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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Morris A. Davis (Department of Finance and Economics, Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University); William D. Larson (Federal Housing Finance Agency); Stephen D. Oliner (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research); Jessica Shui (Federal Housing Finance Agency) |
| Abstract: | We use data on the appraised land value from a data set of more than 16 million appraisals to produce annual estimates of the average price of land used in single-family housing. We generate a balanced panel of data on land value per acre for more than 900 counties, 8,000 ZIP codes, and 11,000 census tracts in the United States between 2012 and 2017, covering 85% of the population and 83% of all single-family homes. Based on the predictions of a calibrated optimal model of teardowns, we limit our sample of appraised land values for homes with an e ective age of no more than 10 years. We standardize these land values to a per-acre basis, and then spatially interpolate to the universe of single-family homes using Kriging. Our analysis produces three main ndings for our sample: land prices in most areas increased between 2012 and 2017; land prices tended to rise faster than house prices; and land appreciated most rapidly in areas with relatively high density of structures. The land prices we generate are intended to aid researchers in Urban and Regional Economics and policy-makers monitoring the health of the nation's single-family housing market and are available for free download at https://www.fhfa.gov/papers/wp1901.aspx. |
| Keywords: | land prices, land leverage, price gradient, standard urban model, price dynamics |
| JEL: | R14 R21 R32 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hfa:wpaper:19-01&r=all |
| By: | Eleonora Bertoni; Gregory Elacqua; Analia Jaimovich; Julio Rodríguez; Humberto Santos |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the teacher sorting literature by analyzing equity in the distribution of teachers in three educational systems in Latin America, with different equalization policies, teacher assignment rules, and incentives to work in disadvantaged schools: Chile, Colombia, and Peru. We use unique micro-data at the teacher and school level to describe the distribution of teachers across the three systems. Two main conclusions emerge from our results. First, we find that differences in the sources of funding and teacher salaries legislation can affect the equity in teacher allocation between administrative units. Second, we find substantial teacher sorting across schools (vertical inequities) in the three systems. Overall, the comparison of the three countries confirms that, after controlling for confounding variables, disadvantaged students, particularly those in rural areas, are more likely to attend schools with teachers who are less qualified (temporary and inexperienced) and paid less. One of the most consistent findings in this analysis are the vertical inequities across the three measures in Colombia. In contrast, in Chile, the three measures have an inconsistent and weak relationship with mother’s level of schooling and a moderate relationship with the geographic location of the school (rural). While our analyses are descriptive and do not attempt to identify the underlying causes of these patterns, we suggest that these differences are related to the salary structure and hiring policies in the three countries. We discuss some policy alternatives to increase equity, including the introduction of monetary and non-monetary incentives to attract teachers to hard-to-staff schools, improving the working conditions and modifications in the teacher hiring and assignment process. |
| Keywords: | Wages, Teacher Education & Quality, Education Policy, Latin America, Teacher sorting, School finance |
| JEL: | I24 I22 J45 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:9124&r=all |
| By: | Diether W. Beuermann (Inter-American Development Bank); C. Kirabo Jackson (Northwestern University); Laia Navarro-Sola (Northwestern University); Francisco Pardo (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Is a school’s impact on high-stakes test scores a good measure of its overall impact on students? Do parents value school impacts on high-stakes tests, longer-run outcomes, or both? To answer the first question, we apply quasi-experimental methods to data from Trinidad and Tobago and estimate the causal impacts of individual schools on several outcomes. Schools’ impacts on high-stakes tests are weakly related to impacts on low-stakes tests, dropout, crime, teen motherhood, and formal labor market participation. To answer the second question, we link estimated school impacts to parents’ ranked lists of schools and employ discrete choice models to estimate parental preferences. Parents value schools that causally improve high- stakes test scores conditional on average outcomes, proximity, and peer quality. Consistent with parents valuing the multidimensional output of schools, parents of high-achieving girls prefer schools that increase formal labor market participation, and parents of high-achieving boys prefer schools that reduce crime. |
| Keywords: | test scores, high stakes examinations, Trinidad and Tobago, parental investments |
| JEL: | I20 J00 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-095&r=all |
| By: | Karim Badr (World Bank); Reham Rizk; Chahir Zaki |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to shed light on the nexus between firm productivity and economies of agglomeration in Egypt. Using a large dataset of 62,108 firms in 342 four-digit activities in 27 regions governorates, we introduce three measures of agglomeration, which are urbanization or firm diversification, measured by the number of firms in the governorate, localization and specialization, measured by the average productivity in the governorate and sector (generating externalities and knowledge spillovers), and finally competition, measured by the number of firm operating in the same governorate and the same sector. We find strong evidence for the existence of agglomeration economies in Egypt after controlling for firm age, location, economic activity and legal status. In the Egyptian context, productivity spillovers gained from agglomeration economies outweighed the negative effects of congestion implied by our competition measure. The latter is chiefly due to the lack of good infrastructure. When regressions are run by firm size and activity, our main findings show, first, that micro and small firms are more likely to benefit from localization and diversification compared to medium and large firms. Finally, service firms benefit more from a high level of diversification, while manufacturing firms gain more from knowledge spillovers and specialization. Our results support promoting entrepreneurship through the creation of industrial clusters located outside Cairo to lessen disparities between regions and acquire the full advantages of agglomeration. |
| Date: | 2018–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1239&r=all |
| By: | Tomoya Mori (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the extant formal models that explain the spatial pattern together with the size distribution of cities, and discusses the remaining research questions to be answered in this literature. To obtain meaningful results about the spatial patterns of cities, a model needs to depart from the most popular, a two-region and the systems-of-cities frameworks in urban and regional economics in which there is no variation in interregional distance. This is one of the major reasons that only few formal models have been proposed in this literature. To draw implications as much as possible from the extant theories, this review involves extensive discussions on the behavior of the many-region extension of the extant models. The mechanisms that link the spatial pattern of cities and the diversity in city sizes are also discussed separately in detail. |
| Keywords: | Cities, Agglomeration, Racetrack geography, Interregional distance, Power laws, Central place theory |
| JEL: | R12 C33 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:996&r=all |
| By: | Weiran Huang (City of New York); Ashlyn Nelson (University of Indiana); Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests for the spillover effects of foreclosure within broad neighborhoods. The best evidence that foreclosures have causal, spillover effects on housing prices and future foreclosures suggest highly localized spillover effects that are modest in magnitude, but these effects could multiply when the density of spillovers is high leading to larger aggregate effects in broader neighborhoods. We test this proposition by developing a proxy for the fraction of housing units/mortgages that are expected to be in negative equity during the crises. This proxy exploits the timing of purchases in each tract during the run up to the crisis, and we show that our source of identification, within tract variation in purchases over time, is not predicted the observed mortgage attributes. Our estimates suggest that 67 percent of the increase in the across tract dispersion in the recording of new foreclosure recordings can be explained by the spillover effects of the contemporaneous stock of foreclosures. |
| Keywords: | foreclosure, negative equity, neighborhood spillovers, mortgage, housing crisis |
| JEL: | G20 R20 R30 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-096&r=all |
| By: | Nitzan Tzur-Ilan (Bank of Israel) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of a Loan-to-Value (LTV) limit on households’ choices in the credit and housing markets. Using a large and novel micro database from Israel, including rich information on loans, borrowers and acquired assets, and using matching techniques, I find that the LTV limit had an effect on the mortgage contract terms (higher interest rates), but did not lead to credit rationing (no segment of the population is excluded from the market). The LTV limit induced borrowers to buy cheaper assets and to move farther from high demand areas to lower graded neighborhoods. The conclusion is that the LTV limit, the most common macroprudential policy tool, has an impact not only from a financial stability perspective, by reducing the leverage of households, but also affected their choices in the housing market. |
| Keywords: | LTV, macroprudential, mortgages, housing, regulation, central, banks |
| JEL: | E58 R1 R2 R3 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boi:wpaper:2017.03&r=all |
| By: | Anthony Bald; Eric Chyn; Justine S. Hastings; Margarita Machelett |
| Abstract: | This paper uses administrative data to measure causal impacts of removing children from families investigated for abuse or neglect. We use the removal tendency of quasi-experimentally assigned child protective service investigators as an instrument for whether authorities removed and placed children into foster care. Our main analysis estimates impacts on educational outcomes by gender and age at the time of an investigation. We find that removal significantly increases standardized test scores for young girls. There are no detectable impacts on the test scores of girls removed at older ages or boys of any age. For older children, we also find few significant impacts of removal on the likelihood of having a juvenile conviction, graduating from high school, enrolling in a postsecondary institution, or having a teenage birth. We investigate potential mechanisms driving heterogeneous impacts by gender and age. Our results do not appear to be driven by heterogeneous effects on foster care placement, school mobility and quality, or participation in special education programs. For girls, we find that removal significantly increases the likelihood of post-investigation criminal charges or incarceration for parents and caretakers who are the perpetrators of abuse or neglect. |
| JEL: | H75 I21 I24 I28 I38 J12 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25419&r=all |
| By: | Jason Fletcher; Joel Han |
| Abstract: | Although the measurement of intergenerational income mobility has seen a rapid increase in attention and policy discussions, similar examinations of educational mobility in the U.S. are lacking. This paper begins to fill this gap by documenting differences in educational mobility across time (1982-2004) and geography (U.S. states). The study complements recent estimates of intergenerational income mobility because educational mobility both contributes to income mobility and is a target for education policies. We both develop a method to compute intergenerational correlation coefficients which respects the unique properties of education attainment, as well as utilize standard measures in the literature. While naive intergenerational regressions of years attained suggest a slight increase in mobility over the sample period, we find that mobility fluctuated: decreasing over roughly the first decade and increasing in the second. In addition, there is also substantial geographic variation in education mobility. We identify local community and policy factors, such as the existence of high school exit exams, that are correlated with educational mobility as well as a lack of increase in mobility in the South. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I24 J24 J48 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25324&r=all |
| By: | Tomoya Mori (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Shosei Sakaguchi (Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we quantitatively characterize the mechanism of collaborative knowledge creation at the individual researcher level `a la Berliant and Fujita (2008) by using Japanese patent data. The key driver for developing new ideas is found to be the exchange of differentiated knowledge among collaborators. To stay creative, inventors seek opportunities to shift their technological expertise to unexplored niches by utilizing the differentiated knowledge of new collaborators in addition to their own stock of knowledge. In particular, while collaborators’ differentiated knowledge raises all the average cited count, average (technological) novelty and the quantity of patents for which an inventor contributes to the development, it has the largest impact on the average novelty among the three. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge creation, Collaboration, Differentiated knowledge, Technological novelty, Technological shift, Recombination, Patents, Network, Strategic interactions |
| JEL: | D83 D85 O31 R11 C33 C36 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:998&r=all |
| By: | Jesse Kalinowski (Quinnipiac University); Matthew Ross (Wagner School of Public Service, New York University); Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses state police stop data in Texas to assess patrol activity. We find that both the types of stops and the allocation of resources over space change in darkness relative to daylight, and that the changes in stop type and manpower allocation are correlated within police officers. We also find that the counties receiving more police resources in darkness have a higher share of minority residents. Veil of Darkness (VOD) tests of racial discrimination in traffic stops require that the distribution of motorists be independent of darkness, which is unlikely to be the case without detailed geographic controls. |
| Keywords: | police, traffic stops, patrol locations, veil of darkness, racial profiling, racial discrimination |
| JEL: | K14 K42 J15 H11 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-094&r=all |
| By: | Konrad Steiner (A.T. Kearney GmbH, Johannes Gutenberg University) |
| Abstract: | This work addresses line planning for inter-city bus networks, which requires a high level of integration with other planning steps. One key reason is given by passengers choosing a speci?c timetabled service rather than just a line, as is typically the case in urban transportation. Schedule-based modeling approaches are required to incorporate this aspect, i.e., demand is assigned to a speci?c timetabled service. Furthermore, in liberalized markets, there is usually ?erce competition within and across modes. This encourages considering dynamic demand, i.e., not relying on static demand values, but adjusting them based on the trip characteristics. We provide a schedule-based mixed-integer model formulation allowing a bus operator to optimize multiple timetabled services in a travel corridor with simultaneous decisions on both departure time and which stations to serve. The demand behaves dynamically with respect to departure time, trip duration, trip frequency, and cannibalization. To solve this new problem formulation, we introduce a large multiple neighborhood search (LMNS) as an overall metaheuristic approach, together with multiple variations including matheuristics. Applying the LMNS algorithm, we solve instances based on real-world data from the German market. Computation times are attractive and the high quality of the solutions is con?rmed by analyzing examples with known optimal solutions. Moreover, we show that the explicit consideration of the dependencies between the di?erent timetabled services often produces insightful new results that di?er from approaches which only focus on a single service. |
| Keywords: | integration, schedule-based modeling, inter-city bus transportation, dynamic demand, large multiple neighborhood search LMNS |
| Date: | 2018–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1825&r=all |
| By: | Tomoya Mori (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Jens Wrona (Heinrich-Heine-University (HHU) Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics) |
| Abstract: | We propose and apply a new theory-consistent algorithm, which uses disaggregated inter-city trade data to identify a pyramidic city system with central places and associated hinterlands. Because central places possess more industries than the cities in their hinterlands, and because industries, which are exclusive to central places, are more likely to export to the small, peripheral cities in the central place’s hinterland, we find that aggregate exports from central places to their hinterlands are two to five times larger than predicted by gravity forces. Using a simple decomposition approach, we show that this upward bias results from aggregation along the extensive industry margin, which is why the bias is much smaller and only marginally significant if estimation is conducted in a theory-consistent way at the disaggregated industry level. |
| Keywords: | Inter-city trade, central place theory, gravity equation, aggregation bias |
| JEL: | F14 F12 R12 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:995&r=all |
| By: | Nagler, Markus (LMU Munich); Piopiunik, Marc (ifo Institute); West, Martin R. (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | How do alternative job opportunities affect teacher quality? We provide causal evidence on this question by exploiting business cycle conditions at career start as a source of exogenous variation in the outside options of potential teachers. Unlike prior research, we directly assess teacher quality with value-added measures of impacts on student test scores, using administrative data on over 30,000 teachers in Florida public schools. Consistent with a Roy model of occupational choice, teachers entering the profession during recessions are significantly more effective in raising student test scores. Results are supported by robustness tests and unlikely to be driven by differential attrition. |
| Keywords: | ; |
| Date: | 2019–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:137&r=all |
| By: | Kennedy, Kendall |
| Abstract: | Over the past four decades, nearly 25% of all American public school students repeated at least one grade in primary or secondary school, and ninth grade repeating increased four-fold. Despite its prevalence, few economists have attempted to account for grade repeating when estimating the returns to education and experience. I show that 10% of the increase in ninth grade repeating was caused by changes in compulsory schooling laws (CSLs). Because CSLs increase both grade repeating and educational attainment, compulsory education-based IV estimates of the returns to education are positively biased by up to 38%. Additionally, grade repeating causes endogenous measurement error in labor market experience. Solely through this measurement error, I show that the residual black-white wage gap is overstated by 10%, the wage return to a high school diploma is overstated by 11% relative to dropouts, and the labor supply gap between dropouts and high school graduates is overstated by 23%. Controlling for age instead of experience reduces this bias, suggesting age should be a standard control variable for reduced-form analysis, not experience. |
| Keywords: | Grade Retention, Returns to Education, Returns to Experience, 9th Grade, GED, Black-White Gaps |
| JEL: | C51 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90454&r=all |
| By: | Nguyen, Ha Trong; Connelly, Luke; Le, Huong Thu; Mitrou, Francis; Taylor, Catherine; Zubrick, Stephen |
| Abstract: | Children of Asian immigrants in most English-speaking destinations have better academic outcomes, yet the underlying causes of their advantages are under-studied. We employ panel time-use diaries by two cohorts of children observed over a decade to present new evidence that children of Asian immigrants begin spending more time than their peers on educational activities from school entry; and, that the ethnicity gap in the time allocated to educational activities increases over time. By specifying an augmented value-added model and invoking a quantile decomposition method, we find that the academic advantage of children of Asian immigrants is attributable mainly to their allocating more time to educational activities or their favorable initial cognitive abilities and not to socio-demographics or parenting styles. Furthermore, our results show substantial heterogeneity in the contributions of initial cognitive abilities and time allocations by test subjects, test ages and points of the test score distribution. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Education, Test Score Gap, Time Diary, Quantile Regression, Second-generation Immigrants, Australia |
| JEL: | C21 I20 J13 J15 J22 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90534&r=all |
| By: | Renaud Bourlès (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Yann Bramoullé (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Eduardo Perez-Richet (IEP Paris - Sciences Po Paris - Institut d'études politiques de Paris, CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We provide the first analysis of the risk-sharing implications of altruism networks. Agents are embedded in a fixed network and care about each other. We study whether altruistic transfers help smooth consumption and how this depends on the shape of the network. We identify two benchmarks where altruism networks generate efficient insurance: for any shock when the network of perfect altruism is strongly connected and for any small shock when the network of transfers is weakly connected. We show that the extent of informal insurance depends on the average path length of the altruism network and that small shocks are partially insured by endogenous risk-sharing communities. We uncover complex structural effects. Under iid incomes, central agents tend to be better insured, the consumption correlation between two agents is positive and tends to decrease with network distance, and a new link can decrease or increase the consumption variance of indirect neighbors. Overall, we show that altruism in networks has a first-order impact on risk and generates specific patterns of consumption smoothing. |
| Keywords: | altruism,networks,risk sharing,informal insurance |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01943862&r=all |
| By: | Kennedy, Kendall |
| Abstract: | Since 1988, 27 states have introduced No Pass, No Drive laws, which tie a teenager’s ability to receive and maintain a driver’s license to various school-related outcomes -- most commonly, enrollment and attendance. Truancy-Based No Pass, No Drive policies target only attendance – teens that fail to meet a minimum attendance requirement lose their driver’s license. However, these policies allow students to drop out of school without facing this penalty. These policies increase the annual dropout rate by between 32 and 45 percent (1.4 to 2 percentage points). Enrollment-Based No Pass, No Drive policies, the largest group of policies, which target both enrollment and attendance, have negligible effects on dropout rates, but decrease the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) by more than one percentage point. However, this lower graduation rate stems from students delaying their dropout decision by up to two years. As a result, these students are retained in the ninth and tenth grades, increasing ninth grade enrollment by 2.8 percent relative to eighth grade enrollment the year prior; this causes an artificial reduction in the graduation rate, rather than a reduction in the true likelihood that a student will graduate. |
| Keywords: | AFGR, Dropout Rate, Driver's License, Education, No Pass No Drive |
| JEL: | H75 I28 |
| Date: | 2018–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90453&r=all |
| By: | Höfer, Tim (E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN)); Madlener, Reinhard (E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the negative external effects caused by the introduction of variable renewable energy sources into an inflexible power system. We investigate the costs that arise due to the need for temporarily reducing their output to relief grid overstress in the case of high electricity feed-in. The responsible system operator has to remunerate the power plant operator for this lost output. The resulting costs for the system operator, the so-called feed-in management costs, are passed on to the end-consumers in the respective region via the grid use tariff scheme. In this paper, we develop a two-part regression model that explains (i) the occurrence of feed-in management and (ii) the regional variation of feed-in management costs. In the first part, we use a logit model to explain why some regions experienced feed-in management in recent years and others did not. The second part covers an augmented spatial econometric model that investigates the interregional variability of feed-in management costs. The estimates of both models show that especially the installed capacity of wind energy connected to the medium and high voltage level have a negative impact on feed-in management and that high load in a region reduces the need for feed-in management measures. The augmented spatial model indicates for the case of four major DSOs in Germany that an increase by 1 MW of wind energy capacity at the medium and high voltage level lead to an increase in feed-in management costs by 1.9% and 0.9% in regions that already experienced feed-in management, respectively. The policy implication of this finding is that price signals for the reinforcement of the grid infrastructure or for the siting of VRES should be given. |
| Keywords: | FM; Spatial Econometrics; System Integration Cost; Grid-Related Cost; Renewable Energy |
| JEL: | C33 Q42 R10 R58 |
| Date: | 2018–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:fcnwpa:2018_013&r=all |
| By: | Matthew Graham; Mark Kutzbach; Danielle H. Sandler |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program’s ongoing efforts to use administrative records in a predictive model that describes residence locations for workers. This project was motivated by the discontinuation of a residence file produced elsewhere at the U.S. Census Bureau. The goal of the Residence Candidate File (RCF) process is to provide the LEHD Infrastructure Files with residence information that maintains currency with the changing state of administrative sources and represents uncertainty in location as a probability distribution. The discontinued file provided only a single residence per person/year, even when contributing administrative data may have contained multiple residences. This paper describes the motivation for the project, our methodology, the administrative data sources, the model estimation and validation results, and the file specifications. We find that the best prediction of the person-place model provides similar, but superior, accuracy compared with previous methods and performs well for workers in the LEHD jobs frame. We outline possibilities for further improvement in sources and modeling as well as recommendations on how to use the preference weights in downstream processing. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:tnotes:17-01&r=all |
| By: | Giovanna Messina (Bank of Italy); Marco Savegnago (Bank of Italy); Andrea Sechi (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Waste management can be financed through user charges, in the form of fees related to the amount of waste produced. Such fees would lead to positive effects for local public finance as well as for the environment. In Italy waste management is instead financed through a local tax (Ta.ri.), which is essentially a wealth tax. The paper examines Ta.ri. both from an efficiency and from an equity point of view, by means of a simulation using the Bank of Italy survey on household income and wealth. Our results indicate that Ta.ri. cannot discriminate among families according to the amount of waste they produce and that this tax weighs more heavily on poorer families. If waste taxation were redesigned so as to become more similar to a fee, tax payers would be encouraged to be more responsible in their use of resources, and the regressive impact of the current system of taxation would then disappear. |
| Keywords: | local public finance, efficiency, equity |
| JEL: | H71 H23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_474_18&r=all |
| By: | Öner, Özge (University of Cambridge); Klaesson, Johan (Jönköping University) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the relationship between the size and the quality of ethnic enclaves on immigrants’ labour market integration. Using exogenously defined grid cells to delineate neighbourhoods we find robust empirical evidence that the employment rate of the respective immigrant group in the vicinity (as a measure of enclave quality) facilitates labour market integration of new immigrants. The influence of the overall employment rate and the share of co-nationals in the neighbourhood tend to be positive, but less robust. We thus conclude that the quality is more important than the size of the ethnic enclave in helping new immigrants finding jobs. |
| Keywords: | Refugee immigrants; Ethnic enclave quality; Labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J60 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1256&r=all |
| By: | Antoine Mandel (Paris School of Economics - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Xavier Venel (Paris School of Economics - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | There exists a wide gap between the predictions of strategic models of network formation and empirical observations of the characteristics of socio-economic networks. Empirical observations underline a complex structure characterized by fat-tailed degree distribution, short average distance, large clustering coefficient and positive assortativity. Game theoretic models offer a detailed representation of individuals' incentives but they predict the emergence of much simpler structures than these observed empirically. Random network formation processes, such as preferential attachment, provide a much better fit to empirical observations but generally lack micro-foundations. in order to bridge this gap, we propose to model network formation as extensive games and investigate under which conditions equilibria of these games are observationally equivalent with random network formation process. In particular, we introduce a class of games in which players compete with their predecessors and their successors for the utility induced by the links they form with another node in the network. Such sequential competition games can represent a number of strategic economic interactions such as oligopolistic competition in supply networks or diffusion of influence in opinion networks. we show that the focal equilibrium that emerge in this setting is one where players use probability distributions with full support and target the whole network with probabilities inversely proportional to the utility of each node. Notably, when the utility of a node is inversely proportional to its degree, equilibrium play induces a preferential attachment process |
| Keywords: | Socio-economic networks; endogenous network formation; game theory |
| JEL: | C71 D85 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:18035&r=all |
| By: | Burhan Can Karahasan (Piri Reis University); Firat Bilgel |
| Abstract: | This study explores the endogenous relationship among market access, wages and human capital accumulation in Turkey. Our first set of analyses tests the impact of market access on human capital development using regional data at the NUTS III level. Results, robust to the inclusion of spatial spillovers, regional structural differences in production, possible endogeneity issues and the unobserved regional heterogeneities, validate that regions with better access to markets are the ones that accumulate more human capital in Turkey. Our second set of analyses aims to explore the background of human capital accumulation by using individual level data, which allows us to combine market accessibility, returns to education (wages) and human capital development. Remarkably, once we include wages and treat it as endogenous, we find evidence that the impact of market access on human capital development diminishes. Overall, the findings of this study validate that background of the NEG model does not work in line with the expectations. Rather the influence of geographical proximity on wages and individual’s decision on human capital investment are not identical. |
| Date: | 2018–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1233&r=all |
| By: | Brady P. Horn; Aakrit Joshi; Johanna Catherine Maclean |
| Abstract: | Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a major social concern in the United States and other developed countries. There is an extensive economic literature estimating the social costs associated with SUDs in terms of healthcare, labor market outcomes, crime, traffic accidents, and so forth. However, beyond anecdotal claims that SUD treatment centers (SUDTCs), settings in which patients receive care for their SUDs, have a negative effect on property values, there is scant empirical work on this question. In this paper, we investigate the effect of SUDTCs on residential property values using data from Seattle, Washington, and SUDTC location, entry, and exit information. To mitigate bias from the potential endogeneity of SUDTC location choices, we apply a spatial differences-in-differences (SDD) model, which uses property and SUDTC location to construct treatment and comparison groups. Our findings suggest that SUDTCs endogenously locate in lower value areas, and naïve models imply that the entry of an SUDTC leads to a 3.4% to 4.6% reduction in property values. When an SDD model is applied, we find no evidence that SUDTCs affect property values. Overall, our findings suggest anecdotal claims that SUDTCs reduce property values are potentially overstated. |
| JEL: | H0 I1 R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25427&r=all |
| By: | Mahmoud Ali Hailat (Yarmouk University) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs the Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey 2010 and 2016 waves to investigate the educational enrollment and attainment of Jordanians, as well as variations in school characteristics and student performance. While enrollment in education deteriorated slightly in 2016 compared to 2010, educational attainment has improved in 2016 relative to 2010. Household socioeconomic conditions, especially the wealth and education of parents, are related to enrollment in education and educational attainment. There are disparities in enrollment based on gender, between urban and rural areas, and across the Middle, North, and South regions. Enrollment rates were higher among females than males and the urban South region was disadvantaged. Disease, poverty, and the wishes of parents and individuals were the main barriers to entering education for the younger generations, while poverty, traditions, and lack of schools were the main barriers for older generations. The decline in lower levels of educational attainment was offset by more adults who obtained a university degree. |
| Date: | 2018–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1221&r=all |
| By: | DOSSOU, TOYO AMEGNONNA MARCEL |
| Abstract: | One belt one road is big initiative that is proposed by president Xi Jingping in 2013 to boost the global economy .the initiative concerns china and 64 countries especially Asia, Europe and Africa, the purpose of the initiative is to promote international trade them itself. China considers Kenya in Africa the hub who is the way that can help to enter Africa because Kenya is trying to growth its economy. The aims of this article is to show the positive impact of one belt one road initiative in Kenya in terms of regional Economic cooperation in East Africa, Economic growth, Infrastructure development. |
| Keywords: | one Belt and one Road, Kenya, Economic growth, Infrastructure Development, |
| JEL: | R1 R10 R12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90460&r=all |
| By: | Belal Fallah; Ayhab Saad (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the closure of Israeli labor market to examine the effect of a large labor market shock on educational choices for Palestinian youth. Right after the outbreak of Second Intifada in October 2000, Israel severely restricted the entrance of Palestinians workers (commuters) to its market, which resulted to more than 50% reduction in the number of Palestinian workers in Israel, mostly males. Our identification strategy relies on the variation in the geographical distribution of commuters within the West Bank prior the Second Intifada. We implement a difference-indifference strategy to compare high school dropout between localities with different commuting shares pre the shock over time. We find that the closure had significantly decreased high school dropout for males aged between 15-19 year-olds but not for females. The triple difference analysis confirms that the gender gap in high school dropout rates had decreased more in localities with high commuting shares than that in localities with low commuting shares. These effects are driven by the significant decline in employment prospects for school dropouts, as commuters were mainly concentrated in low-skill male-dominant jobs. |
| Date: | 2018–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1227&r=all |
| By: | Aude Bernard; Martin Bell |
| Abstract: | Migration the main process shaping patterns of human settlement within and between countries. It is widely acknowledged to be integral to the process of human development as it plays a significant role in enhancing educational outcomes. At regional and national levels, internal migration underpins the efficient functioning of the economy by bringing knowledge and skills to the locations where they are needed. It is the multi-dimensional nature of migration that underlines its significance in the process of human development. Human mobility extends in the spatial domain from local travel to international migration, and in the temporal dimension from short-term stays to permanent relocations. Classification and measurement of such phenomena is inevitably complex, which has severely hindered progress in comparative research, with very few large-scale cross-national comparisons of migration. The linkages between migration and education have been explored in a separate line of inquiry that has predominantly focused on country-specific analyses as to the ways in which migration affects educational outcomes and how educational attainment affects migration behaviour. A recurrent theme has been the educational selectivity of migrants, which in turn leads to an increase of human capital in some regions, primarily cities, at the expense of others. Questions have long been raised as to the links between education and migration in response to educational expansion, but have not yet been fully answered because of the absence, until recently, of adequate data for comparative analysis of migration. In this paper, we bring these two separate strands of research together to systematically explore links between internal migration and education across a global sample of 57 countries at various stages of development, using data drawn from the IPUMS database. |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1812.08913&r=all |
| By: | Magne Mogstad; Rolf Aaberge; Lasse Eika; Audun Langørgen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | We examine how in-kind transfers provided by local governments affect economic inequality. The allocation of in-kind transfers to households and the adjustment for differences in needs are derived from a model of local government spending behavior. The model distinguishes between fixed and variable costs in production as well as mandatory programmatic spending components versus discretionary spending on different service sectors and target groups. To estimate the model, we combine Norwegian data from municipal accounts and administrative registers for the period 1982- 2013. We find that economic inequality is considerably lower when taking in-kind transfers into account. While the poor benefit from receiving a relatively large share of public services, the equalizing effect of in-kind transfers tends to be smaller than the equalizing contribution from public cash transfers. When examining the time trends in inequality, we find that local governments attenuated the growth in cash income inequality by re-allocating in-kind transfers to low-income families. This reduction in inequality is mostly due to changes in spending priorities across service sectors and target groups, whilst the contribution from re-allocation of resources across municipalities is much smaller. |
| Keywords: | Local government; economic inequality; public services; in-kind transfers |
| JEL: | D31 H72 I30 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:888&r=all |
| By: | Elizabeth A. Shuey (OECD); Najung Kim (OECD); Alejandra Cortazar (CEPI); Ximena Poblete (CEPI); Lorena Rivera (CEPI); María José Lagos (CEPI); Francesca Faverio (CEPI); Arno Engel (OECD) |
| Abstract: | Curriculum plays an important role in ensuring continuity and progression from early childhood education and care (ECEC) to primary education. The alignment of curricula and standards across these settings shapes children’s early experiences with education systems, with implications for children’s relationships and engagement in both ECEC and primary school, as well as longer-term learning and well-being outcomes. Governments can achieve curricular continuity in various ways, ranging from high-level alignment of goals across multiple curriculum documents to full integration of the curriculum into a single document that covers both ECEC and primary school. The broader contexts of education systems, such as organisation and governance, the training of staff and teachers who work in these settings, matter for curricular continuity – and an integrated curriculum alone does not guarantee a continuous experience for children. International data and in-depth case studies from seven jurisdictions (Japan, Luxembourg, New Jersey [United States], New Zealand, Norway, Scotland [United Kingdom] and Victoria [Australia]) provide insights to these different approaches to curricular alignment. |
| Date: | 2019–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:193-en&r=all |
| By: | Raphael Corbi; Tiago Ferraz |
| Abstract: | We investigate the labor market impacts of weather-induced internal migration in Brazil between 1987 and 2010. We instrument the number of migrants at the destination municipalities using a two-step approach. First, we exploit the variation of out-migration flows from the Brazilian Semiarid, driven by deviations from historical average rainfall, to predict the number of internal migrants leaving their hometowns. Then, we distribute this predicted flow according to the preexisting support network in each destination based on the migrant’s region of origin. Our results indicate that increasing in-migration rate by 1ð ‘ .ð ‘ . reduces native employment by 0.3ð ‘ .ð ‘ ., mostly in the formal sector, decreases wages in the informal sector by 0.2% and deepens earnings inequality. |
| Keywords: | Migration; labor supply; wage effects; rainfall |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2018wpecon24&r=all |
| By: | Corrado, L.; Stengos, T.; Weeks, M.; Ege Yazgan, M. |
| Abstract: | In many applications common in testing for convergence the number of cross-sectional units is large and the number of time periods are few. In these situations asymptotic tests based on an omnibus null hypothesis are characterised by a number of problems. In this paper we propose a multiple pairwise comparisons method based on an a recursive bootstrap to test for convergence with no prior information on the composition of convergence clubs. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that our bootstrap-based test performs well to correctly identify convergence clubs when compared with other similar tests that rely on asymptotic arguments. Across a potentially large number of regions, using both cross-country and regional data for the European Union we find that the size distortion which afflicts standard tests and results in a bias towards finnding less convergence, is ameliorated when we utilise our bootstrap test. |
| Keywords: | Multivariate stationarity, bootstrap tests, regional convergence. |
| JEL: | C51 R11 R15 |
| Date: | 2018–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1873&r=all |
| By: | Kumar Sunil; Garg, Amit; Tripathi, Girish Chandra |
| Abstract: | Local air pollution is a major concern in almost all Indian cities. High vehicular tailpipe emission is one of the primary reasons behind it. Fast adoption of electric vehicles may provide relief for air quality in these rapidly urbanizing Indian cities. The adoption rate of electric vehicles, however, depends on many factors, Total cost of Ownership (TCO) of vehicles, charging infrastructure, and range dilemma being the most prominent. This paper analyzes one of these factors and calculates the TCOs of existing IC engine public buses and compare it with the same capacity electric buses. The study also calculates co-benefits of electric bus separately to analyze the impact of diesel buses on society and environment and compares this with those of Electric buses. A Sensitivity analysis for TCO is performed to identify the factors which have the highest impact on the TCO of an electric bus. Scenario analysis is also done to verify our assumptions in various scenarios. The result of the study shows that TCO of an electric bus is lesser than a comparable diesel bus in present Indian scenario for the city of Navi Mumbai but at the same time, sensitivity analysis shows that it is mainly due to the various incentives offered by Central and State governments. Sensitivity analysis also identifies the most influential input variables for the TCO of an electric bus as Initial Bus Price, Government Incentive and Electricity Cost. Scenario analysis results show that if we remove Government incentives on the initial cost of the vehicle, the picture reverses. |
| Date: | 2018–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:14597&r=all |
| By: | Alexandre De Podest· Gomes (Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK) |
| Abstract: | Decentralization and the role of local governments have long been touted as key factors in the Chinese economic miracle. This paper intends to critically assess the chief theories advanced by mainstream economics in its attempt to make sense of these aspects of Chinaís growth story. Firstly the theoretical underpinnings of fiscal federalism, new institutional economics, and market-preserving federalism approaches will be presented, as these theories offer the bedrock for most of the applied insights in which China is framed through the lenses of the central-local relations debate. Secondly, the idea of ëmarket-preserving federalism, Chinese-styleí will be critically appraised, highlighting its shortcomings. Thirdly, the paper proceeds by bringing in the mainstream response to these problems, relying on the notion of political incentives and career concerns faced by local cadres. It will be argued that the continual adherence to some core tenets dear to the new institutional economics literature in all previous explanations prevents this broad camp of knowledge to properly grasp the complex dynamics of Chinaís decentralization drive and the role of local governments in the process. Finally, and in closing, an alternative approach will be offered. |
| Keywords: | Decentralization; Central-local relations; local state; federalism; political incentives; career concerns |
| JEL: | D72 H70 H77 O43 P26 P30 P48 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soa:wpaper:214&r=all |
| By: | Diewert, Erwin; Shimizu, Chihiro |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an update to the chapter on the treatment of durables in the Consumer Price Index Manual (2004). The most important durable is housing, which typically accounts for approximately 20% of total consumption services. A large fraction of total housing services consists of the services of Owner Occupied Housing (OOH). The main approaches to measuring the services of OOH are (i) the acquisitions approach; (ii) the rental equivalence approach and (iii) the user cost approach. Two other approaches are sometimes used: (iv) the opportunity cost approach and (v) the payments approach. A main purpose of this paper is to present the main approaches to the treatment of OOH and to discuss the benefits and costs of the alternative approaches. The paper also discusses the problems associated with forming imputations for the services of “ordinary†consumer durable goods. |
| Keywords: | C23, C43, C81, D12, E31, C43, C82, E01. |
| Date: | 2019–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:pmicro:erwin_diewert-2019-1&r=all |
| By: | Powell, Jerome H. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Date: | 2018–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgsq:1028&r=all |
| By: | Stadler, Manfred |
| Abstract: | The paper studies a two-stage location-price duopoly game in a disk city with consumer concentration around the city center. When consumers are uniformly distributed over the plane, unconstrained firms locate outside of the city. Consumer concentration, however, induces firms to locate nearer to each other and, when the degree of concentration is sufficiently high, inside of the city. Prices and firm profits decrease in the degree of consumer concentration. We explicitly solve the model for classes of cone-shaped, dome-shaped, and bell-shaped consumer densities. In all cases we identify a loss of welfare due to the strategic effect which causes the firms' spatial differentiation being too large. |
| Keywords: | location strategies,disk city,concentration of consumer demand |
| JEL: | C72 L13 R32 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:113&r=all |
| By: | Martin, Roman (Gothenburg University); Rypestøl , Jan Ole (University of Agder) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the geography of innovation networks and analyses combinatorial knowledge dynamics from a single cluster perspective. Addressing firms in the media cluster in Bergen, Norway, we examine how and from where companies acquire and combine different types of knowledge for their innovation activities. The empirical analysis, which is based on structured interviews with 22 media companies, identifies two main types of cluster firms: media content providers that rely heavily on symbolic knowledge and media technology providers that draw mostly on synthetic knowledge. Even though they draw on different knowledge bases, the two types of firms are strongly interlinked in their innovation activities and source knowledge from each other. Furthermore, we find that synthetic firms constitute a gateway to the regional R&D system and that the region acts as key arena for the combination of dissimilar knowledge bases. |
| Keywords: | innovation networks; knowledge bases; creative industries; new media; Norway |
| JEL: | L82 O14 O30 O31 |
| Date: | 2019–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2019_001&r=all |
| By: | Muduli, Silu; Dash, Shridhar Kumar |
| Abstract: | Paper models lender’s decision based on project riskiness, trust from borrower’s socioeconomic network, and social cost of default for the borrower. The paper suggests a methodology to estimate aggregate level of trustworthiness of borrower in socio-economic network. Our model links the social cost of default to credit default. A relatively safer project executed by a borrower with lower social cost of default is likely to be a willful defaulter. Similarly, relatively safer project executed by a borrower with high social cost of default is likely to pay-back the loan. |
| Keywords: | Social Economic Network,Trust,Credit Risk |
| JEL: | D85 G21 L14 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:190918&r=all |
| By: | Mbanda, Vandudzai; Bonga-Bonga, Lumengo |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the general equilibrium impacts of public infrastructure investment in the South African economy by making use of complementary general equilibrium models, such as the social accounting matrix (SAM) multiplier, the Structural Path Analyses (SPA) and the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. Both the SAM and CGE analyses indicate that increasing public economic infrastructure can be an effective way of stimulating the economy in a way that has a positive impact on labour. SPA shows that the main and most important path of influence is a direct influence of the public economic sector on each of the formal labour categories. However, because the public economic sector does not employ informal labour, this labour account is only connected indirectly via intermediate consumption of the construction sector output. This is an important outcome for South Africa, as the results suggest that an increase in public economic infrastructure could help address the problem of unemployment as well as that of low income levels that exacerbate poverty |
| Keywords: | public infrastructure, structural path analysis, social accounting matrix, Computable general equilibrium |
| JEL: | C67 C68 H54 |
| Date: | 2018–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90613&r=all |
| By: | Oberrauch, Luis; Kaiser, Tim |
| Abstract: | We employ a psychometrically validated performance test to study economic competence among a large and representative sample of early secondary school students in Southwest Germany. The rich dataset allows us to study variation in economic competence across school types and observable student characteristics. Our results show that economic competence is significantly lower among female students, migrants, students with parents of low socioeconomic status and those who do not attend the highest track school type. Additionally, quantile regression analyses suggest that the gender gap increases along the distribution of economic competence and that effects of parents with high socio-economic status are more pronounced above the median of the competence distribution. Our analysis sets the stage for a long-term study of economic competence among secondary school students and the impact of a recent curriculum reform introducing mandatory economic education. |
| Keywords: | Economic competence,economic literacy,item response theory,pre-college economic education,gender gap |
| JEL: | A21 I21 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:190763&r=all |
| By: | C. Kirabo Jackson |
| Abstract: | Social scientists have long sought to examine the causal impact of school spending on child outcomes. For a long time, the literature on this topic was largely descriptive so that it had been difficult to draw strong causal claims. However, there have been several recent studies in this space that employ larger data-sets and use quasi-experimental methods that allow for much more credible causal claims. Focusing on studies of students in the United States, this paper briefly discusses the older literature and highlights some of its limitations. It then describes a recent quasi-experimental literature on the impact of school spending on child outcomes, highlights some key papers, and presents a summary of the recent findings. Policy implications and areas for future research are discussed. |
| JEL: | H0 J0 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25368&r=all |
| By: | Davide Luca (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | While there is systematic evidence of how governments affect policy outputs for strategic reasons, a limited amount of studies has assessed whether these distortions are consequential for economic growth. Using data from Turkey over the period 2004-2013, the current paper measures the effect of voting for the national incumbent party on local economic performance. New instrumental variable estimates suggest that provinces where the electoral race for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was closer have experienced faster per-capita GVA and employment growth rates. The effect is economically substantive and increases in election years. Results also provide evidence that the government has affected growth through the selective provision of state goods. |
| Date: | 2018–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1232&r=all |
| By: | Hideo Akabayashi (faculty of economics, keio university); Hiroko Araki (Faculty of Economics, Kindai University); Ryuichi Tanaka (Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | We estimated the causal impact of vouchers for after-school education programs on children's academic and behavioral outcomes using experimental data of middle and high school students. Our identification strategy relied on the random assignment of after-school education vouchers provided to children who suffered as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake. We estimated the value-added models of various outcomes such as academic test scores (mathematics and Japanese language art) and non-cognitive skill measures (self-esteem and quality of life) of the children. We carefully treated potential biases due to sample attrition and the small sample property by employing the inverse probability weight for regression analyses. Our estimation results revealed that the assignment of vouchers had a positive and significant effect on the increase of mathematics test scores of high school students immediately, and of language art test scores of middle and high school students in one year. These results were robust to the fully non-parametric permutation tests. We found that the assignment of after-school education vouchers negatively affected the self-esteem scores of middle school students immediately, but this relationship became weak and insignificant in one year. We found that the assignment of vouchers was positively related to the quality of life measure, but these relationships were insignificant. We also estimated the effect of vouchers on the children's study time, finding that the assignment of vouchers had a positive and statistically significant effect on study time, mainly at home. However, these positive effects were insignificant in the fully nonparametric permutation tests. This indicates that the assignment of vouchers improved the quality of the study environment of the children without increasing their study time, thus resulting in better academic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Educational Voucher, Causality, Randomized Control Traial, Shadow Education, the Great East Japan Earthquake |
| JEL: | I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2018–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2018-020&r=all |
| By: | Lucas Davis; Sebastián Martínez; Bibiana Taboada |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates a field experiment in Mexico in which a quasi-experimental sample of new homes was provided with insulation and other energy efficient upgrades. A novel feature of our study is that we deploy large numbers of data loggers which allow us to measure temperature and humidity at high frequency inside homes. We find that the upgrades had no detectable impact on electricity use or thermal comfort, and this is true both in summer and non-summer months. These results stand in contrast to the engineering estimates that predicted up to a 26% decrease in electricity use. Part of the explanation is that air conditioner ownership is lower than expected, thus reducing the potential for reductions in energy use. In addition, we document that most households have their windows open on hot days, nullifying the thermal benefits of roof and wall insulation. |
| Keywords: | Air Conditioning, Thermal comfort, Energy demand, Energy efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Energy Demand, Thermal Comfort, Air Conditioning |
| JEL: | H23 Q54 D12 Q40 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:8767&r=all |
| By: | Samantha Bielen; Wim Marneffe; Naci H. Mocan |
| Abstract: | We shot videos of criminal trials using 3D Virtual Reality (VR) technology, prosecuted by actual prosecutors and defended by actual defense attorneys in an actual courtroom. This is the first paper that utilizes VR technology in a non-computer animated setting, which allows us to replace white defendants in the courtroom with individuals who have Middle Eastern or North African descent in a real-life environment. We alter only the race of the defendants in these trials, holding all activity in the courtroom constant (http://proficient.ninja/splitscreen/). Law students, economics students and practicing lawyers are randomly assigned to watch with VR headsets, from the view point of the judge, the trials that differed only in defendants’ skin color. Background information obtained from the evaluators allowed us to identify their cultural heritage. Evaluators made decisions on guilt/innocence in these burglary and assault cases, as well as prison sentence length and fine in accordance with the guidelines provided by the relevant law. There is suggestive evidence of negative in-group bias in conviction decisions where evaluators are harsher against defendants of their own race. There is, however, significant overall racial bias in conviction decisions against minorities. In the sentencing phase, we find in-group favoritism in prison times and fines, driven by white evaluators. This translates into overall racial bias against minority defendants in prison sentences and fines. We find only scant evidence that the concerns of the evaluators about terrorism, about immigration, or their trust in the judiciary or the police have an impact on their judicial decisions, suggesting that the source of the bias may be deep-rooted. Merging a small sample of judges and prosecutors with the sample of lawyers provides very similar results as those obtained from the analysis of lawyers. |
| JEL: | K4 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25355&r=all |
| By: | AKIN, ZAFER |
| Abstract: | The dishonesty literature investigates how people behave when they are provided certain types of information. However, this approach predominantly ignores the fact that people -to some extent- can choose which information they want to be exposed to. By conducting a laboratory experiment, we study individuals’ decisions to choose which social information they would like to observe and the effect of this sorting on their engagement in unethical conduct. We find evidence that sorting exacerbates the prevalence of dishonesty, which is mainly driven by the ones who chose maximum information. Our results demonstrate that sorting is an important factor determining dishonest behavior and that previously observed levels of prevalence of dishonesty in the literature can be an underestimate of actual level of dishonest behavior in real-world situations. |
| Keywords: | Dishonesty; social norms; selection; laboratory experiments |
| JEL: | C91 D03 |
| Date: | 2018–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90412&r=all |
| By: | Forslid, Rikard; Okubo, Toshihiro |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces spatial sorting of heterogeneous entrepreneurs (firms) in the 'footloose entrepreneur' trade and geography model. The model generates agglomeration from a uniform space contrary to the 'footloose capital' model. The model also generates spatial sorting in reverse productivity order with the least productive entrepreneur being the first to relocate. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration; Heterogeneous Firms; trade liberalization |
| JEL: | F12 F15 R12 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13381&r=all |
| By: | Powell, Jerome H. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Date: | 2018–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgsq:1026&r=all |
| By: | Jürgen Neumann (Paderborn University); Dominik Gutt (Paderborn University); Dennis Kundisch (Paderborn University) |
| Abstract: | Amongst the growing body of literature on the drivers of online ratings, the influence of customers’ local offline environment on their ratings has largely been neglected. This study examines the relationship between ratings made outside of a customer’s home area, i.e., when traveling, and the magnitude of online ratings. In line with our theory, we find that customers who rate while traveling give, on average, higher ratings than locals. This relationship is moderated by the posting time of a review relative to consumption, as travelers also post more positive ratings during or shortly after consumption compared to locals. Our identification strategy leverages panel data to control for unobservable reviewer heterogeneity and a clustering approach to mitigate reviewer-restaurant selection biases. We also investigate several additional factors such as travel distance, identification strategy of a reviewer’s home city, and the size of the home city relative to the size of the travel destination. Our results come with substantial implications for a business’ average rating and for customer decision making. |
| Keywords: | Online Ratings, Online Offline Interplay, Econometrics, Affective (Mis-)Forecasting |
| JEL: | M15 M31 O32 D12 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:dispap:44&r=all |
| By: | Peter Blair (Clemson University); Bobby Chung (Clemson University) |
| Abstract: | We exploit state variation in licensing laws to study the effect of licensing on occupational choice using a boundary discontinuity design. We find that licensing reduces equilibrium labor supply by an average of 17%-27%. The negative labor supply effects of licensing appear to be strongest for white workers and comparatively weaker for black workers. |
| Keywords: | occupational licensing, Labor Supply, race, gender |
| JEL: | J21 K23 L51 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-092&r=all |
| By: | Brainard, Lael (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Date: | 2018–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgsq:1016&r=all |
| By: | Bram Faber (VU Amsterdam); Tjerk Budding (VU Amsterdam); Raymond (R.H.J.M.) Gradus (VU Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, social media has become a major venue for the interplay between citizens and public sector organizations, in order to facilitate corporate dialog. However, not much comprehensive research has been done on how interactivity between local governments and citizens takes shape. Building on earlier work that addresses municipal e-government adoption, this article does empirical work on the ways in which social media is used by all 380 Dutch municipalities. It focuses on social media usage by means of a quantitative assessment through five social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. In doing so, it sheds light on the interrelations between e-government adoption, social media deployment, and sophistication of use from a local government perspective. Furthermore we identify determinants for the types of social media usage by means of a stages of an e-government model consisting of three phases. We find that more densely populated municipalities with a larger and a higher-educated population use their Twitter account significantly different from their counterparts. |
| Keywords: | social media; municipalities; E-government; usage of Twitter-account |
| JEL: | D85 |
| Date: | 2019–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190001&r=all |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Warwick and CAGE); Ferrara, Andreas (University of Warwick and CAGE); Melander, Eric (University of Warwick and CAGE); Pascali, Luigi (UPF and CAGE) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of warfare on the development of state capacity and representative institutions using novel data on cities and territories in the German lands between 1200 and 1750. More specifically, we show that cities with a higher conflict exposure establish more sophisticated tax systems, but also develop larger councils, councils that are more likely to be elected by citizens, and more likely to be independent of other local institutions. These results are consistent with the idea of a trade-off between more efficient taxation and power sharing proposed in earlier work. We make headway on establishing a causal role of wars by using changes to German nobles’ positions within the European nobility network to instrument for conflict. |
| Keywords: | N13; P48; R11 Jel Classification: WARFARE; POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS; STATE CAPACITY |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:395&r=all |
| By: | Kumar Sunil; Parihar, Shrutika; Garg, Amit |
| Abstract: | The utilization of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is very important in order to get returns from the investments made for charging assets. The charging infrastructure utilization, however, depends on many factors such as vehicle ownership, location and type of parking spaces, paying capacity, and owner profile. The paper determines the optimal charging locations through multifactor analysis using Global Information System (GIS) over 23 factors separately for home (4), workplace (1), and public charging (18). This is done for the city of Navi Mumbai using real demographic and land use data. The potential locations are demand driven. The potential office charging locations are mostly spread in Southern parts of Navi Mumbai that has more government offices. Home and public charging locations are almost evenly spread across all wards except Airoli and Koparkhairane that seem to be lagging in demand. |
| Date: | 2018–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:14596&r=all |
| By: | Park, Joungho (Korea Institute for International Economic Policy); Min, Jiyoung (Korea Institute for International Economic Policy); Kim, Chorong (Korea Institute for International Economic Policy) |
| Abstract: | Coming into the fourth term of Putin's presidency, it is expected that the previous regional development policy, which focused on infrastructure construction, and the rest of the socio-economic policy platform will continue in a similar direction as his third term. The construction of housing and infrastructure for regional development is mentioned at the beginning of the List of Instructions for the Implementation of the President's Message to Federal Assembly, dated March 16, 2018, and the concepts, strategies and programs related to regional development are being developed in accordance with this List. Other policies are seemingly in line with the third term. Beginning from as early as 2016, the government has announced the need for new policies on healthcare and medicine, housing, education, environment, digital economy, and economic growth. The Korean government needs to consider all the abovementioned policies currently ongoing within Russia. The healthcare, medicine and education sectors are not included in the "nine bridges" cooperation plan proposed by the Korean government, but they are regarded as the most promising areas for cooperation between the two countries. The environment sector is seen as a particularly promising new cooperation area between Korea and Russia, and this cooperation will be expanded through projects such as joint research on environmental monitoring systems and sharing know-how on waste management. The regional development sector includes the railway, port, and Arctic route of the "Nine-Bridges" suggested by the Korean government. When considering the policy direction of Russia, the construction of housing and infrastructure will be a particularly promising area to strengthen cooperation between the two economies. In addition, both Korea and Russia emphasize the importance of policies to support the growth of SMEs, meaning it should be possible to seek new avenues of cooperation between SMEs in the two countries. |
| Keywords: | Putin; fourth term; Korea |
| Date: | 2018–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kiepwe:2018_019&r=all |
| By: | Scott Baumgartner; Heather Zaveri |
| Abstract: | This process study report presents findings on the implementation of the Relationship Smarts Plus 3.0 (RS+) curriculum in two high schools in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. |
| Keywords: | Relationship Smarts, Atlanta, Georgia |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:eb837f9fc70a48db94992033566c7a79&r=all |
| By: | Friberg, Richard; Steen, Frode (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Ulsaker, Simen A. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of cross-border shopping on grocery demand in Norway using monthly store×category sales data from Norway’s largest grocery chain 2011-2016. The sensitivity of demand to foreign price is hump-shaped and greatest 30-60 minutes’ driving distance from the closest foreign store. Combining continuous demand, fixed costs of cross-border shopping and linear transport costs `a la Hotelling we show how this hump-shape can arise through a combination of intensive and extensive margins of cross-border shopping. Our conclusions are further supported by novel survey evidence and cross-border traffic data. |
| Keywords: | Cross-border shopping; competition in grocery markets; product differentiation |
| JEL: | F15 H73 L66 R20 |
| Date: | 2018–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2018_029&r=all |
| By: | Jaume, David (Bank of Mexico); Willén, Alexander (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Temporary school closures (TSC) represent a major challenge to policymakers across the globe due to their potential impact on instructional time and student achievement. A neglected but equally important question relates to how such closures affect the labor market behavior of parents. This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of temporary school closures on parental labor market behavior, exploiting the prevalence of primary school teacher strikes across time and provinces in Argentina. We find clear evidence that temporary school closures negatively impact the labor market participation of mothers, in particular lower-skilled mothers less attached to the labor force and mothers in dual-income households who face a lower opportunity cost of dropping out of the labor force. This effect translates into a statistically significant and economically meaningful reduction in labor earnings: the average mother whose child is exposed to ten days of TSCs suffers a decline in monthly labor earnings equivalent to 2.92% of the mean. While we do not find any effects among fathers in general, fathers with lower predicted earnings than their spouses also experience negative labor market effects. This suggests that the parental response to TSCs depend, at least in part, on the relative income of each parent. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggest that the aggregate impact of TSCs on annual parental earnings is more than $113 million, and that the average mother would be willing to forego 1.6 months of labor earnings in order to ensure that there are no TSCs while her child is in primary school. |
| Keywords: | School Disruptions; Child Care; Parents; Education; Labor Market; Gender Inequality |
| JEL: | I20 J16 J24 J45 J52 |
| Date: | 2018–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2018_030&r=all |
| By: | Batabyal, Amitrajeet; Folmer, Henk |
| Abstract: | We have two objectives in this special issue. First, we bring together in one place, original research that sheds light on the ways in which the notion of “space” affects the conceptualization of natural resource and environmental problems. Second, given this conceptualization, we show how rigorous modeling of natural resource and environmental problems that explicitly accounts for space overcomes some of the shortcomings of non-spatial analysis. Following this introductory paper, there are six additional papers in this issue. Each of these papers discusses a particular research question at the interface of what we call “space and the environment.” |
| Keywords: | Biased and Inconsistent Estimators, Environment, Modeling, Natural Resources, Space, Welfare |
| JEL: | Q50 R11 |
| Date: | 2018–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90526&r=all |
| By: | Jürgen Neumann (Paderborn University); Dominik Gutt (Paderborn University); Dennis Kundisch (Paderborn University) |
| Abstract: | Optimal price setting in peer-to-peer markets featuring online ratings requires incorporating interactions between prices and ratings. Additionally, recent literature reports that online ratings in peer-to-peer markets tend to be inflated overall, undermining the reliability of online ratings as a quality signal. This study proposes a two-period model for optimal price setting that takes (potentially inflated) ratings into account. Our theoretical findings suggest that sellers in the medium-quality segment have an incentive to lower first-period prices to monetize on increased second-period ratings. The possibility of monetizing on second-period ratings depends on the buyers’ assessment of the rating system’s reliability. Additionally, we find that total profits and prices increase with online ratings and additional quality signals. Empirically, conducting Difference-in-Difference regressions on a comprehensive panel data set from Airbnb, we can validate that price increases are associated with lower ratings, and we find empirical support for the prediction that additional quality signals increase prices. Our work comes with substantial implications for sellers in peer-to-peer markets looking for an optimal price setting strategy. |
| Keywords: | Sharing Economy, Online Ratings, Optimal Price Setting, DiD-Regression. |
| JEL: | M15 M31 O32 D12 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:dispap:43&r=all |
| By: | Cowling, Marc; Ughetto, Elisa; Lee, Neil |
| Abstract: | High-technology firms per se are perceived to be more risky than other, more conventional, firms. It follows that financial institutions will take this into account when designing loan contracts, and that this will manifest itself in more costly debt. In this paper we empirically test whether the provision of a government loan guarantee fundamentally changes the way lenders price debt to high-tech firms. Further, we also examine whether there are differential loan price effects of a public guarantee depending on the nature of the firms themselves and the nature of the economic and innovation environment that surrounds them. Using a large UK dataset of 29,266 guarantee backed loans we find that there is a high-tech risk premium which is justified by higher default, but, in general, that this premium is altered significantly when a public guarantee is provided for all firms. Further, all these loan price effects differ on precise spatial economic and innovation attributes. |
| Keywords: | cost of debt; high-tech firms; public loan guarantee scheme; loan default |
| JEL: | G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2018–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:81337&r=all |
| By: | Gregor Jarosch; Ezra Oberfield; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | We investigate learning at the workplace. To do so, we use German administrative data that contain information on the entire workforce of a sample of establishments. We document that having more highly paid coworkers is strongly associated with future wage growth, particularly if those workers earn more. Motivated by this fact, we propose a dynamic theory of a competitive labor market where firms produce using teams of heterogeneous workers that learn from each other. We develop a methodology to structurally estimate knowledge flows using the full-richness of the German employer-employee matched data. The methodology builds on the observation that a competitive labor market prices coworker learning. Our quantitative approach imposes minimal restrictions on firms' production functions, can be implemented on a very short panel, and allows for potentially rich and flexible coworker learning functions. In line with our reduced form results, learning from coworkers is significant, particularly from more knowledgeable coworkers. We show that between 4 and 9% of total worker compensation is in the form of learning and that inequality in total compensation is significantly lower than inequality in wages. |
| JEL: | E24 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25418&r=all |
| By: | Maia Sieverding (American University of Beirut); Caroline Krafft; Nasma Berri; Caitlyn Keo; Mariam Sharpless |
| Abstract: | Education is a key means to integrate refugee populations into their host countries, as well as to prevent permanent deficits in human development among children affected by conflict. The large population of children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming a “lost generation” due to interruptions in their schooling. Jordan hosts one of the largest populations of Syrian refugees and has made a concerted effort to provide access to education for refugee children. This paper assesses how educational enrollment, attainment, and dropout of Syrian refugees in Jordan have been affected by conflict, displacement, and educational opportunities and experiences after arrival to Jordan. We rely on nationally representative survey data from Jordan in 2016 and in-depth interviews with 71 Syrian refugee youth. Syrian refugees in Jordan faced disrupted schooling in Syria due to the conflict, followed by challenges in joining the Jordanian school system. Yet ultimately enrollment rates, at least through 2016, have recovered to pre-conflict levels for basic education among the group of Syrians in Jordan in 2016. Refugee youth faced a number of barriers to school reentry and persistence in Jordan, including school interruptions leading to students being older than their classmates, discrimination from peers and teachers, and academic difficulty particularly at the secondary level. For male youth, the pressure to work to support their families underlay many non-enrollment decisions. Although some youth faced documentation challenges upon initial enrollment in school, they were able to overcome these challenges, demonstrating the importance of Jordan’s efforts to expand public school access to refugees. |
| Date: | 2018–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1261&r=all |
| By: | Quarles, Randal K. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Date: | 2018–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgsq:1015&r=all |
| By: | Fischer, Manfred M.; Huber, Florian; Pfarrhofer, Michael |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between household income inequality and macroeconomic uncertainty in the United States. Using a novel large-scale macroeconometric model, we shed light on regional disparities of inequality responses to a national uncertainty shock. The results suggest that income inequality decreases in most states, with a pronounced degree of heterogeneity in terms of the dynamic responses. By contrast, some few states, mostly located in the Midwest, display increasing levels of income inequality over time. Forecast error variance and historical decompositions highlight the importance of uncertainty shocks in explaining income inequality in most regions considered. Finally, we explain differences in the responses of income inequality by means of a simple regression analysis. These regressions reveal that the income composition as well as labor market fundamentals determine the directional pattern of the dynamic responses. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution, US states, macroeconomic volatility, global vector autoregressive model |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus046:6774&r=all |
| By: | Kumar Sunil; Jayaswal, Sachin; Garg, Amit |
| Abstract: | Optimization of charging infrastructure for electric buses is critical for the transition from conventional buses to electric buses since chargers, especially for chargers since they constitute almost two-thirds of the total charging infrastructure costs. Different modeling frameworks to optimize the charging capacity are developed separately for the depot charging and opportunity charging and tested for the transit network of Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (India). The models determine the optimal number and capacity of chargers such that the existing bus operational schedules are maintained – a prime requirement of bus operators. Since the route coverage per bus per day would require en-route charging, the opportunity charging model determines the optimal locations for installing these chargers. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to analyze the effects of the specific energy consumption of the buses and their rated battery capacity on charger selection. These models are first of their kind to be used for electric bus adoption in India. Keywords: Electric bus, charging infrastructure, charging schedule, cost optimization modeling, public transit networks |
| Date: | 2018–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:14598&r=all |