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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Lambie-Hanson, Lauren (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Li, Wenli (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Slonkosky, Michael (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | Ten years after the mortgage crisis, the U.S. housing market has rebounded significantly with house prices now near the peak achieved during the boom. Homeownership rates, on the other hand, have continued to decline. We reconcile the two phenomena by documenting the rising presence of institutional investors in this market. Our analysis makes use of housing transaction data. By exploiting heterogeneity in zip codes' exposure to the First Look program instituted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that affected investors' access to foreclosed properties, we establish the causal relationship between the increasing presence of institutions in the housing market and the subsequent recovery in house prices and decline in homeownership rates between 2007 and 2014. We further demonstrate that institutional investors contributed to the improvement in the local labor market by reducing overall unemployment rate and by increasing total employment, construction employment in particular. Local housing rents also rose. |
| Keywords: | housing; homeownership; mortgage crises |
| Date: | 2019–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:19-1&r=all |
| By: | Nguyen, My |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of teacher race/ethnicity in the teacher-perceived relationship with early elementary school students. Employing a model with both student and teacher fixed effects, I discover a positive link between the racial/ethnic match and the teacher-reported relationship with students. Specifically, minority students tend to have a closer and more positive relationship with their teachers than white students when they are taught by a minority teacher. Adapted rank-based tests of discrimination reveal that the favorable teacher-reported relationship with students is not prompted by teachers favoring their own kind or discriminating against opposite-race students. I show that these estimates are driven by minority students reacting positively when they have a minority teacher but adversely once assigned to a white teacher, which is consistent with the role model effect. Given the importance of the relationship between young children with non-parental adults in their early stages of life, these findings have crucial policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Racial/Ethnic Interaction, Relationship Scale, Learning, Ethnicity, Minorities, Non Labor Discrimination, Race, Racial Discrimination, Students, Teachers. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J15 J18 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90002&r=all |
| By: | Ozkan Eren; Michael F. Lovenheim; Naci H. Mocan |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the first analysis in the literature of the effect of test-based grade retention on adult criminal convictions. We exploit math and English test cutoffs for promotion to ninth grade in Louisiana using administrative data on all public K-12 students combined with administrative data on all criminal convictions in the state. Our preferred models use the promotion discontinuity as an instrument for grade retention, and we find that being retained in eighth grade has large long-run effects on the likelihood of being convicted of a crime by age 25 and on the number of criminal convictions by age 25. Effects are largest for violent crimes: the likelihood of being convicted increases by 1.05 percentage points, or 58.44%, when students are retained in eighth grade. Our data allow an examination of mechanisms, and we show that the effects are likely driven by declines in high school peer quality, lowered non-cognitive skill acquisition, and a reduction in educational attainment. However, we find little effect on juvenile crime, which suggests the effects on adult criminal engagement are driven by worse job market prospects and non-cognitive skills that stem from lower educational investments by students. Using the method proposed by Angrist and Rokkanen (2015), we also estimate effects of grade retention away from the promotion cutoff and show that our results are generalizable to a larger group of low-performing students. Our estimates indicate that test- based promotion cutoffs lead to large private and social costs in terms of higher levels of long-run criminal convictions that are important to consider in the development and use of these policies. |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25384&r=all |
| By: | Peter Bergman; Isaac McFarlin Jr. |
| Abstract: | School choice may allow schools to “cream skim” students perceived as easier to educate. To test this, we sent emails from fictitious parents to 6,452 schools in 29 states and Washington, D.C. The fictitious parent asked whether any student is eligible to apply to the school and how to apply. Each email signaled a randomly assigned attribute of the child. We find that schools are less likely to respond to inquiries from students with poor behavior, low achievement, or a special need. Lower response rates to students with a potentially significant special need are driven by charter schools. Otherwise, these results hold for traditional public schools in areas of school choice and high-value added schools. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25396&r=all |
| By: | Ibrahim Al Hawarin (Al-Hussein Bin Talal University); Ragui Assaad; Ahmed Elsayed |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of migration shocks on housing conditions and rental prices for locals. The identification comes from the regional variation in the large influx of Syrian refugees to Jordan in the wake of the Syrian conflict starting in 2011. We employ a difference in difference approach to evaluate the change in housing conditions and rental prices in areas with relatively higher flows of Syrian refugees compared to areas with relatively lower flows of Syrian refugees. The paper shows that the share of Syrian refugees seems to have a negative, yet small, impact on housing conditions of locals. Heterogeneity analyses shows that while poorer household are affected more negatively, richer household experience an improvement in their housing outcomes in response to the share of refugees. The paper further shows that housing rents significantly increased in the regions closer to Syrian borders. However, housing quality was more responsive to the crisis in regions that are relatively more distant |
| Date: | 2018–06–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1213&r=all |
| By: | Richard Bluhm; Melanie Krause |
| Abstract: | The commonly-used satellite images of nighttime lights fail to capture the true brightness of most cities. We show that night lights are a reliable proxy for economic activity at the city level, provided they are first corrected for top-coding. We present a stylized model of urban luminosity and empirical evidence which both suggest that these ‘top lights’ follow a Pareto distribution. We then propose a simple correction procedure which recovers the full distribution of city lights. Applying this approach to cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, we find that primate cities are outgrowing secondary cities but are changing from within. |
| Keywords: | development, urban growth, night lights, top-coding, inequality |
| JEL: | O10 O18 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7411&r=all |
| By: | Eder, Christoph (University of Linz); Halla, Martin (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | The East-West gap in the German population is believed to originate from migrants escaping the socialist regime in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). We use newly collected regional data and the combination of a regression discontinuity design in space with a difference-in-differences approach to document that the largest part of this gap is due to a massive internal migration wave 3 years prior to the establishment of the GDR. The timing and spatial pattern of this migration movement suggest that the dominant motive was escaping physical assault by the Soviet army and not avoiding the socialist regime. The skill composition of these migrants shows a strong positive selection. The gap in population has remained remarkably sharp in space and is growing. |
| Keywords: | institutions, wartime violence against civilians, selective migration, regional migration, World War II, Germany, spatial distribution, regional economic activity |
| JEL: | N44 N94 R23 R11 R12 J61 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12031&r=all |
| By: | Inna I. Koblianska (Sumy National Agrarian University, Sumy, Ukraine); Larysa I. Kalachevska (Sumy National Agrarian University, Sumy, Ukraine) |
| Abstract: | In the light of the Sustainable Development (SD) concept, the eco-innovation promotion becomes the central issue of innovation regulation. Given the strategic significance of SD goals for Ukraine and ongoing powers decentralization reform, it is desirable to study the capacity of regional and local authorities to form a proper incentive environment for the sustainable community’s development on innovation (eco-innovation) basis. The conducted analysis shows a limited capacity of regional and local bodies to set drivers of the eco-innovation development in motion. The need to extend the authorities’ powers in the field of resource prices and local tax rates setting and to strengthen the environmental orientation of existing innovation regulation tools is emphasized, in order to improve the regional innovation policy in Ukraine. |
| Keywords: | innovation policy, sustainable development, regional policy, eco-innovation, eco-innovation drivers |
| JEL: | O38 O31 Q01 Q58 R5 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sko:wpaper:bep-2019-01&r=all |
| By: | Konstantin A. Kholodilin; Sebastian Kohl; Yulia Prozorova; Julien Licheron |
| Abstract: | In the shadow of homeownership and public housing, social policy through the regulation of private rental markets is a neglected and underestimated field of social policy. This paper, therefore, presents unique new data on the development of private tenancy legislation through the binary coding of rent control, the protection of tenants from eviction, and rental housing rationing laws across more than 25 countries and 100 years. This long-run perspective reveals the dynamic effects of rent control on the rise of homeownership as the dominant tenure during the 20th century. We find that both rent regulation and rationing legislation effectively increased homeownership, but only up to a certain threshold. We suggest that the short-term lure of an inexpensive social policy for tenants has led to the long-term marginalization of rental markets in many countries. |
| Keywords: | Homeownership, rent control, tenure security, housing rationing, dynamic panel data model |
| JEL: | C23 O18 R38 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1778&r=all |
| By: | Le, Kien; Nguyen, My |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the existence of negative spillover effects from children exposed to corporal punishment in the home. We find that interactions with peers who suffer from physical punishment significantly depress achievement in both math and language among Vietnamese fifth graders. These adverse impacts are transmitted through the reduction of academic expectation and the increased incidence of physical bullies at school in the presence of more corporal-punishment-inflicted peers. Our results offer meaningful implications for both education and social policies. |
| Keywords: | Corporal Punishment, Violent Disciplinary Practices, Student Achievement, Peer Effects, Family |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J18 |
| Date: | 2018–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90909&r=all |
| By: | Mohamed El Hedi Arouri (Université Côte d’Azur, France & ERF); Nguyen Viet Cuong |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the level and the inequality of household assets impact inter-governorate migration in Egypt using gravity models and data from the 1996 and 2006 Population and Housing Censuses of Egypt. We find that people tend to move to the governorates with higher asset level and higher asset inequality. This suggests that there is a positive association between inequality and economic growth. Areas with high economic level and inequality attract more migrants than areas with low economic level and inequality. Moreover, our findings suggest that unlike non-work migration, the low level of assets in original governorate is a push factor of work migration. |
| Date: | 2018–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1182&r=all |
| By: | Matz Dahlberg; Madhinee Valeyatheepillay |
| Abstract: | This paper uses Swedish geocoded data to empirically investigate the effect of a geographic dispersal policy on the characteristics of the refugees’ individualized (k-nearest) neighborhoods and the placed refugees’ neighborhood trajectories over time. Our findings indicate that the initial neighborhood of placed refugees are defined by a higher share of natives, a lower share of non-Western immigrants and a higher share of high-income individuals compared to refugees that arrived in a time period when they could choose themselves where to locate. In this sense, the placed refugees are geographically more integrated. We also find that, in subsequent moves for the placed refugees, those moving longer distances experience a drop in the share of natives and an increase in the share of non-Western in their close neighborhoods. Stayers and short-distance movers, on the other hand, have a less drastic change in their neighborhood in terms of share of natives and nonwestern over time. |
| Keywords: | Refugees, placement policy, individualized neighborhoods, sorting, geographic integration |
| JEL: | J15 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_285&r=all |
| By: | Ira Nichols-Barrer; Steve Glazerman; Jon Valant |
| Abstract: | Increasingly, families have a choice of schools instead of just one default neighborhood school. Especially in cities, the number of available choices is often large. For school choice to be good public policy, choosers—typically parents—must be well informed. |
| Keywords: | school choice |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:1cb062c6a0cb45faa62d24fca52f4022&r=all |
| By: | Martinez, Daniel (Inter-American Development Bank); Mitnik, Oscar A. (Inter-American Development Bank); Salgado, Edgar (Inter-American Development Bank); Scholl, Lynn (Inter-American Development Bank); Yanez-Pagans, Patricia (IDB Invest) |
| Abstract: | Limited access to safe transportation is one of the greatest challenges to labor force participation faced by women in developing countries. This paper quantifies the causal impacts of improved urban transport systems in women´s employment outcomes, looking at Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and elevated light rail investments in the metropolitan region of Lima, Perú. We find large gains in employment and earnings per hour among women, and not for men, due to these investments. Most of the gains arise on the extensive margin, with more women being employed, but employment does not appear to be of higher quality than that for comparison groups. We find also evidence of an increase in the use of public transport. Results are robust to alternative specifications and we do not find evidence that they are driven by neighborhood composition changes. Overall, these findings suggest that infrastructure investments that make it more convenient and safer for women to use public transport can generate important labor market impacts for women who reside in the area of influence of the improved infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | urban transport, gender, employment, impact evaluation |
| JEL: | J01 J16 O12 R40 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12020&r=all |
| By: | Anna Strelnikova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article discusses the phenomenon of recent decades associated with the redevelopment of former industrial areas and factory districts. These areas previously had a homogeneous environment in which residents construct a local solidarity, but now functions and image of industrial districts are changing. Transformations of former industrial spaces is analyzed on example of two Moscow neighborhoods. The author’s research based on case study includes interviews with residents and developers, observations, analysis of media discussion and online communities, and secondary data analysis. Relying on concepts of social differentiation and social identity, the author considers former industrial neighborhood in terms of housing statuses, visual representations, senses and subjective perception. The research shows that the formation of a new territorial identity occurs in conditions of social and housing inequality |
| Keywords: | social differentiation, urban space, social inequality, housing, industrial neighborhood, social identity, territorial identity |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:84/soc/2018&r=all |
| By: | Paola Bertoli; Veronica Grembi |
| Abstract: | Road traffic accidents often mean lost productivity and medical expenditures. We explain trends in traffic accidents as a function of the political cycle using municipal data from Italy. We show that during municipal election years, the accident rate increases by 2.2%, with a 2.5% increase in the injury rate but no effect on the fatality rate. The effects are stronger in the two quarters prior the quarter in which the election is held, when the electoral campaign is intense, and in the second quarter after the election, when the elected mayor takes office. We argue that this is the result of a decrease in ticket rates during election years, as the expenditures on traffic police increase. Our results are robustly driven by the municipal political cycle defined in different ways, and their magnitude and direction are not explained by spillover effects between municipalities. Proximity to a national police station reduces the impact of local elections on injury rates. |
| Keywords: | road traffic accidents; political cycle; municipalities; elections; |
| JEL: | H70 H75 D72 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp633&r=all |
| By: | Bennett, Patrick (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Ouazad, Amine (HEC Montreal) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the individual impact of a worker’s job loss on his/her criminal activity. Using a matched employer-employee longitudinal data set on unemployment, crime, and taxes for all residents in Denmark, the paper builds each worker’s timeline of job separation, unemployment, and crime. The paper focuses on displaced workers: high-tenure workers who lose employment during a mass-layoff event at any point between 1990 and 1994 (inclusive). Initial local industrial specialization suggests that the growth of manufacturing imports and the Nordic financial crisis in the early 1990s explain a significant share of mass layoffs. Placebo tests display no evidence of trends in crime prior to worker separation. Using Denmark’s introduction of the Act on an Active Labor Market at the end of 1993, we estimate the impacts of activation and of a reduction in benefit duration on crime: crime is lower during active benefits than during passive benefits and spikes at the end of benefit eligibility. We use policy-induced shifts in the kink formula relating prior earnings to unemployment benefits to estimate the separate impacts of labor income and unemployment benefits on crime: the results suggest that unemployment benefits do not significantly offset the impact of labor income losses on crime. |
| Keywords: | unemployment; crime |
| JEL: | J60 |
| Date: | 2018–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2018_032&r=all |
| By: | Gabrielle Wills (Research on Socio-Economic Policy (ReSEP), Stellenbosch University); Servaas van der Berg (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes a rigorous process to develop and trial new metrics for measuring and codifying school leadership and management practices and processes that are considered theoretically related to literacy outcomes. The predictive validity of these measures is assessed in challenging contexts including 60 township and rural primary schools in South Africa. We observe a randomness to how better leadership and management practices are distributed across better and worse performing schools. Regression analyses confirm weak and inconsistent linkages between measured leadership and management dimensions and literacy outcomes across the sample. However, we find evidence of stronger linkages with intermediate outcomes, including evidence of curriculum coverage. This research contributes to a burgeoning, yet underdeveloped literature on educational management and leadership in Africa and the challenges of measurement in this context. |
| Keywords: | education, management, school quality, leadership, South Africa, literacy |
| JEL: | I21 J24 M12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers314&r=all |
| By: | Anthony Bald (Brown University); Eric Chyn (University of Virginia); Justine S. Hastings (Brown University); Margarita Machelett (Brown University) |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | child abuse and neglect, human capital |
| JEL: | H75 I21 I24 I28 I38 J12 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-001&r=all |
| By: | Mathieu Steijn; Pierre-Alexandre Balland; Ron Boschma; David Rigby |
| Abstract: | Regional resilience is high on the scientific and policy agenda. An essential feature of resilience is diversifying into new activities. But, little is known about whether major economic crises accelerate or decelerate regional diversification, and whether the impact differs between specialised and diverse regions. This paper offers systematic evidence on the effects of three of the largest crises in U.S. history (the Long Depression 1873-1879, the Great Depression 1929-1934, and the Oil Crisis 1973-1975) on the development of new technological capabilities within U.S. metropolitan areas. We find that crises reduce the pace of diversification in cities and that they narrow the scope of diversification to more closely related activities. We also find that more diverse cities outperform more specialised cities in diversifying during times of crisis but more diverse cities do not have a stronger focus on less related diversification during these unsettled times. |
| Keywords: | Technological diversification, regional resilience, major historical crises, related diversification, U.S. cities, entry of technologies, patents |
| JEL: | R11 D83 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1901&r=all |
| By: | Fougère, Denis (Sciences Po, Paris); Lecat, Rémy (Banque de France); Ray, Simon (Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the effect of real estate prices on productive investment. We build a simple theoretical framework of firms' investment with credit rationing and real estate collateral. We show that real estate prices affect firms' borrowing capacities through two channels. An increase in real estate prices raises the value of the firms' pledgeable assets and mitigates the agency problem characterizing the creditor-entrepreneur relationship. It simultaneously cuts the expected profit due to the increase in the cost of inputs. While the literature only focuses on the first channel, the identification of the second channel allows for heterogeneous effects of real estate prices on investment across firms. We test our theoretical predictions using a large French database. We do find heterogeneous effects of real estate prices on productive investment depending on the position of the firms in the sectoral distributions of real estate holdings. Our preferred estimates indicate that a 10% increase in real estate prices causes a 1% decrease in the investment rate of firms in the lowest decile of the distribution but a 6% increase in the investment rate of firms belonging to the highest decile. |
| Keywords: | firms' investment, real estate prices, collateral channel, financial contraints |
| JEL: | D22 G30 O52 R30 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12007&r=all |
| By: | Ahmed Elsayed (IZA-Institute of Labor Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a new and original dataset, the Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey (JLMPS) of 2010 and 2016 to study living and housing conditions in Jordan. In 2016 the JLMPS oversampled regions with high concentration of refugees which enables us to investigate the living and housing conditions of refugees who live out-of- and in-refugee camps. The paper documents changes in housing characteristics for Jordanian households over the time period 2010-2016. It then compares the living and housing conditions in 2016 for out-of- and in-camp refugees to that of locals. The paper shows an improvement in the living and housing conditions for local households (both established and newly-formed) with the share of home ownership and the share of households living in private houses, relative to flats, increased between 2010 and 2016. The paper further shows that while the majority of refugees live out-of-refugee camps, those who live in-camps are doing much worse in terms of living conditions manifested mainly in smaller living areas, worse access to public facilities, and less ownership of durable assets. |
| Date: | 2018–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1195&r=all |
| By: | Alesina, Alberto (Harvard University); Carlana, Michela (Harvard Kennedy School); La Ferrara, Eliana (Bocconi University); Pinotti, Paolo (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | If individuals become aware of their stereotypes, do they change their behavior? We study this question in the context of teachers' bias in grading immigrants and native children in middle schools. Teachers give lower grades to immigrant students compared to natives who have the same performance on standardized, blindly-graded tests. We then relate differences in grading to teachers' stereotypes, elicited through an Implicit Association Test (IAT). We find that math teachers with stronger stereotypes give lower grades to immigrants compared to natives with the same performance. Literature teachers do not differentially grade immigrants based on their own stereotypes. Finally, we share teachers' own IAT score with them, randomizing the timing of disclosure around the date on which they assign term grades. All teachers informed of their stereotypes before term grading increase grades assigned to immigrants. Revealing stereotypes may be a powerful intervention to decrease discrimination, but it may also induce a reaction from individuals who were not acting in a biased way. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, teachers, implicit stereotypes, IAT, bias in grading |
| JEL: | I24 J15 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11981&r=all |
| By: | Cristina Barceló (Banco de España); Ernesto Villanueva (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | Recent cohorts in various developed countries take a longer time to form their own household and display lower rates of home ownership than older cohorts. Previous literature has linked these developments to higher job instability, especially among youths. We exploit the large differences in firing costs across contract types in the Spanish labor market to identify the causal link between sharp changes in the risk of job loss and the timing of different forms of household formation among youths. Our identification strategy uses variation in regional incentives for firms to promote high firing cost contracts between 1997 and 2009. Using data from the 2002-2014 waves of the Spanish Survey of Household Finances, we document that an increase of 1% in the stock of workers with an open-ended contract increases the probability of forming a new household by a similar magnitude (especially through renting new accommodation). The results are consistent with the predictions of precautionary saving models, whereby individuals exposed to the risk of job loss postpone their consumption of housing services. |
| Keywords: | job insecurity, household formation, housing investments |
| JEL: | J1 J2 D91 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1849&r=all |
| By: | Naomi Friedman-Sokuler (Bar-Ilan University); Moshe Justman |
| Abstract: | Arab society in Israel offers a counter-example, which calls into question the hypothesis that the male advantage in STEM decreases as gender equality in society increases. Analyzing administrative longitudinal data on students in Hebrew- and Arabic-language schools in Israel, all operating within the same centralized education system, we find that the gender achievement-gap favoring girls in Arabic schools, the ethnic group characterized by less gender equality, is greater than the gender gap favoring girls in Hebrew schools. Moreover, male dominated STEM matriculation electives in Hebrew schools are female-dominated in Arabic schools, controlling for prior achievement in mathematics. We show that these patterns are not dependent on socioeconomic or school characteristics but rather reflect ethnic differences in the gendered effect of prior achievement on subject choice. While in Hebrew-language schools the gender gaps favoring men in physics, computer science and advanced mathematics electives increase in early mathematical achievement, in Arabic-language schools gender gaps favoring men are non-existent and even reversed among top achieving students. |
| Keywords: | culture, gender gap in mathematics, STEM, Arab society, educational choice |
| JEL: | I21 J15 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:biu:wpaper:2019-02&r=all |
| By: | Kathrin Goldmann (Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster); Gernot Sieg (Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster) |
| Abstract: | Traffic jams occur even without bottlenecks, simply because of interaction of vehicles on the road. From a driver's point of view, the instability of the traffic flow arises stochastically. Because the probability of a traffic jam increases with the number of cars on the road, there is a traffic flow breakdown externality. This paper offers a method to calculate this externality for traffic on a circuit. Ignoring the stochastic nature of traffic flow breakdowns results in congestion charges that are too small. |
| Keywords: | Hypercongestion, congestion costs, circuit, stochastic capacity, external costs, congestion charge, traffic experiments |
| JEL: | L91 R41 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mut:wpaper:26&r=all |
| By: | Bertocchi, Graziella (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Brunetti, Marianna (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Zaiceva, Anzelika (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, household finance, wealth, financial portfolios, Great Recession |
| JEL: | F22 G11 D14 E21 J15 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11979&r=all |
| By: | Lucy Qian Liu |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the main factors that explain the low regional mobility in Spain, with a view to identifying policy options at the regional and central level to promote labor mobility. The empirical analysis finds that house prices, labor market conditions, and the pervasiveness of labor market duality at the regional level are the main determinants for Spain’s regional mobility, while labor market institutions and policies play an important role at the national level. Policies that facilitate wage setting flexibility and reduce labor market duality could help enhance the functioning of the labor market, thereby promoting labor mobility. There may be also room for policies to incentivize people to move and provide support through targeted active labor market policies. |
| Date: | 2018–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:18/282&r=all |
| By: | Till Nikolka |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between family ties and return migration using Danish full population register data. Couples returning from Denmark to the non-Nordic countries are positively selected with respect to income of the primary earner. Positive selection holds for male and female primary earners, but is weaker among dual earner couples and among couples with children. Results suggest that schooling considerations as well as factors related to cultural identity play a role for return decisions of couples with children. |
| Keywords: | International migration, family migration, return migration, education |
| JEL: | F22 J13 J61 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_286&r=all |
| By: | Katharina Candel-Haug; Alexander Cuntz; Oliver Falck |
| Abstract: | The economic consequences of migration are hotly debated and a main topic of recent populist movements across Europe. We analyze Polish immigration in the context of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union and find a positive and significant spillover effect of the immigrants on the number of local inventors in German counties in 2001-2010. For causal identification, we exploit a historical episode in the Polish migration history to Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain and construct a shift-share instrument. Our results differ from findings for high-skilled migration to the United States, which is particularly interesting as Polish immigration to Germany was not based on selection by qualification in our period of analysis. |
| Keywords: | migration, innovation |
| JEL: | J61 O31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7409&r=all |
| By: | Laura Abramovsky (Centre for the Evaluation of Social Policies); Britta Augsburg (Centre for the Evaluation of Social Policies); Melanie L\"uhrmann (Royal Holloway Department of Economics; Centre for the Evaluation of Social Policies); Francisco Oteiza (UCL Institute of Education); Juan Pablo Rud (Royal Holloway Department of Economics; Centre for the Evaluation of Social Policies) |
| Abstract: | We study the effectiveness of a community-level information intervention aimed at reducing open defecation (OD) and increasing sanitation investments in Nigeria. The results of a cluster-randomized control trial conducted in 246 communities between 2014 and 2018 suggest that average impacts are exiguous. However, these results hide important community heterogeneity, as the intervention has strong and lasting effects on OD habits in poorer communities. This result is robust across several measures of community socio-economic characteristics, and is not driven by baseline differences in toilet coverage. In poor communities, OD rates decreased by 9pp from a baseline level of 75\%, while we find no effect in richer communities. The reduction in OD is achieved mainly through increased toilet ownership (+8pp from a baseline level of 24\%). The intervention appears to have raised the social status attached to toilet ownership among the poorer treated communities, and not in rich communities. Finally, we combine our study with data from five other trials of similar interventions to show that estimated impacts are stronger in poorer contexts, rationalizing the wide range of estimates in the literature and providing plausible external validity. |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1901.03544&r=all |
| By: | Imbert, Clement (University of Warwick and JPAL); Seror, Marlon (University of Bristol); Zhang, Yifan (Chinese University of Hong Kong); Zylberberg, Yanos (University of Bristol and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the causal effect of rural-urban migration on urban production in China. We use longitudinal data on manufacturing firms between 2001 and 2006 and exploit exogenous variation in rural-urban migration due to agricultural price shocks. Following a migrant inflow, labor costs decline and employment expands. Labor productivity decreases sharply and remains low in the medium run. A quantitative framework suggests that destinations become too labor-abundant and migration mostly benefits lowproductivity firms within locations. As migrants select into high-productivity destinations, migration however strongly contributes to the equalization of factor productivity across locations |
| JEL: | D24 J23 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1185&r=all |
| By: | McCoy, Daire; Lyons, Sean; Morgenroth, Edgar; Palcic, Donal; Allen, Leonie |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of broadband infrastructure, along with a range of other local charac- teristics such as motorways and other infrastructure, availability of human capital and access to third level educational facilities, on the location of new business establishments. The sample period spans the intro- duction and recent history of broadband in Ireland. The results indicate that the availability of broadband infrastructure is a significant determinant, but its effects may be mediated by the presence of sufficiently high human capital in an area. |
| JEL: | L81 |
| Date: | 2018–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:85692&r=all |
| By: | Neyt, Brecht (Ghent University); Verhaest, Dieter (KU Leuven); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of enrolling into dual apprenticeship programs in secondary education on six early employment outcomes. Our contribution to the literature is threefold. First, we estimate – within the same, Belgian secondary education framework – the effects of two distinct types of dual programs that combine part-time school- or training centre-based instruction with an apprenticeship in a firm. Second, these effects are identified by estimating a dynamic model capturing subsequent educational and labour market outcomes to control for the dynamic selection of students into dual programs. Third, this approach enables us to distinguish between the programs' direct effects (conditional on educational achievement) and indirect effects (via educational achievement). We find evidence for short-term labour market advantages but only for the program with the most days of in-field training. With these findings we contribute to the international discussion on the optimal design of vocational programs. |
| Keywords: | vocational education, transitions in youth, dynamic selection, education, labour |
| JEL: | I21 J21 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12011&r=all |
| By: | Mitnik, Oscar A. (Inter-American Development Bank); Sanchez, Raul (IDB Invest); Yanez-Pagans, Patricia (IDB Invest) |
| Abstract: | This paper quantifies the impacts of transport infrastructure investments on economic activity in Haiti, using satellite night-light luminosity as a proxy measure. Our identification strategy exploits the differential timing of rehabilitation projects across various road segments of the primary road network. We combine multiple sources of non-traditional data and carefully address concerns related to unobserved heterogeneity. The results obtained across multiple specifications consistently indicate that receiving a road rehabilitation project leads to an increase in luminosity values of between 6% and 26% at the communal section level. Taking into account the national level elasticity between luminosity values and GDP, we approximate that these interventions translate into communal section-GDP increases of between 0.5% and 2.1%, for communal sections benefited by a transport infrastructure project. We observe temporal and spatial variation in results, and crucially that the larger impacts appear once projects are completed and are concentrated within 2 km buffers around the intervened roads. Neither the richest or the poorest communities reap the benefits from road improvements, with gains accruing to those in the middle of the ranking of communal sections, based on unsatisfied basic needs. Our findings provide novel evidence on the role of transport investments in promoting economic activity in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Haiti, night-time luminosity, road investments |
| JEL: | O1 O47 R4 D04 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12018&r=all |
| By: | Jukka Teras (Nordregio); Viktor Salenius; Laura Fagerlund; Lina Stanionyte (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this report is to explore how smart specialisation (S3) has been applied in Nordic sparsely populated regions, with focus on European Arctic. The report gives overview of the specific context of Arctic regions, their specialisations and revises how smart specialisation has supported regions in addressing the Arctic challenges. It also identifies the needs and efforts of joint action and outlines good practise cases where collaborative effort has been taken to tackle common challenges or to exploit opportunities. Smart specialisation has found very relevant applications in the European Arctic Region and implementation of smart specialisation policy tools is well advanced. In some cases the Arctic regions are pioneering with the advanced approaches of collaboration and developing joint investment solutions applying S3 approach. This report emphasises that already today there are very successful cases of local, cross-regional, and cross-border collaboration in turning the Arctic context to a competitive advantage, and many new innovations and projects continue to emerge. As demonstrated in the case studies the smart specialisation can serve very well in mobilising regional and local actors in the Arctic. In sparsely populated areas there is more need interregional cooperation plays important role for critical mass formation. The important message of the cases presented throughout the report is that collaboration on joint opportunities is the only way to create sustainable and long-term smart specialisation solutions in the unique European Arctic context. |
| Keywords: | Regional Policy, Smart Specialisation, EU Arctic Policy, Arctic Regions, Sparsely Populated Areas, Place-based Approach, Interregional Cooperation |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc114273&r=all |
| By: | Ragui Assaad (University of Minnesota and ERF); Thomas Ginn; Mohamed Saleh |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of Syrian refugees during the Syrian Civil War on the educational outcomes of Jordanians. Outcomes we examine include school entry, school enrollment at various levels and advancement from one level to the next. The project employs a unique data source, the 2016 Jordanian Labor Market Panel Survey that records retrospective educational outcomes for a nationally representative sample of Jordanians. We employ a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits cross-locality variation in exposure to Syrian refugees across cohorts before and during the influx of refugees. We find no evidence that greater exposure to Syrian refugee has affected the attainment of Jordanians. Evidence from the Ministry of Education’s Educational Management Information System (EMIS) suggests that Jordanian schools responded to the influx by adding a second shift in schools in high-Syrian areas, and that teacher-to-student ratio and classroom size are both unaffected by the influx. |
| Date: | 2018–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1214&r=all |
| By: | Noe Wiener (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) |
| Abstract: | Competition between immigrant and native workers takes place in labor markets that are segmented along various, often unobservable dimensions. It is desirable to measure the extent to which native workers are effectively shielded from competition by immigrant workers by virtue of such patterns of segmentation. This paper proposes measures of group differences in labor market segmentation on the basis of incomplete data, such as can be obtained from the US Census. These measures are derived from a general class of models of labor competition in the Smithian tradition. The observed wage distributions of native and foreign-born workers in the United States (at the national and metropolitan level) can be approximated remarkably well with this class of model, suggesting that a parsimonious account of wage inequality is feasible. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, labor market competition, segmented labor markets, wage inequality, statistical equilibrium |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J42 J61 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:1901&r=all |
| By: | Meriläinen, Jaakko; Tukiainen, Janne |
| Abstract: | We document that switching from laissez-faire production to public procurement in residential waste collection in Finland reduces the number of firms active in the local market, but induces a statistically significant and large decrease in unit prices on average. While public procurement, thus, seems to be desirable from the citizens’ perspective, not all municipalities adopt public procurement. We provide descriptive evidence that municipal council composition is associated with the chosen regime. This suggests that local politics may be one obstacle for the efficient provision of local public goods. |
| Keywords: | free markets, waste collection, public procurement, Local public finance and provision of public services, C23, D72, H76, L13, L85, |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:113&r=all |
| By: | Bilal Malaeb (University of Southampton); Jackline Wahba |
| Abstract: | This paper provides overall evidence of the migration dynamics in Jordan between 2010 and 2016, during which the country experienced a large influx of Syrian refugees. This paper gives a detailed description of immigration in Jordan during that period in particular the composition, characteristics and labour market activities of immigrants in Jordan. It also examines the emigration and return migration patterns of Jordanians as well as the changes in their migration dynamics before and after the inflow of Syrian refugees. We find evidence of a fall in temporary international migration of Jordanians during this period. We also find that almost half of current emigrants have left Jordan with their entire family. Furthermore, we also find a decrease in return migration across the two years. When analysing data on immigrants, we find a change in immigrants’ geographical distribution in 2016 compared to 2010, with lower shares of immigrants in areas of high refugee population. Despite similar distribution across occupations of immigrants and refugees in 2016, we find lower immigrants’ share in sectors like manufacturing, in which refugees are concentrated. Immigrants themselves have increased their engagement in informal work and differed in occupations and economic activities from 2010 to 2016 suggesting that immigrants might have been affected by the refugee influx. |
| Date: | 2018–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1190&r=all |
| By: | Bindler, Anna (anna.bindler@economics.gu.se); Ketel, Nadine (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | Little is known about the costs of crime to victims and their families. In this paper, we use unique and detailed register data on victimisations and labour market outcomes from the Netherlands to overcome data restrictions previously met in the literature and estimate event-study designs to assess the short- and long-term effects of criminal victimisation. Our results show significant decreases in earnings (6.6-9.3%) and increases in the days of benefit receipt (10.4-14.7%) which are lasting up to eight years after victimisation. We find shorter-lived responses in health expenditure. Additional analyses suggest that the victimisation can be interpreted as an escalation point, potentially triggering subsequent adverse life-events which contribute to its persistent impact. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effects are slightly larger for males regarding earnings and significantly larger for females regarding benefits. These differences appear to be largely (but not completely) driven by different offence characteristics. Lastly, we investigate spill-over effects on nonvictimised partners and find evidence for a spill-over effect of violent threat on the partner’s earnings. |
| Keywords: | Crime; victimisation; labour market outcomes; event-study design |
| JEL: | J01 J12 K14 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0749&r=all |
| By: | Sirus Dehdari; Kai Gehring |
| Abstract: | The quasi-exogenous division of the French regions Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War allows us to provide evidence about group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. Using several measures of stated and revealed preferences spanning over half a century, we show that being exposed to occupation and repression for many decades caused a persistently stronger regional identity. The geographical RDD results are robust across all specifications. We document two mechanisms using data on regional newspapers and regionalist parties. The differences are strongest for the first two age cohorts after WWII and associated with preferences for more regional decision-making. |
| Keywords: | group identity, regional identity, identity formation, persistence of preferences, homogenization policies, assimilation, Alsace-Lorraine |
| JEL: | D91 H70 N40 Z19 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7410&r=all |
| By: | Scholl, Lynn (Inter-American Development Bank); Martinez, Daniel (Inter-American Development Bank); Mitnik, Oscar A. (Inter-American Development Bank); Oviedo, Daniel (University College London); Yanez-Pagans, Patricia (IDB Invest) |
| Abstract: | Despite the growing interest in and proliferation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems around the world, their causal impacts on labor market outcomes remain unexplored. Reduced travel times for those who live near BRT stations or near feeder lines, may increase access to a wider array of job opportunities, potentially leading to increased rates of employment, access to higher quality (or formal) jobs, and increased labor hours and earnings. This paper assesses the effects of the Metropolitano, the BRT system in Lima (Peru), on individual-level job market outcomes. We rely on a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, based on comparing individuals who live close to the BRT system with a comparison group that lives farther from the system, before and after the system started to operate. We find large impacts on employment, hours worked and labor earnings for those individuals close to the BRT stations, but not for those who live close to the feeder lines. Despite the potential to connect poor populations, we find no evidence of impacts for populations living in lower income areas. |
| Keywords: | Bus Rapid Transit, employment, impact evaluation |
| JEL: | J01 J21 O12 R40 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12019&r=all |
| By: | Emily Knas; Matthew Stagner; M.C. Bradley |
| Abstract: | This issue brief discusses the overall Youth At-Risk of Homelessness (YARH) grant program, including the rationale for the grant program and the supports provided to grantees. |
| Keywords: | homeless, youth, child welfare, foster care, housing, evaluation |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:faaf8b9f62d84302b655e41182d91a5b&r=all |
| By: | Tang, Zhiwei; Jayakar, Krishna; Feng, Xiaodong; Zhang, Huiping; Peng, Xiaoyue |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a comparative analysis of 52 municipal smart city plans drawn from countries around the world, with the goal of enumerating the specific policies and programs that are included under the general rubric of various "smart city" initiatives. Cluster analysis identified five different models: in addition to an Infrastructure model to which most smart city plans belonged, a Green model, a Utilities model, a Citizen Services model and an E-government model could be identified. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itsb18:190417&r=all |
| By: | Silvia Calò (Central Bank of Ireland); Mariarosaria Comunale (Bank of Lithuania and European Central Bank) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the price competitiveness of the Italian regions by computing the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) for each region, deflated by CPI and vis-à-vis the main partner countries. We use them to look for the medium-term determinants, finding significant heterogeneities in the role of government consumption and investment expenditure. Government consumption has an extremely negative effect on competitiveness in North-Eastern Italy, Southern Italy and Lazio. Investment plays a negative role especially in the North-West, while it can be positive for competitiveness in Lazio and Southern Italy. We also find that the transfer theory does not necessarily hold and it even behaves in the opposite direction in case of North-Eastern Italy and Lazio. Lastly, we show that an increase in the regional price competitiveness influences regional growth positively only in the long run and spillovers may play a role. |
| Keywords: | Italian regions, government consumption, government investment, Real Effective Exchange Rate, growth |
| JEL: | E62 F31 F41 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lie:dpaper:10&r=all |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (Department of Economics, and CAGE (Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy), University of Warwick, CEPR, CESifo, ifo, IZA and ROA); Ferrara, Andreas (Department of Economics, and CAGE (Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy), University of Warwick); Melander, Eric (Department of Economics, and CAGE (Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy), University of Warwick); Pascali, Luigi (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and CAGE (Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy), University of Warwick) |
| 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 powersharing proposed in earlierwork. We make head way on establishing a causal role of war sby using changes to Germannobles’ positions within the European nobility network to instrument for conflict. |
| Keywords: | WARFARE ; POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS ; STATE CAPACITY |
| JEL: | D72 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1184&r=all |
| By: | Diane Coyle; Marianne Sensier |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:1901&r=all |
| By: | Benjamin Montmartin (SKEMA Business School - SKEMA Business School, OFCE - OFCE - Sciences Po); Ludovic Dibiaggio (SKEMA Business School - SKEMA Business School); Lionel Nesta (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, OFCE - OFCE - Sciences Po) |
| Date: | 2018–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01948337&r=all |
| By: | Gordon, James (American University); Herbst, Chris M. (Arizona State University); Tekin, Erdal (American University) |
| Abstract: | Despite the well-documented benefits of high-quality child care, many preschool-age children in the U.S. attend low-quality programs. Accordingly, improving the quality of child care is increasingly an explicit goal of government policy. However, accomplishing this goal requires a thorough understanding of the factors that influence parents' child care decisions. This paper provides the first credible evidence on the demand for child care characteristics in the market for home-based care. Using a randomized audit design, we study three dimensions of caregiving: affordability (i.e., the hourly price of child care), quality (i.e., caregiver education and experience), and convenience (i.e., caregiver car ownership and availability). We find that while parents are extremely sensitive to the cost of child care, they also have strong preferences for quality, particularly caregivers' educational attainment. Furthermore, we obtain mixed results on the convenience dimensions of child care, with parents valuing those owning a car but not those with more availability. Finally, we find significant heterogeneity in child care preferences according to families' age of youngest child, race and ethnicity, and willingness-to-pay. Our findings suggest that the child care market's quality problems may be driven by parents' inability to afford high-quality care or their lack of informational resources on how to identify such programs, rather than an unwillingness to pay for them. |
| Keywords: | child care, early childhood, education, parent preferences, field experiments |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J01 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11985&r=all |
| By: | Lars P. Feld; Christian Frey; Christoph A. Schaltegger; Lukas A. Schmid |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of fiscal federalism on income inequality and redistribution. Theoretically contradicting arguments ask for empirical evidence to obtain a better knowledge of this relationship. We rely on the institutional setting in Switzerland to study the issue empirically. According to our findings tax decentralization tends to reduce concentration in pre- and after-tax income without additional redistribution via progressive taxes. It is, however, crucial to consider the interdependence of decentralization and fragmentation as inequality decreasing effects of decentralization are counteracted by its interaction with fragmentation. |
| Keywords: | federalism, decentralization, inequality, income concentration, top incomes, redistribution, Switzerland |
| JEL: | D31 H23 H77 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7407&r=all |
| By: | Nelly El-Mallakh (University of Strasbourg); Jackline Wahba |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the Syrian refugee inflows on the migration dynamics of Jordanians. Using unique data from Jordan, we exploit the geographical distribution of Syrian refugees across Jordanian subdistricts and examine its impact on international, return and internal migration patterns of Jordanians. We rely on retrospective information to construct individual and household panel data before and after the beginning of the 2011 Syrian war. Using a Difference-in-Differences specification that takes into account unobserved heterogeneity, we find that the Syrian refugee inflows in Jordan do not have any effect on the international and return migration patterns of Jordanians. However, the Syrian presence increases the probability of Jordanian internal migration. Particularly, being a resident in camp governorates increases the probability of moving out while it decreases the probability of moving in. Our results are the first to show the impact of the massive refugee inflows on the host country’s migration dynamics. |
| Date: | 2018–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1191&r=all |
| By: | Song, Younghwan (Union College); Gao, Jia (Union College) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 2010, 2012, and 2013 American Time Use Survey Well-Being Modules, this paper examines how subjective well-being (SWB) varies between working at home and working in the workplace among wage/salary workers. Both OLS and individual fixed-effects models are employed for estimation, and the results are largely consistent. In general, we find that working at home is associated with a lower level of net affect and a higher probability of having unpleasant feelings relative to working in the workplace. We further decompose homeworking into telework and bringing work home and find that the effect of SWB varies by types of homeworking. In comparison with working in the workplace, telework increases stress in both samples of weekdays and weekends/holidays, and it also reduces net affect and increases unpleasantness in the sample of weekends/holidays. In contrast, bringing work home on weekdays results in a lower level of net affect due to less happiness received. The only positive effect of homeworking we discover is that telework reduces tiredness on weekdays. As to the existence of gender difference in the effect of homeworking, our OLS results show that working at home is associated with positive affections for males but negative affections for females. However, fixed-effects models suggest that both males and females feel more stressed when teleworking, indicating the existence of individual heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | working at home, telework, subjective well-being, time use |
| JEL: | J22 J28 D13 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11993&r=all |
| By: | Johanna Lacoe |
| Abstract: | This presentation at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management annual conference analyzes how juvenile incarceration negatively affects the academic outcomes of youth, including attendance, academic effort, and drop out. |
| Keywords: | Juvenile incarceration, regression discontinuity, instrumental variable analyses |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:33edc34c662448e0b261d8d4e14599be&r=all |
| By: | Matej Bajgar; Giuseppe Berlingieri; Sara Calligaris; Chiara Criscuolo; Jonathan Timmis |
| Abstract: | This report presents new evidence on industry concentration trends in Europe and in North America. It uses two novel data sources: representative firm-level concentration measures from the OECD MultiProd project, and business-group-level concentration measures using matched Orbis-Worldscope-Zephyr data. Based on the MultiProd data, it finds that between 2001 and 2012 the average industry across 10 European economies saw a 2-3-percentage-point increase in the share of the 10% largest companies in industry sales. Using the Orbis-Worldscope-Zephyr data, it documents a clear increase in industry concentration in Europe as well as in North America between 2000 and 2014 of the order of 4-8 percentage points for the average industry. Over the period, about 3 out of 4 (2-digit) industries in each region saw their concentration increase. The increase is observed for both manufacturing and non-financial services and is not driven by digital-intensive sectors. |
| Keywords: | business dynamics, Industry concentration, measurement |
| JEL: | D4 L11 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaac:18-en&r=all |
| By: | Andrey Tkachenko (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Daniil Esaulov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of autocratic governors in public procurement performance on the sub-national level. In particular, we estimate the impact of autocratic governors’ tenure and their local ties on competition over public procurement and contract execution. To this purpose, we use the data on public contracts on road construction and repair in Russian regions from 2011-2014 and match it with the biographical information of governors, who administrate the auctions. We find the evidence that governors who are appointed by the president and do not have pre-governing local ties in the region (governors-outsiders) demonstrate predatory behaviour, compared with governors with local ties (governors-insiders). In particular, governors-outsiders restrict the competition at public procurement auctions significantly more than governors-insiders. Moreover, this restriction becomes worse with tenure in office by governors-outsiders, while governors-insiders do not exert this tenure effect. We argue that this restriction of competition cannot be explained by the intention of better contracts execution. Namely, the delays in execution and the probability of contract termination both increase with tenure for governors-outsiders and are quite stable for governors-insiders |
| Keywords: | public procurement, tenure in office, governor, competition, efficiency, contract execution |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:19/psp/2018&r=all |
| By: | Michael Stierle; Ulrike Stierle-von Schütz; Stijn Rocher |
| Abstract: | 10 years on, many countries and regions in the EU still bear the scars of the 2008/2009 financial crisis. Countries and regions have recovered at different rates and undergone different structural changes. While the asymmetric impact of the crisis across regions and sectors has had a short-term impact on concentration and specialisation patterns; long-term forces, such as global economic and supply chain integration, continue to shape the economic landscape of European regions. In our empirical analysis, we describe the development of regional economic structures in terms of sectoral employment and production (gross value added) during the crisis. We focus on the location pattern of sectors (concentration), i.e. in which regions economic activities in a sector tend to be located, and the specialisation of regions, i.e. which sectors are particularly important in a region. Our analysis shows that the impact of the crisis on overall specialisation patterns appears rather limited, although some regions have been more affected than others. In addition, the general trend of sectoral location patterns in the EU becoming more similar over time has continued, albeit at a slower pace since 2009, especially in Central and East European Countries. In terms of sectors, employment and production concentration in the construction and manufacturing sectors, which displayed clustering before the crisis, have been dispersing since 2009. The data also show that regions with large employment losses during the crisis were mainly specialised in agriculture, low-tech manufacturing, construction and less-skilled services such as trade, accommodation/restaurants and transport. This suggests that local economic structures may have played a role in the economic resilience of regions during the crisis. |
| JEL: | F02 F14 F21 L6 O57 P52 C43 F15 N60 R12 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:dispap:088&r=all |
| By: | James J. Feigenbaum; James Lee; Filippo Mezzanotti |
| Abstract: | Using General William Sherman’s 1864–65 military march through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina during the American Civil War, this paper studies the effect of capital destruction on medium and long-run local economic activity, and the role of financial markets in the recovery process. We match an 1865 US War Department map of Sherman’s march to county-level demographic, agricultural, and manufacturing data from the 1850-1920 US Censuses. We show that the capital destruction induced by the March led to a large contraction in agricultural investment, farming asset prices, and manufacturing activity. Elements of the decline in agriculture persisted through 1920. Using information on local banks and access to credit, we argue that the underdevelopment of financial markets played a role in weakening the recovery. |
| JEL: | N21 N41 N51 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25392&r=all |
| By: | Maye Ehab (University of Bamberg) |
| Abstract: | The length of commute time to work influence the access to employment opportunities and individuals’ outcomes. Women are unable to take the same lengthy commute time to work as men resulting in a commuting gender gap. Using Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey for 2006 and 2012, this paper analyzes the determinants of the commuting time for men and women to identify the reasons behind the differences in commuting time according to gender. In addition, the effect of the worker’s commute on the labor market outcomes is analyzed by examining the impact of commute time on working hours and wages by gender. Due to the potential endogeneity of the commuting time, instrumental variable estimation is used to determine the relationship between mobility and labor market outcomes. For women, the effect on the daily working hours is positive with a negative effect on the weekly labor supply. Commuting time has a negative effect on men’s hourly wages but with a positive effect on their daily and weekly labor supply. |
| Date: | 2018–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1211&r=all |
| By: | Bilal Malaeb (University of Oxford); Jackline Wahba |
| Abstract: | The Syrian refugee influx in Jordan came on top of an additional 1.6 million foreigners residing in Jordan. The non-national population of refugees and immigrants had increased Jordan’s population of 6.6 million by about 45%. This raises an important question on whether the inflow of refugees has displaced immigrants in the Jordanian labor market. In this paper, we use novel data from Jordan from before and after the Syrian refugee influx to test whether economic immigrants were affected by Syrian refugees. We address several threats to identifications: the selectivity of immigrants and the geographic sorting of immigrants and refugees within Jordan using instrumental variable approach. We find that, as a result of the Syrian refugee influx, immigrants were more likely to work in the informal sector, and they worked fewer hours and had lower total wages as a result. The results suggest that the main competition that occurred in the Jordanian labor market was not between refugees and natives, but rather between refugees and economic migrants. |
| Date: | 2018–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1194&r=all |
| By: | Roland Hodler; Sorawoot Srisuma; Alberto Vesperoni; Noémie Zurlinden |
| Abstract: | We define and axiomatically characterize an index of ethnic stratification that measures the extent to which the hierarchy in socio-economic positions across the individuals of a society follows ethnolinguistic lines. This index generalizes the idea of between-group inequality to situations where data on economic and ethnolinguistic distances between pairs of individuals is available. We define an estimator of our index that takes the form of a second order U-statistic and has well-behaved statistical properties, and we show that ethnic stratification is empirically related to low levels of trust in other people and institutions at the local level in Africa. |
| Keywords: | inequality, ethnic diversity, ethnic fractionalization, trust |
| JEL: | D31 D63 Z13 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7405&r=all |
| By: | Henrik Andersson (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - Toulouse School of Economics); Emmanuelle Lavaine (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010 - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UM - Université de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of properties being located in vulnerable zones in term of nitrates on the property prices using a change in the classification of vulnerable zones in France in 2012. Using an identification strategy based on a spatial difference- in-dfferences specification, we show that the revision of the classification significantly decreased not only property prices in zones that became classified as vulnerable after the revision, but also those of properties already classified as vulnerable. However, the effect was stronger for the former, 10% vs. 5%, and this differences may reect a difference in how zones are classified. The risks covered in the 2012 classification cover a broader range of risks, and hence the larger price effect may reflect this additional perceived risk exposure. |
| Keywords: | difference in difference,Hedonic Price Analysis,water pollution |
| Date: | 2018–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01947415&r=all |
| By: | Bernardo Alves Furtado |
| Abstract: | Brazilian executive body has consistently vetoed legislative initiatives easing creation and emancipation of municipalities. The literature lists evidence of the negative results of municipal fragmentation, especially so for metropolitan regions. In order to provide evidences for the argument of metropolitan union, this paper quantifies the quality of life of metropolitan citizens in the face of four alternative rules of distribution of municipal tax collection. Methodologically, a validated agent-based spatial model is simulated. On top of that, econometric models are tested using real exogenous variables and simulated data. Results suggest two central conclusions. First, the progressiveness of the Municipal Participation Fund and its relevance to a better quality of life in metropolitan municipalities is confirmed. Second, municipal financial merging would improve citizens' quality of life, compared to the status quo for 23 Brazilian metropolises. Further, the paper presents quantitative evidence that allows comparing alternative tax distributions for each of the 40 simulated metropolises, identifying more efficient forms of fiscal distribution and contributing to the literature and to contemporary parliamentary debate. |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1901.02391&r=all |
| By: | Thomas Grebel (Economics department - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, TU - Technische Universität Ilmenau); Lionel Nesta (OFCE - OFCE - Sciences Po) |
| Date: | 2018–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01948361&r=all |