|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Bonakdar, Said Benjamin |
| Abstract: | The rising concentration of low-income households and ethnic minorities has become an important policy issue in Germany. The Ruhr Area is particularly interesting, because it is one of the largest conurbations in Europe and experienced radical structural changes in the past, which are connected to the boom and the deindustrialization of the coal mining and steel industry. Since there is no empirical evidence about the extent of residential segregation within the cities of the Ruhr Area, I use micro data on house-coordinates levels to investigate the urban structure of Bochum, which is located in the center of the conurbation. The results show that Bochum can be characterized by four different clusters under consideration of socioeconomic variables, dwelling rents and psychological indicators, e.g. captured by the so-called Sinus Milieus and Limbic Types. With a CHAID decision tree on dwelling rents I learned that especially dwelling size is a key separator between higher and lower dwelling prices in Bochum. The variables identified in the decision tree, like e.g. number of rooms or construction year, are used for hedonic price estimations within all clusters and show positive effects on dwelling rents. Finally, I found that, across all clusters, a rise in different satisfaction types also increase the odds of houses to be located in neighbourhoods with positive moving balance, which is a proxy for a high willingness-to-stay. |
| Keywords: | Urban housing,housing prices,rent,neighbourhood characteristics,segregation |
| JEL: | R21 R23 R31 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:914&r= |
| By: | Alberto Dalmazzo; Guido de Blasio; Samuele Poy |
| Abstract: | We model the impact of public housing supply on local development by using a spatial equilibrium model with a “share-altering” technological shift from agriculture to manufacturing. The model shows that a larger local availability of houses triggers greater population growth and, consequently, industrialization. It also suggests that these effects are stronger in places that exhibited, prior to the public housing plan, relatively higher population density. These implications are broadly confirmed by an empirical evaluation of the INA-Casa plan, a program implemented by the Italian government in the aftermath of WWII. |
| Keywords: | Housing policy, urbanization, industrialization |
| JEL: | O14 R11 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:856&r= |
| By: | Joseph Gyourko; Jacob Krimmel |
| Abstract: | We provide estimates of the impact of restrictive residential land use environments on the price of land across major American housing markets. Using micro data on vacant land purchased to develop single family housing, we implement a new empirical strategy for estimating so-called ‘zoning taxes’ – the amount by which land prices are bid up due to supply side regulations. Our results are broadly consistent with previous findings that zoning taxes are especially burdensome in large coastal markets. However, our more recent data indicates that price impacts in the big west coast markets now are the largest in the nation. In the San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle metropolitan areas, the price of land everywhere within those three markets having been bid up by amounts that at least equal typical household income. Finally, we show that our zoning tax estimates are strongly positively correlated with a new measure of local housing market supply constraint (the Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index of 2018). This relationship is not mechanically driven as the regulatory index is constructed from survey data that do not incorporate land or house price data in any way. |
| JEL: | R14 R21 R31 R52 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28993&r= |
| By: | Abdurrahman B. Aydemir (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabancı University); Erkan Duman (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabancı University) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates effects of birth place migration networks and other location attributes on destination choices of internal migrants conditional on migration. We also study heterogeneity in the role of these factors for migrant types who differ by skill group, age at migration, and reason of migration. We use data on male migrants from three rounds of Turkish censuses 1985, 1990 and 2000 who choose among 67 provinces. We find that migrants are drawn to provinces with larger networks, relatively better economic conditions, and distance is a significant deterrent for migration. There are, however, significant heterogeneities across migrant types. More educated and those migrating for employment reasons rely less on networks for destination choice. More educated move longer distances and labor market conditions play a significant role only in choices of migrants moving for employment reasons. Importance of labor market conditions increases and the effect of distance decreases with age. |
| Keywords: | migration, networks, destination choice, education, reason of migration, heterogeneous effects. |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R23 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:2109&r= |
| By: | Mikulić, Josip; Vizek, Maruska; Stojcic, Nebojsa; Payne, James E.; Čeh Časni, Anita; Barbić, Tajana |
| Abstract: | Although researchers have confirmed the impact of tourism on housing prices in many destinations affected with overtourism, they do not consider housing affordability in relation to the population’s income levels. This study explores the relationship between tourism activity and housing affordability, using a sample of Croatian municipalities. Specifically, the study investigates how tourist accommodation, concentration, seasonality and overall vulnerability to tourism influence housing affordability in this emerging tourism-driven European country. The results obtained reveal tourism intensification’s deteriorating effect on local residents’ abilities to afford housing. The findings indicate a particularly strong tourism seasonality impact, suggesting the presence of common negative externalities, such as employment fluctuations, difficulties in maintaining economic status, and revenue instabilities, in localities prone to seasonal tourism fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | tourism intensity; housing affordability; dynamic panel model; Croatia |
| JEL: | L83 R2 R31 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108688&r= |
| By: | Konagane, Joji; Kono, Tatsuhito |
| Abstract: | This paper explores heterogenous commuters’ train choices with different arrival times and residential locations in a city composed of a single CBD and multiple residential zones. First, we analyze the relation between the cost of train overcrowding and train choice, given three residential location patterns according to income level, which are discussed in Fujita (1989) and Tabuchi (2019). Next, we analyze the necessary conditions for the existence of the residential location patterns on the basis of the relation between train overcrowding and train choice in equilibrium. The obtained necessary conditions depend on the values of time, housing lot sizes, and the overcrowding costs. The overcrowding costs depend on the choices of trains with different arrival times in equilibrium. Finally, in quantitative analysis, we showhowmuch the socialwelfare improves due to the first-best congestion fares, depending on the residential location patterns. In any residential pattern, households with the lowest income increase their utilities the most among all households with different incomes, whereas households with the highest income lose their utilities. |
| Keywords: | Train overcrowding; Schedule delay costs; Heterogeneous households; Muth condition; Congestion fares |
| JEL: | H2 H21 R4 |
| Date: | 2021–06–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108507&r= |
| By: | Seah, Kelvin (National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | While there is now much evidence in the literature that assignment to ethnically-congruent teachers results in better student outcomes like achievement and teachers' evaluations of their behavior for Black and White students, findings appear to be noticeably mixed for Hispanic students. This paper shows that a potential reason for the mixed findings for Hispanic students lies in the fact that previous studies have not adequately accounted for the cultural background of students and teachers. Unlike existing studies, which define matches to occur when a student and teacher report having the same race, I define matches to occur only if the student and teacher report having both the same race and native language. The rationale is that race and native language together provide a more complete picture of ethnic identity compared to only race. Employing a student fixed effects strategy, and comparing two different teachers' evaluations of the same student, I find that Hispanic students receive more favorable evaluations from Hispanic teachers who share the same native language than Hispanic teachers who speak a different native language or non-Hispanic teachers. This suggests that more coherent findings may emerge if researchers additionally consider native language in defining ethnic matches. |
| Keywords: | race and native language matching, Hispanic students, educational economics, student-teacher assignment |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14516&r= |
| By: | Drilo, Boris; Stojcic, Nebojsa; Vizek, Maruska |
| Abstract: | We explore how improvements in digital infrastructure contribute to digital transformation of the Croatian economy. More specifically, we investigate under what conditions improvements in broadband speed are conductive for firm entry in digitally intensive sectors at the local level (cities and municipalities; LGUs) during the period 2014–2017. The results of the benchmark random effects panel data model suggest a 10 percent increase in broadband speed increases the number of new digitally intensive firms by 0.68. Two-way interactions between explanatory variables suggest improvements in broadband infrastructure yield the greatest number of new firm entries in densely populated LGUs, and in LGUs with a higher quality of human capital and greater public investment in physical infrastructure. Using the spatial Durbin panel method, we find improvements in broadband infrastructure exhibit positive firm entry effects both within and between cities and municipalities. |
| Keywords: | firm entry; digitally intensive sectors; broadband speed; digital transformation; Croatia; spatial spillovers |
| JEL: | D22 L26 M13 O33 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108717&r= |
| By: | Nguyen, Ha Trong; Mitrou, Francis; Zubrick, Stephen R. |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first causal evidence on the impact of retirement on housing choices. Our empirical strategy exploits the discontinuity in the eligibility ages for state pension as an instrument for the endogenous retirement decision and controls for time-invariant individual characteristics. The results show that retirement leads to a statistically significant and sizable increase in the probability of making a residential move or the likelihood of becoming outright homeowners. We also find that individuals downsize both physically and financially and tend to move to better neighbourhoods or closer to the coast upon retirement. We additionally discover that some housing adjustments take place up to 6 years before retirement. Moreover, our results reveal significant heterogeneity in the retirement impact by gender, marital status, education, housing tenue, income and wealth. Within couple households, housing mobility choices are primarily influenced by the wife’s retirement while housing downsizing decisions are only affected by the husband’s retirement. The results suggest that failing to address the endogeneity of retirement often under-states the retirement impact on such housing arrangements. |
| Keywords: | Retirement,Housing,Migration,Residential Mobility,Quality of Neighbourhood,Downsizing,Instrumental Variable |
| JEL: | J14 J26 J61 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:882&r= |
| By: | Ernest Miguelez (Université de Bordeaux and AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona); Andrea Morrison (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | How do regions enter new and distant technological fields? Who is triggering this process? This work addresses these compelling research questions by investigating the role of migrant inventors in the process of technological diversification. Immigrant inventors can indeed act as carriers of knowledge across borders and influence the direction of technological change. We test these latter propositions by using an original dataset of immigrant inventors in the context of European regions during the period 2003-2011. Our findings show that: immigrant inventors generate positive local knowledge spillovers; they help their host regions to develop new technological specialisations; they trigger a process of unrelated diversification. Their contribution comes via two main mechanisms: immigrant inventors use their own personal knowledge (knowledge creation); they import knowledge from their home country to the host region (knowledge transfer). Their impact is maximised when their knowledge is not recombined with the local one (in mixed teams of inventors), but it is reused (in teams made by only migrant inventors). Our work contributes to the existing literature of regional diversification by providing fresh evidence of unrelated diversification for European regions and by identifying important agents of structural change. It also contributes to the literature of migration and innovation by adding fresh evidence on European regions and by unveiling some of the mechanisms of immigrants’ knowledge transmission. |
| Keywords: | Patents, Migration, Technological diversification, Relatedness, Europe. JEL classification: O30, F20, F60 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:202105&r= |
| By: | Alastair Thomas (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the taxation of housing in Israel, and proposes a set of reforms to improve the efficiency and fairness of the current system. Israel’s housing tax system faces similar problems to those of many other OECD countries. In particular, a bias arises in favour of owner-occupied property relative to rented property due to the non-taxation of imputed rents and most capital gains. That said, unlike many OECD countries, Israel taxes some owner-occupied capital gains (above a generous threshold) and generally does not allow mortgage interest relief for owner-occupied properties, reducing the extent of the distortion more than in many countries. As with most OECD countries, Israel levies highly distortionary transaction taxes, although a zero-rate band significantly limits the number of owner-occupied house purchases subject to the tax. Additionally, Israel’s recurrent property tax (the Arnona) faces a number of design problems, while the tax rules for rental income are complex and subject to significant tax evasion. To address these concerns, a reform package is proposed that involves a gradual and broadly revenue-neutral shift away from transaction taxes towards recurrent taxation of residential property, via increases in both the recurrent property tax and rental income taxation. The redesign of the recurrent property tax from an area-based to a market value-based tax is also proposed, as are a number of more technical reforms. |
| Date: | 2021–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ctpaaa:53-en&r= |
| By: | Bryan S. Graham (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of California, Berkeley); Geert Ridder (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Southern California); Petra Thiemann (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Gema Zamarro (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | We study the e?ects of counterfactual teacher-to-classroom assignments on average student achievement in elementary and middle schools in the US. We use the Measures of E?ective Teaching (MET) experiment to semiparametrically identify the average re-allocation e?ects (AREs) of such assignments. Our ?ndings suggest that changes in within-district teacher assignments could have appreciable e?ects on student achievement. Unlike policies which require hiring additional teachers (e.g., class-size reduction measures), or those aimed at changing the stock of teachers (e.g., VAM-guided teacher tenure policies), alternative teacher-to-classroom assignments are resource neutral; they raise student achievement through a more e?cient deployment of existing teachers. |
| Date: | 2020–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:36/20&r= |
| By: | Eric Chyn; Lawrence F. Katz |
| Abstract: | How does one's place of residence affect individual behavior and long-run outcomes? Understanding neighborhood and place effects has been a leading question for social scientists during the past half-century. Recent empirical studies using experimental and quasi-experimental research designs have generated new insights on the importance of residential neighborhoods in childhood and adulthood. This paper summarizes the recent neighborhood effects literature and interprets the findings. Childhood neighborhoods affect long-run economic and educational outcomes in a manner consistent with exposure models of neighborhood effects. For adults, neighborhood environments matter for their health and well-being but have more ambiguous impacts on labor market outcomes. We discuss the evidence on the mechanisms behind the observed patterns and conclude by highlighting directions for future research. |
| JEL: | H75 I38 R23 R38 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28953&r= |
| By: | Elliot Anenberg; Daniel R. Ringo |
| Abstract: | During the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing market has tightened considerably. The tighter housing market could reflect increased demand (higher inflow of buyers to the market), reduced supply (lower inflow of sellers to the market), or some combination of the two. |
| Date: | 2021–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2021-07-08-1&r= |
| By: | Fredrik Carlsen (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Stefan Leknes (Research Department, Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use survey data to examine heterogeneity in the urban gradient of subjective well-being. Are some sociodemographic groups more satisfied in cities than others? We find that young, single and childless persons with high income and education generally report higher levels of satisfaction in Norway’s largest city, Oslo, compared to the rest of the country. These results may shed light on why the received literature has produced mixed results, as the sociodemographic composition of city populations, as well as the surveys used to estimate urban gradients in subjective well-being, may vary. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being; life satisfaction; place satisfaction; cities; sociodemographics |
| JEL: | I31 J10 R23 |
| Date: | 2021–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:18821&r= |
| By: | Halla, Pekka; Merino-Saum, Albert; Binder, Claudia R. |
| Abstract: | The concept of urban sustainability is growing in urgency and salience for local urban governance, and indicator-based assessments represent a popular means for its operationalization. While much effort has been spent developing the technical aspects of these assessments, less attention has been given to research concerning their potential for influencing real-world urban governance processes. To address this issue, we put forward an assessment approach that systematically embeds the assessed indicators within their social and institutional contexts, thereby aiming to enhance the relevance of the assessment for local governance. Specifically, the contextual embedding is achieved through the analysis of ongoing controversies related to the assessed problem. We apply the approach to an assessment of the City of Geneva’s (Switzerland) housing system. As the case study demonstrates, the proposed assessment approach can elucidate a richer picture of the challenges identified in the assessment than a typical quantitative-only analysis of indicators. Therefore, it offers more complete support to local governance stakeholders for learning about and acting upon the problem under assessment. Overall, the work reported in this article aims to contribute to a productive alliance between sustainability assessment methodologies and urban governance stakeholders, thereby leading to more informed steering of cities towards sustainability. |
| Date: | 2021–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:m4vz7&r= |
| By: | Camilla Chlebna (Institute of Social Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University, Germany); Hanna Martin (Department of Business Administration and Centre for Regional Analysis, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden); Jannika Mattes (Institute of Social Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University, Germany) |
| Abstract: | A comprehensive perspective of regional transformative development is pertinent in light of recurring crises and grand societal challenges. We propose an integrative research agenda for transformative regional development, based on a co-evolutionary perspective on industry-focused regional path development and transitions. Combining existing knowledge from the debates on evolutionary economic geography and transition studies we define three key dimensions of co-evolution: the interrelations between different paths and their impact, interregional and multiscalar development dynamics, and the interdependence between industries and society. We address each dimension separately and suggest concrete avenues for further research. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economic geography, regional industrial path development, socio-technical transitions, co-evolution, research agenda |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoe:wpaper:2105&r= |
| By: | Olle Folke; Linna Martén; Johanna Rickne; Matz Dahlberg |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the political economy of local politicians’ neighborhoods. We use detailed population-wide data on the location of politicians’ and citizens’ homes and their socioeconomic traits. We combine this information with neighborhood level data on building permits and proposals to close schools. A descriptive analysis uncovers that politicians live in neighborhoods with more socio-economically advantaged people and more of their own party’s voters. Next, we analyze whether having politicians in a neighborhood reduces the likelihood that local public “bads†are placed there. This analysis compares home neighborhoods for politicians with different degrees of political power (ruling majority or opposition) and where power was won in a close elections. We find negative effects on approved building permits for multifamily homes and proposals to close schools. This result is most likely explained by undue favoritism. We conclude that local politicians live in advantaged neighborhoods that they shield from local public bads. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notnic:2021-03&r= |
| By: | Cecilia GUERRERO; MORI Tomoya; Jens WRONA |
| Abstract: | Using monthly price data from the Survey of Wholesale Markets for Fruits and Vegetables of Japan, we demonstrate that regional taste differences are an obstacle to inter-regional market integration. We propose a novel strategy for identifying the causal effect of localized tastes on bilateral market integration. We use the spatial distribution of historical dialects in Japan to measure historical-cultural proximity, which can be used as an instrument for the persistent dissimilarity in local food preferences. In accordance with the localized taste hypothesis, we find that regions which historically did not share a similar dialect/culture are characterized by persistent taste differences, explaining the lack of bilateral market integration among these regions. |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21047&r= |
| By: | Weichselbaumer, Doris (University of Linz); Schuster, Julia (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | A large body of research documents the existence of discrimination against migrants and ethnic minorities in the labour market. This study investigates for Austria, to what degree employment discrimination against ethnic minorities is mitigated, when they abstain from following the Austrian norm of including a photograph to their job application that would make their ethnicity salient or when they hold a local sounding name. In our correspondence test, we found that with matching ethnic names and ethnic photographs, black but not Asian job applicants suffered from discrimination. With a local sounding name, blacks (but not Asians) bettered their employment chances. Although photographs may facilitate ethnic discrimination, we did not find that their omission improved minorities' labour market chances. On the contrary, Asians were penalised for leaving out their photograph. Indeed, if candidates did not attach photos despite the convention to do so, we found statistically significant discrimination not only against black, but also Asian applicants. |
| Keywords: | migration, discrimination, hiring, correspondence testing |
| JEL: | C93 J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14495&r= |
| By: | Felipe Arteaga; Adam J. Kapor; Christopher A. Neilson; Seth D. Zimmerman |
| Abstract: | Many school districts with centralized school choice adopt strategyproof assignment mechanisms to relieve applicants of the need to strategize on the basis of beliefs about their own admissions chances. This paper shows that beliefs about admissions chances shape choice outcomes even when the assignment mechanism is strategyproof by influencing the way applicants search for schools, and that “smart matching platforms” that provide live feedback on admissions chances help applicants search more effectively. Motivated by a model in which applicants engage in costly search for schools and over-optimism can lead to under-search, we use data from a large-scale survey of choice participants in Chile to show that learning about schools is hard, that beliefs about admissions chances guide the decision to stop searching, and that applicants systematically underestimate non-placement risk. We then use RCT and RD research designs to evaluate live feedback policies in the Chilean and New Haven choice systems. 22% of applicants submitting applications where risks of non-placement are high respond to warnings by adding schools to their lists, reducing non-placement risk by 58%. These results replicate across settings and over time. Reducing the strategic burden of school choice requires not just strategyproofness inside the centralized system, but also choice supports for the strategic decisions that inevitably remain outside of it. |
| JEL: | D83 H75 I2 J01 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28946&r= |
| By: | Xuan, Liang; Jiti, Gao; xiaodong, Gong |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a time--varying coefficient spatial autoregressive panel data model with individual fixed effects to capture the nonlinear effects of the regressors, which vary over the time. To effectively estimate the model, we propose a method that incorporates local linear estimation and concentrated quasi-maximum likelihood estimation to obtain consistent estimators for the spatial autoregressive coefficient, variance of error term and nonparametric time-varying coefficient function. The asymptotic properties of these estimators are derived as well, showing regular the standard rate of convergence for the parametric parameters and common standard rate of convergence for the time-varying component, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to illustrate the finite sample performance of our proposed method. Meanwhile, we apply our method to study the Chinese labor productivity to identify the spatial influences and the time--varying spillover effects among 185 Chinese cities with comparison to the results on a subregion--East China. |
| Keywords: | Concentrated quasi-maximum likelihood estimation, local linear estimation, time-varying coefficient |
| JEL: | C1 C14 C3 C33 |
| Date: | 2021–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108497&r= |
| By: | Bedaso, Fenet |
| Abstract: | Using the panel data from 1995 to 2019, this paper investigates the labor market integration of non-EU immigrants in Germany. The existing evidence shows that the economic outcomes of migrants are far behind natives. However, immigrants are a heterogeneous group in terms of their motives for migration and skills composition. In this paper, I disentangle immigrants into refugees and other migrants and compare the employment probability gap between refugees, other migrants, and natives. I also examine whether refugees have a lower employment outcome than other migrants and to what extent the level of education, language proficiency, health status, years since migration, and cohort effects explain the employment gap between the refugees and other migrants. The result confirms that refugees and other migrants are less likely to be employed than natives and the employment gap is much higher for refugees. I also find evidence of heterogeneity across gender. Other migrant men do not significantly differ from native men in the probability of being employed. In contrast, refugee women have an economic disadvantage than other migrant women and native women. I find no evidence that health status differences attribute to the employment gap between refugees, other migrants, and natives. Finally, this paper highlights the importance of the migration category when assessing the integration of immigrants into the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Employment,Refugees,other Migrants,Labor Market,Integration |
| JEL: | J15 J21 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:884&r= |
| By: | Halla, Pekka; Wyss, Romano; Athanassiadis, Aristide; Drevon, Guillaume; Hensel, Michael U.; Kaufmann, Vincent; Koseki, Shin Alexandre; Turcu, Catalina; Vilsmeier, Ulli; Binder, Claudia R. |
| Abstract: | Enhancing the sustainability of cities is a timely, complex task. It involves the challenge of identifying the concerns and goals of different stakeholders in an inclusive manner and bringing into dialogue the various forms of knowledge and know-how that can address these concerns. At the moment, the lack of suitable concepts and methods for taking on this challenge limits our ability to conceive appropriate measures for promoting the sustainable development of cities. We propose three theses outlining the value of metaphors in tackling the challenge, demonstrated through the analysis of three prominent urban metaphors, and as an outcome, suggest three avenues for future work. With our contribution, we wish to encourage the construction of new approaches to urban sustainability based on transdisciplinary knowledge creation and the inclusive acknowledgement of different sustainability requirements. |
| Date: | 2021–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:kdzxt&r= |
| By: | Agyemang, Felix; Fox, Sean; Memon, Rashid |
| Abstract: | Data deficits in developing countries impede evidence-based urban planning and policy, as well as fundamental research. We show that residential electricity consumption data can be used to partially address this challenge by serving as a proxy for relative living standards at the block or neighbourhood scale. We illustrate this potential by combining infrastructure and land use data from Open Street Map with georeferenced data from ~2 million residential electricity meters in the megacity of Karachi, Pakistan to map median electricity consumption at block level. Equivalent areal estimates of economic activity derived from high-resolution night lights data (VIIRS) are shown to be a poor predictor of intraurban variation in living standards by comparison. We argue that electricity data are an underutilised source of information that could be used to address empirical questions related to urban poverty and development at relatively high spatial and temporal resolution. Given near universal access to electricity in urban areas globally, this potential is significant |
| Date: | 2021–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:razb2&r= |
| By: | Bremer, Björn; Di Carlo, Donato; Wansleben, Leon |
| Abstract: | Public investment spending declined steadily in advanced economies during the last three decades. Germany is a case in point where the aggregate decline coincided with growing inequality in investments across districts. What explains variation in local investment spending? We assembled a novel dataset to investigate the effects of structural constraints and partisanship on German districts' investment spending from 1995 to 2018. We find that the lack of fiscal and administrative capacity significantly influences local investment patterns. Yet, within these constraints, partisanship matters. Conservative politicians tend to prioritize public investment more than the left. This is especially the case when revenues from local taxes are low. As the fiscal conditions improve, left-wing politicians increase investment more strongly and hence the difference between the left and the right disappears. Our findings are indicative of how regional economic divergence can emerge even within cooperative federalist systems and show that, despite rigid fiscal rules, partisanship matters when parties face trade-offs over discretionary spending. |
| Keywords: | constrained partisanship,fiscal federalism,Germany,local politics,public investment,Deutschland,Fiskalföderalismus,Lokalpolitik,öffentliche Investitionen,politische Parteien |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:214&r= |
| By: | Oksana Loginova (Department of Economics, University of Missouri); X. Henry Wang (Department of Economics, University of Missouri); Qihong Liu (Department of Economics, University of Oklahoma) |
| Abstract: | Platforms such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb serve two-sided markets with drivers (property owners) on one side and riders (renters) on the other side. Some agents multi-home. In the case of ride-sharing, a driver may drive for both Uber and Lyft, and a rider may use both apps and request a ride from the company that has a driver close by. In this paper, we are interested in welfare implications of multi-homing in such a market. Our model abstracts away from entry/exit by drivers and riders as well as pricing by platforms. Both drivers' and riders' surpluses are determined by the average time between a request and the actual pickup. The benchmark setting is a monopoly platform and the direct comparison is a single-homing duopoly. The former is more efficient since it has a thicker market. Next, we consider two multi-homing settings, multi-homing on the rider side and multi-homing on the driver side. Relative to single-homing duopoly, we find that multi-homing on either side improves the overall welfare. However, multi-homing drivers potentially benefit themselves at the cost of single-homing drivers. In contrast, multi-homing riders benefit themselves as well as single-homing riders, representing a more equitable distribution of gains from multi-homing. |
| Keywords: | Ride-hailing platform, two-sided markets, network externalities, multi-homing |
| JEL: | D85 L12 L13 |
| Date: | 2020–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:2013&r= |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Powdthavee, Nattavudh (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of lottery wins on social ties and support network in the United Kingdom. On average, we find that winning more in the lottery increases the probability of meeting friends on most days, which is consistent with the complementary effect of income on social ties. The opposite is true with regards to social ties held for more instrumental reasons such as talking to neighbors. Winning more in the lottery also lessens an individual support network consistently with a substitution for instrumental social ties. However, further robustness checks reveal that the average lottery effects are driven by the few outliers of very large wins in the sample, thus suggesting that small to medium-sized wins ( |
| Keywords: | income, lottery, socialization effect, unearned income, friendships, neighborhood, social ties |
| JEL: | Z1 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14489&r= |
| By: | Jacobs, Madelon (ROA / Education and transition to work, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research); van der Velden, Rolf (RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work, ROA / Education and transition to work); van Vugt, Lynn (RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work, ROA / Education and transition to work) |
| Abstract: | In many countries, high-stakes tests play an important role in the allocation of pupils to prestigious tracks or schools in secondary education or students to prestigious programs or colleges in tertiary education. It is not clear what would happen if the standards for these tests were systematically raised or lowered. Would that affect the subsequent educational career? This paper exploits a unique natural experiment in the Netherlands using the market entrance of two new suppliers of high-stakes tests in primary education. In the first year of introduction, these new tests were not yet properly calibrated: For one test the standards were too low, while for the other test they were too high, compared to the standards of the traditional test that continued to be the main supplier. We use high-quality register data and a within-schools-across-cohorts design to model the short- and long-term outcomes (i.e., change in teacher advice and actual track three years later) for the students that were affected by the new tests. We find evidence for short-term effects, but no evidence for long-term effects. This implies that the Dutch educational system is sufficiently flexible to allocate pupils to the appropriate track, even if a high-stakes test advice does not recommend the right track. At the same time, it also implies that lowering the bar is not a simple way to increase the share of students going to prestigious tracks. |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2021–06–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umaror:2021004&r= |
| By: | Mansfield, Jonathan (Binghamton University, New York); Slichter, David (Binghamton University, New York) |
| Abstract: | The rise of high-stakes accountability programs was one of the most noticeable changes in the U.S. education system during the 1990s and early 2000s. We measure the impact of these programs on students' long-run outcomes. We find that exposure to accountability modestly but detectably increased educational attainment – roughly .02 years per year of exposure. Effects on income were positive, but again modest and insignificant in most specifications. Lastly, if accountability had substantial effects on human capital, treated individuals would be expected to sort into occupations requiring greater use of tested (math and literacy) skills, potentially at the expense of non-tested skills. Instead, we find that accountability had virtually no effect on occupational requirements. Our results suggest that accountability was likely net beneficial for students' long-run outcomes, but not transformative. |
| Keywords: | accountability, long-run effects, teacher incentives, teaching to the test |
| JEL: | I28 J24 H0 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14503&r= |
| By: | Calderon, Alvaro (Stanford University); Fouka, Vasiliki (Stanford University); Tabellini, Marco (Harvard Business School) |
| Abstract: | Between 1940 and 1970, more than 4 million African Americans moved from the South to the North of the United States, during the Second Great Migration. This same period witnessed the struggle and eventual success of the civil rights movement in ending institutionalized racial discrimination. This paper shows that the Great Migration and support for civil rights are causally linked. Predicting Black inflows with a shift-share instrument, we find that the Great Migration increased support for the Democratic Party and encouraged pro-civil rights activism in northern and western counties. These effects were not only driven by Black voters, but also by progressive and working class segments of the white population. We identify the salience of conditions prevailing in the South, measured through increased reporting of southern lynchings in northern newspapers, as a possible channel through which the Great Migration increased whites' support for civil rights. Mirroring the changes in the electorate, non-southern Congress members became more likely to promote civil rights legislation, but also grew increasingly polarized along party lines on racial issues. |
| Keywords: | race, diversity, civil rights, Great Migration |
| JEL: | D72 J15 N92 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14488&r= |
| By: | Holmlund, Helena (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Rainer, Helmut (University of Munich); Reich, Patrick (ifo Institute) |
| Abstract: | Although geographical and temporal variations in gender achievement gaps have received considerable attention, the role of culture in explaining this variation is not well understood. We exploit a large Swedish administrative data set to study gender gaps in education among second-generation immigrant youth with different cultural backgrounds. Guided by hypotheses we derive from the economics literature on gender differences and gender convergence, we explore the predictive power of a set of cultural dimensions including achievement orientation, acceptance of inequality, risk avoidance, and long-term orientation. Our empirical strategy relies on within-family, cross-gender sibling comparisons, identifying culture's differential impact on girls relative to boys while netting out unobserved family heterogeneity. We find that the central cultural dimension that matters for gender gaps in student achievement is the extent to which a society emphasizes ambition, competition, and achievement, which is strongly predictive of a relative achievement disadvantage of girls compared with boys. Exploring factors that may explain the results, we find that parents from achievement-oriented cultures choose higher quality schools for their children, and that boys benefit more from exposure to higher quality schools than girls do. Using PISA data to probe external validity, we find qualitatively and quantitatively remarkably similar results in a very different sample of second-generation immigrant youth. |
| Keywords: | Culture; Achievement Orientation; Gender Gaps in Education |
| JEL: | J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2021–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2021_010&r= |
| By: | IGARASHI Akira; MIWA Hirofumi; ONO Yoshikuni |
| Abstract: | Why do citizens prefer highly skilled immigrants to low-skilled immigrants? To understand the causal mechanism behind this tendency among citizens, we conducted a vignette survey experiment that enables us to clarify the role of multiple mediators. We specifically focused on three key factors that have been proposed in existing research as those that could lead citizens to be more welcoming to highly skilled immigrants: expectations of economic contributions, welfare contributions, and smaller potential for increases in crime rates. Our findings revealed that the effect of immigrants' skill levels on citizens' attitudes was fully mediated by the economic factor. In other words, people welcome high-skilled immigrants simply because they welcome the economic benefits of those immigrants, not because of the expected contributions to welfare or assumptions of low crime levels related to highly skilled immigrants. |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21048&r= |
| By: | Bushra Mariam Umair (Greenwich University, Pakistan); Shazia Nasir (Head, School of Linguistics at Greenwich University, Pakistan) |
| Abstract: | The spread of COVID-19 forced educational institutions around the globe to go online. In March 2020, Pakistan also went under strict lockdown, forcing schools to go online. Though the students, teachers and the parents, as well, braved this situation but there has always been a state of uncertainty in their minds. The students had an unknown fear for their learnings as they were not sure what the future holds for them. This research paper will be focusing problems; high school students faced during the online education process. Pakistan being a developing country, with limited technological resources, online learning was a challenge not only for the students and teachers but also for the parents as well. The ambiguity had left the students in continuous fear. In this phenomenological study, semi-structured interviews with open ended questions were conducted with five students from three different schools to share their experience of online learning. The findings of the research revealed that going online is inevitable under the given circumstances but it cannot replace face-to-face learning. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Face to Face learning, High School Student, Online learning |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:lpaper:0024&r= |
| By: | Parello, Carmelo Pierpaolo |
| Abstract: | This paper incorporates endogenous migration into a second-generation Schumpeterian growth model to study how migration, innovation and growth interact one another. I find that migration always enhances the rates of innovation and growth of the receiving economy, but also that the other way round is not true when the gap in technical knowledge between country is fixed over time. However, when the technology gap is allowed to adjusts endogenously, I find that implementing pro-innovation policies in the receiving economy shrinks immigration flows and reduces the across-country technology. |
| Keywords: | R&D-based Growth, Labor Migration, R&D policy, Technology Transfer |
| JEL: | J61 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2021–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108701&r= |
| By: | Stephan Geschwind; Felix Roesel |
| Abstract: | Do citizens legislate different tax policies than parliaments? We provide quasi-experimental evidence for causal effects of direct democracy. Town meetings (popular assemblies) replace local councils in small German municipalities below a specific population threshold. Difference-in-differences, RD and event study estimates consistently show that direct democracy comes with sizable but selective tax cuts. Property tax rates, which apply to all residents, decrease by some 10 to 15% under direct democracy. We do not find that business tax rates change. Direct democracy allows citizens to design tax policies more individually than voting for a high-tax or low-tax party in elections. |
| Keywords: | direct democracy, town meeting, popular assembly, constitution, public finance, taxation |
| JEL: | D71 D72 H71 R51 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9166&r= |
| By: | Peter Bergman; Elizabeth Kopko; Julio E. Rodriguez |
| Abstract: | Tracking is widespread in U.S. education. In post-secondary education alone, at least 71% of colleges use a test to track students. However, there are concerns that the most frequently used college placement exams lack validity and reliability, and unnecessarily place students from under-represented groups into remedial courses. While recent research has shown that tracking can have positive effects on student learning, inaccurate placement has consequences: students face misaligned curricula and must pay tuition for remedial courses that do not bear credits toward graduation. We develop an alternative system to place students that uses predictive analytics to combine multiple measures into a placement instrument. Compared to colleges’ existing placement tests, the algorithm is more predictive of future performance. We then conduct an experiment across seven colleges to evaluate the algorithm’s effects on students. Placement rates into college-level courses increased substantially without reducing pass rates. Adjusting for multiple testing, algorithmic placement generally, though not always, narrowed gaps in college placement rates and remedial course taking across demographic groups. A detailed cost analysis shows that the algorithmic placement system is socially efficient: it saves costs for students while increasing college credits earned, which more than offsets increased costs for colleges. Costs could be reduced with improved data digitization, as opposed to entering data by hand. |
| JEL: | I0 I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28948&r= |
| By: | Wyatt Brooks; Joseph P. Kaboski; Illenin O. Kondo; Yao Amber Li; Wei Qian |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study whether or not transportation infrastructure disrupts local monopsony power in labor markets using an expansion of the national highway system in India. Using panel data on manufacturing firms, we find that monopsony power in labor markets is reduced among firms near newly constructed highways relative to firms that remain far from highways. We estimate that the highways reduce labor markdowns significantly. We use changes in the composition of inputs to identify these effects separately from the reduction of output markups that occurs simultaneously. The impacts of highway construction are therefore pro-competitive in both output and input markets, and act to increase the share of income that labor receives by 1.8--2.3 percentage points. |
| JEL: | J0 J42 O1 O18 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28977&r= |
| By: | Lukas Reiss |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the extent of fiscal risk sharing and redistribution for Austria from 2000 to 2019. Overall, fiscal policy smooths about one tenth of regional GDP shocks. While this is primarily driven by the federal budget and social security funds, there is also a significant contribution of the revenue sharing scheme between the federal government and subnational governments. Most interestingly, the case of the Austrian revenue sharing system shows that there are intergovernmental transfer schemes which achieve risk sharing without much redistribution. This is due to mechanisms within this system which grant high-income states shares in federal revenue which are higher than their respective population shares. Furthermore, due to other mechanisms, the Austrian fiscal system is overall highly redistributive between states, but net contributions vary substantially over time. |
| Keywords: | Risk sharing, fiscal federalism, regional accounts |
| Date: | 2021–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2021:i:629&r= |
| By: | Rodrigo Torres (OECD) |
| Abstract: | School accountability is one of the most controversial recent reforms taking place in education systems around the world, but evidence of whether and which accountability practices affect equity and performance in academic achievement has been difficult to isolate and establish. By using data available from several cycles of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2006-2015), this paper assesses the extent to which accountability practices affect equity and performance in academic achievement in high-income-and-low-and-middle-income-countries. We found no conclusive evidence of accountability practices affecting educational outcomes in high-income-countries. However, we found some evidence in low-and-middle-income-countries pointing towards increased performance and increased inequality under accountability regimes in these contexts, although only in mathematics and science, and for one of our preferred specifications. In low-and-middle-income-countries, we found that, under higher levels of accountability, higher school autonomy on curriculum management and assessment could render better academic results in reading, mathematics and science. |
| Date: | 2021–07–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:250-en&r= |
| By: | Kevin B. Moore; Karen M. Pence |
| Abstract: | The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is one of the main data sources in the United States for assessing and analyzing differences in wealth and financial well-being across families. In recent years, the SCF estimates of racial and ethnic wealth gaps have garnered considerable attention, in part because these disparities are so large and persistent. |
| Date: | 2021–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2021-06-21-2&r= |
| By: | Prateek Bansal; Roselinde Kessels; Rico Krueger; Daniel J Graham |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted people's travel behaviour and out-of-home activity participation. While countermeasures are being eased with increasing vaccination rates, the demand for public transport remains uncertain. To investigate user preferences to travel by London Underground during the pandemic, we conducted a stated choice experiment among its pre-pandemic users (N=961). We analysed the collected data using multinomial and mixed logit models. Our analysis provides insights into the sensitivity of the demand for the London Underground with respect to travel attributes (crowding density and travel time), the epidemic situation (confirmed new COVID-19 cases), and interventions (vaccination rates and mandatory face masks). Mandatory face masks and higher vaccination rates are the top two drivers of travel demand for the London Underground during COVID-19. The positive impact of vaccination rates on the Underground demand increases with crowding density, and the positive effect of mandatory face masks decreases with travel time. Mixed logit reveals substantial preference heterogeneity. For instance, while the average effect of mandatory face masks is positive, preferences of around 20% of the pre-pandemic users to travel by the Underground are negatively affected. The estimated demand sensitivities are relevant for supply-demand management in transit systems and the calibration of advanced epidemiological models. |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2107.02394&r= |
| By: | Cirolia, Liza Rose; Hall, Suzanne; Nyamnjoh, Henrietta |
| Abstract: | Remittances are increasingly central to development discourses in Africa. The development sector seeks to leverage transnational migration and rapid innovations in financial technologies (fintech), to make remittance systems cheaper for end-users and less risky for states and companies. Critical scholarship, however, questions the techno-fix tendency, calling for grounded research on the intersections between remittances, technologies, and everyday life in African cities and beyond. Building on this work, we deploy the concepts of ‘micro-worlds’ and ‘migrant infrastructure’ to make sense of the complex networks of actors, practices, regulations, and materialities which shape remittance circulations. To ground the work, we narrate two vignettes of remittance service providers who operate in Cape Town, South Africa, serving the Congolese diaspora community. We showcase the important role of logistics companies in the ‘informal’ provision of remittance services and the rise of fintech companies operating in the remittance space. These vignettes give substance to the messy and relational dynamics of remittance micro-worlds. This relationality allows us to see how remittances are circulations, not unidirectional flows; how they are not split between formal and informal, but in fact intersect in blurry ways; how digital technologies are central to the story of migrant infrastructures; and how migrants themselves are compositional of these networks. In doing so, we tell a more relational story about how remittance systems are constituted and configured. |
| Keywords: | remittances; mobile money; regulation; migrant infrastructure; micro-worlds |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2021–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:110472&r= |
| By: | Marco Francesconi; Jonathan James |
| Abstract: | Reducing drink drive limits is generally regarded an effective strategy to save lives on the road. Using several new administrative data sources, we evaluate the effect of a stricter limit introduced in Scotland in 2014. This reduction had no effect on drink driving and road collisions. Estimates from a supply-of-offenses function suggests that the reform did not have much ex-ante scope for sizeable effects. The unavailability of cheaper alternative means of transportation and weak law enforcement seem to have been the main channels behind the lack of an impact. We find no externality on a wide range of domains, from alcohol consumption to criminal activities other than drink driving. |
| Keywords: | driving under the influence, road collisions, health, alcohol, crime |
| JEL: | I12 I18 D62 K42 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9159&r= |
| By: | Cote, Christine; Estrin, Saul; Shapiro, Daniel |
| Abstract: | We explore the public policy implications of two new, significant, and inter-related global phenomena. First, the rising share of services, particularly innovation-driven digital and knowledge-based services, in foreign trade and multinational enterprise activity; and second, the increasingly important role of global cities as home and hosts to these activities. Our framework distinguishes between national economic policies to promote trade and FDI, referred to as economic diplomacy, and comparable policies originating in cities, referred to as city diplomacy. National economic diplomacy has traditionally promoted trade and investment in goods, often through trade agreements and promotion agencies, and we explore the limitations of these tools as trade in services becomes more important. However, we also note that trade in services, particularly innovation-driven services, is concentrated in global cities, and traded between them, often within MNEs. We conclude that national policies on trade and investment cannot be divorced from innovation and knowledge strategies, and that these strategies cannot be divorced from cities. We emphasize that national economic diplomacy should be better aligned with city diplomacy. We also discuss how the transition to stronger city diplomacy may have consequences for firms and their strategies for corporate diplomacy. |
| Keywords: | services; trade and investment policy; economic diplomacy; city diplomacy; global cities; MNEs; corporate diplomacy; ES/S008373/1 |
| JEL: | L81 |
| Date: | 2020–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:104003&r= |
| By: | Alex Albright; Jeremy A. Cook; James J. Feigenbaum; Laura Kincaide; Jason Long; Nathan Nunn |
| Abstract: | The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in the looting, burning, and leveling of 35 square blocks of a once-thriving Black neighborhood. Not only did this lead to severe economic loss, but the massacre also sent a warning to Black individuals across the country that similar events were possible in their communities. We examine the economic consequences of the massacre for Black populations in Tulsa and across the United States. We find that for the Black population of Tulsa, in the two decades that followed, the massacre led to declines in home ownership and occupational status. Outside of Tulsa, we find that the massacre also reduced home ownership. These effects were strongest in communities that were more exposed to newspaper coverage of the massacre or communities that, like Tulsa, had high levels of racial segregation. Examining effects after 1940, we find that the direct negative effects of the massacre on the home ownership of Black Tulsans, as well as the spillover effects working through newspaper coverage, persist and actually widen in the second half of the 20th Century. |
| JEL: | J62 J69 N32 N42 N92 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28985&r= |
| By: | Nikolas Schöll; Thomas Kurer |
| Abstract: | This paper challenges the common perception that automation and digitalization generally reduce employment and primarily result in political discontent. Drawing on fine-grained labor market data from West Germany and shift-share instruments combined with two-way fixed-effect panel models, we study how technological change affects regional electorates. We show that the expected decline in manufacturing and routine jobs in regions with higher robot adoption or higher investment in information and communication technology (ICT) was in fact more than compensated by parallel employment growth in the service sector and cognitive non-routine occupations. This change in the regional composition of the electorate has important political implications as workers trained for these new sectors typically hold progressive political values. Consequentially, local advances in technology are associated with higher vote shares for progressive parties. This finding adds important nuance to the popular narrative that technological change fuels radical right voting. |
| Keywords: | technological change, automation, robots, political preferences, Voters, occupational determinants of plitical preferences |
| JEL: | P16 D72 O33 J31 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1269&r= |
| By: | Christopher Esposito; Edward E. Leamer; Jerry Nickelsburg |
| Abstract: | In the restaurant industry, the incidence of an increase in the minimum wage may fall on restaurant owners, customers, landlords, and/or employees. We analyze the first two in this study, with implications for the incidence borne by landlords and employees. We exploit a geographical discontinuity in Los Angeles County, where in 2015 the City of Los Angeles passed a minimum wage law and in 2016 the State of California passed a different minimum wage law. This created two minimum wage schedules in the county that remained unequal for over five years. Using a novel data set from a multi-year price survey, our analysis shows that the incidence of Los Angeles City’s higher minimum wage fell on customers in high-income neighborhoods, and on landlords and restaurant owners in low-income neighborhoods. We further show that the mix of responses at restaurants subject to the LA City minimum wage, including price increases, menu changes, and restaurant closures, was affected by proximity to restaurants subject to the lower California State minimum wage. The effect of neighborhood income levels and distance to lower-wage competition has important implications for designing minimum wage policies. |
| JEL: | J2 J3 J31 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28966&r= |
| By: | Amez, Simon; Vujić, Sunčica; Abrath, Margo; Baert, Stijn |
| Abstract: | University students' smartphone use has recently been shown to negatively affect their academic performance. Surprisingly, research testing the empirical validity of potential mechanisms underlying this relationship is very limited. In particular, indirect effects of negative health consequences due to heavy smartphone use have never been investigated. To fill this gap, we investigate, for the first time, whether deteriorated sleep quality drives the negative impact on academic performance. To this end, we examine longitudinal data on 1,635 students at two major Belgian universities. Based on a combination of a random effects approach and seemingly unrelated regression, we find no statistically significant mediating effect of sleep quality in the relationship between smartphone use and academic performance. |
| Keywords: | smartphone use,academic performance,sleep quality,mediation analysis |
| JEL: | I21 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:879&r= |
| By: | Bettina Klaus; Flip Klijn |
| Abstract: | A classical school choice problem consists of a set of schools with priorities over students and a set of students with preferences over schools. Schools' priorities are often based on multiple criteria, e.g., merit-based test scores as well as minimal-access rights (siblings attending the school, students' proximity to the school, etc.). Traditionally, minimal-access rights are incorporated into priorities by always giving minimal-access students higher priority over non-minimal-access students. However, stability based on such adjusted priorities can be considered unfair because a minimal-access student may be admitted to a popular school while another student with higher merit-score but without minimal-access right is rejected, even though the former minimal-access student could easily attend another of her minimal-access schools. We therefore weaken stability to minimal-access stability: minimal-access rights only promote access to at most one minimal-access school. Apart from minimal-access stability, we also would want a school choice mechanism to satisfy strategy-proofness and minimal-access monotonicity, i.e., additional minimal-access rights for a student do not harm her. Our main result is that the student-proposing deferred acceptance mechanism is the only mechanism that satisfies minimal-access stability, strategy-proofness, and minimal-access monotonicity. Since this mechanism is in fact stable, our result can be interpreted as an impossibility result: fairer outcomes that are made possible by the weaker property of minimal-access stability are incompatible with strategy-proofness and minimal-access monotonicity. |
| Keywords: | school choice, priorities, minimal-access rights, justified envy, stability, deferred acceptance |
| JEL: | C78 D47 D63 D78 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1264&r= |
| By: | Nicholas Bloom; Tarek Alexander Hassan; Aakash Kalyani; Josh Lerner; Ahmed Tahoun |
| Abstract: | We identify novel technologies using textual analysis of patents, job postings, and earnings calls. Our approach enables us to identify and document the diffusion of 29 disruptive technologies across firms and labor markets in the U.S. Five stylized facts emerge from our data. First, the locations where technologies are developed that later disrupt businesses are geographically highly concentrated, even more so than overall patenting. Second, as the technologies mature and the number of new jobs related to them grows, they gradually spread across space. While initial hiring is concentrated in high-skilled jobs, over time the mean skill level in new positions associated with the technologies declines, broadening the types of jobs that adopt a given technology. At the same time, the geographic diffusion of low-skilled positions is significantly faster than higher-skilled ones, so that the locations where initial discoveries were made retain their leading positions among high-paying positions for decades. Finally, these technology hubs are more likely to arise in areas with universities and high skilled labor pools. |
| JEL: | O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28999&r= |
| By: | Alina Garnham (Department of Economics and The Water Institute, University of Waterloo, Canada); Derek Stacey (Department of Economics, University of Waterloo, Canada) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study how the emergence of Uber in a large North American city affects the market price of taxicab licenses. A taxicab license provides a claim to a stream of dividends in the form of rents generated by operating the taxicab or leasing the license. The introduction of Uber undoubtedly affects the anticipated stream of dividends because Uber drivers capture part of the farebox revenue that might otherwise go to the owners/drivers of licensed taxicabs. At the same time, the launch of Uber's innovative technology-driven approach to the provision of ride-hailing services can be viewed as a partial obsolescence of the traditional taxicab approach. The economic incentives facing market participants may therefore change as Uber gains momentum in the ride-hailing market, which could further affect the market value of licensed taxicabs. Using transaction-level data, we apply a theory of asset pricing to the secondary market for Toronto taxicab licenses to explore these potential price ef- fects. We learn that both the farebox and innovation effects contribute to the overall decline in market value. The farebox effect explains approximately 60% of the price decline; the innovation effect can account for the rest. |
| JEL: | G12 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wat:wpaper:21001&r= |
| By: | Nie, Peng (Xi’an Jiaotong University); Yan, Weibo (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law) |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative data from the 2012 and 2014 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, this paper investigates the effects of network types (kinship/non-kinship) and network resources (information/influence) on job attainment and match quality in China. We find a wage premium obtained through both kinship and non- kinship networks but shorter job duration only in jobs obtained through non-kinship networks. In regards to the different types of networks, resources embedded in the networks are not important. This conundrum can be reconciled if we take the structure of the network and the type of work unit into account. Kinship networks are more pervasive in the public sector, with better earnings and stable job positions. Non-kinship networks bring about a wage premium but lead to job dissatisfaction, especially in regards to promotion opportunities. This paper highlights the structure of the job market when studying networks and sheds new light on the types of networks that really matter in job attainment and those that result in the possible loss of match quality. |
| Keywords: | network types, network resources, job attainment, match quality |
| JEL: | J30 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14504&r= |
| By: | Abu-Qarn, Aamer (Ben Gurion University); Lichtman-Sadot, Shirlee (Ben Gurion University) |
| Abstract: | How much can socioeconomically-based health disparities be attributed to differential access to secondary and specialist health care? We evaluate this question in the context of Arab-Jewish health disparities in Israel while exploiting the introduction of public transportation to Arab communities. Primary care health services are readily available within Arab towns and the introduction of bus services increased residents' access to secondary health services that are almost exclusively available only outside their towns. In the short term older adults reported higher probabilities of being diagnosed with common health conditions, such as heart problems or high cholesterol, and rare health conditions. In the longer term – more than two years following the initial introduction of public transportation to one's town – there were reductions in overweight and mostly null effects on diagnosis-based health conditions. Coupled with an analysis on mortality rates, our results suggest that the higher rates of chronic conditions in the short term are due to higher diagnosis rates rather than health deterioration. However, this effect is weaker in the long run when the benefits of greater access to health care facilities offset the higher diagnosis rates. |
| Keywords: | public transportation, health disparities, health care access, secondary health care |
| JEL: | I12 I14 R4 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14490&r= |
| By: | Hülsewig, Oliver; Rottmann, Horst |
| Abstract: | In this study, we explore how fiscal policy in euro area periphery countries responds to monetary policy surprises that lower sovereign bond yields. In particular, we assess whether the disciplining effect of financial markets on public finances is undermined by the ability of monetary policy to affect the conditions of external funds. Using Jordà's (2005) local projection method we find that fiscal discipline, on average, does not wane in response to monetary policy innovations that bring down yields on sovereign bonds. The reaction of economic activity to shocks to monetary policy appears to determine the fiscal stance, rather than the adjustment of borrowing cost. |
| Keywords: | Euro area periphery countries,fiscal policy,market discipline,monetary policy shocks,local projections |
| JEL: | E52 E62 H62 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hawdps:81&r= |
| By: | Christiane Baumeister (University of Notre Dame; University of Pretoria; NBER; CEPR); Danilo Leiva-Leon (Banco de Espana); Eric Sims (University of Notre Dame; NBER) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we develop a novel dataset of weekly economic conditions indices for the 50 U.S. states going back to 1987 based on mixed-frequency dynamic factor models with weekly, monthly, and quarterly variables that cover multiple dimensions of state economies. We show that there is considerable heterogeneity in the length, depth, and timing of business cycles across individual states. We assess the role of states in national recessions and propose an aggregate indicator that allows us to gauge the overall weakness of the U.S. economy. We also illustrate the usefulness of these state-level indices for quantifying the main forces contributing to the economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and for evaluating the effectiveness of federal economic policies like the Paycheck Protection Program. |
| Keywords: | local economic conditions, government policies, weekly indicators, state economies, cross-state heterogeneity, mixed-frequency dynamic factor model, economic weakness index, Markov-switching, recession probabilities |
| JEL: | C32 C55 E32 E66 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:202151&r= |
| By: | Giorgio Gulino; Federico Masera |
| Abstract: | Is dishonest behavior contagious? We answer this question by studying whether corruption scandals affect the propensity of supermarket customers to steal while using a self-service checkout system. Crucially, this system provides shoppers with the opportunity to engage in dishonest behavior by under-reporting the value of their shopping cart. Exploiting data from random audits on shoppers, we show that the probability of a shopper underreporting increases by 16% after a local corruption scandal is made public. The effect starts immediately and is particularly strong during the first four days after the story breaks. This effect is not driven by any change in material incentives or social norms. Rather, we show that it is due to a reduction in the self-imposed moral cost of stealing and is mainly concentrated among taxpayers. |
| Keywords: | corruption, crime, consumer behavior, norms |
| JEL: | D73 K42 Z1 A13 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1267&r= |
| By: | Sonia Oreffice; Dario Sansone |
| Abstract: | We analyze differences in mode of transportation to work by sexual orientation, using the American Community Survey 2008-2019. Individuals in same-sex couples are significantly less likely to drive to work than men and women in different-sex couples. This gap is particularly stark among men: on average, almost 12 percentage point (or 13%) lower likelihood of driving to work for men in same-sex couples. Individuals in same-sex couples are also more likely to use public transport, walk, or bike to work: on average, men and women are 7 and 3 percentage points more likely, respectively, to take public transportation to work than those in different-sex couples. These differences persist after controlling for demographic characteristics, partner's characteristics, location, fertility, and marital status. Additional evidence from the General Social Survey 2008-2018 suggests that these disparities by sexual orientation may be due to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals caring more for the environment than straight individuals. |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2107.06210&r= |
| By: | Wessling, Katarina (RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work, ROA / Education and transition to work); van der Velden, Rolf (RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work, ROA / Education and transition to work) |
| Abstract: | This conceptual contribution discusses the idea of flexibility of educational systems from a multidisciplinary perspective. We define flexibility as possibilities that are provided by an education system to modify standard (predetermined) learning paths, which result from the structured organization of education. Flexibility at the macro level (i.e., educational system) can relate to policies such as the mobility between educational tracks within stratified systems. At the meso level (i.e., school, classroom), flexibility can entail practices of differentiated instruction. We believe that a systematic integration of flexibility in educational research can provide new insights on individuals’ educational outcomes. Implicitly and unconnectedly, the idea of flexibility exists in several strands of research, typically focusing on educational-system effects on individual outcomes such as (1) sociological research on structural features of the education system, (2) psychological literature on educational effectiveness, and (3) economic research drawing on the education production function. We bridge these three fundamental strands of research with the aim to exemplify the concept of flexibility. In doing so, we propose a definition of flexibility, outline dimensions as well as corresponding indicators. To conclude, we provide some directions for future research. |
| Date: | 2021–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umaror:2021002&r= |
| By: | Amez, Simon (Ghent University); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | We study whether living in a student room as a tertiary education student (instead of commuting between one's parental residence and college or university) affects exam results. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study this relationship beyond cross-sectional analysis. That is, we exploit rich longitudinal data on 1,653 Belgian freshmen students' residential status and exam scores to control for observed heterogeneity as well as for individual fixed (or random) effects. We find that after correcting for unobserved heterogeneity, the association found in earlier contributions disappears. This finding of no significant impact of living in a student room on exam results is robust for other methods used for causal inference including instrumental variable techniques. |
| Keywords: | longitudinal data, exam scores, residential status, causality |
| JEL: | I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14534&r= |
| By: | Bruno Amann; Jacques Jaussaud; Johannes Schaaper (IRGO - Institut de Recherche en Gestion des Organisations - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Bordeaux) |
| Abstract: | Purpose Large multinational companies (MNCs) are strongly formalized, often standardized and complex with multiple hierarchical levels. Over the past few decades, MNCs have strengthened their coordination and control systems by creating regional headquarters (RHQs). This study aims to investigate how MNCs rearticulate control dimensions at RHQs, to coordinate and exert control over subsidiaries in the Asia-Pacific region. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey of 86 French MNCs in the Asia-Pacific region, this study applies a structural equation model to determine RHQs' roles in the field of regional decision-making, coordination and control. Findings Large MNCs, with a significant presence in Asia, transfer coordination and control to RHQs, in a way that leads us to propose the use of the expression "regio-centralization." RHQs become socialization hubs, where most regional decisions are taken and where international managers meet. MNCs mobilize at the same time expatriates, short-term assignees and local managers who intensively interact at RHQs. Thus, informal control at RHQs increases, partly substituting formal control by HQs. Smaller MNCs, without RHQs, on the contrary, base their control and coordination on the formalization of HQs-subsidiary relations, especially through strong reporting, in combination with centralized decision-making at HQs. Research limitations/implications This study is based on MNCs from one specific country, France, and focuses only on the dynamic Asia-Pacific host region. Coordination and control in less dynamic regions may reveal different results. Originality/value This study leads to a better understanding of how large MNCs reorganize dispersed activities in the Asia-Pacific region by creating RHQs, where important control and coordination functions are relocated. |
| Keywords: | Centralization-formalization-socialization,Control,Multinational companies,Regional headquarters,Asia-Pacific region |
| Date: | 2020–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03264624&r= |