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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Dokko, Jane K. (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago); Keys, Benjamin J. (University of Pennsylvania); Relihan, Lindsay E. (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | At their peak in 2005, roughly 60 percent of all purchase mortgage loans originated in the United States contained at least one non-traditional feature. These features, which allowed borrowers easier access to credit through teaser interest rates, interest-only or negative amortization periods, and extended payment terms, have been the subject of much regulatory and popular criticism. In this paper, we construct a novel county-level dataset to analyze the relationship between rising house prices and non-traditional features of mortgage contracts. We apply a break-point methodology and find that in housing markets with breaks in the mid-2000s, a strong rise in the use of non-traditional mortgages preceded the start of the housing boom. Furthermore, their rise was coupled with declining denial rates and a shift from FHA to subprime mortgages. Our findings support the view that a change in mortgage contract availability and a shift toward subprime borrowers helped to fuel the rise of house prices during the last decade. |
| Keywords: | Housing-policy; mortgage loans; subprime mortgage |
| JEL: | G22 R21 R22 |
| Date: | 2019–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2019-01&r=all |
| By: | IWAISAKO Tokuo; ONO Arito; SAITO Amane; TOKUDA Hidenobu |
| Abstract: | Using Japanese household survey micro data for the period 2000–2015, this study examines the effects of home ownership on household stock-holdings. To disentangle the effect of property value and mortgage debt on households' stock-holdings as a share of their liquid financial assets, we apply the instrumental variable approach proposed by Chetty et al. (2017), which employs differences in average house price indices across regional housing markets in the year in which household portfolios are measured and those in the year in which the house was purchased. Our estimates suggest that an exogenous increase in property value (while holding mortgage debt constant) is associated with an increase in stock-holdings as a share of liquid financial assets, while an increase in mortgage debt (while holding property value constant) is associated with a decrease. We also find that a simultaneous increase in property value and mortgage debt (while holding home equity constant) has no effect on households' stock-holdings but is associated with an increase in mortgage debt repayment. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:19007&r=all |
| By: | Tobias Schlegel (University of Zurich); Curdin Pfister (University of Zurich); Dietmar Harhoff (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition); Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether differences in regional economic preconditions lead to heterogeneity of innovation spillovers from newly established universities of applied sciences (UASs). Exploiting a quasi-random establishment of UASs in the 1990s in Switzerland, we analyse the heterogeneity of innovation spillovers from these UASs due to differences in regional economic preconditions — i.e. economic strength, industry structure and economic density. Our estimations show that stronger and denser regional economies and regions with high tech intensive industries exhibited significantly more innovation spillovers from new UASs than regions with less favourable economic preconditions. One possible explanation are agglomeration effects favouring innovation spillovers. Our results imply that nearby UASs do not have positive effects on innovation per se, a finding that is of particular interest for policy makers who decide on the location of public applied research institutions. |
| Keywords: | Research Institutions, Innovation, Regional Economic Activity |
| JEL: | I23 O38 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0161&r=all |
| By: | Bird, Julia; Venables, Anthony J |
| Abstract: | Land rights and tenure systems are an important factor behind poor housing and inefficient land-use in developing country cities. In Kampala, Uganda, four systems of land tenure coexist, allowing a detailed study of the effects of these on household and firm location decisions. Spatially disaggregated data across the city suggest that the presence of a traditional land tenure system (called mailo) skews land-use towards informal housing and away from productive activities. Using a structural model of the city we show that this due to mailo having a positive value for occupants of informal housing, attributable to mailo-specific amenity benefits and/ or rent caps. We use the model to investigate the effect of converting all mailo land in the city to leasehold. Despite direct loss of amenity experienced by mailo residents, aggregate city income may rise substantially because of more efficient land-use. Manufacturing firms move into formerly mailo areas and form new clusters of activity. This increases urban wages, particularly among the low skilled, and raises aggregate urban real incomes by 2% in the absence of localisation economies and as much as 6.7% in the presence of such economies of scale. |
| Keywords: | customary; land-tenure; land-use; Uganda; urban |
| JEL: | O1 R3 R52 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13563&r=all |
| By: | Gregory Gilpin (Montana State University) |
| Abstract: | Secondary employment (SE) continues to be an important income source for many workers and several influences have been identified that impact engagement. This research studies two of these influences, the hours constraint and job heterogeneity preferences, by analyzing a novel short-lived crisis when California public school switch between 9-month and year-round calendars in response to school capacity constraints caused by education policy reform. This crisis immediately shifted primary employment vacation schedules of full-time teachers for approximately 4-6 school years, potentially altering the composition of SE opportunities. The empirical analysis suggests teachers increase SE engagement by 13.8% during years their schools are on year-round calendars, and no spillover effects are identified on teachers in nearby schools. The increase is entirely attributable to increases in school-based SE engagement in schools using multi-track year-round calendars, and no change in non-school-based SE engagement is observed. Males and mid-to-late career teachers’ SE engagement appears most responsive. The conclusion discusses the relative importance of workers’ SE engagement motives and how policy may impact SE engagement. |
| Keywords: | secondary employment; dual-job holding; moonlighting; calendar conversion; teacher labor market; vacation schedules |
| JEL: | J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inu:caeprp:2018009&r=all |
| By: | Remi Jedwab; Noel D. Johnson; Mark Koyama |
| Abstract: | The Black Death killed 40% of Europe’s population between 1347-1352, making it one of the largest shocks in the history of mankind. Despite its historical importance, little is known about its spatial effects and the effects of pandemics more generally. Using a novel dataset that provides information on spatial variation in Plague mortality at the city level, as well as various identification strategies, we explore the short-run and long-run impacts of the Black Death on city growth. On average, cities recovered their pre-Plague populations within two centuries. In addition, aggregate convergence masked heterogeneity in urban recovery. We show that both of these facts are consistent with a Malthusian model in which population returns to high-mortality locations endowed with more rural and urban fixed factors of production. Land suitability and natural and historical trade networks played a vital role in urban recovery. Our study highlights the role played by pandemics in determining both the sizes and placements of populations. |
| Keywords: | pandemics, Black Death, mortality, path dependence, cities, urbanization, Malthusian theory, migration, growth, Europe |
| JEL: | R11 R12 O11 O47 J11 N00 N13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7524&r=all |
| By: | Entorf, Horst; Lange, Martin |
| Abstract: | In this article, we examine anti-foreigner hate crime in the wake of the large influx of asylum seekers to Germany in 2014 and 2015. By exploiting the quasi-experimental assignment of asylum seekers to German regions, we estimate the causal effect of an unexpected and sudden change in the share of the foreign-born population on anti-foreigner hate crime. Our county-level analysis shows that not simply the size of regional asylum seeker infl ows drives the increase in hate crime, but the rapid compositional change of the residential population: Areas with previously low shares of foreign-born inhabitants that face large-scale immigration of asylum seekers witness the strongest upsurge in hate crime. Economically deprived regions and regions with a legacy of anti-foreigner hate crimes are also found to be prone to hate crime against refugees. However, when we explicitly control for East-West German differences, the predominance of native-born residents at the local level stands out as the single most important factor explaining the sudden increase in hate crime. |
| Keywords: | hate crime,immigration,natural experiment,regional conditions |
| JEL: | J15 R23 K42 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19005&r=all |
| By: | Tito Boeri; Andrea Ichino; Enrico Moretti; Johanna Posch |
| Abstract: | In many European countries, wages are determined by collective bargaining agreements intended to improve wages and reduce inequality. We study the local and aggregate effects of collective bargaining in Italy and Germany. The two countries have similar geographical differences in firm productivity—with the North more productive than the South in Italy and the West more productive than the East in Germany—-but have adopted different models of wage bargaining. Italy sets wages based on nationwide contracts that allow for limited local wage adjustments, while Germany has moved toward a more flexible system that allows for local bargaining. We find that, as a consequence, Italy exhibits limited geographical wage differences in nominal terms and almost no relationship between local productivity and local nominal wages, while Germany has larger geographic wage differences and a tighter link between local wages and local productivity. While the Italian system is successful at reducing nominal wage inequality, it also creates costly geographic imbalances. In Italy, low productivity provinces have significantly higher non-employment rates than high productivity provinces, because employers cannot lower wages, while in Germany the relationship between non-employment and productivity is significantly weaker. In Italy, the relationship between real wages and productivity is negative, with lower real wages in the North compared to the South, since the latter has low housing costs but similar nominal wages. Thus, conditional on having a job, Italian workers have higher purchasing power in the South, but the probability of having a job is higher in the North. We conclude that the Italian system has significant costs in terms of forgone aggregate earnings and employment because it generates a spatial equilibrium where workers queue for jobs in the South and remain unemployed while waiting. If Italy adopted the German system, aggregate employment and earnings would increase by 11.04% and 7.45%, respectively. Our findings are relevant for several other European countries with systems similar to Italy’s. |
| JEL: | J0 R1 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25612&r=all |
| By: | Benjamin Davies (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); David C Maré (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | We derive a measure of the relatedness between economic activities based on weighted correlations of local employment shares, and use this measure to estimate city and activity complexity. Our approach extends discrete measures used in previous studies by recognising the extent of activities' local over-representation and by adjusting for differences in signal quality between geographic areas with different sizes. We examine the contribution of relatedness and complexity to urban employment growth, using 1981–2013 census data from New Zealand. Complex activities experienced faster employment growth during our period of study, especially in complex cities. However, this growth was not significantly stronger in cities more dense with related activities. Relatedness and complexity appear to be most relevant for analysing how large, complex cities grow, and are less informative for understanding employment dynamics in small, less complex cities. |
| Keywords: | Relatedness, Complexity, Smart Specialisation |
| JEL: | R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:19_01&r=all |
| By: | Lara Cockx |
| Abstract: | Do the returns to migration extend beyond migrants themselves and accrue to the children of migrants? Drawing upon data from a unique 19-year longitudinal survey from Tanzania, this paper empirically investigates this question by exploiting the variation in the outcomes of the children of migrants and the children of the migrants’ siblings who stayed behind conditional upon a range of individual characteristics of their parents. I show that parental migration has important implications for child development. This relation depends on the destination and the timing of the move. More specifically, children whose parents migrated from rural areas to cities are heavier, taller and more educated for their age. The effects on height and schooling are strongest for children who were exposed to the city environment during their early childhood. In contrast, children whose parents moved to a different rural village do not appear to experience any health advantage and those moving alongside their parents even start schooling at a later age. In addition to conferring a broader view of the returns to physical mobility, this analysis contributes to the debate on the origin of spatial inequalities in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Internal migration, health, education |
| JEL: | R23 O15 I15 I25 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:41119&r=all |
| By: | Borowiecki, Karol Jan (Department of Business and Economics); Graddy, Kathryn (Brandeis University) |
| Abstract: | In order to investigate the role of immigrant artists on the development of artistic clusters in U.S. cities, we use the U.S. Census and American Community Survey, collected every 10 years since 1850. We identify artists and art teachers, authors, musicians and music teachers, actors and actresses, architects, and journalists, their geographical location and their status as a native or an immigrant. We look at the relative growth rate of the immigrant population in these occupations over a ten year period and how it affects the relative growth rate of native-born individuals in these artistic occupations. We find that cities that experienced immigrant artist inflows, also see a greater inflow of native artists by about 40%. |
| Keywords: | Migration; agglomeration economies; cities; artists |
| JEL: | J61 N30 Z11 |
| Date: | 2019–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2019_004&r=all |
| By: | Ivo Bischoff (University of Kassel); Simon Melch (University of Kassel); Eva Wolfschuetz (University of Kassel) |
| Abstract: | An increasing number of municipalities cooperates in the field of economic development. In this paper, we focus on a specific instrument in this field, namely the development of joint business parks. We apply a hazard model to data from West-German municipalities between 2000 and 2015. We find inter-local business parks to be more frequent among small municipalities and in constellations where suitable land is scarce. Our main focus rests on the role of tax competition. An analogy building on the literature on international tax coordination supports the hypothesis that inter-local business parks are more likely in regions where tax competition is intense. The evidence is affirmative: We find that the likelihood of inter-local business park formation to increase in the intensity of local tax competition. |
| Keywords: | Inter-local business parks, inter-municipal cooperation, tax competition, hazard model, Germany |
| JEL: | H77 H71 R58 R14 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201906&r=all |
| By: | Bosquet, Clément; Overman, Henry G. |
| Abstract: | We consider the link between birthplace and wages. Using a unique panel dataset, we estimate a raw elasticity of wages with respect to birthplace size of 4.2%, two thirds of the 6.8% raw elasticity with respect to city size. Part of this effect simply reflects intergenerational transmission and the spatial sorting of parents, part is explained by the role that birthplace size plays in determining current city size. Lifetime immobility explains a lot of the correlation between birthplace and current city size: we show that 43.7% of individuals only ever work while living in the place they were born. Our results highlight the importance of intergenerational and individual sorting in helping explain the persistence of spatial disparities. |
| Keywords: | place of birth; spatial sorting; intergenerational transmission; lifetime mobility; ES/J021342/1; ES/G005966/1 |
| JEL: | J61 J62 J31 R23 |
| Date: | 2019–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100201&r=all |
| By: | Rubolino, Enrico |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effect of local income taxation on taxable income, inequality and internal migration in Italy using two tax reforms and several administrative data sources. These reforms, introduced in 2007 and 2011, granted municipalities the authority to switch from a flat to a progressive local income tax. I obtain two main results. First, the progressive tax reduced taxable income by 5 percent and the income share held by the top percentile of the municipal income distribution by 6 percent. Second, I find compelling evidence of a positive effect of net-of-tax rate differentials across provinces on changing fiscal residence. |
| Date: | 2019–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2019-02&r=all |
| By: | Gibson, John; Le, Trinh |
| Abstract: | Many countries lack spatially disaggregated consumer price data. Yet these data are needed to estimate real inequality and spatial patterns of poverty, especially for poor countries where weak infrastructure and high transport costs create big price variation over space. We experimented in Vietnam with a new way of obtaining disaggregated price data, using local expert knowledge to derive the mean and variance for prices of 64 consumer items in over 1000 communities. We used photographs of the specified items to ensure comparability of the reported prices. These prices are used to calculate regional cost-of-living indexes, which provide a good approximation to benchmark multilateral price indexes that are calculated from data obtained from traditional market price surveys. In comparison, two widely used no-price methods, based on using food Engel curves to derive deflators and based on using unit values (survey group expenditures over group quantity) are very poor proxy indicators of prices and of the cost-of-living and would distort estimates of real inequality and the spatial pattern of poverty. Prices from local expert informants also exhibit a basic spatial feature of prices – the Alchian-Allen effect or ‘shipping the good apples out’ – in much the same way as do prices from the traditional survey approach. This effect is one reason why unit values are a bad proxy for prices and this effect should become more important as food systems commercialize. Using expert knowledge to measure local prices is a low-cost and feasible approach that could be adopted more widely in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Expert knowledge; Inequality; Prices; Regional Cost-of-Living; Surveys; Vietnam |
| JEL: | D12 O15 |
| Date: | 2019–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92533&r=all |
| By: | Larsson Taghizadeh, Jonas (Uppsala universitet) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of school closures on student achievement among displaced students and future cohorts in Sweden. In contrast to previous studies that only analyze the effects of school closures on displaced students, this study also takes account of the effects on subsequent cohorts of students who never experience the disruption of the move. Furthermore, the study is one of the first quantitative studies to estimate the effects of school closures outside the US. The effects are analyzed using a quasi-experimental study on all public middle school closures in Sweden 2000–2012, a majority of them located in cities. The study utilizes a design that provides a better control for family background compared to previous studies on school closures and that makes it possible to study the effects on future cohorts. The performance of students who graduated from closed Swedish middle schools are compared with the performance of their ‘treated’ younger siblings who were expected to graduate from the same schools but as a result of the closures attended other schools. The results suggest that the school closures in Sweden overall had no effects on student achievement, even though displaced students and future cohorts attended slightly higher-performing schools than their siblings as a result of the closures. Contrary to theoretical expectations, the effects on displaced students are very similar to the effects on future cohorts, suggesting that the disruption effects were close to zero. Furthermore, the extensive school voucher system in Sweden does not seem to direct students to higher quality schools after school closures. |
| Keywords: | School closures; school choice; student achievement; disruption effects |
| JEL: | H44 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2019–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2019_004&r=all |
| By: | Fabien Leurent (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport - IFSTTAR - Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech) |
| Abstract: | To a client, taxi quality of service involves not only the riding time and comfort, but also the access time between the instants of booking (or readying oneself) and pickup. In turn, the access time depends on fleet size and the macroscopic patterns of service usage: demand volume and its spread in space, average ride time, transaction times. In this article, we investigate the formation of the access time and derive its economic consequences for a taxi service in an idealized city with ring shape and spatial homogeneity, hence circular symmetry. At the operational level, under given supply and demand conditions the access time stems from the number of busy vehicles, which obeys to a second-degree characteristic equation. This enables us to model fleet size as a function of target demand volume and access time. Taking then a broader perspective, demand is elastic to supply conditions including access time, ride time, transaction time and tariff fare. We model short-term traffic equilibrium and demonstrate the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium state. Next, at the tactical level the service supplier sets up the fleet size and the tariff fare in order to satisfy an economic objective. We model medium-term supply-demand equilibrium under three regulation patterns of, respectively, (i) service monopoly and the maximization of production profit, (ii) system optimum and the maximization of social surplus, (iii) second best system optimum subject to a budgetary constraint. In each pattern, both the tariff fare and the access time are linked by analytical formulas to exogenous conditions about the territory, the demand and the cost function of service provision. Theoretical properties are obtained to compare the patterns under specific demand function with constant elasticity of volume to generalized cost: under constant elasticity of-2, the monopoly tariff and generalized cost are more than twice as large as their system optimum counterparts, and exact doubles of their second best optimum counterparts in the absence of fixed production costs. At the strategic level, the model can be applied to assess decisions on vehicle technology (motor type, driving technology) and on service location by the service supplier, as well as the regulation policies by public authorities. |
| Keywords: | Traffic Model,Stochastic Equilibrium,Availability Function,Supply-Demand Equilibrium,Monopoly Operation,Collective Optimum,Second-Best Optimum |
| Date: | 2019–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02047269&r=all |
| By: | Manisha Shah; Bryce Millett Steinberg |
| Abstract: | The Right to Education Act in 2009 guaranteed access to free primary education for all children in India ages 6-14. This paper investigates whether national trends in educational data changed around the time of this law using household surveys and administrative data. We document four trends: (1) School-going increases after the passage of RTE, (2) Test scores decline dramatically after 2010, (3) School infrastructure appears to be improving both before and after RTE, and (4) The number of students who have to repeat a grade falls precipitously after RTE is enacted, in line with the official provisions of the law. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I25 O1 O38 O53 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25608&r=all |
| By: | Alesina, Alberto F; Carlana, Michela; La Ferrara, Eliana; Pinotti, Paolo |
| 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: | bias in grading; IAT; immigrants; implicit stereotypes; teachers |
| JEL: | I24 J15 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13555&r=all |
| By: | David S. Lucas; Christopher J. Boudreaux |
| Abstract: | Regulation is commonly viewed as a hindrance to entrepreneurship, but heterogeneity in the effects of regulation is rarely explored. We focus on regional variation in the effects of national-level regulations by developing a theory of hierarchical institutional interdependence. Using the political science theory of market-preserving federalism, we argue that regional economic freedom attenuates the negative influence of national regulation on net job creation. Using U.S. data, we find that regulation destroys jobs on net, but regional economic freedom moderates this effect. In regions with average economic freedom, a one percent increase in regulation results in 14 fewer jobs created on net. However, a standard deviation increase in economic freedom attenuates this relationship by four fewer jobs. Interestingly, this moderation accrues strictly to older firms; regulation usually harms young firm job creation, and economic freedom does not attenuate this relationship. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1903.02924&r=all |
| By: | Christian Dippel |
| Abstract: | Using data covering a wide range of municipal public-sector pension plans from 1962– 2014, I establish that unfunded pension benefits grow faster under Democratic-party mayors. The result is borne out in a generalized difference-in-differences (DiD) specification in levels and in growth rates as well as in a regression discontinuity design (RDD) focusing on narrow mayoral races. There is some evidence that the partisan effect is concentrated in police and fire-fighter plans. Being on a council-manager system matters very little to these patterns. While Tiebout sorting has been the proposed explanation for previous findings that parties do not matter for a range of fiscal outcomes in U.S. cities, Tiebout sorting may actually accentuate fiscal profligacy in the case of unfunded pensions. |
| JEL: | D72 D73 H7 H75 J5 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25601&r=all |
| By: | KONISHI Yoko; NISHIYAMA Yoshihiko |
| Abstract: | Japan has been experiencing an unprecedented inbound tourism boom, but initially, tourists were concentrated in major cities in the Kanto and Kansai regions. However, due to an increase in repeat travelers and diversification in sources of information such as SNS, we have started to routinely observe tourists dispersed to other regions and localized increases in tourists. The purpose of this paper is to observe the distribution of tourist destinations statistically and its change over time for inbound and domestic tourists. We utilize the number of overnight guests of each accommodation in the "Accommodation Survey" conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for aggregating at the municipality and prefecture levels. We first perform rank-size rule regression between the logarithms of total overnight stays of foreign and Japanese tourists and the logarithms of the rank order of municipalities and ascertain if Zipf's law and the Pareto property are valid for municipality level. Next, since rank-size rule regression focuses only on cross-sectional characteristics, we next compare the patterns of rank changes using the new visualization method of rank clocks to observe the dynamics of ranks that represent the municipality's attractiveness as a destination. Finally, we verify whether Gibrat's law holds by examining the dynamics of the destination distribution. Our analysis reveals that both the ranks and the sizes for Japanese travelers are very stable, while the numbers of inbound travelers of each region have higher growth rates and fluctuate in rank order. Also, average growth rates of regions with smaller numbers of foreign tourists in 2011 are higher during the period up to 2017, indicating that target destinations for foreign tourists are becoming more diverse. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:19008&r=all |
| By: | Juerg Schweri; Annina Eymann; Manuel Aepli |
| Abstract: | Recent literature suggests that vocational education provides individuals with smoother transitions into the labor market but lower wages over the lifecycle. A possible mechanism explaining lower wages is horizontal mismatch, defined as a mismatch between qualifications acquired by individuals and those required for their current job. Some studies have found higher mismatch wage penalties when individuals' education is more specific. Therefore, we analyze horizontal mismatch in Switzerland, the country with the highest proportion of firm-based vocational education and training in the OECD. We use subjective and objective measures of mismatch from the Swiss Household Panel. While we find sizeable mismatch wage penalties in OLS estimations, effects are small or insignificant in fixed-effects regressions. This holds for workers with vocational and general education background alike. We conclude that vocational education is more transferable than often assumed. We finish with recommendations on concept and methods for future analyses of horizontal mismatch. |
| Keywords: | Horizontal mismatch, Overeducation, Qualification, Switzerland, Training, Vocational Education, Wages |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0160&r=all |
| By: | Bertrand, Marianne; Burgess, Robin; Xu, Guo |
| Abstract: | Using exogenous variation in social proximity generated by an allocation rule, we find that bureaucrats assigned to their home states are perceived to be more corrupt and less able to withstand illegitimate political pressure. Despite this, we observe that home officers are more likely to be promoted in the later stages of their careers. To understand this dissonance between performance and promotion we show that incoming Chief Ministers preferentially promote home officers that come from the same home district. Taken together, our results suggest that social proximity hampers bureaucrat performance by facilitating political capture and corruption. |
| Keywords: | bureaucrat performance; performance and promotion; political economy; Social proximity |
| JEL: | D73 H11 O10 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13562&r=all |
| By: | Ramalho, Jordana |
| Abstract: | In the Philippines, calls for creating ‘global’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘resilient’ cities are placing urban poor communities in increasingly precarious positions. These communities have long been the targets of urban development and ‘modernisation’ efforts; more recently the erasure of informal settlements from Philippine cities is being bolstered at the behest of climate change adaptation and disaster risk management (DRM) agendas. In Metro Cebu, flood management has been at the heart of DRM and broader urban development discussions, and is serving as justification for the demolition and displacement of informal settler communities in areas classed as ‘danger zones’. Using Kusno's (2010) interpretation of the ‘exemplary centre’ as a point of departure, this paper interrogates the relationship between DRM, worlding aspirations (Roy and Ong, 2011) and market-oriented urbanisation in Cebu, and considers the socio-spatial implications of these intersecting processes for urban poor communities. Through analysing the contradictions inherent in framings of certain bodies and spaces as being ‘of risk’ or ‘at risk’ over others, I argue that the epistemologies of modernity, disaster risk and resilience endorsed and propagated by the state are facilitating processes of displacement and dispossession that serve elite commercial interests under the auspices of disaster resilience and pro-poor development. |
| Keywords: | disaster risk reduction and management; Philippines; urban development; resilience; urban slums; worlding; ES/J500070/1 |
| JEL: | Q15 |
| Date: | 2019–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100212&r=all |
| By: | Diego Useche (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Ernest Miguelez (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Barcelona, AQR-IREA); Francesco Lissoni (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Universita Bocconi - Università Bocconi) |
| Abstract: | Based on a relational view of international business, we investigate the role of migrant inventors in cross-border mergers and acquisitions undertaken by R&D-active firms. We hypothesize that the migrant inventors' international social networks can be leveraged by their employers in order to identify and/or integrate relevant knowledge bases of acquisition targets in the inventors' home country. We nuance our hypothesis by means of several conditional logistic regressions on a large matched sample of deals and control cases. The impact of migrant inventors increases with the distance between countries and for targets located in countries with weak administrative/legal systems, as well as when targets are either innovative or belong to high-tech sectors or to the same sector as the acquirer, and for full versus partial acquisitions. |
| Keywords: | cross-border mergers and acquisitions,migration,inventors,PCT patents |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02024499&r=all |
| By: | Barbara Biasi |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the causal effect of equalizing revenues across public school districts on students' intergenerational mobility, using variation from 13 school finance reforms passed in 20 US states between 1986 and 2004. Since households sort in response to each reform, post-reform revenues are endogenous to an extent that varies across states depending on the funding formula. I address this issue with a simulated-instruments approach, which uses newly collected data on states' funding formulas to simulate revenues in the absence of sorting. I find that equalization has a large effect on mobility, especially for low-income students. I provide suggestive evidence that this effect acts through a reduction in the gap in inputs (such as the number of teachers) and in college attendance between low-income and high-income districts. |
| JEL: | I22 I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25600&r=all |
| By: | Laura Wheeler (The Center for State and Local Finance, Georgia State University, USA); Per Johnson (The Center for State and Local Finance, Georgia State University, USA) |
| Abstract: | Tax expenditures are provisions in the tax code that allow for special treatment of some properties or a certain type of expense when computing the tax liability. Policymakers use tax expenditures as incentives for economic development or to provide tax relief to taxpayers, among many other reasons. A local tax expenditure report improves fiscal transparency by allowing local governments and policymakers to better understand the localized revenue effects of these tax provisions and to consider them during the budget-making process. The aim of this “how to” document is to assist local governments who choose to prepare a tax expenditure report themselves by providing them the practical resources and example methods to begin the process. Therefore, this document gives a general overview and theoretical background for preparing a local tax expenditure report with specific and practical examples drawn from the preparation of a local tax expenditure report for Fulton County, Georgia. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:cslfwp:cslf1901&r=all |
| By: | Roberto Bonfatti; Yuan Gu; Steven Poelhekk |
| Abstract: | Africa's interior-to-coast roads are well suited to export natural resources, but not to support regional trade. Are they the optimal resourse to geography and comparative advantage, or the result of suboptimal political distortions? We investigate the political determinants of road paving in West Africa across the 1965-2012 period. Controlling for geography and the endogeneity of democratization, we show that autocracies tend to connect natural resource deposits to ports, while the networks expanded in a less interior-to-coast way in periods of democracy. This result suggests that Africa's interior-to-coast roads are at least in part the result of suboptimal political distortions. |
| Keywords: | political economy, democracy, infrastructure, natural resources, development |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notgep:2019-04&r=all |
| By: | Elie Bouri (USEK Business School, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh, Lebanon); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa); Shixuan Wang (Department of Economics, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AA, United Kingdom) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze contagion over the daily period of January 1, 1998 to September 13, 2018 between Real Estate Investments Trusts (REITs) and the equity markets of nineteen countries, which are at their different stages of development in terms of the REITs market. For our purpose, we use the local Gaussian correlation approach during the dot-com, global financial, European sovereign debt crises, and the more recent period involving the Brexit in the UK. In general, we find strong evidence of contagion between equities and REITs of not only matured and established markets, but also in economies with an emerging REITs sector, especially during the global financial and sovereign debt crises. Further, when we considered contagion across REITs of the US and the other countries, and between US REITs and equities of the remaining eighteen countries, a similar pattern emerges. Our results have important implications for investors and policymakers alike. |
| Keywords: | REITs, Equities, Financial crises, Contagion, Local Gaussian correlation |
| JEL: | C22 G10 G15 R31 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201917&r=all |
| By: | Ivo Bischoff (University of Kassel); Eva Wolfschuetz (University of Kassel) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the factors driving the emergence of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) in tasks of internal administration in West-Germany between 2001 and 2014. In line with the Institutional Collective Action Approach, we find similarities in political ideology to foster cooperation. Cost pressure drives IMC. Given substantial cost hysteresis in administrative tasks, we expect IMC to be more frequent among shrinking municipalities. Our results supports this notion. However, there is no evidence that municipalities make use of complementarities from divergent population dynamics. We apply a hazard model that allows us to analyze the timing of IMC arrangements. We find state subsidies for IMC are an important driving force behind IMC. IMC agreements are less likely to emerge in election years when municipalities face low cost pressure while the opposite is true for municipalities with high cost pressure. |
| Keywords: | Inter-municipal cooperation, public administration, elections, hazard model, Germany, survey |
| JEL: | H77 D72 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201905&r=all |
| By: | MIYAKAWA Daisuke; SHIMIZU Chihiro; UESUGI Iichiro |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the role of international capital flows in real estate prices by quantifying the relationship between conditions in the location of residence or registration of investors or investment firms and the prices they pay for their realty investments as well as the spillover effect of such capital flows on property prices in the host countries of their investments. Using a unique dataset accounting for about 30,000 realty investment transactions in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we find the following. First, foreign investors pay significantly higher prices than domestic investors, even after taking a wide variety of controls into account. Second, the larger the buyers' experience with realty investments in the host countries, the smaller the over-payment tendency. These results indicate that foreign investors are overcharged when they are less informed about the property market and that the extent to which they are overcharged decreases with the more investment experience they have. Third, we did not find any significant spillover effects from overpaying by foreign investors to real estate prices in host countries. This finding is consistent with a group of extant studies employing aggregate-level data to examine the link between international capital flows and real estate prices. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:19011&r=all |
| By: | Wennström, Johan (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Öner, Özge (University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy) |
| Abstract: | This study shows that in Sweden, contrary to other European countries, refugees have been disproportionately placed in peripheral and rural areas with high unemployment and rapid native depopulation where the prospects for integration, both socially and economically, are poor. We explore and evaluate some potential reasons for this outcome. Factors such as an intimidating political and intellectual climate in favor of receiving large numbers of asylum seekers and immigrants and the economic support given by the central government to municipalities that accept refugees are not sufficient to understand the actions of rural local governments. Instead, we argue that Tetlock’s seminal work on “expert political judgment” may provide a useful approach for understanding the seemingly irrational actions of local politicians in rural and peripheral municipalities. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; Social capital; Political judgment; Rational choice; Urbanization |
| JEL: | J15 J61 O15 R58 |
| Date: | 2019–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1266&r=all |
| By: | Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin (CREAM - Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée à la Mondialisation - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université); Emmanuelle Taugourdeau (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the organization and the distribution of research activities between nearby public and private laboratories. In a three-stage game, the 'size', 'location' and 'research effort' are determined under the assumption that public spillovers depend on the location of the private laboratory. We compare two scenarios in which the research efforts are decided either cooperatively or non-cooperatively. We show that for particular levels of subsidy granted to the public lab, higher funding favors spatial proximity and increases the total research effort in the cooperative case, while it diminishes the total effort in the non-cooperative one. Moreover, compared with the non-cooperative case, research cooperation i) may increase the distance between the two laboratories, ii) makes the public laboratory smaller, iii) increases the total research effort, but iv) is detrimental to the payoff of the whole research sector. |
| Keywords: | research cooperation,spatial location,public subsidy |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-02023666&r=all |
| By: | Chanda, Areendam; Kabiraj, Sujana |
| Abstract: | One of the well documented facts about India's rapid growth since 1991 has been the accompanying unequal sub-national experiences. In this paper, using unsaturated night-light data for 1996-2010, we investigate patterns of growth at the district level. We find evidence of absolute convergence. Disaggregating along rural and urban dimensions, we also show that this is mainly due to faster growth in rural areas. Further, districts that have grown faster are ones that are geographically disadvantaged - further away from the coast, with lower agricultural suitability of land, and more rugged terrains. The convergence results are also robust to a few of the major policy initiatives that overlapped during this time. |
| Keywords: | Convergence, Regional Growth, India, Rural-Urban, Night Lights |
| JEL: | O4 O40 O47 R11 |
| Date: | 2017–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92506&r=all |
| By: | Riina Vuorikari (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | This report comprises the key outcomes and final analysis of the study Innovating Professional Development in Compulsory Education. It aims to help education authorities face the challenges of meeting the professional development needs of tomorrow's teachers in Europe and elsewhere. This report focuses on innovative and emergent practices of teacher Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and professional learning by teaching professionals who work in compulsory education. The first part of the study gathered an inventory of 30 examples illustrating new and innovative models and practices that have emerged to overcome the known barriers and limitations that teachers say hinder them today from participating in CPD. An accompanying Technical Report looks at their key elements and uses seven labels to describe and analyse the broad areas in which innovation currently takes place (Vuorikari, 2018). The labels are not categorical, and many of the examples feature many of them. This report further analyses the inventory of models and practices focusing on their innovative aspects. The 30 examples were classified according to their type of innovation representing product innovation as well as process, organisational and marketing innovation allowing for a discussion on the innovative aspects of the emergent practices in teacher professional development and professional learning. The key outcomes of the study are discussed in a cross-case analysis with the help of the above-mentioned seven broad areas. Lastly, together with providing conclusions, a number of policy pointers are given in order to better inspire and support those who plan and design policies and provision of teacher professional development and professional learning. |
| Keywords: | Education, Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Professional Learning, Practices, Innovation, Digital Education Action Plan |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc115292&r=all |
| By: | Massimiliano Caporin (University of Padova Via Cesare Battisti 241, 35121 Padova, Italy); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa); Francesco Ravazzolo (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and BI Norwegian Business School, Universitätsplatz 1, 39100 Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) |
| Abstract: | We study contagion between REITs and the equity market in the U.S. over four subsamples covering January, 2003 to December, 2017, by using Bayesian nonparametric quantile-on-quantile regressions with heteroskedasticity. We find that the spillovers from the REITs on to the equity market has varied over time across the four sub-samples, though similarity is observed between the first and the last sub-samples. Further, barring the extreme ends of the two markets, contagion from REITs upon the stock market went down during the global financial crisis relative to the pre-crisis period, with the spillover picking-up during the European sovereign debt crisis. |
| Keywords: | Contagion, Real Estate Market, Stock Market, Quantile-on-Quantile Model, Bayesian Estimation |
| JEL: | C22 G10 R30 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201913&r=all |
| By: | Thierry Madiès; Emmanuelle Taugourdeau (Centre de Recherche en Économie et STatistique (CREST)) |
| Abstract: | Our paper presents a model of decentralized leadership with fiscal equalization and imperfect economic integration. The degree of trade integration (reflected by trade costs) turns out to have an effect on both the state tax rates and the ex-post vertical equalization transfers. Our main results are the following: Ex post vertical transfers are welfare deteriorating for low levels of trade integration while they are welfare improving compared to tax competition when trade integration is high enough. However, when public goods are highly valued by the citizens of the federation, ex post transfers are always welfare enhancing. |
| Keywords: | Decentralized Leadership,Tax competition,Trade Integration |
| Date: | 2019–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02023908&r=all |
| By: | van Zon, M.; Spliet, R.; van den Heuvel, W. |
| Abstract: | Collaborative transportation can significantly reduce transportation costs as well as greenhouse gas emissions. However, allocating the cost to the collaborating companies remains difficult. We consider the cost-allocation problem which arises when companies, each with multiple delivery locations, collaborate by consolidating demand and combining delivery routes. We model the corresponding cost-allocation problem as a cooperative game: the joint network vehicle routing game (JNVRG). We propose a row generation algorithm to determine a core allocation for the JNVRG. In this approach, we encounter a row generation subproblem which we model as a new variant of a vehicle routing problem with profits. Moreover, we propose two main acceleration strategies for the row generation algorithm. First, we generate rows by relaxing the row generation subproblem, exploiting the tight LP bounds for our formulation of the row generation subproblem. Secondly, we propose to also solve the row generation subproblem heuristically and to only solve it to optimality when the heuristic fails. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed row generation algorithm and the acceleration strategies by means of numerical experiments for both the JNVRG as well as the traditional vehicle routing game, which is a special case of the JNVRG. We create and solve instances based on benchmark instances of the capacitated vehicle routing problem from the literature, ranging from 5 companies with a total of 79 delivery locations to 53 companies with a total of 53 delivery locations. |
| Keywords: | Collaborative transportation, Cooperative game theory, Vehicle Routing, Row generation, Vehicle, routing with profits, Branch-and-cut-and-price |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:eureir:115273&r=all |
| By: | Cheratian, Iman; Goltabar, Saleh; Calá, Carla Daniela |
| Abstract: | Given the importance of entry promotion to prompt economic growth and promote structural transformation, this paper investigates the regional determinants of firm entry in the 30 Iranian regions, considering four different sizes -micro, small, medium and large- over 2000-2015. Using a new and unique database, we estimate panel non-spatial and spatial lag and error dependence models. We find that regional factors explain firm entry, but the impact is not homogeneous across firms of different size. We also find that most types of firms are influenced by the negative effect of economic sanctions during the sample period. Keywords: firm entry, ecological approach, spatial models, Iranian economy. |
| Keywords: | Dinámica Empresarial; Creación de Empresas; Distribución Espacial; Iran; |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3058&r=all |
| By: | Hui Jin; La-Bhus Fah Jirasavetakul; Baoping Shang |
| Abstract: | This paper, using Moldova as an example, presents a systematic approach to assess the efficiency and equity of public education spending, identify sources of inefficiencies and inequality, and formulate potential reform options. The analytical framework combines international benchmarking with country-specific analysis—such as microeconomic analysis based on household survey data—and can provide important insights into diagnosing and reforming education systems. The analysis finds significant scope to improve both efficiency and equity of the education sector in Moldova. Potential reform measures include further consolidating the oversized school network, reducing overstaffing, and better targeting government subsidies. The current remuneration policy could also be improved to attract high quality teachers and incentivize performance. |
| Date: | 2019–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:19/42&r=all |
| By: | Catherine Haeck; Giulia Meloni; Johan Swinnen |
| Abstract: | Previous studies on the value of terroir, or more generally geographical indications (GI), used hedonic techniques. We use historical data and exploit temporal and geographical variations in the introduction of wine GIs in early twentieth century France to study the impact on the price of specific wines in the years and decades following their introduction. We find large effects of GIs on prices of some Champagne wines, but no significant impact on Bordeaux or other Champagne wines. |
| Keywords: | Treatment effects, Appellations, European agriculture, regulation, wine history |
| JEL: | C21 L51 L66 N53 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:40818&r=all |
| By: | Thiemo Fetzer (University of Warwick,; Pearson Institute at the University of Chicago; CEPR); Stephan Kyburz (Center for Global Development) |
| Abstract: | Can institutionalized transfers of resource rents be a source of civil conflict? Are cohesive institutions better at managing conflicts over distribution? We exploit exogenous variation in revenue disbursements to local governments and use new data on local democratic institutions in Nigeria to answer these questions. There is a strong link between rents and conflict far away from the location of the resource. Conflict over distribution is highly organized, involving political militias, and concentrated in the extent to which local governments are non-cohesive. Democratically elected local governments significantly weaken the causal link between rents and political violence. Elections produce more cohesive institutions, and vastly limit the extent to which distributional conflict between groups breaks out following shocks to the rents. Throughout, we confirm these findings using individual level survey data. |
| Keywords: | conflict, ethnicity, natural resources, political economy, commodity prices |
| JEL: | Q33 O13 N52 R11 L71 |
| Date: | 2019–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:503&r=all |
| By: | Marit Hinnosaar; Toomas Hinnosaar; Michael Kummer; Olga Slivko |
| Abstract: | Are there positive or negative externalities in knowledge production? Do current contributions to knowledge production increase or decrease the future growth of knowledge? We use a randomized field experiment, which added relevant content to some pages in Wikipedia while leaving similar pages unchanged. We find that the addition of content has a negligible impact on the subsequent long-run growth of content. Our results have implications for information seeding and incentivizing contributions, implying that additional content does not generate sizable externalities by inspiring nor discouraging future contributions. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1903.01861&r=all |