracking, grade retention, and individualised teaching practices. The gender test score gap is analysed in math, reading and science using the PISA 2012 dataset. Multilevel models are used in the estimation. The results suggest that the extent of the gender gap is indeed associated with certain characteristics of the various education systems. First, applying a difference-in-differences estimation method, it was found that early tracking has a direct effect on the gender gap in test scores, in favour of girls. Second, suggestive evidence shows that more student-oriented teaching practices also benefit girls relative to boys, both between and within countries, and within schools. Finally, grade retention is correlated with the gender gap, though there is further evidence suggesting that this correlation is very unlikely to represent a causal effect. |
| Keywords: | gender stratification, tracking, grade retention, teaching practice, PISA, multilevel model, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1805&r=ure |
| By: | Jan Willem Gunning; Pramila Krishnan; Andualem T Mengistu |
| Abstract: | We examine the spatial variation in variety of manufactured goods to study how choice fades with distance. We model monopolistically-competitive trade between market town and village and show how transport costs reduce consumer welfare through reduced variety. We use data from a purpose-designed survey of shops and consumers in villages in Ethiopia and prices of matched source and destination goods to estimate similar tastes for variety across space. Our estimates suggest an average mark-up of 10-15% and welfare costs of falling variety at 19% on average of expenditures on manufactures, in contrast to the e?ect of prices at an average of 1.75%. The cost of lower variety in remote places is substantial. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2018-05-2&r=ure |
| By: | Kelly, Jane (Central Bank of Ireland); Le Blanc, Julia (Deutsche Bundesbank, Research Centre); Lydon, Reamonn (Central Bank of Ireland) |
| Abstract: | Using household survey data, we document evidence of a loosening of credit standards in Euro area countries that experienced a property price boom-and-bust cycle. Borrowers in these countries exhibited significantly higher loan-to-value (LTV) and loan-to-income (LTI) ratios in the run up to the financial crisis, and an increasing tendency towards longer-term loans compared to borrowers in other countries. In recent years, despite the long period of historically low interest rates and substantial house price increases in some countries, we do not find similar credit easing as before the crisis. Instead, we find evidence of a considerable change in borrower characteristics since 2010: new borrowers are older and have higher incomes than before the crisis. |
| Keywords: | real estate markets, macroprudential policy, systemic risk, financial crises, bubbles, financial regulation, financial stability indicators. |
| JEL: | E5 G01 G17 G28 R39 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbi:wpaper:12/rt/18&r=ure |
| By: | Holm-Hadulla, Fédéric |
| Abstract: | Sub-national governments often finance substantial parts of their budgets via taxes on capital or other mobile factors – despite having access to alternative, less distortionary, revenue sources. This paper develops three hypotheses to explain this pattern and tests them in a natural experiment from Germany. The first hypothesis is that fiscal redistribution between jurisdictions lowers the perceived excess burden of distortionary taxation and thereby raises its attractiveness from the perspective of local governments; the second is that a desire for redistribution within jurisdictions induces a shift away from less distortionary tax instruments, despite their superior efficiency properties; the third is that distortionary taxation serves as a Pigouvian intervention to correct externalities. The empirical analysis supports redistribution between jurisdictions as important, but insufficient, to fully explain the observed reliance on distortionary taxation. Among the remaining two hypotheses, the data favour Pigouvian over distributional motives as a further rationale for the local taxation of mobile factors. JEL Classification: H23, H25, H71, H77 |
| Keywords: | difference-in-difference, federalism, fiscal equalization, natural experiment, tax structure |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20182203&r=ure |
| By: | Jain, Tarun (Indian School of Business); Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop (Indian Statistical Institute); Prakash, Nishith (University of Connecticut); Rakesh, Raghav (Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the association between studying science at the higher secondary stage and labor market earnings using nationally representative data on high school subject choices and adult outcomes for urban males in India. Results show that those who studied science in high school have 22% greater earnings than those who studied business and humanities, even after controlling for several measures of ability. These higher earnings among science students are further enhanced if the students also have some fluency in English. Moreover, greater earnings are observed among individuals with social and parental support for translating science skills into higher earnings. Science education is also associated with more years of education, likelihood of completing a professional degree, and among low ability students, working in public sector positions. |
| Keywords: | high-school majors, labor markets, science, STEM, India |
| JEL: | I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11908&r=ure |
| By: | McCluskey, William; Franzsen, Riël; Kabinga, Mundia; Kasese, Chabala |
| Abstract: | Information communication technology (ICT) is an important tool to support local governments in their efforts to more efficiently administer property taxes and other own-source revenues. Increasingly, developing countries, including those in Africa, are managing large volumes of data on taxable properties and taxpayers within the ICT environment. With reference to four African cities, this paper comments on the benefits and challenges relating to the use of ICT in the administration of property tax and other own-source revenues. Key findings of this research include: (1) the importance placed on ICT by cities to improve own-source revenue (OSR) administration; (2) ICT provides the opportunity for city councils to adopt a cashless payment system built around e-payments; (3) whilst ICT systems have only been recently introduced in Arusha City Council and Kiambu County, there is evidence that improved administration has contributed to improved revenue collections; (4) the introduction of new business processes have largely been accepted by city customers; and (5) Kitwe City Council and Ndola City Council have begun to implement ICT although there are issues with the technical support of the systems and the lack of arrangements with banks to facilitate e-payments. Furthermore, Ndola’s experience confirms the risks of using an internationally-developed and maintained IT system. |
| Keywords: | Governance, |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idq:ictduk:14153&r=ure |
| By: | Fumarco, Luca; Baert, Stijn |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the literature on relative age effects on pupils’ (non-cognitive) skills formation by studying students’ social network. We investigate data on European adolescents from the Health Behaviour in School Aged Children survey and use an instrumental variables approach to account for endogeneity of relative age while controlling for confounders, namely absolute age, season-of-birth, and family socio-economic status. We find robust evidence that suggests the existence of a substitution effect: the youngest students within a class e-communicate more frequently than relatively older classmates but have fewer friends and meet with them less frequently. |
| Keywords: | Relative age, adolescents, education, Europe, social network |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89966&r=ure |
| By: | Paul Healy |
| Abstract: | Farmers in low-income countries depend on crop prices for their livelihoods. These prices often result from transactions with more powerful intermediary buyers. Large transport projects can significantly alter the transport cost environment for both farmers and buyers, and thus reshape agricultural markets for some of the world’s most vulnerable farmers. In this paper, I investigate the effect of India’s North-South-East-West highway (NS-EW) on rice, wheat, and soyabean prices in the years 2005-2016. Estimating the impact of road projects is challenging because of fundamental endogeneity issues in road construction. However, I exploit a difference-in-differences model with an instrumental variable that allows for identification of the causal effect of highway construction on the prices received by farmers in local markets. The “treatment” of the NS-EW raised prices at rice markets closer to the corridor relative to more distant markets by approximately 4% of the median rice price. This result is robust to modifications of the “before” and “after” cut-off dates in the difference-in-differences, exclusion of markets near urban centres, and a placebo difference-in-differences (using only the “before” years). |
| Keywords: | Transport; Infrastructure; Agriculture; India |
| JEL: | O18 Q13 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2018-13&r=ure |
| By: | Gershenson, Seth (American University); McBean, Jessica Rae (American University); Tran, Long (American University) |
| Abstract: | Credible evidence from a variety of contexts suggests that student absences harm academic achievement. However, extant studies focus entirely on the average effects of student absences, and how those average effects vary by student, school, and absence type. This paper enhances our understanding of the nature of the causal relationship between absences and achievement by estimating quantile regressions that identify the impact of student absences on the full distribution of achievement, not just its mean. Somewhat surprisingly, the harmful effects of student absences are approximately constant across the achievement distribution. This suggests that cost-benefit analyses of interventions designed to improve attendance can use previously-estimated average effects to predict benefits. Moreover, it suggests that interventions that target all students would neither increase nor decrease the variance in test scores. |
| Keywords: | student attendance, chronic absence, education production function, quantile regression |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11912&r=ure |
| By: | Dilara YILMAZ (Kocaeli Unieversity/ Faculty of Education); Ayse Hicret GUDUK (Kocaeli Unieversity/ Faculty of Education) |
| Abstract: | Hopelessness expresses a negative expectation with a pessimistic attitude, a pessimistic approach and a failure feature. In this study, various variables affecting the hopelessness levels of the fourth (last) grade students that study pre-school and elementary school teaching departmants at Kocaeli University in 2017-2018 semestre will be examined. At this point the problem of this research is hopelessness levels of pre-service and elementary school preservice teachers to be employed in various educational institutions in the future. This research is appropriate to descriptive research model from the types of quantitative research and 81 pre-school and 59 elementary school preservice teachers participated for this investigation. In the research, "Beck Hopelessness Scale" developed by Aaron Temkin Beck and "Personal Information Form" developed by researchers were used. The results of the research will be shared after the data analysis as the results of the obtained data are still being reviewed. |
| Keywords: | Hopelessness level, pre-service teachers, elementary school teachers |
| JEL: | I21 I23 I20 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:6709718&r=ure |
| By: | Tommaso Agasisti (Politecnico di Milano School of Management); Aleksei Egorov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Daria Zinchenko (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Oleg Leshukov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the link between the efficiency of regional higher education systems and the rates of regional economic development between 2012 and 2015 in Russia. The efficiency scores are calculated at the institutional level using a double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) procedure, taking into account the different internal characteristics of universities which may affect their production process, and the scores are then aggregated at the regional level. We formulate a regional economic growth model that considers the efficiency of regional higher education systems as one of the explanatory variables. As an econometric method, we employ a robust GMM estimator. The model also includes spatial interactions between regional economies and between regional higher education systems in neighboring regions. The findings highlight a positive, substantial and statistically significant effect of HEI efficiency on the regional economic growth rate. We also found negative spillover effects indicating that efficient regional higher education systems may extract resources from neighboring regions |
| Keywords: | Regional economic development; efficiency in higher education; knowledge spillovers; economic growth; Russia. |
| JEL: | I25 I21 E02 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:203/ec/2018&r=ure |
| By: | Dutcher, E. Glenn; Rodet, Cortney S. |
| Abstract: | Creative teams drive the idea-economy, yet the determinants of a team's ability to create new ideas are not universally agreed upon. Group-level diversity has gained the most traction as an explanation, where a team's performance is usually attributed to diversity over observed characteristics such as race, gender, or functional expertise. Most agree that these characteristics are not especially important, but rather serve as an indicator of diversity in experiences, which is the actual mechanism that improves team ability. We formalize and test if experientially diverse groups produce more ideas. Because group assignment to projects in the field is rarely exogenous, and experiential diversity is not measured in observational data, we use a laboratory experiment to test our proposal. We find that experientially diverse teams create more ideas and also find no additional effect for gender, racial, socioeconomic, or personality diversity. Our general finding for why diversity may be important indicates that if a correlation exists between characteristic diversity and experiential diversity, the characteristically diverse team will have a higher ability. This generalization can be used to unify divergent results from prior studies and can help explain how dissimilar corporate diversity policies could be equally successful. |
| Keywords: | Diversity, Creativity, Group Production, Experimental Economics |
| JEL: | C90 C92 J24 M50 O30 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2018–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89982&r=ure |
| By: | Alessandro Balestrino; Lisa Grazzini; Annalisa Luporini |
| Abstract: | We consider an economy with two categories of agents: entrepreneurs and workers. In laissez-faire, the former gain from having their children educated, while the latter, although they may profit from their own education, have no interest in sending their children to school. We first characterise the preferred education policy-cum-redistributive taxation for the two groups, and find that entrepreneurs favour a compulsory education policy while workers prefer a purely redistributive taxation. Each group would like the policy to be entirely financed by the other group. Then, we introduce a political process with probabilistic voting and verify that an equilibrium with both a compulsory education policy and some redistribution may exist in which the workers are constrained but the entrepeneurs, who benefit from hiring educated workers, are not. |
| Keywords: | Education Policy, Redistributive taxation, Probabilistic voting. |
| JEL: | H42 H52 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2018_24.rdf&r=ure |
| By: | Ray, M.; Maredia, M. |
| Abstract: | Struggles for greater autonomy or more homogenous jurisdictions within a federal system has been a consistent phenomenon of the current nation states. However, there remains very little rigorous evidence of more autonomy and homogenous jurisdiction on development outcomes. Creation of three new states in India in the year 2000 allows us to test these development hypotheses. As states are the proximate determinants of local institutions driving development outcomes, a change in their boundaries provides us an opportunity to evaluate the impact of these shifts on the provision of public goods and distribution of development outcomes. We use quasi-experimental methods like difference in difference with parent state as comparison and newly formed state as treatment, alternatively we consider both the split states as two treatments with nearby states as comparison. Further, we use geographic discontinuity across the newly formed borders to show that districts in the newly created states are doing better on development indicators after splitting from their parent state. Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277181&r=ure |
| By: | Fabrizio Adriani (University of Leicester); Silvia Sonderegger (School of Economics, University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | Signaling models of esteem have implications for peer pressure. Using Benabou's and Tirole's 'honor-stigma' model, we analyze how the pressure to engage in costly signaling changes with the distribution of peers' attributes. In particular, we provide novel comparative statics on the effects of changes in mean, dispersion, skewness and other features of the distribution of peer quality. First, we provide conditions under which moving an individual to a group with higher mean quality may provide stronger incentives (i.e. a 'keeping up with the Joneses' effect) or may induce discouragement (a 'small fish in a big pond' effect). Second, we show that both right and left truncations of the distribution of peer quality reduce incentives. Third, more dispersed peer distributions provide stronger incentives. Finally, more right skewed peer distributions induce stronger incentives when only a small fraction of the group provide the signal, but reduce motivation when provision is widespread. We also analyze the aggregate effects of each of these distributional changes. Applications include education, redistribution, and conspicuous consumption. |
| Keywords: | Esteem, Status, Peer pressure, Signaling, Small fish in a big pond, Conspicuous consumption, Distributional comparative statics. |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2018-12&r=ure |
| By: | François-Xavier De Vaujany (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris-Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Amélie Bohas (CRET-LOG - Centre de Recherche sur le Transport et la Logistique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université); Jeremy Aroles (Alliance MBS - Alliance Manchester Business School - University of Manchester [Manchester]); Nicolas Aubouin; Héloïse Berkowitz (TSM - Toulouse School of Management Research - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - TSM - Toulouse School of Management - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole); Claudine Bonneau; Hélène Bussy-Socrate (WBS - Warwick Business School - University of Warwick [Coventry]); Sabine Carton (UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes); Boukje Cnossen; Aurore Dandoy (Management & Organisation - DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris-Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Julie Fabbri; Anna Glaser; Albane Grandazzi (Management & Organisation - DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris-Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Stefan Haefliger (Cass Business School - Cass Business School); Marie Hasbi (Université Paris 2 - Panthéon-Assas); Olivier Irrmann; Pierre Laniray (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris-Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Annie Pessalacqua; Viviane Sergi (UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal); David Vallat (Centre de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon); Laetitia Vitaud; Johanna Voll; Renée Zachariou |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01907637&r=ure |
| By: | Mertens, Kewan; Vranken, Liesbet |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2018–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:280764&r=ure |
| By: | Thiedig, Johannes |
| Abstract: | Uniquely amongst industrialized countries worldwide, Germany does not impose a general speed limit on highways. This is different in the Netherlands, where a limit of 130km/h is implemented. The direct border between the two countries provides an opportunity to construct a natural experiment and analyze the social impact of a general speed limit of 130 km/h for passenger cars on German highways. I quantify the social welfare impacts from travel time, accident victims, fuel consumption and emissions for two highway sections in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The results are obtained by a descriptive comparison of micro data on travel speeds and accidents, collected on the two designated cross-border highways. In the central case, I conclude that on both highways a speed limit would be beneficial from the social and private perspective. The impacts found on the two highways differ in magnitude, but the qualitative decisions are identical and sufficiently robust to their core assumptions. |
| Keywords: | Speed Limit,Highway,Germany,Cost-Benefit Analysis,Transport Economics |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201817&r=ure |