|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Maria Jose Doval Tedin; Violaine Faubert |
| Abstract: | This Economic Brief analyses the main drivers of housing prices in recent years and examines policy options to improve housing affordability. A decade of under-investment following a property crash in 2008 led to a decrease in the housing stock per capita in Ireland. Its composition also became inadequate to meet the increased demand for urban apartments. As a result of persistent housing shortages, house prices grew faster than household income and home affordability worsened, especially for low-income tenants and homebuyers living in and around Dublin. Macroprudential measures have helped curb house price inflation in the owner-occupied sector since 2018. By contrast, prices in the rental sector continued growing to levels well above those prior the 2008 crisis. The evolution of house prices after the COVID-19 pandemic will depend on the speed of the economic recovery. Lower house prices and uncertainty may reduce housing construction and worsen affordability. Increasing housing supply by scaling-up the construction of social housing, reducing the restrictiveness of rent legislation and the relatively high delivery cost of housing could improve affordability. The latter might entail curbing land price inflation, increasing the relatively low productivity of the construction sector and addressing skills shortages. In case of a sluggish recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, this may be combined with a temporary use of housing subsidies so as to help stabilise house prices and avoid risks in the financial markets. |
| Keywords: | Doval, Faubert, housing affordability, Ireland, housing prices, macro-prudential policy, rental market. |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:ecobri:061&r=all |
| By: | Charles Raux (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Ayana Lamatkhanova (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Lény Grassot (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Is built environment the most influential factor on travel behavior when compared to individual socioeconomic characteristics? This paper extends the empirical knowledge by providing and comparing quantitative estimates of these various effects on both commuting distance and mode choice in a European city spatial context, while using up-to-date and novel methodology. Eight indicators of built and social environment are identified in order to characterize clusters of residential locations, giving a rich view of spatial and social diversity of locations. To disentangle the causal effects of residential self selection and built environment, both sample selection and specific matching preprocessing ("coarsened exact matching", a novel approach in the field) are implemented. Regarding commuting distance, the true effect of built and social environment appears modest with an increase in the range of 10-20%. It comes behind individual socioeconomic characteristics such as car availability and qualification. Regarding commuting mode choice, again the true effect of built and social environment is modest, with a nearly 20%pt increase of car share and around 10%pt decrease or public transport share for the most prominent effects, and it comes behind car availability. These results suggest the primary importance of influencing directly car use, if not car ownership, in the European context, while trying to modify the built environment would provide only limited results. |
| Keywords: | Built environment,Commuting,Mode choice,Distance travelled,Lyon,France,Working Papers du LAET |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03010833&r=all |
| By: | Christoph Albert; Joan Monràs |
| Abstract: | Prior literature has documented large and persistent employment effects in regions exposed to import competition, but non-lasting effects in locations receiving large immigrant waves. Import competition and immigration are comparable to the extent that imports are thought of as the labor embedded in imported goods. We explain this puzzle by arguing that a fundamental difference between trade and immigration is that whereas immigrants systematically enter metropolitan areas with high housing prices, import competition affects all kinds of local labor markets. We argue that when housing expenditure is decreasing as a share of income, internal migration is more responsive to local shocks in high-price locations. We provide evidence that, irrespective of the local shock, internal migration is indeed more responsive in high than in low housing price locations. Hence, conflicting findings in the literature reflect differences between the average local labor markets receiving each shock, rather than systematic differences in how local labor markets absorb those different shocks. |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1223&r=all |
| By: | Díaz, Carlos (Catholic University of Uruguay); Patacchini, Eleonora (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | We study the interplay between parental and peer socialization in shaping criminal behavior among adolescents. We develop a simple cultural transmission model where parents affect how society influences their children's decisions. The model predicts that parental and peer socialization are substitutes in the development of juvenile crime. We then take the model to the data using information on a representative sample of adolescents in the United States. Using the geographical distances be- tween residential addresses of individuals in the same grade and school to measure peer influences, we find that negative peer effects on juvenile crime are significantly lower for teenagers with engaged mothers. Consistently with the prediction of our model, this evidence reveals an important role of parents in mediating the impact of neighborhoods on youth crime. The influence of parents is especially important for drug trafficking, assault and battery. |
| Keywords: | neighborhood peer effects, juvenile delinquency, parental involvement |
| JEL: | J13 K42 R11 R23 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13906&r=all |
| By: | Charlotte Bartels (Socio-Economic Panel at DIW Berlin); Carsten Schroeder (Socio-Economic Panel at DIW Berlin and Freie Universitaet Berlin) |
| Abstract: | We quantify the contribution of rental income to pre- and post-government equivalent household income inequality and of housing wealth to net wealth inequality between 2002 and 2017 in Germany by means of a factor decomposition. Further, we differentiate by region types (urban vs. rural, large vs. small municipalities) and federal states. We find that housing wealth, housing ownership and rental income particularly increased in large municipalities and urban areas; that rental income explains an increasing share of income inequality; and that the wealth inequality contribution of primary residence has increased over time, while the contribution of other real estate has decreased. Finally, we find an increasing rent load for the second quintile and the top quintile of the income distribution. |
| Keywords: | inequality, income, consumption, wealth |
| JEL: | C21 D12 D31 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agz:wpaper:2007&r=all |
| By: | Kaiji Chen; Qing Wang; Tong Xu; Tao Zha |
| Abstract: | Using three unique micro datasets, we find that an unexpected and unprecedented loosening of China's LTV policy for non-primary houses fueled the entire mortgage boom during 2014Q4-2016Q3. The mortgage expansion disproportionately increased the share of mortgages to middle-aged homeowners with high education, while their consumption growth declined persistently. To interpret these empirical findings, we develop a quantitative model and identify that homeowners' trade-up of their primary homes as speculative housing investment is a key channel for a change in LTV policy to exert aggregate and distributional impacts on mortgage markets. Our cross-city evidence provides empirical support for this channel. |
| JEL: | E02 E21 E50 G11 G12 G18 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28092&r=all |
| By: | ITF |
| Abstract: | This report tracks the progress in reducing the number of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in cities since 2010. It presents traffic safety data collected in 48 cities participating in the ITF Safer City Streets network and compares urban with national road safety trends. It provides indicators for the risk of traffic death for different road user groups, thereby enhancing the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes. |
| Date: | 2020–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:79-en&r=all |
| By: | Jacek Rothert (United States Naval Academy; Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE)); Ryan Brady (United States Naval Academy); Michael Insler (United States Naval Academy) |
| Abstract: | Fragmented by policies, united by outcomes: This is the picture of the United States that emerges from our analysis of the spatial diffusion of Covid-19 and the scattered lock-down policies introduced by individual states. We first use spatial econometric techniques to document spillovers of new infections across county and state lines, as well as the impact of individual states' lock-down policies on infections in neighboring states. We find evidence that new cases diffuse across county lines and that the diffusion across counties was affected by the closure policies of adjacent states. Spatial impulse response functions reveal that the diffusion across counties is persistent. We then develop a spatial version of the epidemiological SIR model where new infections arise from interactions between infected people in one state and susceptible people in the same or in neighboring states. We incorporate lock-down policies and calibrate the model to match both the cumulative and the new infections across the 48 contiguous U.S. states and DC. Our results suggest that lax policies in the most lenient states translate into millions of additional infections in the rest of the country. In our spatial SIR model, the spatial containment policies such as border closures have a bigger impact on flattening the infection curve in the short-run than on the cumulative infections in the long-run. |
| Keywords: | diffusion, spatial model, Covid-19, epidemics |
| JEL: | R15 H77 I19 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fme:wpaper:48&r=all |
| By: | Reich, Stephanie K.; Hintermann, Beat (University of Basel); Zischg, Andreas |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of multiple flood events on property prices in Zurich canton of Switzerland. By merging property transaction data with records from universal and mandatory building insurance, we are able to identify the effect of the informational content of floods separately from the damage caused. Our rich data allows us to control for a wide range of housing characteristics, thus reducing the bias from unobserved heterogeneity that routinely plagues hedonic regressions. We find that houses located in flood hazard zones sell at a discount relative to houses located outside, despite the presence of mandatory insurance that covers most (but not all) costs. Providing flood hazard information increases the value of houses that are assigned a low risk. Last, we look at the effect of floods on property prices and find that in the aftermath of flood events, properties that narrowly escaped damage were sold at a significant discount relative to houses located out of harm's way. This pure information effect decays shortly. |
| Keywords: | Flood risk; hedonic pricing; amenity value; availability bias; spatial hedonic model |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 R21 |
| Date: | 2020–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2020/18&r=all |
| By: | Ryan M. Hynes (School of Economics, University College Dublin); Bernardo S. Buarque (Spatial Dynamics Lab, University College Dublin); Ronald B. Davies (School of Economics, University College Dublin); Dieter F. Kogler (Spatial Dynamics Lab, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Perhaps more than any other product, beer evokes the place it was made. Weißbier and Germany, dubbels and Belgium, and most of all, Guinness and Ireland. Part of what makes these beers so memorable is what sets them apart and gives them their ‘taste of place’. Many studies have tried to place that taste, and due to a lack of detailed data, have relied largely on qualitative methods to do so. We introduce a novel data set of regionalized beer recipes, styles, and ingredients collected from a homebrewing website. We then turn to the methods of evolutionary economic geography to create regional ingredient networks for recipes within a style of beer, and identify which ingredients are most important to certain styles. Along with identifying these keystone ingredients, we calculate a style’s resiliency or reliance on one particular ingredient. We compare this resiliency within similar styles in different regions and across different styles in the same region to isolate the effects of region on ingredient choice. We find that while almost all beer styles have only a handful of key ingredients, some styles are more resilient than others due to readily available substitute ingredients in their region. |
| Keywords: | Beer, Economic Geography, Network Analysis |
| JEL: | Q10 R11 |
| Date: | 2020–11–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:202013&r=all |
| By: | Bach, Maximilian; Fischer, Mira |
| Abstract: | This paper studies responses to high-stakes incentives arising from early ability tracking. We use three complementary research designs exploiting differences in school track admission rules at the end of primary school in Germany's early ability tracking system. Our results show that the need to perform well to qualify for a better track raises students' math, reading, listening, and orthography skills in grade 4, the final grade before students are sorted into tracks. Evidence from self-reported behavior suggests that these effects are driven by greater study effort but not parental responses. However, we also observe that stronger incentives decrease student well-being and intrinsic motivation to study. |
| Keywords: | Student Effort,Tracking,Incentives |
| JEL: | I20 I28 I29 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2020202&r=all |
| By: | Mendez, Carlos; Gonzales, Erick |
| Abstract: | Using a novel municipal-level dataset and spatial clustering methods, this article studies the distribution of human capital constraints across 339 municipalities in Bolivia. In particular, the spatial distribution of five human capital constraints are evaluated: chronic malnutrition in children, non-Spanish speaking population, secondary dropout rates of males, secondary dropout rates of females, and the inequality of years of education. Through the lens of both spatial dependence and regionalization frameworks, the municipalities of Bolivia are endogenously classified according to both their level of human capital constraints and their locational similarity. Results from the spatial dependence analysis indicate the location of hotspots (high-value clusters), coldspots (low-value clusters), and spatial outliers for each of the previously listed constraints. Results from the regionalization analysis indicate that Bolivia can be regionalized into six to seven geographical locations that face similar constraints in the accumulation of human capital. The article concludes by highlighting the usefulness of spatial data analysis for designing and monitoring human development goals. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, Spatial dependence, Regionalization, Cluster analysis, Bolivia |
| JEL: | C38 J24 R10 |
| Date: | 2020–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:104303&r=all |
| By: | Ioana Marinescu; Ivan Ouss; Louis-Daniel Pape |
| Abstract: | How does employer market power affect workers? We compute the concentration of new hires by occupation and commuting zone in France using linked employer-employee data. Using instrumental variables with worker and firm fixed effects, we find that a 10% increase in labor market concentration decreases hires by 12.4% and the wages of new hires by nearly 0.9%, as hypothesized by monopsony theory. Based on a simple merger simulation, we find that a merger between the top two employers in the retail industry would be most damaging, with about 24 million euros in annual lost wages for new hires, and an 8000 decrease in annual hires. |
| JEL: | J23 J3 J42 K21 L13 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28084&r=all |
| By: | Agnese Carella (Bank of Italy); Federica Ciocchetta (Bank of Italy); Valentina Michelangeli (Bank of Italy); Federico Maria Signoretti (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We exploit a novel dataset on mortgages offered by banks through Italy’s main online mortgage broker, which works with banks representing over 80 per cent of mortgages granted, to gain an up-to-date assessment of loan supply conditions. Characteristics of mortgages are reported for about 85,000 borrower-contract profiles, constant over time, available at the beginning of each month starting from March 2018. We document that riskier applications, characterized by high loan-to-value ratios and long maturity, are, on average, offered by a smaller number of banks that charge higher interest rates. Online banks tend to provide better price conditions than traditional intermediaries. We use the online rates offered to nowcast bank-level official (MIR) interest rate statistics, available only several weeks later. By using both regression analysis and machine learning algorithms, we show that the rates offered have significant predictive content for fixed-rate contracts, also after controlling for time-varying demand conditions, market reference rates, and unobserved time-invariant bank characteristics. Machine learning algorithms provide further improvements over regression models in out of sample predictions. |
| Keywords: | mortgage, experimental data, risk-taking, nowcasting |
| JEL: | G21 C81 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_583_20&r=all |
| By: | Sweta Gupta (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | Despite a long-standing preschool policy and investment in preschool infrastructure in India, dating back to 1975, a rigorous evaluation of preschools in India remains virtually absent. Using data from three geographically and economically distinct states in India, the paper studies the immediate (1 year) impact of attending a preschool before starting primary school on cognitive, early language and numeracy skills. It additionally studies the heterogeneity in value-added of preschools by their management type. I find that there is a positive and significant premium of attending a preschool before starting primary school. However, the entire effect is driven by children who attend private preschools. There is considerable regional heterogeneity in the private-public gap in learning levels with Telangana exhibiting the highest private preschool premium. A descriptive study of the preschool quality by management type showed that private preschools have lower student-teacher ratios, longer hours of operation and a focus on formal instructional style of teaching. On the other hand, public preschools conduct more play-based activities. The results of this paper are particularly relevant in the backdrop of the new National Education Policy (Government of India, 2020), which stresses the need to improve foundational literacy and numeracy skills as early as in the preschool years. Given the findings of this paper, public preschools would need considerable overhaul to be able to deliver on closing the learning gaps. Moreover, the varying levels at which children start primary school based on their preschool experience highlight the need for educators to develop innovative pedagogical tools to effectively address learning heterogeneity within the classroom. |
| Keywords: | Early Childhood, Education, Preschools, Value Added Models, Private |
| JEL: | I21 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susewp:2020&r=all |
| By: | Huang, Donna; Leishman, Chris; Ong, Rachel; Lester, Laurence; Liang, Weidong |
| Abstract: | This research considered the economic literature relating to pandemics and modelled a range of related economic outcomes on employment and unemployment by sector and on the housing outcomes of home owners, private renters, and small investor landlords in Australia from late 2020 and through 2021. |
| Date: | 2020–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:p63nw&r=all |
| By: | Cevat Giray Aksoy; Panu Poutvaara; Felicitas Schikora |
| Abstract: | We study the causal effect of local labor market conditions and attitudes towards immigrants at the time of arrival on refugees’ multi-dimensional integration outcomes (economic, linguistic, navigational, political, psychological, and social). Using a unique dataset on refugees, we leverage a centralized allocation policy in Germany where refugees were exogenously assigned to live in specific counties. We find that high initial local unemployment negatively affects refugees’ economic and social integration: they are less likely to be in education or employment and they earn less. We also show that favorable attitudes towards immigrants promote refugees’ economic and social integration. The results suggest that attitudes toward immigrants are as important as local unemployment rates in shaping refugees’ integration outcomes. Using a machine learning classifier algorithm, we find that our results are driven by older people and those with secondary or tertiary education. Our findings highlight the importance of both initial economic and social conditions for facilitating refugee integration, and have implications for the design of centralized allocation policies. |
| Keywords: | international migration, refugees, integration, allocation policy |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8747&r=all |
| By: | Gao, Hang; Cheng, Shenyang; Zhang, Michael |
| Abstract: | The model based variable speed limit (VSL) control has been proven effective to resolve capacity-drop and time delay at a single recurrent bottleneck in previous studies. This project applies VSL controls to the traffic corridors with multi-segment and multi-bottleneck with the objective of reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Based on a comprehensive review of existing methods, we develop and compare two fuel consumption centered VSL control (FC-VSL) strategies: flow-based control versus density-based control. These control strategies are implemented in SUMO, a microscopic traffic simulation package, on a 10-mile long freeway section. Results show that the density-based control reduces fuel consumption and gas emissions significantly at the cost of slight increase of travel time. The flow-based control, in contrast, reduces congestion and emissions in the downstream segments but transfers the congestion to the segments upstream of the controlled segments, resulting in an overall performance that is worse than the density-based FC-VSL, and no better than imposing static speed limits. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Variable speed limit, traffic throughput, emissions and fuel consumptions, microscopic simulation, probe vehicles |
| Date: | 2020–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt6th037wz&r=all |
| By: | Cem Özgüzel (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first direct evidence on how the geographical mobility of immigrants cushions natives during a labor demand shock. Spain was one of the hardest-hit economies during the Great Recession. Faced with a drop in the local labor demand, immigrant workers moved within Spain or left the country, generating significant decreases in local labor supply. Focusing on this episode, I use microdata from municipal registers and longitudinal Spanish administrative data to study the effects of outflow of the immigrant population from provinces on the wages and employment of the natives. I build a shift-share instrument based on the past settlements of the immigrant population across Spain to instrument outflows and argue for a causal relationship. I find that outflow of immigrants slowed down the decline in employment and wage of natives, especially of those with higher substitutability with immigrants. Moreover, I find that increased transitions from unemployment and inactivity to employment drive the positive employment effects, while wage effects are limited to those who were already employed. These findings reveal that the higher geographical mobility of immigrants cushions the natives during a demand shock. |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03000365&r=all |
| By: | André de Palma; Patrick Stokkink; Nikolas Geroliminis (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA) |
| Abstract: | Carpooling is an efficient measure to fight car ownership and reduce vehicle kilometers travelled. By sharing their commutes, vehicle occupancy increases and congestion is reduced. We develop a dynamic ADL (Arnott, de Palma, Lindsey)-Vickrey approach for a corridor monocentric city à la Hotelling. First, we formulate the matching problem of heterogeneous users in carpooling as an MILP problem and we discuss its analytical properties. Next, we construct a bi-level optimization problem involving matching (first stage) and dynamic traffic congestion (second stage). We provide a heuristic to attain an optimal matching for a dynamic traffic equilibrium with congestion. Such a template allows studying the two-way causality between dynamic congestion and carpooling matching. |
| Keywords: | Carpooling, Ride-sharing, Matching, Scheduling delay, Bottleneck congestion |
| JEL: | C78 R40 R41 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2020-12&r=all |
| By: | ITF |
| Abstract: | This report examines the safety aspects associated with the increasing use of e-scooters and other forms of micromobility in cities. The rise of micromobility challenges existing regulations for urban traffic and forces policy makers to rethink them. The report considers a range of actions to make urban traffic with micromobility safe, including in street layout, vehicle design and vehicle operation, user education and enforcement of rules. It also asks whether a shift towards micromobility can have potential safety benefits. |
| Date: | 2020–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:85-en&r=all |
| By: | Tara Beteille; Elaine Ding; Ezequiel Molina; Adelle Pushparatnam; Tracy Wilichowski |
| Keywords: | Education - Early Childhood Development Education - Educational Technology and Distance Education Education - Effective Schools and Teachers Education - Primary Education |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:33775&r=all |
| By: | Friedman, Joseph; York, Hunter; Mokdad, Ali; Gakidou, Emmanuela |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to education in the United States, with a large proportion of schooling moving to online formats, which has the potential to exacerbate existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in learning. We visualize access to online learning technologies using data from the Household Pulse Survey from the early Fall 2020 school year (August 19-October 26). We find that 10.1% of children participating in online-learning nationally did not have adequate access to the internet and a computer. Rates of inadequate access varied nearly twentyfold across the gradient of parental race/ethnicity and education, from 1.9% for children of Asian parents with a graduate degree, to 35.5% among children of Black parents with less than a high school education. These findings indicate alarming gaps in potential learning among US children. Renewed investments in equitable access to distance-learning resources will be necessary to prevent widening racial/ethnic and class learning disparities. |
| Date: | 2020–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:42trc&r=all |
| By: | Diaz-Serrano, Luis (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) |
| Abstract: | A straightforward way of keeping children in school is increasing the duration of compulsory education. Evidence of the impact of this type of policy in Western countries is abundant. However, its effectiveness has been rarely tested in low-income countries. Using panel data of low-income and lower-middle-income countries covering the period 1996-2017, this paper analyzes the impact of lengthening the duration of compulsory education on the progression of children from primary to secondary education. The empirical results show that in those countries where this policy is implemented, there is a significant increase in the share of children progressing from primary to secondary education but only in those countries where after the reform the duration of compulsory education becomes longer than the duration of primary education. |
| Keywords: | compulsory education, educational achievement, educational transitions, low-income countries, panel data, education policy |
| JEL: | I21 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13918&r=all |
| By: | ITF |
| Abstract: | This study explores where automated decision-making systems impact transport activity, and how. More and more transport activity is influenced by algorithms. Automated decision-making is taking a hold in areas from health care and housing to media and mobility. In transport, algorithms are a core feature for services from public transport scheduling to routing apps, bicycle sharing to self-driving technology, parcel delivery to the dispatching of ride services. How can policy makers ensure mobility driven by algorithmic code supports societal objectives? |
| Date: | 2019–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:82-en&r=all |
| By: | Emma Wadie |
| Keywords: | Private Sector Development - Business Development Services Private Sector Development - Business Environment Private Sector Development - Small and Medium Size Enterprises Social Protections and Labor - Employment and Unemployment Social Protections and Labor - Labor Markets Urban Development - City Development Strategies Urban Development - Urban Economic Development |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:33728&r=all |
| By: | Assaf Razin |
| Abstract: | The paper compares migration policy and welfare state generosity between America and Europe. There is more selective skill-based migration policy in the US compared to the European Union. Policy coordination among states within the federal system on migration, taxes, and social benefits among states within the US federal system is stronger than among countries within the European Union. Fiscal externality, triggered by migration and tax competition among members of the federal system may explain in part these US-Europe differences in policies. |
| JEL: | F0 H0 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28126&r=all |
| By: | Wong, Stephen D; Walker, Joan L; Shaheen, Susan A |
| Abstract: | Advances in the sharing economy – such as transportation network companies (e.g., Lyft, Uber) and home sharing (e.g., Airbnb) – have coincided with the increasing need for evacuation resources. While peer-to-peer sharing under normal circumstances often suffers from trust barriers, disaster literature indicates that trust and compassion often increase following disasters, improving recovery efforts. We hypothesize that trust and compassion could trigger willingness to share transportation and sheltering resources during an evacuation. To test this hypothesis, we distributed a survey to individuals impacted by the 2017 Southern California Wildfires (n=226) and the 2018 Carr Wildfire (n=284). We estimate binary logit choice models, finding that high trust in neighbors and strangers and high compassion levels significantly increase willingness to share across four sharing scenarios. Assuming a high trust/compassion population versus a low trust/compassion population results in a change of likelihood to share between 30% and 55%, depending on scenario. Variables related to departure timing and routing – which capture evacuation urgency – increase transportation sharing willingness. Volunteers in past disasters and members of community organizations are usually more likely to share, while families and previous evacuees are typically less likely. Significance of other demographic variables is highly dependent on the scenario. Spare seatbelts and bed capacity, while increasing willingness, are largely insignificant. These results suggest that future sharing economy strategies should cultivate trust and compassion before disasters via preparedness within neighborhoods, community-based organizations, and volunteer networks, during disasters through communication from officials, and after disasters using resilience-oriented and community-building information campaigns. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Evacuations, sharing economy, shared mobility, ridehailing, homesharing, California wildfire |
| Date: | 2020–10–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt14z1383w&r=all |
| By: | Anderson, D. Mark (Montana State University); Charles, Kerwin Kofi (Harris School, University of Chicago); Rees, Daniel I. (University of Colorado Denver) |
| Abstract: | In 1966, Southern hospitals were barred from participating in Medicare unless they discontinued their long-standing practice of racial segregation. Using data from five Deep South states and exploiting county-level variation in Medicare certification dates, we find that gaining access to an ostensibly integrated hospital had no effect on the Black-White infant mortality gap, although it may have discouraged small numbers of Black mothers from giving birth at home attended by a midwife. These results are consistent with descriptions of the federal hospital desegregation campaign as producing only cosmetic changes and illustrate the limits of anti-discrimination policies imposed upon reluctant actors. |
| Keywords: | hospital desegregation, black infant mortality, Medicare, civil rights |
| JEL: | I14 I18 N32 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13920&r=all |
| By: | Giovanna Messina (Bank of Italy); Antonella Tomasi (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Solid waste management is one of the most important functions performed by Italian municipalities and is mostly financed through local property taxes. Alternative financing schemes, known as ‘pay-as-you throw’ (PAYT), are designed to price each additional unit of waste and are becoming increasingly frequent at international level. Their advantages in terms of efficiency and equity, as well as of care for the environment, have been investigated both theoretically and empirically. This paper estimates the impact of PAYT schemes on the amount of waste produced and on the costs of its disposal for Italian municipalities. Results show that PAYT schemes deeply affect user behavior: total waste decreases (unsorted waste almost halves). Overall, the costs incurred by municipalities adopting PAYT fall by roughly 10 to 20 per cent in per capita terms, reflecting a reduction of one third in the cost of managing undifferentiated waste. |
| Keywords: | pay-as-you-throw, municipal solid waste management, policy evaluation |
| JEL: | D78 H23 H71 Q53 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_584_20&r=all |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Transport - Transport Economics Policy & Planning Health, Nutrition and Population - Disease Control & Prevention Health, Nutrition and Population - Public Health Promotion Urban Development - Transport in Urban Areas Transport - Railways Transport |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:34051&r=all |
| By: | Chukwudi Henry Dike |
| Abstract: | This paper models interactions of firms in a pre-trading(fixed network of lending/borrowing) period whereby firms set fixed lending rates given loan management cost. We show strategic substitution in the rate each firm sets and more fundamentally, propose that the rates charged to debtors by a creditor firm is likened to results from a private provision of public good in networks game. We then highlight specific core-periphery network properties in relation to interdependence and Nash rate charged by firms. For welfare policies, we find neutrality of intervention policies that create or reduce transaction cost and improvement based on policies that provide administrative subsidies thus creating an avenue for cost effective resource transfer policy. Lastly, we find significant relationship between a firms centrality measured by weaker negative externality and welfare improvement due to such subsidy. |
| JEL: | C72 D44 D85 E43 H23 |
| Date: | 2020–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2020:pdi579&r=all |
| By: | Piotr Lewandowski; Jakub Soko³owski; Jan Frankowski |
| Abstract: | Inefficient heating and insufficient access to energy services can turn a shelter into a health hazard. We study how energy poverty associated with having substandard housing and ineffective heating is related to the risk of developing poor health in an urban context. We conducted a survey of 1,735 individuals living in two middle-sized cities in a coal-dependent region of Poland. We use objective and subjective indicators to measure energy poverty, and self-assessed health status to identify individuals with respiratory, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal diseases. We find that compared to people living in suitable housing conditions, people who live in substandard housing are more likely to exhibit poor musculoskeletal and cardiovascular outcomes, on average by 10.6 and 6 pp, respectively. Our results also indicate that the energy-poor who use a coal or a wood stove in an apartment have a higher likelihood of developing a respiratory disease (by 27.9 pp on average) than people in energy poverty connected to district heating. In addition, we find that 16% of the explained variance in the probability of developing a respiratory disease is attributable to energy poverty. |
| Keywords: | energy poverty, heating, housing, health, pollution |
| JEL: | D10 I14 I32 Q53 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp102020&r=all |
| By: | Cowling, Marc; Brown, Ross; Lee, Neil |
| Abstract: | Business angels (BAs) - high net worth individuals who provide informal risk capital to firms - are seen as important providers of entrepreneurial finance. Theory and conventional wisdom suggest that the need for face-to-face interaction will ensure angels will have a strong predilection for local investments. We empirically test this assumption using a large representative survey of UK BAs. Our results show local bias is less common than previously thought with only one quarter of total investments made locally. However, we also show pronounced regional disparities, with investment activity dominated by BAs in London and Southern England. In these locations there is a stronger propensity for localised investment patterns mediated by the “thick” nature of the informal risk capital market. Together these trends further reinforce and exacerbate the disparities evident in the UK’s financial system. The findings make an important contribution to the literature and public policy debates on the uneven nature of financial markets for sources of entrepreneurial finance. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial finance; Business Angels; equity investment; local bias; public policy |
| JEL: | L81 |
| Date: | 2020–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107814&r=all |
| By: | Hoyt Bleakley (University of Michigan); Bhanu Gupta (Ashoka University) |
| Abstract: | While increasing average years of school has been a development priority for decades, the associated fiscal costs and benefits have been less studied, in part because of the lack of appropriate data. Recently UNESCO organized a project measuring the extent of subsidies, by level of schooling, from all levels of government, in eight developing countries. One of these countries was Nepal, which also has a household budget survey that permits us to estimate the degree of formality, tax payment, and benefit receipt as a function of years of schooling. Using a simple Mincer-like model, we estimate the fiscal externality associated with an additional year of school. In contrast to previous literature on social returns and assumptions underlying multilateral development goals, we find that within primary school, fiscal benefits and costs, on the margin, are quite balanced, with subsidies closest to the present value of future taxes minus benefits. At higher levels of schooling, however, marginal fiscal benefits exceed costs by 5 percent of per-capita consumption. |
| Keywords: | Taxation, Subsidies, Schooling Decision, Nepal |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:46&r=all |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Transport - Transport and Trade Logistics Transport - Roads & Highways Transport - Railways Transport |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:34118&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Gouëdard; Beatriz Pont; Susan Hyttinen; Pinhsuan Huang |
| Abstract: | Countries consider curriculum reform as an important and necessary measure to make schools enter the 21st century and respond to a fast-changing world. In recent years, many OECD countries have engaged in curriculum reform as a way to equip children with the knowledge, skills and competences needed for tomorrow. However, how to initiate such change in the most suitable and effective way remains somewhat challenging. In other words, there is a missing step between the intention, and the realisation of this curriculum renewal, crystallising what has been coined in the literature “the implementation gap”.This paper analyses the curriculum reform literature through the lens of the OECD proposed implementation framework that promotes, among others, inclusive stakeholder engagement. Curriculum reform has indeed long been considered from a “top-down” perspective, but has progressively shifted towards a more “bottom-up” approach, emphasising the central role of teachers in the process. The analysis is enriched with successful practices and examples from different countries, and concludes with a specific resource for countries to make the lessons learned actionable through the planning of a coherent curriculum implementation strategy |
| Date: | 2020–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:239-en&r=all |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Education - Access & Equity in Basic Education Education - Educational Institutions & Facilities Education - Effective Schools and Teachers Education - Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:34034&r=all |
| By: | Riaz Bhardwaj; Noah Yarrow; Massimiliano Cali |
| Keywords: | Education - Educational Institutions & Facilities Education - Educational Technology and Distance Education Education - Secondary Education Infrastructure Economics and Finance - Private Participation in Infrastructure |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:33762&r=all |