|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Andrew Barker |
| Abstract: | New Zealand’s housing supply has not kept pace with rising demand, including from net immigration. Affordability has worsened, particularly for low-income renters. Government action is underway to allow new housing through initiatives such as the Urban Growth Agenda, KiwiBuild and the Housing and Urban Development Authority, but further steps are needed to improve well-being. Clear overarching principles for sustainable urban development and rationalisation of strict regulatory containment policies would allow the planning system to better respond to demand for land. Incentives for local governments to accommodate growth could be increased by giving them access to additional revenue linked to local development. More user charging and targeted rates would also help to fund infrastructure required to service new housing. Government delivery of affordable housing through KiwiBuild should be re-focused towards enabling the supply of land to developers, supporting development of affordable rental housing and further expanding social housing in areas facing shortages.This Working Paper relates to the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of New Zealand (http://www.oecd.org/economy/new-zealand -economic-snapshot/). |
| Keywords: | house prices, housing affordability, housing market, housing supply, infrastructure, land-use and rental regulations, property tax, residential mobility, social housing, well-being |
| JEL: | I38 O18 R21 R31 R38 R52 |
| Date: | 2019–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1565-en&r=all |
| By: | Tidiane Ly (Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE UMR 5824, F-69130 Ecully, France; Institute of Economics (IdEP), Faculty of Economics, Università della Svizzera italiana) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies local governments' public policies in a metropolitan area plagued by traffic congestion, where both residents and workers consume local public goods. We develop a new spatial sub-metropolitan tax competition model which features a central city surrounded by suburban towns linked by mobile capital and mobile residents who commute to work. We show that Pareto-efficiency is achieved if towns can retain their workers using labor subsidies. Otherwise, traffic congestion in the city is inefficiently high and local governments respond by setting inefficient public policies: (1) the city over-taxes capital and under-taxes residents, which leads to too little capital and too many residents in the city; (2) local public goods are under-provided in the city and over-provided in the towns. |
| Keywords: | Tax competition, Urban economics, Traffic congestion, Public goods, Mobility |
| JEL: | H71 H72 R50 R51 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1925&r=all |
| By: | Henkel, Marcel; Seidel, Tobias; Südekum, Jens |
| Abstract: | Many countries shift substantial public resources across jurisdictions to mitigate spatial economic disparities. We use a general equilibrium model with multiple asymmetric regions, labor mobility, and costly trade to carve out the aggregate implications of fiscal transfers. Calibrating the model for Germany, we find that transfers indeed deliver smaller disparities across regions. This comes at the cost of lower national output, however, because activity is diverted away from core cities and towards remote areas with low productivity. But despite this output loss, national welfare may still increase, because the transfer scheme countervails over-congestion in large cities. |
| Keywords: | fiscal equalization,regional transfers,migration,spatial economics |
| JEL: | F15 R12 R13 R23 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:322&r=all |
| By: | Valentina Tocchioni (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Ann Berrington (Department of Social Statistics and Demography, University of Southampton); Daniele Vignoli (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Agnese Vitali (Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Università di Trento) |
| Abstract: | The literature suggests a positive link between homeownership and transition to parenthood. However, couples’ preferences to become homeowners before having their first child have been undermined by rising housing uncertainty and housing unaffordability over recent decades. Britain is an archetype example: homeownership rates have fallen markedly among young adults as a result of low wages, precarious employment, reductions in the availability of mortgage credit, and rising house prices, generating a housing crisis. Using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008) and the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2016), and applying multilevel discrete-time event-history techniques on a sample of women aged 18-42, we investigate whether and how the link between housing tenure and first birth has changed over recent decades in Britain. We find that, in comparison to the 1990s, the likelihood of becoming a parent has declined among homeowners in recent years, whereas childbearing rates among private renters have remained stable. Thus owner occupiers and private renters have become more similar in terms of their likelihood of entering parenthood. Overall, our findings question the classical micro-level assumption of a positive link between homeownership and transition to parenthood, at least among Britain’s “Generation Rent†. |
| Keywords: | housing tenure, transition to motherhood, Britain, event-history analysis, panel data, multilevel models |
| JEL: | C23 J13 R20 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2019_07&r=all |
| By: | Leo Papageorgiou |
| Abstract: | As prior research has shown, airport expansions in densely populated urban areas affect homeowners in surrounding areas. The effect on prices is expected to be particularly pronounced in the London urban area due to the high absolute valuations. This study will examine the announcement effects of (a) the release of the planning report for Heathrow’s Northwest Runway on 01.07.15, (b) the acceptance of the plan by the Secretary for Transport on 14.12.2015, and (c) the official government approval for the initiation of Heathrow’s airport expansion on 25.10.2016. The research focus of this paper lies on the extent to which prices of single family, terraced and semi-detached homes in those areas not yet affected by Heathrow’s runway noise changed as a consequence of the announcements. In this context, it is of particular interest whether the observed changes in property prices match the noise contour proposed by the official planners’ report. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that we focus on the home price effects of the announcement of an airport expansion. For airports as opposed to other infrastructure projects, announcement effects have so far not been analyzed in the literature. This is understandable as the area affected by airport expansions tends to be not only far larger than other infrastructure projects, such as sports stadiums, but they are also more uncertain. In fact, the expected future effects can vary significantly with advancing technology and changing mobility patterns.Literature. The related literature reaches back to 1978, when Mieszkowski & Saper estimated the effects of airport noise on residential property values at Toronto’s Malton Airport. In 1990, Pennington et al. measured the same effect at Manchester’s airport. In a similar study in 1998, Tomkins, et. al. found that at Manchester’s airport the benefits of expansion extended beyond the local economy, while the costs were concentrated locally. In 2000, Espey & Lopez found a significant negative price discount for surrounding residential buildings near RenoSparks’ airport. In 2004, Nelson aggregated 20 studies covering 33 estimates of price discounts for 23 airports in Canada and the US to develop a model to explain the percentage drop per decibel increase in airport noise. The first airport expansion case in combination with noise discounts was analyzed by Mcmillen in 2004 on the basis of the 1997 Chicago O’Hare expansion. In 2009, Dekkers & Straaten found that noise discounts for residential property at Amsterdam’s airport surpassed railway and road noise discounts. In 2015, Suksmith & Nitivattananon showed that the noise of aircraft near Bangkok’s airport had an even higher impact on residential house prices than air pollution. The most similar analysis in terms of the data set and the focus on announcement effects is Kavetsos (2012), who measured the impact of the London Olympics announcement on residential prices. He found that properties in host boroughs sold at a 2.1%-3.3% premium after the announcement. Data. The data selected for this research are limited to Greater London due to its economic importance, a high international interest in changes of London property prices, and the amount of available public data. We use transactions data with price and date information retrieved from the UK Land Registry. Leasehold transactions and all but terraced and semi-detached building types are excluded. These 1-3 storey single family homes are very typical of London and allow for good comparability of sqqure meter prices. Single flats in multi-family homes, detached homes, and other types are excluded to avoid different square meter prices at the same address. The second data set used is the Ministry of Housing database, which provides detailed Energy Performance Certificates of the size and building material of each home. Since the data set is limited to Greater London and a large number of buildings are appraised in the metropolitan area of London, more than half of the addresses are matched from 1995 to 2018. The time window is reduced to 01.01.2015-31.12.2017 to cover all announcement dates tested. Methodology. We use a difference-in-difference approach, based on least squares, on the level of the individual property. For the treatment area, we compare the current Heathrow noise map and with the one predicted for 2030. The following control variables, which vary over time, capture demographic changes on the borough level: the percentage of elderly, young, and immigrants; population density, new unemployment rate, average taxpayer income. GIS is used to create control variables for distances from each address to the nearest amenity that could influence the value of a property: to the central business district, sub-centers, metro stations, rivers, kindergardens, schools, universities, and industrial areas. Time fixed effects capture changes that affect both the treated and the control areas.Preliminary Results. The preliminary results are summarized in Table 1. They imply that there is a full 2 month reporting-timelag due to the transaction duration. Contrary to popular opinion, the impact on prices occurred shortly after the government acceptance was published on 14.12.15 and not on the initial planning report release on 01.07.15. The results show that political announcements have a positive relationship with home prices. The magnitude of the effects increases as announcements become more official and airport expansion plans become more realistic. One fact to be highlighted is that the downward movement of prices was unexpectedly reversed with a public release by Tory and Labour members to vote against the airport expansion. Table 1: Table of Results of OLS Regression# Effect Date Price Discounts Announcement Date Announcement1 2,2016 -4.27%* 14.12.15 Gov. accepts expansion2 9,2016 -6.07%** 19.07.16 shareholders confirm runway funding3 12,2016 -4.14%* 25.10.16 Gov. approves expansion4 4,2017 -7.37%** 02.02.17 Gov. published its draft NPS on a third runway5 6,2017 -4.53%* 26.04.17 call for tender expansion & logistics 6 8,2017 -6.39%** 26.07.17 modified air quality plan7 11,2017 8.96%*** 24.08.17 Tory and Labor announce vote against the expansion |
| Keywords: | Airport; Heathrow; London; Noise; Runway |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_97&r=all |
| By: | Anne Margarian (Thuenen Institute of Rural Studies, Braunschweig); Christian Hundt (Thuenen Institute of Rural Studies, Braunschweig) |
| Abstract: | Some rural regions in Western Germany have experienced a very positive economic development in terms of employment and incomes in the past decade. This development, however, is in sharp contrast to the the enduring economic lag of many rural regions in Eastern Germany. This paper seeks to find out, to what extent these differences in employment development can be explained by sectoral patterns and region-specific capacities and capabilities. We employ an extended shift-share regression model that explains the employment development in German districts between 2007 and 2016. The model differentiates between Western and Eastern German regions as well as between urban and rural regions by means of spatial location effects. This specification helps us to capture both: the historically evolved differences inherent in the socialist and capitalist past of Eastern and Western Germany and the varying economic environments in urban and rural areas. The extended shift-share regression confirms that simple industry effects, i.e. linear effects of industry shares, only explain a small part of the differences in employment development between rural regions. Most deviations are instead captured in the competitive share effects (CSE) that represents how employment development in a region systematically deviates from the average development of its industries at national level. Further analyses of the CSE reveal that the manufacturing sector, despite its general loss in employment shares, is of crucial importance for rural prosperity. In this regard, the apparent disadvantage of rural districts in Germany’s East can be explained by a lack of locally specific, complementary immobile production capacities and capabilities for manufacturing. These locally specific skills develop endogenously. Urban districts in the East, in contrast, do not have to rely on endogenous factors alone but may overcome their historical disadvantage if they manage to exploit their agglomeration advantages in order to attract knowledge intensive industries and high-skilled workers. |
| Keywords: | rural regions, urban regions, East Germany, West Germany, employment development, structural change, industry structure, spatial externalities, shift share regression |
| JEL: | O14 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2019-04&r=all |
| By: | Owen Thompson (Williams College) |
| Abstract: | Prior to the racial integration of schools in the southern United States, predominantly African American schools were staffed almost exclusively by African American teachers as well, and teaching constituted an extraordinarily large share of professional employment among southern blacks. The large-scale desegregation of southern schools occurring after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act represented a potential threat to this employment base, and this paper estimates how student integration affected black teacher employment. Using newly assembled archival data from 781 southern school districts observed between 1964 and 1972, I estimate that a school district transitioning from fully segregated to fully integrated education, which approximates the experience of the modal southern district in this period, led to a 25% reduction in black teacher employment. A series of tests indicate that these employment reductions were not due to school district self-selection into desegregation or unobserved district characteristics associated with desegregation. Additional estimates using synthetic cohorts from the Decennial Censuses indicate that displaced southern black teachers either entered lower skill occupations within the South or migrated out of the region to continue teaching, and that southern school districts compensated for reduced black teacher employment by employing fewer total teachers and by increasing their recruitment of white teachers, especially less experienced white teachers and white male teachers. |
| Keywords: | School desegregation, education, African-American employment |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2019-14&r=all |
| By: | Tiziano Arduini; Alberto Bisin; Onur Özgür; Eleonora Patacchini |
| Abstract: | We study risky behavior of adolescents. Concentrating on smoking and alcohol use, we structurally estimate a dynamic social interaction model in the context of students' school networks included in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The model allows for forward-looking behavior of agents, addiction effects, and social interactions in the form of preferences for conformity in the social network. We find strong evidence for forward looking dynamics and addiction effects. We also find that social interactions in the estimated dynamic model are quantitatively large. A misspecified static model would fit data substantially worse, while producing a much smaller estimate of the social interaction effect. With the estimated dynamic model, a temporary shock to students' preferences in the 10th grade has effects on their behavior in grades 10, 11, 12, with estimated social multipliers 1:53, 1:03, and 0:76, respectively. The multiplier effect of a permanent shock is much larger, up to 3:7 in grade 12. Moreover (semi-) elasticities of a permanent change in the availability of alcohol or cigarettes at home on child risky behavior implied by the dynamic equilibrium are 25%, 63%, and 79%, in grades 10, 11, 12, respectively. |
| JEL: | C18 C33 C62 C63 C73 I12 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26223&r=all |
| By: | Jaume Ventura |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a simple theoretical framework to study a set of regions, each with its own regional government, who share a union or central government. These governments must decide whether to implement or discard a large number of projects that produce local benefits for the region that implements them, and externalities for the rest of the regions. Conflict or disagreement arises since different regions value projects differently. The classic assignment problem consists of deciding who decides these projects, either the union or the regional governments. It is well known that regional governments are insensitive to externalities. The key observation here is that the union government is insensitive to local benefits. Thus, each government maximizes only a piece of the value of projects, and disregards the other one. This observations leads to simple and clear rules for solving the assignment problem. |
| Keywords: | European integration, centralization and decentralization, Public Goods, Externalities, fiscal federalism |
| JEL: | D72 D79 F15 F55 H77 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1112&r=all |
| By: | Yunus Aksoy (Birkbeck, University of London); Henrique S. Basso (Banco de España); Carolyn St Aubyn (Birkbeck, University of London) |
| Abstract: | We document systematic and significant time variation in the profiles of lifecycle consumption expenditures in the US. Lifecycle consumption profiles have consistently become flatter through time. Pooling data across different periods to identify consumption profiles masks relevant time variation and may artificially generate the well known hump-shaped consumption age profile. We also identify the effect of perceived housing wealth on lifecycle consumption profiles. Housing influenced lifecycle consumption particularly from 2006 onwards and for older households. We propose mechanisms that may account for the estimated results employing an overlapping generations model with perceived housing wealth and time varying borrowing constraints |
| Keywords: | Age profile of Consumption, Structural Trends, House Prices |
| JEL: | E21 J11 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbk:bbkcam:1904&r=all |
| By: | Lucy Stokes (National Institute of Social and Economic Research); Alex Bryson (University College London, National Institute of Social and Economic Research and Institute for the Study of Labor); David Wilkinson (University College London and National Institute of Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We consider the role played by school leaders in improving pupil attainment, going beyond previous studies by exploring the leadership roles of deputy and assistant heads and classroom-based teachers with additional leadership responsibilities. Using panel data for state-funded secondary schools in England for the period 2010/11-2015/16 we find academy schools typically employ more staff in leadership roles than community schools. Increases in the number of staff in leadership roles below headship level are associated, at least to some extent, with improved school performance in Single Academy Trusts, but this is not the case for schools that are part of Multi Academy Trusts. Our findings suggest that the potential benefits of distributing leadership within schools may only be realised when leaders have sufficient autonomy. |
| Keywords: | school performance; distributed leadership; leadership; school autonomy |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2019–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1906&r=all |
| By: | Kevin Berry (University of Alaska Anchorage); Alexander James (University of Alaska Anchorage); Brock Smith (Montana State University); Brett Watson (University of Alaska Anchorage) |
| Abstract: | We examine long-run development effects of regional productivity shocks in the United States. We exploit the timing and location of large resource discoveries to measure exogenous variation in labor demand and consider heterogeneous effects based on environmental amenity and geographic isolation, developing novel measures of both. Using a dynamic event-study analysis we find that productivity shocks increase population both in the short and long-run, but this largely refl ects the experience of low amenity, geographically isolated places that may otherwise struggle to develop. Moreover, this study offers several insights into the observed spatial pattern of development in the United States. |
| Keywords: | Natural-Resource Discoveries; Regional Development; Long-Run Growth; Geography; Environmental Amenities; Resource Economics |
| JEL: | Q32 Q33 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ala:wpaper:2019-03&r=all |
| By: | Raphael A. Auer; Steven Ongena |
| Abstract: | Do macroprudential regulations on residential lending influence commercial lending behavior too? To answer this question, we identify the compositional changes in banks’ supply of credit using the variation in their holdings of residential mortgages on which extra capital requirements were uniformly imposed by the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) introduced in Switzerland in 2012. We find that the CCyB’s introduction led to higher growth in commercial lending although this was unrelated to conditions in regional housing markets. Interest rates and fees charged to the firms concurrently increased. We rationalize these findings in a model featuring both private and firm-specific collateral. |
| Keywords: | macroprudential policy, spillovers, credit, bank capital, systemic risk |
| JEL: | E51 E58 E60 G01 G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7815&r=all |
| By: | Hatice Akkoc (Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey) |
| Abstract: | One cannot fully understand the nature of learning to teach through a cognitive approach. Teacher educators should support the development of attitudes, beliefs, and identities of pre-service teachers as well as their knowledge and skills related to teaching with technology. Therefore, this study embraces communities of practice framework which has been widely used in teacher education research to explain social aspects of learning to teach. The participants are fifteen senior pre-service mathematics teachers enrolled in a four-year teacher preparation program in a state university in Turkey. Pre-service teachers participated in "legitimate peripheral participation" activities in order to encourage them, as novice teachers, to take responsibility and interact with experienced teachers for successful technology integration. Participants conducted workshops on technology-enhanced mathematics teaching in two different upper-secondary schools. A total of ten mathematics teachers participated in the workshops. Data sources are videos of workshops conducted by pre-service teachers and focused group interviews with pre-service teachers. Content analysis of verbatim transcripts indicated important issues regarding the social and cultural aspects of technology integration. This presentation will propose implications for pre-service teacher education in general and mathematics teacher education in particular. |
| Keywords: | sociocultural approach, pre-service teacher education, field experience, communities of practice, technology integration |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:cpaper:27ha&r=all |
| By: | Parker, Cory A. |
| Abstract: | People experiencing homelessness find movement in urban public space constrained. Scholars have attributed this lack of accessibility to the consequences of anti-homeless laws, social exclusions and economic factors. I draw from spatial and mobility theory to frame movement and transgression within the partitioned city. I accompanied homeless people on walking interviews to discuss their movements, transgressions, and public space they occupied. I also mapped people’s behavior in public space, comparing the movements of homeless people with the movements of people with homes. The results indicate homeless people negotiate urban space by walking, biking and riding the bus in a manner that maximizes their ability to manage relationships as they travel. Constraints in movement arise from the partitioning of the city, i.e. the division into public and private, making it difficult to both rest in public space and move in socially-acceptable manners. The findings suggest cities can improve homeless movement through setting limits on the automobile and removing limits (or partitions) on informal patterns of movement. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2019–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt9x77627p&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Philippe Berrou (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LAM - Les Afriques dans le monde - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IEP Bordeaux - Sciences Po Bordeaux - Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux); François Combarnous (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role and nature of entrepreneurs' social networks in the urban informal economy of Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso). Using an original dataset, the configuration of social networks is described based on three salient dimensions: tie content, member attributes and network structure. Multidimensional analysis allows for the simultaneous consideration of all three dimensions. Our findings suggest that network configurations at play extend well beyond the standard distinction between solidarity and accumulation networks. The complex networks highlighted by this study are consistent with rapid social changes in contemporary urban Africa. They can also significantly enhance the outcomes of small businesses. |
| Keywords: | Burkina Faso,Informal economy,Social networks analysis,Micro and Small Enterprises,Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02280369&r=all |
| By: | Philippe Levasseur (UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - AgroParisTech - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement); Katrin Erdlenbruch (UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - AgroParisTech - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, 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); Christelle Gramaglia (UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - AgroParisTech - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement) |
| Abstract: | Poverty is a major determinant for pollution exposure, according to the US location choice literature. In this paper, we assess the impact of poverty on location choices in the European context. Our analysis is based on an original dataset of 1194 households living in polluted and non-polluted areas in three European countries: Spain, Portugal and France. We use instrumental variable strategies to identify the socioeconomic causes of location choices. We show that low education, wealth and income are main reasons for living in polluted areas. However, we also highlight several reasons why intermediate social groups (especially young couples) prefer living in polluted areas, such as greater housing surfaces or non-environmental amenities. Similarly, we show that middle-income households have lower move-out intentions than other income groups, next to households with strong community attachment or long lengths of residence in the area. |
| Keywords: | soil pollution exposure,residential choice,socioeconomic status,environmental inequalities,instrumental variables strategy. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpceem:hal-02277633&r=all |
| By: | Corazzini, Luca; Meschi, Elena; Pavese, Caterina |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of attending early childcare on second generation immigrant children's cognitive outcomes. Our analysis draws on administrative data on the entire population of students in fifth grade collected by the Italian Institute for the Evaluation of the Educational System (INVALSI) for school years 2014/2015 to 2016/2017 matched to unique administrative records on the early childcare public available slots at the municipal level. Our identification strategy exploits cross-sectional and time series variation in the provision of early childcare service across Italian municipalities as an instrument for individual early childcare attendance. Our results point out that the effect of early childcare attendance differs between native and immigrant children. Although we find no effects for Italian children, our estimates show a positive and significant effect on literacy test scores for immigrant children of low educated mothers, which suggests that early childcare may be particularly relevant for immigrant children from a disadvantaged background. |
| Keywords: | Childcare,Cognitive skills,Immigrant children,IV |
| JEL: | J13 J15 H75 I20 I28 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:394&r=all |
| By: | Giesecke, Matthias; Schuß, Eric (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "We estimate the effect of language training on subsequent employment and wages of immigrants under essential heterogeneity. The identifying variation is based on regional differences in language training availability that we use to instrument endogenous participation. Estimating marginal treatment effects along the distribution of observables and unobservables that drive individual participation decisions, we find that immigrants with higher gains are more likely to select into language training than immigrants with lower gains. We document up to 15 percent higher employment rates and 13 percent wage gains for immigrants with a high desire to participate but the positive returns vanish with increasing resistance to treatment. This pattern of selection on gains correlates with unobserved ability and motivation, promoting investments in education and job-specific skills that yield higher returns when complemented by language capital in the host country." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku) |
| Keywords: | Sprachunterricht, Einwanderer, Beschäftigungseffekte, Lohnhöhe, Sprachkenntnisse |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J61 J68 O15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201919&r=all |
| By: | Yu-Chuan Chen (National Taiwan Normal University); Hsiu-Hsi Liu (National Academy for Educational Research) |
| Abstract: | This study explored the effects of organization identity and relationship quality on teacher loyalty in teacher education departments in Taiwan. Organization identity is an important aspect in management industries and in the education sector. The relationship quality in universities refers to teachers? engagement with their job. A high relationship quality can improve teacher loyalty. Data were collected from 120 teacher education departments and 192 university teachers in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis, and path analysis were used to analyze and verify the relations among organization identity, relationship quality, and teacher loyalty. The analyses provided moderate support for the hypothesized model. The results indicated that both organization identity and relationship quality affect teacher loyalty in teacher departments. The relationship quality of departments serves as an influential mediator of the model. |
| Keywords: | loyalty, organization identity, relationship quality, teacher education department |
| JEL: | L39 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8710463&r=all |
| By: | Pierre-Alexandre Balland; Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to identify the future Industry 4.0 centers of knowledge production in Europe. We expect Industry 4.0 Technologies (I4Ts) to thrive in regions where they can draw on local resources from related technologies. We use OECD-REGPAT data to identify I4T-related technologies, and find that I4Ts are located at the periphery of the knowledge space. Regions with a high potential in terms of I4T-related technologies were more likely to diversify successfully in new I4Ts in the period 2002-2016. We find big differences across EU regions: some show high but most regions show weak I4T potential. |
| Keywords: | Industry 4.0, relatedness, patents, knowledge space, regional diversification, EU regions |
| JEL: | B52 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1925&r=all |
| By: | LI, Liqing |
| Keywords: | Resource/ Energy Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291249&r=all |
| By: | Kaiser, Tim; Oberrauch, Luis; Seeber, Günther |
| Abstract: | We introduce a test of economic competence for German-speaking secondary school students and provide evidence from a large-scale assessment with 6,230 students from grades seven to ten. The article presents the development and psychometric properties of the scale, as well as an investigation of predictors of economic competence. We find evidence of a gender gap favoring male students, lower scores for students with a migration background, and parents’ socioeconomic background being a predictor of test performance. Additionally, we document sizeable differences between tracks, as well as gains in economic competence across grades in the order of magnitude of 0.06 to 0.2 standard deviations per year. The article concludes with perspectives on an impact evaluation of a curriculum reform introducing mandatory economic education in secondary school. |
| Keywords: | economic competence,economic literacy,item response theory,school economics |
| JEL: | A21 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:202639&r=all |
| By: | Neave O'Clery; Eoin Flaherty; Stephen Kinsella |
| Abstract: | Labour networks, where industries are connected based on worker transitions, have been previously deployed to study the evolution of industrial structure ('related diversification') across cities and regions. Beyond estimating skill-overlap between industry pairs, such networks characterise the structure of inter-industry labour mobility and knowledge diffusion in an economy. Here we investigate the structure of the network of inter-industry worker flows in the Irish economy, seeking to identify groups of industries exhibiting high internal mobility and skill-overlap. We argue that these industry clusters represent skill basins in which skilled labour circulate and diffuse knowledge, and delineate the size of the skilled labour force available to an industry. Deploying a multi-scale community detection algorithm, we uncover a hierarchical modular structure composed of clusters of industries at different scales. At one end of the scale, we observe a macro division of the economy into services and manufacturing. At the other end of the scale, we detect a fine-grained partition of industries into tightly knit groupings. In particular, we find workers from finance, computing, and the public sector rarely transition into the extended economy. Hence, these industries form isolated clusters which are disconnected from the broader economy, posing a range of risks to both workers and firms. Finally, we develop a methodology based on industry growth patterns to reveal the optimal scale at which labour pooling operates in terms of skill-sharing and skill-seeking within industry clusters. |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1909.03379&r=all |
| By: | Smyth, Emer |
| Abstract: | This report is intended to inform the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) review of senior cycle and draws on the second cycle of the consultation process with 41 schools with different profiles and characteristics. Building on the first cycle which examined the purpose of senior cycle, the second cycle focused more specifically on pathways and structures within the senior cycle and on the kinds of learning experiences teachers, students and parents would like to see. The findings point to a consensus across all groups on the need to spread assessment over the course of senior cycle and adopt a greater variety of assessment approaches. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp621&r=all |
| By: | Jeff Archer; Jeffrey Max |
| Abstract: | This brief offers insights from the New Teacher Center on how districts can better implement instructional coaching by tracking coaching activities, providing clear guidance to coaches, and engaging district leaders as they implement a coaching program. |
| Keywords: | instructional coaching, professional development, teachers, coaching program, new teacher center |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:a58934a122b44775b944f385a8fd14bf&r=all |
| By: | Coyne, Brian; Lyons, Seán; McCoy, Daire |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:rb201905&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Beerli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Ronald Indergand (Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft SECO); Johannes Kunz (Centre for Health Economics) |
| Abstract: | An important goal of immigration policy is facilitating the entry and supply of workers whose skills are scarce in national labour markets. In recent decades, the introduction of information and communication technology [ICT] fuelled the demand for highly skilled workers at the expense of lower skill groups throughout the developed world. In this paper, we show that the skill mix of newly arriving immigrants strongly responded to this shift in the demand for skills. Exploiting the fact that different regions in Switzerland were differentially exposed to ICT due to their pre-ICT industrial composition, we present evidence suggesting more exposed regions experienced stronger growth in relative employment and wage premia for highly skilled workers between 1990 and 2010. We find robust evidence that regions with higher initial ICT exposure experienced a considerably stronger relative influx of highly skilled immigrants. Taken together, these results strongly sug- gest that immigrants responded to skill-biased changes in economic opportunities. Complementing these findings, we document whether and how the response of immigrants to skill demand changed when Switzerland abolished immigration restrictions for European workers. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: immigrant sorting, international migration; routine-biased technical change; information and communication technology; skill supply |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J24 J31 J23 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:17-436&r=all |
| By: | Tristance Kee (Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | As the urban design discipline develops renewed interests in participatory design and collaborative place-making, it becomes critical to review the potential and limitations in current process to ensure a sustainable method for future development. This paper explores how collaborative design can be a key to future sustainable urban development. The process involves a multi-disciplinary collaboration and an innovative learning process by sharing ideas as well as careful consideration on social, economic and political circumstances among government and district stakeholders. This intrinsic proposition of innovative participatory planning implies interdisciplinary collaboration between professionals and local residents to integrate knowledge into new urban place-making thinking. Design innovation in contemporary society can manifest itself in the discourse sustainable urban development by application of bottom up planning and community driven design. This paper examines the emerging design pedagogy which promotes interdisciplinary coalition of professionals and local stakeholders in community development as an innovative design rubric to create a sustainable urban approach. Through two case studies in the Asian context, this paper reviews and critically evaluates the process of how the notion of sustainable development in contemporary urban planning theory is underpinned by the collaborative design practice. |
| Keywords: | Collaborative Design, Design Innovation, Sustainable Development, Urban Development |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9011252&r=all |
| By: | Ayden Higgins; Federico Martellosio |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the estimation of a panel data model with cross-sectional interaction that is flexible both in its approach to specifying the network of connections between cross-sectional units, and in controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. It is assumed that there are different sources of information available on a network, which can be represented in the form of multiple weights matrices. These matrices may reflect observed links, different measures of connectivity, groupings or other network structures, and the number of matrices may be increasing with sample size. A penalised quasi-maximum likelihood estimator is proposed which aims to alleviate the risk of network misspecification by shrinking the coefficients of irrelevant weights matrices to exactly zero. Moreover, controlling for unobserved factors in estimation provides a safeguard against the misspecification that might arise from unobserved heterogeneity. The estimator is shown to be consistent and selection consistent as both $n$ and $T$ tend to infinity, and its limiting distribution is characterised. Finite sample performance is assessed by means of a Monte Carlo simulation, and the method is applied to study the prevalence of network spillovers in determining growth rates across countries. |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1909.02823&r=all |
| By: | Isaac Baley (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Ana Figueiredo (Erasmus School of Economics); Robert Ulbricht (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the dynamics of skill mismatch over the business cycle. We build a tractable directed search model, in which workers differ in skills along multiple dimensions and sort into jobs with heterogeneous skill requirements along those dimensions. Skill mismatch arises due to information and labor market frictions. Estimated to the U.S., the model replicates salient business cyclic properties of mismatch. We show that job transitions in and out of bottom job rungs, combined with career mobility of workers, are important to account for the empirical behavior of mismatch. The model suggests significant welfare costs associated with mismatch due to learning frictions. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles, cleansing, multidimensional sorting, search-and-matching, skill mismatch, sullying |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2019–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:981&r=all |
| By: | Athnos, April |
| Keywords: | Resource/ Energy Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291239&r=all |
| By: | Dimitris Mokas; Rob Nijskens |
| Abstract: | The commercial real estate market is pro-cyclical. This feature, together with the relative size of the industry and the large capital inflows, has made this sector relevant for financial stability. Using a novel loan level data set covering the commercial real estate portfolios of Dutch banks we aim to uncover potential drivers of distress in commercial real estate loans. Furthermore, we estimate the relative importance of idiosyncratic and systematic factors and emphasize the importance of bank behavior for distinguishing between good and bad credit growth. We find that loans originated near the peak of the cycle are riskier, confirming the pro-cyclical nature of the market. As opposed to loans originated during busts, the risk of boom loans does not decrease when economic conditions improve. Idiosyncratic factors correlated with higher credit risk are loan-to-value ratios and interest rates, especially when coupled with variable rate contracts. Moreover, we find that collateral type plays a role, as loans for non-residential (office, retail, industrial) real estate with higher vacancy rates are riskier. These results have implications for both macroprudential and microprudential supervision, as they demonstrate the pro-cyclicality of the market and show that indicators like loan-to-value, interest rate structure and vacancy rates must be monitored more carefully in boom times. |
| Keywords: | macroprudential policy; risk monitoring; commercial real estate; procyclicality of credit |
| JEL: | E32 E44 E58 G21 G3 G33 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:653&r=all |
| By: | Bloem, Jeffrey R. |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291032&r=all |
| By: | Praopan Pratoomchat (University of Wisconsin-Superior, Superior, Wisconsin) |
| Abstract: | The study estimated the relationship between the homelessness rates, the housing market factors, and the socio-economic factors in the country level, regional level, and the state level in the United States from 2007 to 2016. The results show that the housing price index, personal expenditure on housing utilities, rental vacancy rate, poverty rate, number of job loss and income inequality are significant determinants of the homelessness in the country level. For the regional level, the West had the highest homelessness rate intercept while the South West is the region with the lowest intercept. Housing price, the expenditure on housing utilities and poverty rate are the factors determining the homelessness rate in the regional level. When the study adds the fixed effects of fifty states to the model, the result shows that rental vacancy rate, number of job loss and the income inequality are three factors that can explain the change in homeless population number in the state level. To slow down the growing homelessness in the country level, the economic policy should be focusing at poverty reduction, healing people who suffered from job loss, and changing the tax policy to increase income equality. For the housing market, the government may consider the policy to support the expansion of low-cost housing units in term of both fiscal and monetary policies. |
| Keywords: | Homeless, Housing, Economic Policy |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:02pp&r=all |
| By: | Abhijit Banerjee; Esther Duflo; Daniel Keniston; Nina Singh |
| Abstract: | Should police activity be narrowly focused and high force, or widely-dispersed but of moderate intensity? Critics of intense “hot spot” policing argue it primarily displaces, not reduces, crime. But if learning about enforcement takes time, the police may take advantage of this period to intervene intensively in the most productive location. We propose a multi-armed bandit model of criminal learning and structurally estimate its parameters using data from a randomized controlled experiment on an anti-drunken driving campaign in Rajasthan, India. In each police station, sobriety checkpoints were either rotated among 3 locations or fixed in the best location, and the intensity of the crackdown was cross-randomized. Rotating checkpoints reduced night accidents by 17%, and night deaths by 25%, while fixed checkpoints had no significant effects. In structural estimation, we show clear evidence of driver learning and strategic responses. We use these parameters to simulate environment-specific optimal enforcement policies. |
| JEL: | D83 K42 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26224&r=all |
| By: | Remi Jedwab (George Washington University); Daniel Pereira (George Washington University); Mark Roberts (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | A large literature documents the positive influence of a city’s skill structure on its rate of economic growth. By contrast, the effect of a city’s age structure on its economic growth has been a hitherto largely neglected area of research. We hypothesize that cities with more working-age adults are likely to grow faster than cities with more children or seniors and set-out the potential channels through which such differential growth may occur. Using data from a variety of historical and contemporary sources, we show that there exists marked variation in the age structure of the world’s largest cities, both across cities and over time. We then study how age structure affects economic growth for a global cross-section of mega-cities. Using various identification strategies, we find that mega-cities with higher dependency ratios - i.e. with more children and/or seniors per working-age adult - grow significantly slower. Such effects are particularly pronounced for cities with high shares of children. This result appears to be mainly driven by the direct negative effects of a higher dependency ratio on the size of the working-age population and the indirect effects on work hours and productivity for working age adults within a city. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization; Cities; Age Structure; Dependency Ratios; Children; Ageing; Demographic Cycles; Agglomeration Effects; Human Capital; Growth; Development |
| JEL: | R10 R11 R19 J11 J13 J14 O11 N30 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2019-13&r=all |
| By: | Krishna Dasaratha; Kevin He |
| Abstract: | We conduct a sequential social learning experiment where subjects guess a hidden state after observing private signals and the guesses of a subset of their predecessors. A network determines the observable predecessors, and we compare subjects' accuracy on sparse and dense networks. Later agents' accuracy gains from social learning are twice as large in the sparse treatment compared to the dense treatment. Models of naive inference where agents ignore correlation between observations predict this comparative static in network density, while the result is difficult to reconcile with rational-learning models. |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1909.02220&r=all |
| By: | Maria Garcia-Vega; Oscar Vicente-Chirivella |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we empirically investigate how technology transfers from universities to private firms influence firm innovativeness. Using data on R&D acquisitions from universities of more than 10,000 Spanish firms for the period 2005-2013 and applying propensity score matching techniques and DiD estimations, we find that technology transfers from universities strongly increase firm innovativeness. We next explore heterogeneous effects in order to analyse whether these gains are mediated by firm size and the business cycle. Our results suggest that the contribution of universities to firm innovation is particularly important for small firms, during the whole business cycle and it goes beyond its direct effect on innovation: We find that technology transfers from universities generate positive spillovers and enhance firms’ internal R&D capabilities. Our results suggest that the knowledge generated by universities makes an important contribution to economic growth through technology transfers, which makes firms more innovative. Hence, knowledge creation by universities provides an important public good. |
| Keywords: | Universities, Technology Transfers, Innovation, Firms |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notgep:2019-13&r=all |
| By: | Gilbert Cette; Lorraine Koehl; Thomas Philippon |
| Abstract: | We study the joint impact of three measurement issues in the empirical literature on the labor share: (i) start and end periods for the empirical analysis; (ii) accounting for self-employment; and (iii) accounting for residential real estate income. When we correct for these three potential biases, we do not find a general decline in the labor share in our sample of advanced economies. In that respect the behavior of the US labor share after 2000 presents a puzzle. |
| Keywords: | : labor share, labor cost, value added sharing. |
| JEL: | D33 D24 J33 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:727&r=all |
| By: | Davit Adunts; Geghetsik Afunts |
| Abstract: | There is much evidence that migration of a parent affects the educational performance of children left behind (CLB). Nevertheless, there is no agreement on the direction of the impact. In this paper, we use Armenian school data and report evidence of a negative impact of parental seasonal migration on the educational performance of CLB. We employ a different approach than those used in the prior literature by (i) using the intensity of seasonal migration (the number of times the parent migrated) instead of a binary variable (whether the parent migrated or not) and (ii) the number of children entering first grade whose parent is a seasonal migrant as an instrument for the intensity of seasonal migration. We find that seasonal migration negatively affects the educational performance of CLB, and that it mainly affects boys; there is no significant impact on girls. Additionally, we find that using a zero-one dummy for migration as prior studies have done upwardly biases the IV estimate by approximately a factor of three, while our intensity measure yields more accurate results. |
| Keywords: | seasonal migration; children left behind; educational performance; |
| JEL: | F22 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp641&r=all |
| By: | Chelsea Campbell (University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, USA); Kruti Lehenbauer (University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, USA) |
| Abstract: | Although the teenage pregnancy rate in the United States has declined over the years, it is still higher than the teenage pregnancy rates in other industrialized countries. This paper attempts to identify the types of changes that have occurred between 1994 and 2017 by comparing the results of a 1996 study by Ventura, Martin, Matthews and Clarke with the results obtained using the 2017 National Natality Dataset obtained from the Center of Disease Control via the National Center of Health Statistics. The new data from 2017 demonstrates that the proportions of teenage births have gone down over the past few years, and that the racial/ethnicity component of teenage childbearing is also showing a narrowing trend. Even though we recognize the downward trend in teenage pregnancy, the concerns regarding the long-term socioeconomic outcomes arising from teenage births are still at large. We conduct a quantitative Logit analysis to identify what factors increase the probability of teenage motherhood in the United States and also conduct a short analysis of relevant existing public policies to provide recommendations for improvements that could potentially reduce the risk factors of teenage pregnancy in the United States. |
| Keywords: | Teenage childbearing, birth rates, socioeconomic outcomes |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:cpaper:24cc&r=all |
| By: | Michelle Tannock (Douglas College) |
| Abstract: | This exploratory study examined the thoughts of educators, parents, and young children on the role of rough and tumble play in early childhood settings. This study examines rough and tumble play within the context of the early childhood setting. The preschool children engaged in play contribute their voices. In this way, the role of rough and tumble play is considered not only from the viewpoint of the educators but also from the children themselves. A qualitative design with an exploratory approach was utilized in this study. Interviews and observations were used for collecting data from four daycare settings on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. The results of the study add previously unexplored elements, including the thoughts of educators and children, to the expanding body of scholarly knowledge about rough and tumble play. The results of this study have implications for the understanding of child development. It may be that rough and tumble play evolves as children age; that children move into more, or less, complex play behaviors as they mature. This study also highlights implications for early childhood education. The parents and educators in this study conceded a lack of knowledge about rough and tumble play. This finding emphasizes the need for the development of teacher and parent education resources on rough and tumble play. |
| Keywords: | play, children, physical development, social development |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9011476&r=all |
| By: | Wifag Adnan; K. Peren Arin; Aysegul Corakci; Nicola Spagnolo |
| Abstract: | We investigate the employment effects of fiscal policy innovations using the narrative approach for different racial/ethnic groups, and separately for recessions and expansions. Our results show that (i) overall, tax shocks have larger effects, in terms of magnitude and significance, on the unemployment rate compared to defense spending shocks, (ii.) fiscal policy shocks have varying employment effects depending on gender, racial/ethnic subgroup and the stage of the business cycle, and (iii) sector, industry and occupational segregation in labor markets by gender, race and ethnicity can explain most of the variation in responses to fiscal policy shocks. |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2019-66&r=all |
| By: | Boldizsár Szentgáli-Tóth (Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Eotvos Loránd University) |
| Abstract: | Direct democracy is generally represented by national referenda, when the whole population of a country could decide on a particular matter, or could express an opinion. However, in most of the democratic countries, the local communities, regions or townships have also the right to hold referenda from local issues, such as the planned construction of new industrial facilities, or from investments with remarkable environmental impact. These referenda are subject to similar legal framework, than national referenda, but their inherent character is different: this local legal instrument does not constitute essentially the expression of the popular sovereignty, but it creates a tool for the citizens to participate at the self-governance of the local community. Due to this ambiguity, local referenda shall be distinguished clearly from the national level of direct democracy: the legal background, the special campaign, and the remedies of local referenda shall be analysed in depth. Moreover, to outline the different models in this regard, a comparative research would be also crucial to provide an overarching picture from local referenda across Europe.As the outcome of our research, we would provide a deeper understanding of local referendum as an underestimated instrument of direct democracy, and we would conceptualize, how this constitutionally acknowledged legal framework could serve the interest of the citizens and the local communities more efficiently. For this purpose, certain points would be highlighted for consideration for future constitution-making processes. Our research would cover a field, which has been little researched, and it would be based on three strands of literature, which has been rarely used by this integrated manner. Firstly, we would rely on contributions from direct democracy, which give us some sense from the general character of this forgotten legal instrument. Secondly, the literature from the self-governance would be also referred, as local referenda shall be evaluated primarily within this concept. Thirdly, sources directly linked to local referendum would be also revealed from various European countries, where this concept plays a significant role to decide particular issues. |
| Keywords: | ReferendumDirect democracySelf-governancePopular participationConstitutional law |
| JEL: | K00 K10 K39 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8710867&r=all |
| By: | Jiang, Hanchen; Yang, Xi |
| Abstract: | Many children worldwide are left behind by parents who are migrating for work. While previous literature has studied the effect of parental migration on children's educational outcomes and cognitive achievements, this study focuses on how parental migration affects children's non-cognitive development. We use longitudinal data of children in rural China and adopt labor market conditions in destination provinces as instrumental variables for parental endogenous migration choice. We find that parental migration has a significant negative effect on children's non-cognitive development. Differentiating inter- and intra-provincial migrations suggests that the negative effect of parental migration is mainly driven by inter-provincial migrations. We test four different mechanisms of how parental migration affects child development including parental financial inputs, parental time inputs, household bargaining, and children's own time input. Our results provide insights into the relative importance of different mechanisms in determining the effect of parental migration on children's non-cognitive skill formation. |
| Keywords: | Left-behind Children,Parental Migration,Parental Input,Non-cognitive Development,China |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:395&r=all |
| By: | Mar, M.; Massard, N. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effectiveness of the French competitiveness cluster policy on participating SMEs in terms of innovation and economic performance. Using an original dataset, we construct different measures of treatment with crossover designs. The findings indicate substantial additionality effects on R&D and employment and weak or insignificant effects on other types of economic performance. While only adhering to clusters induces much stronger positive impacts on SMEs than only participating in R&D collaborative projects, the policy is most effective when the two treatments are simultaneously used. To achieve its impact on SMEs, the cluster policy should not overlook low-cost instruments such as animation actions and common services. |
| Keywords: | CLUSTER POLICY;MULTIPLE TREATMENTS;SMEs;POLICY EVALUATION;CONDITIONAL DIFFERENCE-IN-DIFFERENCE |
| JEL: | C14 C21 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gbl:wpaper:2019-03&r=all |
| By: | Musabbir Chowdhury (Niagara College Canada) |
| Abstract: | Intelligent technologies such as block chain, internet of things, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and sensor fusion that are all necessary for smart cities and the sharing economy are now wide-spread. The Four Pillars of Productivity (4POP) framework is applied to determine the appropriate business positioning, given that these modern cities will very soon start to emerge and will make even greater use of the sharing economy. The financial gain, convenience, and overall quality of life improvements that the sharing economy can offer need to be fully realized. This will involve the sharing of almost all resources and skills, both in the home and work environments. Alignment with intelligent technology trends are considered; these include coordination of logistics and operations, digital governance, corporate culture, and smart urbanization effects on behavior and business practices. The paper also addresses the increased systematic risk and cybersecurity implications that come with complexity and uncertainty. |
| Keywords: | Smart city, sharing economy, Intelligent technologies, Four Pillars of Productivity Framework |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8710707&r=all |
| By: | Niels-Jakob H Hansen; Albe Gjonbalaj |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of fiscal reforms on growth and inequality in Cambodia using a calibrated general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents (Peralta-Alva et al., 2018). Over the last two decades, Cambodia’s consumption inequality and poverty have declined. However, income inequality is higher, and large gaps remain between urban and rural residents. At the same time, domestic revenue mobilization has improved substantially, but collection of tax revenue is biased towards non-progressive sources. We use the model to evaluate the growth and inequality impact of reforms that increase infrastructure spending by raising (i) VAT, (ii) property tax, or (iii) personal income tax. We find that using property taxes delivers the largest increase in GDP and reduction in inequality. Reaping the gains from property taxation will however require additional investments in tax administration. |
| Date: | 2019–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:19/187&r=all |
| By: | Paloma Taltavull de La Paz; Francisco Juarez; Paloma Monllor |
| Abstract: | The analysis of energy poverty has attracted increasing interest in some countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria and New Zealand. Thomson and Snell (2013) examine the EU case as a whole. These studies have provided empirical evidence suggesting that households with some members over 60 years of age, families with children, disabled or chronically ill persons are the most vulnerable groups (ITD, 2001, pp. 8-9, cited in Boardman 2012: p 23) when it comes to energy poverty. The reason for this lies in the fact that their energy costs are higher than other basic needs (O' Neill et al., 2006). Empirical evidence also suggests that energy expenditure is essential; In fact, households could be considered as a "captive demand" affected by market control decisions - pricing - and this has severe social effects.The relevance of this problem is twofold. Firstly, because an adequate temperature in the home ensures well-being at any income level. Secondly, because high energy costs could reflect low energy efficiency in buildings, which aggravates poverty situations. Reducing the energy bill does not necessarily imply a cold environment when buildings are energy efficient, a condition that could guarantee both lower energy costs and an adequate temperature if this problem is addressed to eradicate it. The latter relates energy poverty to the energy efficiency of buildings - a key element of EU energy policy to ensure the medium-term sustainability of cities in the European Union. If solutions are found to reduce fuel poverty problems, a twofold objective would be achieved: (a) to reduce energy consumption through a more balanced energy consumption scheme in buildings; and (b) to improve the health and welfare levels of disadvantaged households by reducing energy cost payments based on lower consumption. Incentive policies for investment in rehabilitation are the most widely accepted as they improve energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty.The literature does not contain evidence that measures the sensitivity of energy poverty on changes in poverty levels or that assess the impact of property rates on energy scarcity. Economic logic supports the idea that a sudden fall in income can reduce the purchasing power and could have different effects on energy poverty levels depending on the type of tenure. In this paper, an indicator is calculated that identifies energy poverty in households using the Household Condition Survey (EU-Silk) for Spanish region, combining differently available indicators that allow an approximation to this phenomenon. It takes into account the structure of housing tenure and the level of poverty to explain fuel poverty. The present paper adds empirical evidence of the existence of fuel poverty using Spanish statistics to test two hypotheses. Ho1 is whether and how (housing) deprivation signals are linked to fuel poverty; whereas Ho2 tests the role of fuel poverty as an element directly related to poverty. They both allow us to support the Boardman (2012) views about the group of households affected the most by fuel poverty. This paper hypothesizes that a household is poor in energy if it cannot pay the electricity bill with the available resources. This implies that households whose income is close to a precarious without necessarily reaching the poverty line are considered (as there is no information on the cost of the electricity bill per household, it is not possible to apply the 10% rule nor to analyze whether households fall below the poverty line after paying the electricity bill).The situation of the energy poor is approached by parameterizing a set of variables that capture the existence of energy poverty. The methodology used is based on an extraction of factors that include all these variables and capture their explanatory capacity to explain the situation of energy poverty. The factorial calculation is that the method extracts the common behaviour of these variables and combines them (linearly) in such a way that a variable is constructed that is an explanation of individual facts related to the analyzed phenomenon. Results suggest that the extracted factors combined with housing tenure characteristics, determine the existence of three main groups of fuel poor: (1) energy poverty derived from the status of' poor household', (2) energy poverty derived from the inadequacy of housing to household and (3) energy poverty derived from the low quality of housing. Using these factors in their standardized form, households are classified into two groups: those who suffer and those who do not energy poverty. |
| Keywords: | Energy Consumption; Fuel Poverty; Housing demand; Tenure |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_292&r=all |
| By: | Sanchís Llopis, M. Teresa; Murgui García, Mª Jesús; Gómez Tello, Alicia |
| Date: | 2019–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:28775&r=all |
| By: | Ji, Yongjie |
| Keywords: | Research Methods/ Statistical Methods |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291218&r=all |
| By: | Jerrold Rusk (Rice University) |
| Abstract: | The author theorizes that residence requirements will increase the costs of individual participation in U.S. elections. Different stringencies in voter residency laws will lead to different vote turnout results. This hypothesis is tested using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses for the period 1824-1968. The hypothesis is confirmed for both the nation at large and the separate regions of the South and non-South when using state residency requirements as the explanatory factor. County residency requirements also show an effect on voter turnout but only in the South. The effect of residency requirements is demonstrated for several races (presidential, congressional, gubernatorial) and for both presidential and midterm election years The basic conclusion of this study is that residency requirements place an important barrier to voter participation and hence must be recognized as a significant part of the legal-institutional effect on voting behavior. |
| Keywords: | turnout, residency, region |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9011583&r=all |
| By: | Hovhannisyan, Vardges |
| Keywords: | Demand and Price Analysis |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:290778&r=all |
| By: | Thibaud Deguilhem (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-Philippe Berrou (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LAM - Les Afriques dans le monde - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); François Combarnous (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the effect of social networks (SNW) by investigating how mobilizing family, friendship or kindship ties in job searches affects the quality of employment (QoE) using quantitative and qualitative data. Drawing from socioeconomic literature on the segmented labor market, the authors propose an original and multidimensional measure of job quality and a fruitful estimation of the effect of SNW on QoE that allows for dealing with complex inter-groups heterogeneity. Using the Great Integrated Household Survey and a sample on Bogota's workers in 2013, they provide empirical support that the use of ties is negatively correlated with the QoE for those who are vulnerable. Likewise, the use of social relations is not significant for protected workers. Complemented by focus groups interviews, these results raise questions about the difference prevailing in relational practices between necessity networks for precarious workers and opportunity networks for protected workers in the Colombian capital. |
| Keywords: | Social networks,quality of employment,finite mixture regression model,Colombia |
| Date: | 2019–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02276337&r=all |
| By: | Beata Guziejewska (University of Lodz); Joanna Dzia?o (Lazarski University) |
| Abstract: | The ongoing processes of decentralization, which are present in many countries, cause a growing proportion of public funds to be collected and spent at the local government tier, which necessitates the use of fiscal rules not only at the state level. This issue may raise some controversy due to the specific character, autonomy and empowerment of local government and local communities. Therefore, the analysed subject is based on three questions: 1. Limited fiscal autonomy of local self-government and it?s consequences 2. A real need for and the scope of the use of fiscal rules in local government finance, 3. The informal factors that directly determine the indebtedness in local governments in the light of literature and selected empirical research. We use a descriptive method supported by an analysis of financial data and a case study as it presents selected aspects of Polish experience in the subject matter. The results of the analysis seem to point to the necessity of the use of fiscal rules in local government finance, which paradoxically strengthens the processes of decentralization, democratization, technological advancement and globalization. Some primary results of our research indicate investment expenditure, own revenues, number of companies (level of GDP) and election cycle as important, significant factors (in statistical meaning) effecting the local deficit and debt. The conclusions list the advantages of the use of fiscal rules at the local government tier and large diversity of informal conditions across the whole country. |
| Keywords: | municipal finance, fiscal rules, municipal debt |
| JEL: | E62 H19 H79 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8711414&r=all |
| By: | Benjamin Harbolt |
| Abstract: | As e-commerce has grown over the last few decades so has states' concern for its use for sales tax avoidance. Using a panel of Washington State tax jurisdictions from 2005 through 2015, I estimate the effect of a sales tax regime change on the elasticities of taxable sales. I find the regime change, targeted at reducing sales tax avoidance through remote purchases, had a differential impact that varied by tax jurisdiction. I find that in tax jurisdictions near the border of lower-sales-tax states (Oregon and Idaho) consumers became more responsive to the difference in sales tax rates across borders than their counterparts in the interior of the state. I interpret this as a substitution by consumers along the Oregon and Idaho border from e-commerce purchases to cross-border shopping in order to avoid sales taxes. |
| Keywords: | sales tax avoidance, destination-based taxation, cross-border shopping |
| JEL: | H26 H71 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7814&r=all |
| By: | Fortuna Casoria (Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE UMR 5824, F-69130 Ecully, France); Marianna Marino (SKEMA Business School - Université Côte d'Azur, Avenue Willy Brandt, 59777 Euralille, France); Pierpaolo Parrotta (IESEG School of Management, 3 rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille, France; LEM-CNRS 9221; IZA; ROA; NoCeT); Davide Sala (University of Passau, 94030 Passau, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effect of decentralization on innovation at the provincial level in Italy. We exploit quasi-natural experiments associated with three waves of reforms occurred in 1992, 2001 and 2004, to establish 8, 4, and 3 new provinces, respectively. Using a difference-in-difference estimation approach, we find evidence of a significant detrimental effect of (further) decentralization on innovation for Northern and Central Italian provinces. We suggest a potential mechanism that may explain the reduction in innovation associated with the aforementioned reforms. We argue that this finding can be rationalized with the costs imposed by the \mafia transplantation" phenomenon, as we find that the new provinces that were more exposed to \mafiosi in confino" reduced their innovation output more extensively. We perform a number of robustness checks that corroborate our main findings. |
| Keywords: | local government, decentralization, innovation, mafia transplantation, difference-in-difference |
| JEL: | D72 H72 K42 O31 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1923&r=all |
| By: | Steven Henry Dunga (North West University, Vaal Triangle Campus) |
| Abstract: | Based on the literature analysis, housing insecurity does not have a universally validated measure or scale that can be used across societies and contexts to measure housing insecurity. The literature on housing and housing insecurity is marred with individualised preferences of what individual researchers or organisations appropriate to measure housing insecurity. This paper takes the first step of proposing a scale of measuring housing insecurity that can be adopted for any context be it in developed countries or developing societies. The paper recognises the economic thinking that claims that the tools of mathematics are not always appropriate in the analysis of social reality (Lawson 2015) hence cognisance of the fact that functions and calculus are not always the best, this paper still makes use of mathematical calculations involving weights and still relies on the development of constructs that can be useful in explaining the reality of housing insecurity. We ask the question, to what extent is the ontology of housing so abstract that the numbers can be misleading? It is argued in this paper that the conception of reality and hence housing insecurity can still depend on the mathematical tools to understand the ontology of housing insecurity. Going deeper this paper does not claim to belong to the pluralism, or neoclassical thought, but as anticipated, devoid of that discourse and make use and hence benefit from both mainstream economic theory and aspects utilised by the pluralist school of thought and hence makes reference to the ontology of economics. |
| Keywords: | housing insecurity; validated scale; household; poverty |
| JEL: | A10 A13 B41 |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9010627&r=all |