|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | James Conklin; W. Scott Frame; Kristopher S. Gerardi; Haoyang Liu |
| Abstract: | An expansion in mortgage credit to subprime borrowers is widely believed to have been a principal driver of the 2002–2006 U.S. house price boom. By contrast, this paper documents a robust, negative correlation between the growth in the share of purchase mortgages to subprime borrowers and house price appreciation at the county-level during this time. Using two different instrumental variables approaches, we also establish causal evidence that house price appreciation lowered the share of purchase loans to subprime borrowers. Further analysis using micro-level credit bureau data shows that higher house price appreciation lowered the transition rate into first-time homeownership for subprime individuals. Finally, the paper documents that subprime borrowers did not play a significant role in the increased speculative activity and underwriting fraud that the literature has linked directly to the housing boom. Taken together, these results are more consistent with subprime borrowers being priced out of housing boom markets rather than inflating prices in those markets. |
| Keywords: | mortgages; subprime; house prices; credit scores; housing boom |
| JEL: | D14 D18 D53 G21 G38 |
| Date: | 2020–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:88039&r=all |
| By: | Carozzi, Felipe; Hilber, Christian; Yu, Xiaolun |
| Abstract: | Mortgage credit expansion policies â?? such as UK's Help to Buy (HtB) â?? aim to increase access to and affordability of owner-occupied housing and are widespread around the world. We take advantage of spatial discontinuities in the HtB equity loan scheme, introduced in 2013, to explore the causal economic impacts and the effectiveness of this type of policies. Employing a Difference-in-Discontinuities design, we find that HtB increased house prices by more than the expected present value of the implied interest rate subsidy and had no discernible effect on construction volumes in the Greater London Authority (GLA), where housing supply is subject to severe long-run constraints and housing is already extremely unaffordable. HtB did increase construction numbers without affecting prices near the English/Welsh border, an area with less binding supply constraints and comparably affordable housing. HtB also led to bunching of newly built units below the price threshold, building of smaller new units and an improvement in the financial performance of developers. We conclude that credit expansion policies such as HtB may be ineffective in tightly supply constrained and already unaffordable areas. |
| Keywords: | Construction; Help to Buy; House Prices; Housing Supply; Land use regulation |
| JEL: | G28 H24 H81 R21 R28 R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14620&r=all |
| By: | Beckmann, Paul; Fulda, Barbara; Kohl, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Traditional predictors of election outcomes in Germany are increasingly losing their explanatory power. Rather than new cultural divides, this paper introduces the idea of housing cleavages, i.e., homeownership versus tenancy and high-price versus low-price areas, drawing on macro data for electoral districts and urban neighborhoods from the last three elections (2009-2017) in combination with Immoscout24 ad price data and microdata from the ALLBUS survey (1980-2016). Although, due to its low homeownership rate and conservative house price development, Germany represents a least-likely case for housing to be of importance, we find housing effects beyond traditional predictors. Generally, we find that high house prices, house price increases, and homeownership are positively associated with voting for center-right parties and voter turnout, while social tenancy is associated with votes for the left, but these effects weaken over time due to embourgeoisement effects. Beyond this expected left-right distinction between tenants and wealthier homeowners, we also find outliers along two other dimensions. First, there are center-periphery effects that housing can better capture than simple geographical divisions; second, house prices contain a populist dimension, for example when skyrocketing rents increase votes for the urban left or regions where house prices lag behind benefit the AfD. The paper argues against the more causal self-interest and socialization theories of the influence of housing on voting and instead suggests considering housing as an important socioeconomic proxy to explain political outcomes. |
| Keywords: | ALLBUS,Germany,homeownership,voter turnout,voting,Deutschland,Wahlbeteiligung,Wählen,Wohneigentum |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:206&r=all |
| By: | Rafael Carranza (London School of Economics); Gabriel Otero (Utrecht University); Dante Contreras (Universidad de Chile) |
| Abstract: | We explore how different spatial compositions affect the educational achievement in mathematics of 16 year-old students in Chile, a Latin American country with high income inequality and school segregation. We develop a critical review on the literature on negative "neighbourhood effects" associated with concentrated poverty, complementing it with studies concerning self-segregation preferences by members of the upper-middle class. We combine administrative data about student performance with survey data for the 52 municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. We cluster the districts based on factors such as unemployment, economic inequality, access to services, experiences of violence and stigmatization. Using longitudinal data, we look at the effect of each of the six spatial clusters on academic performance. Spatial clusters report a significant effect, above and beyond that of individual, household, and school-level characteristics. We conclude that space complements and reinforces the processes of accumulation of socioeconomic (dis)advantages. |
| Keywords: | Class; Education; Inequality; Socio-economic environment; Urban studies. |
| JEL: | D63 I24 R23 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2020-543&r=all |
| By: | Maria Cecilia Bustamante (University of Maryland - Department of Finance); Laurent Frésard (University of Lugano; Swiss Finance Institute) |
| Abstract: | We study whether, how, and why the investment of a firm depends on the investment of other firms in the same product market. Using an instrumental variable based on the presence of local knowledge externalities, we find a sizeable complementarity of investment among product market peers, holding across a large majority of sectors. Peer effects are stronger in concentrated markets, featuring more heterogeneous firms, and for smaller firms with less precise information. Our findings are consistent with a model in which managers are imperfectly informed about fundamentals and use peers' investments as a source of information. Product market peer effects in investment could amplify shocks in production networks. |
| Keywords: | investment, peer effect, competition, agglomeration economies |
| JEL: | G31 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2043&r=all |
| By: | Shenzhe Jiang (Peking University); Jianjun Miao (Boston University); Yuzhe Zhang (Texas A&M University) |
| Abstract: | China’s housing prices have been growing rapidly over the past few decades, despite low growth in rents. We study the impact of housing bubbles on China’s economy, based on the understanding that local governments use land-sale revenue to fuel infrastructure investment. We calibrate our model to the Chinese data over the period 2003-2013 and find that our calibrated model can match the declining capital return and GDP growth, the average housing price growth, and the rising infrastructure to GDP ratio in the data. We conduct two counterfactual experiments to estimate the impact of a bubble collapse and a property tax. |
| Keywords: | Housing Bubble, Infrastructure, Economic Growth, Chinese Economy, Property Tax |
| JEL: | O11 O16 O18 P24 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2020-005&r=all |
| By: | Holtz, David; Zhao, Michael; Benzell, Seth G.; Cao, Cathy Y.; Rahimian, M. Amin; Yang, Jeremy; Allen, Jennifer Nancy Lee; Collis, Avinash; Moehring, Alex Vernon; Sowrirajan, Tara |
| Abstract: | Social distancing is the core policy response to COVID-19. But as federal, state and local governments begin opening businesses and relaxing shelter-in-place orders worldwide, we lack quantitative evidence on how policies in one region affect mobility and social distancing in other regions and the consequences of uncoordinated regional policies adopted in the presence of such spillovers. We therefore combined daily, county-level data on shelter-in-place and business closure policies with movement data from over 27 million mobile devices, social network connections among over 220 million of Facebook users, daily temperature and precipitation data from 62,000 weather stations and county-level census data on population demographics to estimate the geographic and social network spillovers created by regional policies across the United States. Our analysis showed the contact patterns of people in a given region are significantly influenced by the policies and behaviors of people in other, sometimes distant, regions. When just one third of a state’s social and geographic peer states adopt shelter in place policies, it creates a reduction in mobility equal to the state’s own policy decisions. These spillovers are mediated by peer travel and distancing behaviors in those states. A simple analytical model calibrated with our empirical estimates demonstrated that the “loss from anarchy” in uncoordinated state policies is increasing in the number of non cooperating states and the size of social and geographic spillovers. These results suggest a substantial cost of uncoordinated government responses to COVID-19 when people, ideas, and media move across borders. |
| Date: | 2020–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:b9psy&r=all |
| By: | Simona Ferraro (Tallinn University of Technology); Tommaso Agasisti (Politecnico di Milano School of Management); Francesco Porcelli (Università di Bari); Mara Soncin (Politecnico di Milano School of Management) |
| Abstract: | In Italy, the provision of educational ancillary services (like meals and school transportation) is in charge of the municipalities. We investigate whether municipalities differ in their efficiency when providing these services and whether such heterogeneity explains some portion of the variability observed in pupils’ test scores. The paper is the first application of a nonparametric order-m model and a two-stage multilevel regression to a unique administrative dataset, made of the entire population of Italian pupils tested in reading and mathematics at grade 5 (academic years 2012/2013 and 2014/2015). Results demonstrate that local governments have different efficiency levels in providing services to schools. The test scores’ variability among pupils, however, is not explained by different efficiency levels of local government in producing ancillary services. |
| Keywords: | ancillary services, order-m, multilevel modelling, efficiency |
| JEL: | I21 H52 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:90&r=all |
| By: | Sule Alan (University of Essex); Enes Duysak (University of Essex); Elif Kubilay (University of Essex); Ipek Mumcu (University of Exeter) |
| Abstract: | Using uniquely detailed data on primary school children, we show that teachers who hold prejudicial attitudes towards an ethnic group create socially segregated classrooms. We identify this relationship by exploiting a natural experiment where newly arrived refugee children are randomly assigned to teachers. We elicit children's social networks to construct multiple measures of social exclusion and ethnic segregation in classrooms. We find that teachers' ethnic prejudice, measured by an Implicit Association Test, significantly lowers the prevalence of social ties between host and refugee children, increases homophily amongst host children, and puts refugee children at a higher risk of bullying victimization. Our results suggest that teachers' ethnic prejudice may be a significant barrier against building cohesive schools in ethnically diverse communities. |
| Keywords: | ethnic prejudice, integration, social exclusion, ethnic segregation |
| JEL: | I24 J15 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-044&r=all |
| By: | Ikeda, Kiyohiro; Takayama, Yuki; Thisse, Jacques-François |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the conditions for the emergence of a system of cities in a general equilibrium setting that accounts for the mobility of labor, transportation costs between cities and commuting costs within cities. Locations are equally distributed over a circular space. We find that the multiplicity of stable spatial equilibria is the rule and not the exception. Using the concept of stability areas to study the transition from one stable equilibrium to the next, we show that decreasing commuting or transportation costs generate equilibrium paths that may feature a megalopolis or hierarchical system of cities having different sizes. We confirm that transportation and commuting costs have opposite impacts on the space-economy. |
| Keywords: | Cities; Commuting costs; Economic Geography; Multiplicity of stable equilibria; Racetrack economy; Transportation Costs |
| JEL: | F12 R12 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14728&r=all |
| By: | Guillaume Claveres; Thomas Y. Mathä; Giuseppe Pulina; Jan Stráský; Nicolas Woloszko; Michael Ziegelmeyer |
| Abstract: | The rate of homeownership is close to the OECD average in Luxembourg. However, strong house price increases, mainly driven by population growth and limited housing supply, led to a deterioration in affordability of housing, in particular for the young and added to the wealth gap between homeowners and renters. |
| Keywords: | cross-border workers, homeownership, household survey, inequality, Luxembourg, wealth distribution |
| JEL: | D31 R21 R23 R31 |
| Date: | 2020–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1608-en&r=all |
| By: | Mishra, Alok Kumar; Malhotra, Abhishek |
| Abstract: | The paper is aimed at exploring the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) model for financing planned urban development programmes and projects in Indian cities – smart cities, in particular. This is based on the premise that the TIF approach offers an excellent opportunity to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for the creation, capture and recycling of values in cities support funding of core urban infrastructure in a sustained manner. The paper describes the key elements of the TIF model and explains why it is a theoretically elegant and practically desirable strategy for possible adoption by Indian cities at the present stage of urban evolution, when municipal finances are precarious and the municipalities are also not in a position to generate current revenue surplus. The paper is based on the principle of ‘theory follows practice and vice versa’, case studies on TIF as implemented internationally. Finally, the paper suggests directions as to how the TIF principles could be incorporated into the framework of financing innovative projects under the Smart Cities Mission, including accessing capital market funds through municipal bonds. The key findings of the paper suggests that the efficacy of tax increment financing tools in Indian cities will depend on several factors: the versatility of city development strategy and plan; reforms in municipal finance system; reforms in spatial planning; effective design of TIF projects and financing strategies, including mechanisms for value capture and recycling to catalyze economic growth-enhancing enterprises that create further values to land-owners and the city; and human resource capacity to plan, design, finance, implement and monitor projects. If designed well, TIF instruments can act as powerful tools to augment external economies of agglomeration and networking and create economic growth momentum, generating a self-financed or even surplus-generating process of planned urban expansion, development and renewal. |
| Keywords: | Tax Increment Financing, Smart City, Urban Infrastructure, Networking Economics, Agglomeration Economics, Value Capture Financing |
| JEL: | R38 R51 R58 |
| Date: | 2020–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100843&r=all |
| By: | Mishra, Alok; Malhotra, Abhishek |
| Abstract: | The paper is aimed at exploring the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) model for financing planned urban development programmes and projects in Indian cities – smart cities, in particular. This is based on the premise that the TIF approach offers an excellent opportunity to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for the creation, capture and recycling of values in cities support funding of core urban infrastructure in a sustained manner. The paper describes the key elements of the TIF model and explains why it is a theoretically elegant and practically desirable strategy for possible adoption by Indian cities at the present stage of urban evolution, when municipal finances are precarious and the municipalities are also not in a position to generate current revenue surplus. The paper is based on the principle of ‘theory follows practice and vice versa’, case studies on TIF as implemented internationally. Finally, the paper suggests directions as to how the TIF principles could be incorporated into the framework of financing innovative projects under the Smart Cities Mission, including accessing capital market funds through municipal bonds. The key findings of the paper suggests that the efficacy of tax increment financing tools in Indian cities will depend on several factors: the versatility of city development strategy and plan; reforms in municipal finance system; reforms in spatial planning; effective design of TIF projects and financing strategies, including mechanisms for value capture and recycling to catalyze economic growth-enhancing enterprises that create further values to land-owners and the city; and human resource capacity to plan, design, finance, implement and monitor projects . If designed well, TIF instruments can act as powerful tools to augment external economies of agglomeration and networking and create economic growth momentum, generating a self-financed or even surplus-generating process of planned urban expansion, development and renewal. |
| Keywords: | Tax Increment Financing, Smart City, Value Capture Financing, land based instruments, Netwroking Economics, Agglomeration Economics |
| JEL: | R00 R4 R51 R52 R58 |
| Date: | 2020–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100905&r=all |
| By: | Alessandra Michelangeli; John Östh; Umut Türk |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a comprehensive overview of intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Intergenerational income mobility is considered in both relative and absolute terms, and the analysis is carried out at the individual and municipality-level. We use multilevel models to explore the correlation between upward mobility and social, economic and demographic characteristics of cities. The analyses is carried out on three subpopulations: offspring who live in a different municipality than their parents (mobile population); offspring who live in the municipality where they grew up (immobile population); offspring belonging to visible minority groups. Our results confirm those of previous studies showing a relatively high intergenerational mobility in Sweden compared to other European and North American countries. Substantial differences are observed across municipalities meaning that the particular combination of municipality attributes contributes to shaping the chance of status attainment among young generations. Highly mobile municipalities have more significant human capital, more residential segregation by income, more income inequality, and greater accessibility to jobs. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational social mobility; multilevel models; cities. |
| JEL: | J62 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:443&r=all |
| By: | Andrea Camilli |
| Abstract: | To what extent labor market institutions can explain homeownership rate differences over time and across countries? Using data from 19 countries over fifty years, I find a positive correlation between employment rigidities and homeownership, and a negative correlation with wage rigidities. I rationalize these findings through a DSGE model where heterogeneous households face a housing tenure decision in presence of labor frictions. Labor rigidities affect housing tenure choice through their impact on employment and wage volatility. Labor institutions explain a relevant share of homeownership heterogeneity between countries and over time and labor reforms can interfere with policies targeted to increase homeownership. |
| Keywords: | Housing markets; Labor market institutions; DSGE; Labor reforms. |
| JEL: | J08 J30 J50 R20 R21 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:440&r=all |
| By: | Sofia F. Franco (Nova University of Lisbon) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence how parking reforms can help reduce car dependency and achieve a more efficient use of city space. It looks at how the price and availability of parking influence transport choices and urban form. It also investigates the effect of minimum parking requirements and regulations on developer decisions and land use. The paper draws primarily on evidence from Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. |
| Date: | 2020–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaab:2020/03-en&r=all |
| By: | Yu Aoki; Theodore Koutmeridis |
| Abstract: | We study criminal incentives exploiting the devastating shock of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Evidence shows that the earthquake decreased burglaries but left other crime types unaffected. The effect stays significant even after controlling for unemployment, policing and income. We corroborate this by instrumenting damages with the distance from the earthquake epicentre. These findings survive various robustness checks under different specifications. The evidence is consistent with a simple theory of crime, value and specialization. We conclude that burglars respond to damages that devaluate their prospective takings. Yet, they cannot shift their specialization and substitute burglaries with other crime types |
| Keywords: | crime, burglary, value, housing damage, specialization |
| JEL: | K42 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2019_13&r=all |
| By: | Kristian S. Blickle |
| Abstract: | We merge several historical data sets from Germany to show that influenza mortality in 1918-1920 is correlated with societal changes, as measured by municipal spending and city-level extremist voting, in the subsequent decade. First, influenza deaths are associated with lower per capita spending, especially on services consumed by the young. Second, influenza deaths are correlated with the share of votes received by extremist parties in 1932 and 1933. Our election results are robust to controlling for city spending, demographics, war-related population changes, city-level wages, and regional unemployment, and to instrumenting influenza mortality. We conjecture that our findings may be the consequence of long-term societal changes brought about by a pandemic. |
| Keywords: | influenza; pandemic; municipal spending; voter extremism; COVID-19 |
| JEL: | H3 H4 I15 N14 |
| Date: | 2020–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:87888&r=all |
| By: | David Finck (Justus Liebig University Giessen); Paul Rudel (Justus Liebig University Giessen) |
| Abstract: | They do. Partly. We identify credit supply shocks via sign restrictions in a Bayesian VAR and separate them into positive and negative. Using local projections, we find that positive credit supply shocks leave notably different prints in private debt, mortgage debt, and debt: GDP, as opposed to negative credit supply shocks. This pattern is caused by the response of household mortgage debt. Furthermore, we find evidence that positive credit supply shocks are the driving force behind boom-bust cycles. Yet, developments behind the boom-bust cycle cannot explain the strong and persistent response in debt; but house prices tend to. However, if we abstract from potential asymmetries, we get rather mild results, which underestimate the true effects of credit supply shocks. |
| Keywords: | credit supply shocks, household debt, asymmetry, local projections |
| JEL: | C11 E21 E22 E32 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:202026&r=all |
| By: | Bista, Raghu |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates empirically and analytically whether household’s perspective is positive on such decision to push up economic growth and urban life, whether there are drivers to push and pull urbanization process, whether new municipality is an alternative city development approach through secondary and primary data sets. The descriptive statistics and correlation tools are employed. |
| Keywords: | urbanization, city, push and pull factor, biodiversity, infrastructure |
| JEL: | J11 O2 O21 O31 R11 R14 R51 R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2019–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100624&r=all |
| By: | Kondylis,Florence; Legovini,Arianna; Vyborny,Kate; Zwager,Astrid Maria Theresia; Cardoso De Andrade,Luiza |
| Abstract: | What are the costs to women of harassment on public transit? This study randomizes the price of a women-reserved"safe space"in Rio de Janeiro and crowdsource information on 22,000 rides. Women in the public space experience harassment once a week. A fifth of riders are willing to forgo 20 percent of the fare to ride in the"safe space". Randomly assigning riders to the"safe space"reduces physical harassment by 50 percent, implying a cost of $1.45 per incident. Implicit Association Tests show that women face a stigma for riding in the public space that may outweigh the benefits of the safe space. |
| Keywords: | Transport in Urban Areas,Urban Transport,Gender and Development,Crime and Society,Transport Services,Labor Markets |
| Date: | 2020–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9269&r=all |
| By: | Oguzhan Cepni (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, Haci Bayram Mah. Istiklal Cad. No:10 06050, Ankara, Turkey); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Yigit Onay (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, Haci Bayram Mah. Istiklal Cad. No:10 06050, Ankara, Turkey) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the predictive ability of aggregate and dis-aggregate proxies of investor sentiment, over and above standard macroeconomic predictors, in forecasting housing returns in China, using an array of machine learning models. Using a monthly out-of-sample period of 2011:01 to 2018:12, given an in-sample of 2006:01-2010:12, we find that indeed the new aligned investor sentiment index proposed in this paper has greater predictive power for housing returns than the a principal component analysis (PCA)-based sentiment index, used earlier in the literature. Moreover, shrinkage models utilizing the dis-aggregate sentiment proxies do not result in forecast improvement indicating that aligned sentiment index optimally exploits information in the dis-aggregate proxies of investor sentiment. Furthermore, when we let the machine learning models to choose from all key control variables and the aligned sentiment index, the forecasting accuracy is improved at all forecasting horizons, rather than just the short-run as witnessed under standard predictive regressions. This result suggests that machine learning methods are flexible enough to capture both structural change and time-varying information in a set of predictors simultaneously to forecast housing returns of China in a precise manner. Given the role of the real estate market in China’s economic growth, our result of accurate forecasting of housing returns, based on investor sentiment and macroeconomic variables using state-of-the-art machine learning methods, has important implications for both investors and policymakers. |
| Keywords: | Housing prices, Investor sentiment, Bayesian shrinkage, Time-varying parameter model |
| JEL: | C22 C32 C52 G12 R31 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:202055&r=all |
| By: | Bobby Chung (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Jian Zou (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) |
| Abstract: | We utilize random assignment of students into classrooms in China middle schools to study the mechanisms behind the spillover of peer parental education on student achievement. Analyzing the China Education Panel Survey, we find a causal relationship between classmates' maternal education and student test score. In addition to the conventional peer effect and teacher response channel, we identify mother adjustment of parenting style as another important mediating factor. We provide suggestive evidence about the existence of mother's network, which facilitates the change in parenting style. We also find that the spillover of peer maternal education on non-repeaters and non-migrant students is stronger, primarily driven by higher parental investment on time. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, peers' parents, parental investments, parenting style |
| JEL: | D91 I24 J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-045&r=all |
| By: | Koster, Hans R.A.; Nielsen, Victor Mayland; Ostermeijer, Francis; van Ommeren, Jos |
| Abstract: | How has the rise of the automobile influenced urban areas over the past century? In this paper we investigate the long-run impact of car ownership on urban population density, based on a sample of 232 city observations in 57 countries. Using the presence of a car manufacturer in 1920 as a source of exogenous variation, our IV estimates indicate that car ownership substantially reduces density. A one standard deviation increase in car ownership rates causes a reduction in population density of around 40%. For employment density we find almost identical results. This result has important implications for vehicle taxation, car ownership growth in developing countries, and new transport technologies such as automated vehicles. |
| Keywords: | Car ownership; urban density; vehicle costs |
| JEL: | R12 R40 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14717&r=all |
| By: | Rokicki, Bartlomiej; Blien, Uwe (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Hewings, Geoffrey J. D.; Phan thi Hong, Van (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Do wages react to regional unemployment, as proposed by the theory behind the regional wage curve, if regional price differences are taken into account? This paper applies regional price indexes to assess the wage curve, whereas in the literature only nominal wages are used for wage curve regressions. In order to test the impact of regional prices on the wage curve we apply a variety of methodological approaches. With individual data from the US Census and the Polish Labor Force Survey we find a wage curve. However, in both countries, the local unemployment elasticity and spatial spillovers decrease significantly once regional price deflators are applied." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | C26 J30 J60 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202017&r=all |
| By: | Ajzenman, Nicolas; Durante, Ruben |
| Abstract: | Can seemingly unimportant factors influence voting decisions by making certain issues salient? We study this question in the context of Argentina's 2015 presidential elections by examining how the quality of the infrastructure of the school where citizens were assigned to vote influenced their voting choice. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of voters to ballot stations located in different public schools in the City of Buenos Aires, we find that individuals assigned to schools with poorer infrastructure were significantly less likely to vote for Mauricio Macri, the incumbent mayor then running for president. The effect is larger in low-income areas - where fewer people can afford private substitutes to public education - and in places where more households have children in school age. The effect is unlikely to be driven by information scarcity, since information on public school infrastructure was readily available to parents before elections. Rather, direct exposure to poor school infrastructure at the time of voting is likely to make public education - and the poor performance of the incumbent - more salient. |
| Keywords: | Education; Elections; Electoral Punishment; Public Infrastructure; Salience |
| JEL: | D72 D83 D90 I25 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14702&r=all |
| By: | Dave, Dhaval M. (Bentley University); Friedson, Andrew I. (University of Colorado Denver); Matsuzawa, Kyutaro (San Diego State University); Sabia, Joseph J. (San Diego State University); Safford, Samuel (San Diego State University) |
| Abstract: | One of the most common policy prescriptions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 has been to legally enforce social distancing through state or local shelter-in-place orders (SIPOs). This paper is the first to explore the comparative effectiveness of early county-level SIPOs versus later statewide mandates in curbing COVID-19 growth. We exploit the unique laboratory of Texas, a state in which the early adoption of local SIPOs by densely populated counties covered almost two-thirds of the state's population prior to Texas's adoption of a statewide SIPO on April 2, 2020. Using an event study framework, we document that countywide SIPO adoption is associated with a 14 percent increase in the percent of residents who remain at home full-time, a social distancing effect that is largest in urbanized and densely populated counties. Then, we find that in early adopting counties, COVID-19 case growth fell by 19 to 26 percentage points two-and-a-half weeks following adoption, a result robust to controls for county-level heterogeneity in outbreak timing, coronavirus testing, and border SIPO policies. This effect is driven nearly entirely by highly urbanized and densely populated counties. In total, we find that approximately 90 percent of the curbed growth in statewide COVID-19 cases in Texas came from the early adoption of SIPOs by urbanized counties. These results suggest that the later statewide mandate yielded relatively few health benefits. |
| Keywords: | coronavirus, shelter-in-place orders, COVID-19, urbanicity, population density |
| JEL: | H75 I18 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13262&r=all |
| By: | Stefanie Braun; Gabriel S. Lee |
| Abstract: | We estimate changes in the value and price of residential land for 379 German counties (”Landkreise”) from 2014 to 2017 using a total of 42,685 observations. We use the two-step residual method that decomposes the value of a home into the value of the structure and land value. Despite the short time series, we show that the price of residential land has become relatively more expensive in the majority of German counties. More speci?cally, we show that the cumulative change in land values varies between 9% and 171% (excluding Berlin with exorbitant high increases of 668% and Saarland with a decrease of 18%) from 2014 to 2017. On average, the home values increased by 30% and 15% for West and East Germany respectively, whereas the land values increased by 108% and 91% for West and East Germany. Our ?ndings imply that cycles in the German land values are more likely to a?ect the evolution of house prices more in the future than they did in the past. Moreover, our estimated land prices vary signi?cantly to the current land price valuation by one of the German state governments (Hessen). |
| Keywords: | German Land prices; Land values; German Housing prices; Housing values; Construction costs; Replacement costs |
| JEL: | R0 R11 R14 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:194_braunlee&r=all |
| By: | Fernando DePaolis; Phil Murphy; M. Clara DePaolis Kaluza |
| Abstract: | By applying network analysis techniques to large input-output system, we identify key sectors in the local/regional economy. We overcome the limitations of traditional measures of centrality by using random-walk based measures, as an extension of Blochl et al. (2011). These are more appropriate to analyze very dense networks, i.e. those in which most nodes are connected to all other nodes. These measures also allow for the presence of recursive ties (loops), since these are common in economic systems (depending to the level of aggregation, most firms buy from and sell to other firms in the same industrial sector). The centrality measures we present are well suited for capturing sectoral effects missing from the usual output and employment multipliers. We also develop an R package (xtranat) for the processing of data from IMPLAN(R) models and for computing the newly developed measures. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2005.11285&r=all |
| By: | Alexander Daminger; Kristof Dascher |
| Abstract: | Manycountriessubsidizehomeownership, andGermanyisnoexception. However, for an interlude of 12 years Germany also paused its subsidy. Over these twelveyearsmostofthecountry’s100largestcitiessawtheircentralcitypopulation expand. We explore subsidy removal’s role in center revival. We assemble a large data set of population strata for a ?ne partition of city rings. Then we exploit the design of the subsidy (which bene?ted more a?ordable places more, and also which never bene?ted the young) to identify its e?ects on urban spatial structure. We will ?nd that homeowner subsidy removal has strongly driven the skew of the distribution of commuting distance up. In doing so subsidy removal has also, so we will suggest, contributed to strong recent growth in both, urban rent and female labor force participation. |
| Keywords: | Commuting Distribution, Skewness, Homeownership Subsidy, Reurbanization |
| JEL: | R12 D72 R52 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:195_damingerdascher&r=all |
| By: | Crowley, Frank; Doran, Justin |
| Abstract: | The Covid-19 pandemic has had a sudden and drastic impact on labour supply and output In Ireland. As the Irish government responds, a key question is how covid-19 will impact people and places differently. There is considerable uncertainty around the implications of social distancing measures and remote working for the Irish labour market. The objective of this paper is to get a better understanding of the social distancing and remote working potential at an occupational, sector and regional level in Ireland. We generate two indices which capture the potential impact of Covid-19 through identifying (i) the occupations which may have the most potential to engage in social distancing procedures and (ii) the occupations which may have the most scope for remote working. This is accomplished using occupational level data from O*NET which provides very detailed information of the tasks performed by individuals with their occupations. The paper identifies that social distancing and remote working potential differs considerably across occupations, sectors and places. Examples of large employment which have relatively high indices are teaching occupations at secondary and third level and programme and software developers. While occupations which have large employment but which possess relative low indices are nurses and midwives and care workers. The potential for social distancing and remote work favours occupations located in the Greater Dublin region and provincial city regions. At a town level - more affluent, more densely and highly populated, better educated and better broadband provisioned towns have more jobs with greater potential for social distancing and remote working. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:srercw:srercwp20201&r=all |
| By: | Vu, Tien Manh; Yamada, Hiroyuki |
| Abstract: | We investigated the impact of individuals who passed the Vietnamese imperial examinations (1075–1919) on the present-day quantity and quality of education in their home districts. We layered the 2009 Population and Housing Census and the 2009 National Entrance Exams to University (NEEU) test scores on the geographical distribution of imperial test takers' home districts. We constructed a novel instrumental variable representing the average distance between the examinees' home districts and the corresponding imperial examination venues.We found a persistent legacy in the average years of schooling, literacy rate, school attendance rate, NEEU test scores, and primary school dropout rate. |
| Keywords: | Education, Human Capital, Imperial Examination, Historical Legacy, Vietnam, I25, N35, O15 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agi:wpaper:00000176&r=all |
| By: | Delaney, Judith; Devereux, Paul J. |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data from Ireland to study differences in college application behavior between students from disadvantaged versus advantaged high schools. Ireland provides an interesting laboratory for this analysis as applicants provide a preference-ordering of college programs (majors) and marginal applications are costless. Also, college admission depends almost completely on grades in the terminal high school examinations. Thus, we can compare the application choices of students who have equal chances of admission to college programs. Conditional on achievement and college opportunities, we find that students from advantaged high schools are more likely to apply to universities and to more selective college programs. They are also more likely to have preferences that cluster by program selectivity rather than by field of study. Our results suggest that, alongside differences in achievement, differences in college application behavior also cause persons from advantaged high schools to be more likely to enroll in selective colleges and enter more selective programs. Importantly, we find that enrollment gaps for equally qualified applicants are smaller than differences in application behavior; the relatively meritocratic centralized admissions system based on achievement undoes much of the effect of the differences in application behavior. |
| Keywords: | Centralized Admissions System; College Applications; college major choice; educational mismatch; Higher education |
| JEL: | I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14747&r=all |
| By: | Rebecca Brough (Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, University of Notre Dame); Matthew Freedman (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); David C. Phillips (Department of Economics, University of Notre Dame) |
| Abstract: | We document the magnitudes of and mechanisms behind socioeconomic differences in travel behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic. We focus on King County, Washington, one of the first places in the U.S. where Covid-19 was detected. We leverage novel and rich administrative and survey data on travel volumes, modes, and preferences for different demographic groups. Large average declines in travel, and in public transit use in particular, due to the pandemic and related policy responses mask substantial heterogeneity across socioeconomic groups. Travel intensity declined considerably less among less-educated and lower-income individuals, even after accounting for mode substitution and variation across neighborhoods in the impacts of public transit service reductions. The relative inability of less-educated and lower-income individuals to cease commuting explains at least half of the difference in travel responses across groups. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19; Coronavirus; Mobility; Transportation; Commuting; Inequality |
| JEL: | R41 J61 H12 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:192007&r=all |
| By: | Gabriel E. Kreindler (Harvard University); Yuhei Miyauchi (Boston University) |
| Abstract: | We show how commuting flows can be used to infer the spatial distribution of income within a city. We use a simple workplace choice model, which predicts a gravity equation for commuting flows whose destination fixed effects correspond to wages. We implement this method with cell phone transaction data from Dhaka and Colombo. Model-predicted income predicts separate income data, at the workplace and residential level. Unlike machine learning approaches, our method does not require training data, yet achieves comparable predictive power. In an application, we show that hartals (transportation strikes) in Dhaka lower commuting, leading to 5-8% lower predicted income. |
| JEL: | C55 E24 R14 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2020-006&r=all |
| By: | Tien Manh Vu (Asian Growth Research Institute); Hiroyuki Yamada (Faculty of Economics, Keio University) |
| Abstract: | Based on the "winner-loser" scheme, we examine the possible impacts of enterprise zones (EZs) on local Vietnamese households between 2002 and 2008, using differencesin-differences and a panel-event study. We layer four waves of household surveys using a census of EZs in 2007, based on the same commune identity for our household and individual analyses. Within five years of EZ establishment, we find they are associated with higher household incomes, an increase in private property prices, and an increase in working hours. However, we do not find a significant impact on household living expenditure or school attendance/working probabilities among members aged between 7 and 17 years. Neither do we find a significant impact on health outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Enterprise zone, Health, Household, Income, School Attendance, Vietnam |
| JEL: | O12 O18 D1 P36 |
| Date: | 2020–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2020-009&r=all |
| By: | Magdalena Gądek; Rafał Miśko |
| Abstract: | City authorities are taking action to increase public transport attractiveness. More and more innovative solutions are being introduced. Therefore, the research was aimed at answering the question: have innovations improved residents' quality of life in their opinion. The research was conducted in one of the Polish cities due to the number of introduced innovations. Surveys were carried out, which showed that the introduced innovations improve the quality of life of residents. In their opinion, innovations most influencing their quality of life are connected with security and travel comfort. Innovations connected with the environment and availability of information play also an important role. |
| Keywords: | Quality of life (QOL); Public transport; Innovations; Management |
| JEL: | R41 |
| Date: | 2020–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahh:wpaper:worms2013&r=all |
| By: | Jacob, Nicholas; Mion, Giordano |
| Abstract: | Ever since Marshall (1890) agglomeration externalities have been viewed as the key factor explaining the existence of cities and their size. However, while the various micro foundations of agglomeration externalities stress the importance of Total Factor Productivity (TFP), the empirical evidence on agglomeration externalities rests on measures obtained using firm revenue or value-added as a measure of firm output: revenue-based TFP (TFP-R). This paper uses data on French manufacturing firms' revenue, quantity and prices to estimate TFP and TFP-R and decompose the latter into various elements. Our analysis suggests that the revenue productivity advantage of denser areas is mainly driven by higher prices charged rather than differences in TFP. At the same time, firms in denser areas are able to sell higher quantities, and generate higher revenues, despite higher prices. These and other results we document suggest that firms in denser areas are able to charge higher prices because they sell higher demand/quality products. Finally, while the correlation between firm revenue TFP and firm size is positive in each location, it is also systematically related to density: firms with higher (lower) TFP-R account for a larger (smaller) share of total revenue in denser areas. These patterns thus amplify in aggregate regional-level figures any firm-level differences in productivity across space. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration externalities; demand; density; prices; Quality; Revenue-based TFP; Total factor productivity (TFP) |
| JEL: | D24 L11 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14644&r=all |
| By: | Graziella Bertocchi; Arcangelo Dimico |
| Abstract: | We empirically assess the effect of historical slavery on the African American family structure. Our hypothesis is that female single headship among blacks is more likely to emerge in association not with slavery per se, but with slavery in sugar plantations, since the extreme demographic and social conditions prevailing in the latter have persistently affected family formation patterns. By exploiting the exogenous variation in sugar suitability, we establish the following. In 1850, sugar suitability is indeed associated with extreme demographic outcomes within the slave population. Over the period 1880-1940, higher sugar suitability determines a higher likelihood of single female headship. The effect is driven by blacks and starts fading in 1920 in connection with the Great Migration. OLS estimates are complemented with a matching estimator and a fuzzy RDD. Over a linked sample between 1880 and 1930, we identify an even stronger intergenerational legacy of sugar planting for migrants. By 1990, the effect of sugar is replaced by that of slavery and the black share, consistent with the spread of its influence through migration and intermarriage, and black incarceration emerges as a powerful mediator. By matching slaves' ethnic origins with ethnographic data we rule out any infuence of African cultural traditions. |
| Keywords: | Black family, slavery, sugar, migration, culture |
| JEL: | J12 J47 N30 O13 Z10 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:144&r=all |
| By: | Nikos Askitas; Konstantinos Tatsiramos; Bertrand Verheyden |
| Abstract: | We develop a multiple-events model and exploit within and between country variation in the timing, type and level of intensity of various public policies to study their dynamic effects on the daily incidence of COVID-19 and on population mobility patterns across 135 countries. We remove concurrent policy bias by taking into account the contemporaneous presence of multiple interventions. The main result of the paper is that cancelling public events and imposing restrictions on private gatherings followed by school closures have quantitatively the most pronounced effects on reducing the daily incidence of COVID-19. They are followed by workplace as well as stay-at-home requirements, whose statistical significance and levels of effect are not as pronounced. Instead, we find no effects for international travel controls, public transport closures and restrictions on movements across cities and regions. We establish that these findings are mediated by their effect on population mobility patterns in a manner consistent with time-use and epidemiological factors. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2006.00531&r=all |
| By: | Ian Walker; Matthew Weldon |
| Keywords: | School choice, Mechanism design |
| JEL: | I20 I21 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:298202686&r=all |
| By: | Ajzenman, Nicolas; Aksoy, Cevat Giray; Guriev, Sergei |
| Abstract: | Does exposure to mass migration affect economic behavior, attitudes and beliefs of natives in transit countries? In order to answer this question, we use a unique locality-level panel from the 2010 and 2016 rounds of the Life in Transition Survey and data on the main land routes taken by migrants in 18 European countries during the refugee crisis in 2015. To capture the exogenous variation in natives' exposure to transit migration, we construct an instrument that is based on the distance of each locality to the optimal routes that minimize travelling time between the main origin and destination cities. We first show that the entrepreneurial activity of natives falls considerably in localities that are more exposed to mass transit migration, compared to those located further away. We then explore the mechanisms and find that our results are likely to be explained by a decrease in the willingness to take risks as well as in the confidence in institutions. We also document an increase in the anti-migrant sentiment while attitudes towards other minorities remained unchanged. We rule out the possibility of out-migration of natives or of trade-related shocks (potentially confounded with the mass-transit migration) affecting our results. Using locality-level luminosity data, we also rule out any effect driven by changes in economic activity. Finally, we find no statistically significant effects on other labor market outcomes, such as unemployment or labor force participation. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; migration; refugee crisis |
| JEL: | D91 F22 L26 O10 O15 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14605&r=all |
| By: | Emran,M. Shahe; Jiang,Hanchen; Shilpi,Forhad J. |
| Abstract: | This paper incorporates gender bias against girls in the family, school and labor market in a model of intergenerational persistence in schooling where parents self-finance children's education because of credit market imperfections. Parents may underestimate a girl's ability, expect lower returns, and assign lower weights to their welfare (?pure son preference?). The model delivers the widely used linear conditional expectation function under constant returns and separability but generates an irrelevance result: parental bias does not affect relative mobility. With diminishing returns and complementarity, the conditional expectation function can be concave or convex, and parental bias affects both relative and absolute mobility. This paper tests these predictions in India and China using data not subject to coresidency bias. The evidence rejects the linear conditional expectation function in rural and urban India in favor of a concave relation. Girls in India face lower mobility irrespective of location when born to fathers with low schooling, but the gender gap closes when the father is college educated. In China, the conditional expectation function is convex for sons in urban areas, but linear in all other cases. The convexity supports the complementarity hypothesis of Becker et al. (2018) for the urban sons and leads to gender divergence in relative mobility for the children of highly educated fathers. In urban China, and urban and rural India, the mechanisms are underestimation of the ability of girls and unfavorable school environment. There is some evidence of pure son preference in rural India. The girls in rural China do not face bias in financial investment by parents, but they still face lower mobility when born to uneducated parents. Gender barriers in rural schools seem to be the primary mechanism. |
| Keywords: | Educational Sciences,Gender and Development,Economics of Education,Rural Labor Markets,Labor Markets,Inequality |
| Date: | 2020–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9250&r=all |
| By: | Bista, Raghu |
| Abstract: | This study investigates empirically the relationship between industrial waste and urban biodiversity in Nepal by using mapping method based on secondary data sources. In addition, it estimates social cost of urban biodiversity loss. Its result is positive correlation between industrial waste and urban biodiversity loss. Its social cost is interestingly significant. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Waste, Urban Biodiversity, Aquatic Biodiversity, Nepal |
| JEL: | D13 O3 O32 Q28 Q51 Q53 Q57 Z1 Z18 |
| Date: | 2019–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100623&r=all |
| By: | Yuhei Miyauchi (Boston University) |
| Abstract: | Why are economic activities geographically concentrated? I argue that matching frictions and increasing returns to scale in firm-to-firm matching for input trade is an important source of agglomeration. Using a yearly panel of firm-to-firm trade in Japan and unanticipated supplier bankruptcies as a natural experiment, I first document that firms rematch with new suppliers at a faster rate in locations and industries with a higher density of alternative suppliers. At the same time, the new supplier matching rate does not decrease with the geographic density of other buyers, hence the matching rate exhibits increasing returns to scale. Motivated by these findings, I develop a structural general equilibrium model of firm-to-firm trade with matching frictions. I structurally estimate the key parameters of the model to precisely replicate the reduced-form estimates, and I show that this agglomeration mechanism explains about a third of the population-density premium in nominal wages in Japan. |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2020-007&r=all |
| By: | Andrea Camilli; Marta Giagheddu |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of housing wealth concentration for the transmission of macroeconomic shocks in high-debt economies. We build a general equilibrium model with housing and heterogeneous agents who differ in their saving and investment opportunities. Banks optimizing their portfolio between mortgages and sovereign securities are characterized by financial frictions operating as a transmission mechanism, as households' collateralized debt links sovereign debt with the real economy, through interest rates and housing prices. We find that the more concentrated wealth is the worse the recession is, however associated with less consumption inequality due to a smaller crowding out of households' lending. We also show that a similar positive effect across agents can be obtained at different levels of inequality through financial repression and that a relevant distributional trade-off between macroprudential policy and households collateral requirements is present. |
| Keywords: | Sovereign risk, housing, lending crowding-out, regulation, liquidity, heterogeneity. |
| JEL: | E32 E44 G11 G18 R21 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:441&r=all |
| By: | Meldrum, James; Brenkert-Smith, Hannah; Champ, Patricia; Gomez, Jamie; Falk, Lilia; Barth, Christopher |
| Abstract: | Fire science emphasizes that mitigation actions on residential property, including structural hardening and maintaining defensible space, can reduce the risk of wildfire to a home. Accordingly, a rich body of social science literature investigates the determinants of wildfire risk mitigation behaviors of residents living in fire-prone areas. Here, we investigate relationships among wildfire hazards, residents’ risk perceptions, and conditions associated with mitigation actions using a combination of simulated wildfire conditions, household survey responses, and professionally assessed parcel characteristic data. We estimate a simultaneous model of these data that accounts for potential direct feedbacks between risk perceptions and parcel-level conditions. We also compare the use of self-reported versus assessed parcel-level data for estimating these relationships. Our analysis relies on paired survey and assessment data for approximately 2000 homes in western Colorado. Our simultaneous model demonstrates dual-directional interactions between risk perceptions and conditions associated with mitigation actions, with important implications for inference from simpler approaches. In addition to improving general understanding of decision-making about risk and natural hazards, our findings can support the effectiveness of publicly supported programs intended to encourage mitigation to reduce society’s overall wildfire risk. |
| Keywords: | wildland fire; risk assessment; parcel-level risk; scale; mitigation; simultaneous modeling; home ignition zone |
| JEL: | D83 Q54 |
| Date: | 2019–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100852&r=all |
| By: | Espinet Alegre,Xavier; Stanton-Geddes,Zuzana; Aliyev,Sadig |
| Abstract: | Transport connectivity in Cambodia is challenged by its geography and exposure to recurrent flooding. Flood events create severe disruptions in segments of the transport network that undermine access to health, education, and work opportunities as well as create barriers to economic growth. Rural accessibility to emergency health facilities and delivery of medicines and basic food supplies is particularly critical in times of major health crises, such as the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. This paper provides a method to quantify the impact of flooding on hospital access and other critical facilities, aiming to support governments on setting up health emergency mitigation plans for rural transport in an environment with high flood risk. The method was piloted in three provinces in rural Cambodia, estimating that for 37 percent of the people on those provinces, it takes more than 60 minutes to reach an emergency health facility. During floods, 27 percent lose all access and 18 percent experience an increase of 30 minutes in travel time. In conclusion, this method introduces transparency and evidence-based support for prioritization of rural transport investment, identifies the social benefits (health and education) of rural infrastructure investments, and supports policy dialogue on rural development and resilience. |
| Date: | 2020–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9262&r=all |
| By: | Yujie Hu; Joni Downs |
| Abstract: | Place-based accessibility measures, such as the gravity-based model, are widely applied to study the spatial accessibility of workers to job opportunities in cities. However, gravity-based measures often suffer from three main limitations: (1) they are sensitive to the spatial configuration and scale of the units of analysis, which are not specifically designed for capturing job accessibility patterns and are often too coarse; (2) they omit the temporal dynamics of job opportunities and workers in the calculation, instead assuming that they remain stable over time; and (3) they do not lend themselves to dynamic geovisualization techniques. In this paper, a new methodological framework for measuring and visualizing place-based job accessibility in space and time is presented that overcomes these three limitations. First, discretization and dasymetric mapping approaches are used to disaggregate counts of jobs and workers over specific time intervals to a fine-scale grid. Second, Shen (1998) gravity-based accessibility measure is modified to account for temporal fluctuations in the spatial distributions of the supply of jobs and the demand of workers and is used to estimate hourly job accessibility at each cell. Third, a four-dimensional volumetric rendering approach is employed to integrate the hourly job access estimates into a space-time cube environment, which enables the users to interactively visualize the space-time job accessibility patterns. The integrated framework is demonstrated in the context of a case study of the Tampa Bay region of Florida. The findings demonstrate the value of the proposed methodology in job accessibility analysis and the policy-making process. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2006.00268&r=all |
| By: | Dario Cestau; Dennis Epple; Richard Romano; Holger Sieg; Carl Wojtaszek |
| Abstract: | Assessing the effectiveness of education by race and gender is as difficult as it is important. We investigate this question utilizing data for eleven cohorts at West Point, a distinguished military academy and highly ranked liberal arts college. Employing matching using entry scores on three comprehensive measures, we obtain exceptional matches of score distributions for black and matched white students. We find black students have lower graduating achievement scores than matched white students, but comparable rates of graduation, retention in the Army after graduation, and early promotion. Hispanic-white comparisons reveal no differences. Female-male comparisons reveal women have lower attainment and retention rates. |
| JEL: | I2 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27162&r=all |
| By: | Horn, Dániel; Kiss, Hubert Janos; Lénárd, Tünde |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we document how we carried out a research that aimed at measuring the economic preferences of high school students. We describe the preferences that we study and what experimental games we used to investigate them. Then we report how we carried out the experiments in the schools. We provide detailed descriptive statistics on the preferences in aggregate and also school by school. Last, we validate our measurement by comparing the measured preferences to those in the literature. |
| Keywords: | altruism, competitive preferences, cooperation, risk preferences, social preferences, student, time preferences, trust |
| JEL: | C91 C92 I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2020–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100815&r=all |
| By: | Duranton, Gilles; Puga, Diego |
| Abstract: | Urban density boosts productivity and innovation, improves access to goods and services, reduces typical travel distances, encourages energy-efficient construction and transport, and facilitates sharing scarce amenities. However, density is also synonymous with crowding, makes living and moving in cities more costly, and concentrates exposure to pollution and disease. We explore the appropriate measurement of density and describe how it is both a cause and a consequence of the evolution of cities. We then discuss whether and how policy should target density and why the trade-off between its pros and cons is unhappily resolved by market and political forces. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration; density; Urban costs |
| JEL: | R12 R31 R32 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14768&r=all |
| By: | Zbigniew Mogila; Patricia C. Melo; José M. Gaspar |
| Abstract: | Inequality in individuals’ outcomes resulting from unequal access to opportunities due to differences in individual circumstances, such as family background and/or race, are generally considered to be unfair and ethically unacceptable. Since wealthier individuals and their families tend to live in more affluent areas and mingle with similar more affluent peers, the territorial distribution of inequality of opportunity may partially be viewed as a measure of the extent of spatial (in)justice. One of the ways governments can use to mitigate inequality of opportunity is to improve access to socially valued resources, e.g. education, health. If the spatial distribution of these resources is not equitable, or prevents equitable access to them, persistent or even growing differences in inequality of opportunity may arise. Improving the spatial distribution of socially valued resources can help individuals enhance their socioeconomic prospects, while also increasing the full utilization of territorial capital and, consequently, contribute to greater socioeconomic cohesion. This paper measures the extent of inequality of opportunity at the national level and by degree of urbanization for the countries covered in the survey European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Emphasis on the degree of urbanization allows exploring whether large(r) cities can act as social elevators compared to smaller urban and rural areas. Using the EUSILC data, we implement regression models to measure the percentage of the variation in individual’s labour income that is due to family background, namely, the education, occupation and activity status of parents, and household financial situation. Our results indicate substantial variation in inequality of opportunity ranging from 4% (Iceland) to 25% (Luxemburg). In addition, the distinction between more liberal economies and the rest of the countries is seen with the former more income unequal, however, with the smaller impact of family-related factors on individual’s income. Moreover, the findings suggest that cities, especially larger ones,do not seem to work as social elevators and may in fact benefit individuals with a better family background. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, inequality of opportunity, EU-SILC microdata |
| JEL: | D31 I24 D63 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp01352020&r=all |
| By: | Asanov,Igor; Flores,Francisco; Mckenzie,David J.; Mensmann,Mona; Schulte,Mathis |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools around the world, forcing school systems and students to quickly attempt remote learning. A rapid response phone survey of over 1,500 high school students aged 14 to 18 in Ecuador was conducted to learn how students spend their time during the period of quarantine, examine their access to remote learning, and measure their mental health status. The data show that 59 percent of students have both an internet connection at home and a computer or tablet, 74 percent are engaging in some online or telelearning, and 86 percent have done some schoolwork on the last weekday. Detailed time-use data show most students have established similar daily routines around education, although gender and wealth differences emerge in time spent working and on household tasks. Closure of schools and social isolation are the two main problems students say they face, and while the majority are mostly happy, 16 percent have mental health scores that indicate depression. |
| Keywords: | Health Care Services Industry,Educational Sciences,Mental Health,Gender and Development,Educational Institutions&Facilities,Effective Schools and Teachers |
| Date: | 2020–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9252&r=all |
| By: | Armbruster, Stephanie; Klotzbücher, Valentin |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic and social-distancing and stay-at-home orders can directly affect mental health and quality of life. In this ongoing project, we analyze rich data from Telefonseelsorge, the largest German helpline service, to better understand the effect of the pandemic and of local lockdown measures on mental health-related helpline contacts. First, looking at Germany-wide changes, we find that overall helpline contacts increase by around 20% in the first week of the lockdown and slowly decrease again after the third lockdown week. Our results suggest that the increase is not driven by financial worries or fear of the virus itself, but reflects heightened loneliness, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Second, we exploit spatial variation in policies among German federal states to assess whether the effect depends on the stringency of local measures. Preliminary evidence suggests that the average effect is more pronounced in states that implemented stricter measures. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19,Stay-at-Home Orders,Mental Health |
| JEL: | I12 I3 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wgspdp:202004&r=all |
| By: | Dominique Sulzmaier |
| Abstract: | Numerous studies have found a high intergenerational transmission of education in Germany which might be caused by the relatively early age at which the German school system tracks students into differentschool types. This study contributes to the scarce literatureontheeffectofachangeintheageoftrackingearlyintheschoolingcareeronthe intergenerational transmission of education and reveals new evidence on the heterogeneity of the effect. The identi?cation strategy exploits a recent reform in one German state, whichchangedthetimeoftrackingfromaftergradesixtoaftergradefour.Theresultsof adifference-in-differencesapproachwithdatafromtheGermanMicrocensussuggestthat earlier tracking increases intergenerational transmission of both, low and high education. Male students and students in rural areas appear to drive the effect. |
| Keywords: | intergenerationaltransmissionofeducation,tracking,schoolattainment,Germany, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I21 I24 C54 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:187_sulzmaier&r=all |
| By: | ITF |
| Abstract: | This report examines how new shared services could change mobility in Lyon, France. It presents simulations for five different scenarios in which different shared transport options replace privately owned cars in the Lyon metropolitan area. The simulations offer insights on how shared mobility can reduce congestion, lower CO2 emissions and free public space. The analysis also looks at quality of service, cost and citizens’ access to opportunities. The interaction of shared mobility services with mass public transport and optimal operational conditions for the transition are also examined. The findings provide decision makers with evidence to weigh opportunities and challenges created by new shared transport services. The report is part of a series of studies on shared mobility in different urban and metropolitan contexts. |
| Date: | 2020–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:74-en&r=all |
| By: | Delgado Narro, Augusto Ricardo |
| Abstract: | The concept of Multidimensional Poverty traditionally was used for comparative analysis across regions or countries. Nevertheless, in this paper, we use the concept of Multidimensional Poverty calculated for each Peruvian region and analyze the spatial patterns and spatial autocorrelation observed across the country, and, later, identify the spatial spillovers in poverty across the country. We find evidence of spatial autocorrelation across the regions which are statistically significant across models; in other words, it means poverty has spatial effects. Additionally, we find strong and significant evidence of spatial spillovers originated in the error terms rather than the endogenous variable, which has an unstable effect. Finally, the set of covariates we use in our regressions are statistically significant and stable across the models. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Spatial econometrics, Peru |
| JEL: | C21 O10 |
| Date: | 2020–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100615&r=all |
| By: | Basco, Sergi; Domenech, Jordi; Rosés, Joan R. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of a pandemic in a developing economy. Measured by excess deaths relative to the historical trend, the 1918 influenza in Spain was one of the most intense in Western Europe. However, aggregate output and consumption were only mildly affected. In this paper we assess the impact of the flu by exploiting within-country variation in "excess deaths" and we focus on the returns to factors of production. Our main result is that the effect of flu-related "excess deaths" on real wages is large, negative, and short-lived. The effects are heterogeneous across occupations, from null to a 15 per cent decline, concentrated in 1918. The negative effects are exacerbated in more urbanized provinces. In addition, we do not find effects of the flu on the returns to capital. Indeed, neither dividends nor real estate prices (houses and land) were negatively affected by flu-related increases in mortality. Our interpretation is that the Spanish Flu represented a negative demand shock that was mostly absorbed by workers, especially in more urbanized regions. |
| Keywords: | Pandemics; real wages; Returns to capital; Spanish flu |
| JEL: | E32 I00 N10 N30 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14753&r=all |
| By: | Schuhbert, Arne; Thees, Hannes |
| Abstract: | Purpose: Under the title of Belt-and-Road-Initiative (BRI), China has launched a global development program, which spans many regions and sectors. Tourism initiatives in particular, can occupy an interlinking position between infrastructure and services, and between global and local projects. This paper addresses the problem of the global-local link by critically examining a case at the southern Caucasus, as tourism is considered as a key industry for economic diversification in all three countries examined. Methods: Based on a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach, the study is about critically investigating the current state of challenges and opportunities for tourism-induced, integrated regional development, with particular focus on potential obstacles for regional and national destination competitiveness. Results: Results reveal that the BRI offers a basis for export-diversification in tourism and non-tourism economic sectors. Azerbaijan has the potential to integrate BRI activities into its local economic system but depends highly on the development of the Trans-Eurasian Corridor and the readiness of local entrepreneurs and institutions to support and extend development initiatives. Implications: The implementation of the BRI offers a significant opportunity for many rural regions to proactively benefit from increasing tourism demand, by linking local initiatives and industries with tourism-related projects embedded in the BRI. |
| Keywords: | destination management, competitiveness, belt-and-road-initiative, new silk road, Azerbaijan |
| JEL: | L80 M10 Z00 |
| Date: | 2020–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100676&r=all |
| By: | Juliette Crespin-Boucaud (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, PSE - Paris School of Economics); Rozenn Hotte (THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of divorce on investments in children's human capital at the primary school level in Senegal. We use a siblings fixed-effects estimation that exploits the variations in the age of the siblings at the time of divorce while controlling for family-invariant omitted variables. We compare children who were old enough to have been enrolled in primary school to their younger siblings, for whom enrollment decisions had not yet been taken at the time of the divorce. We find that younger siblings are more likely than their older siblings to have attended primary school, but there are no differences between siblings when considering primary school completion. Overall, divorce does not seem to have negative consequences on whether children have ever been enrolled in primary school. |
| Keywords: | Education,Senegal,Divorce |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-02652221&r=all |
| By: | Raouf Boucekkine (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UCL IRES - Institut de recherches économiques et sociales - UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain); Giorgio Fabbri (GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Salvatore Federico (DEPS - Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Statistica - UNISI - Università degli Studi di Siena); Fausto Gozzi (Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza [Roma] - LUISS - Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli [Roma]) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we revisit the theory of spatial externalities. In particular, we depart in several respects from the important literature studying the fundamental pollution free riding problem uncovered in the associated empirical works. First, instead of assuming ad hoc pollution diffusion schemes across space, we consider a realistic spatiotemporal law of motion for air and water pollution (diffusion and advection). Second, we tackle spatiotemporal non-cooperative (and cooperative) differential games. Precisely, we consider a circle partitioned into several states where a local authority decides autonomously about its investment, production and depollution strategies over time knowing that investment/production generates pollution, and pollution is transboundary. The time horizon is infinite. Third, we allow for a rich set of geographic heterogeneities across states while the literature assumes identical states. We solve analytically the induced non-cooperative differential game under decentralization and fully characterize the resulting long-term spatial distributions. We further provide with full exploration of the free riding problem, reflected in the so-called border effects. In particular, net pollution flows diffuse at an increasing rate as we approach the borders, with strong asymmetries under advection, and structural breaks show up at the borders. We also build a formal case in which a larger number of states goes with the exacerbation of pollution externalities. Finally, we explore how geographic discrepancies affect the shape of the border effects. |
| Keywords: | spatial externalities,environmental federalism,transboundary pollution,differential games in continuous time and space,infinite dimensional optimal control problems |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02613177&r=all |
| By: | Kai Barron (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin); Heike Harmgart (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London, UK, and Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin); Steffen Huck (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin); Sebastian Schneider (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We measure the prevalence of discrimination between Jordanian host and Syrian refugee children attending school in Jordan. Using a simple sharing experiment, we find only little discrimination. Among the Jordanian children, however, we see that those who descended from Palestinian refugees do not discriminate at all, suggesting that a family history of refugee status can generate solidarity with new refugees. We also find that parents’ narratives about the refugee crisis are correlated with the degree of discrimination, suggesting that discriminatory preferences are being transmitted through parental attitudes |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, refugees, children, experiment, integration |
| JEL: | C91 D90 J15 C93 J13 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2020_13&r=all |
| By: | Jacopo Bonan; Pietro Battiston; Jaimie Bleck; Philippe LeMay-Boucher; Stefano Pareglio; Bassirou Sarr; Massimo Tavoni |
| Abstract: | Easy-to-use and risk-free technologies, which require little investment and potentially provide health and environmental benefits, often have low adoption rates. Using a randomized experiment in urban Mali, we assess the impact of a training session in which information on an improved cookstove (ICS) is provided along with the opportunity to purchase the product at the market price. We find direct and spillover effects from our invitation to the session on ICS ownership and usage. We then randomly assign half of the training participants to receive information on a peer's actual purchase. Our results indicate that conditional on receiving information, an individual is more likely to adopt the product if informed about a peer they know and who purchased the product. Our sessions have no discernible impact on product knowledge or household welfare. We argue that social interaction, through imitation, can represent an important channel for increasing take-up and diffusion. |
| Keywords: | Technology Adoption, Social Interaction, Imitation Effects, Cookstoves, Mali |
| JEL: | D91 O33 O13 M31 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:442&r=all |
| By: | Christian Tilk (Johannes Gutenberg University); Katharina Olkis (Johannes Gutenberg University); Stefan Irnich (Johannes Gutenberg University) |
| Abstract: | The ongoing rise in e-commerce comes along with an increasing number of first-time delivery failures due to the absence of the customer at the delivery location. Failed deliveries result in rework which in turn has a large impact on the carriers’ delivery cost. In the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP) with time windows, each customer request has only one location and one time window describing where and when shipments need to be delivered. In contrast, we introduce and analyze the vehicle routing problem with delivery options (VRPDO), in which some requests can be shipped to alternative locations with possibly different time windows. Furthermore, customers may prefer some delivery options. The carrier must then select, for each request, one delivery option such that the carriers’ overall cost is minimized and a given service level regarding customer preferences is achieved. Moreover, when delivery options share a common location, e.g., a locker, capacities must be respected when assigning shipments. The VRPDO generalizes several known extensions of the VRP with time windows, e.g., the generalized VRP with time windows, the multi-vehicle traveling purchaser problem, and the VRP with roaming delivery locations. To solve the VRPDO exactly, we present a new branch-price-and-cut algorithm. The associated pricing subproblem is a shortest-path problem with resource constraints that we solve with a bidirectional labeling algorithm on an auxiliary network. We focus on the comparison of two alternative modeling approaches for the auxiliary network and present optimal solutions for instances with up to 100 delivery options. Moreover, we provide 17 new optimal solutions for the benchmark set for the VRP with roaming delivery locations. |
| Date: | 2020–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2017&r=all |
| By: | Kabunga, Nassul Ssentamu; Miehe, Caroline; Mogues, Tewodaj; Van Campenhout, Bjorn |
| Abstract: | To improve public service delivery, the Government of Uganda organizes community forums-popularly known as barazas-where citizens receive information from government offcials, and get the opportunity to directly engage with them. We run a cluster randomized control trial to assess the impact of this policy intervention on public service delivery in agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure. Using a factorial design, we further test the relative importance of the two main components of the intervention-information provision and citizen engagement. we also compare the effectiveness of barazas organized at the district level to the effectiveness of barazas organized at the sub-county level. Using a strictly pre-registered confirmatory analysis, we find no impact of the intervention on general public service delivery, but there are some indications that sub-county level barazas increase outcomes in the agricultural sector. A more exploratory part that looks at individual outcomes, potential mechanisms, and heterogeneous treatment effects suggests localized impacts of barazas in the areas of agricultural extension services and agricultural input distribution, access to drinking water, and school enrollment and infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | UGANDA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; community involvement; advocacy; forums; public services; information; assessment; households; barazas |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1933&r=all |
| By: | Giorgio Fabbri (Univ.Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, INRIA, Grenoble INP, GAEL, Grenoble, France); Silvia Faggian (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca’ Foscari, Italy); Giuseppe Freni (Department of Business and Economics, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Naples, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | We study the dynamics of the exploitation of a natural resource, distributed in space and mobile, where spatial diversification is introduced by a network structure. Players are assigned to different nodes by a regulator, after he/she decides at which nodes natural reserves are established. The game solution shows how the dynamics of spatial distribution depends on the productivity of the various sites, on the structure of the connections between the various locations, and on the preferences of the agents. At the same time, the best locations to host a nature reserve are identified in terms of the parameters of the model, and it turns out they correspond to the most central (in the sense of eigenvector centrality) nodes of a suitably redefined network which takes into account the nodes productivities. |
| Keywords: | Harvesting, spatial models, differential games, nature reserve |
| JEL: | Q20 Q28 R11 C73 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2020:07&r=all |
| By: | Kovacs, Roxanne; Dunaiski, Maurice; Janne, Tukiainen |
| Abstract: | There is currently a heated debate about whether to introduce policies requiring the general public to wear protective face masks to contain COVID-19. A key concern is that compulsory face mask policies will make the public feel safer (due to risk compensation), and may consequently undermine the most important public-health advice to contain COVID-19 – which is to reduce mobility and maintain social distancing. This study provides first evidence on the impact of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility. We use a difference-in-differences design, which exploits the staggered implementation of compulsory face mask policies by German states. We use anonymised GPS data from Google's Location History feature to measure daily mobility in public spaces (groceries and pharmacies, transport hubs and workplaces). We find no evidence that compulsory face mask policies affect community mobility in public spaces in Germany. The evidence provided in this paper makes a crucial contribution to ongoing debates about how to best manage the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Date: | 2020–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:m3sv8&r=all |
| By: | Eleftheriou, Konstantinos; Patsoulis, Patroklos |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of governments’ social distancing measures against the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on 45 major stock market indices. We find evidence of negative direct and indirect (spillover) effects for the initial period of containment measures (lockdown). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; government policy responses; spillover effects; stock market volatility |
| JEL: | C23 G15 I18 |
| Date: | 2020–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100662&r=all |
| By: | Dincer, Oguzhan; Gillanders, Robert |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the links between corruption and compliance with social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic in America. Both theory and empirical evidence point to a corrosive effect of corruption on trust/social capital which in turn determine people’s behavior towards compliance with public health policies. Using data from 50 states we find that people who live in more corrupt states are less likely to comply with so called shelter in place/stay at home orders. |
| Keywords: | Corruption; COVID-19; Social Distancing; Trust; Social Capital; American States |
| JEL: | D70 D73 H75 I18 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100746&r=all |