|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Jill Atkey; Lilian Chau; Nick Falvo; Alexandra Flynn; Penny Gurstein; Craig Jones; Greg Suttor; Carolyn Whitzman; Tomas Hachard; Kinza Riaz (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | The housing affordability crisis that increasingly affects city-regions across Canada is at the centre of the policy debate for all orders of government. Municipalities, provinces, and the federal government have produced plans and strategies to address the crisis, highlighting the need to ensure proper coordination across governments. The four papers in this report – written by academics, including legal and planning scholars, and practitioners from non-profit development – look at affordable housing, rental housing, social housing, and homelessness. They identify the ideal role of municipalities in housing policy, where municipalities currently face constraints, how other orders of government can support municipalities, and where intergovernmental cooperation is needed. |
| Keywords: | Canada, municipalities, housing, homelessness, rental housing, social housing, intergovernmental finance |
| JEL: | H70 O18 R31 R21 R23 R28 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mfg:mfgwdw:1&r=ure |
| By: | Chauvin, Juan Pablo |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an overview of how health outcomes vary across cities in Latin America and discusses some of the known drivers of this variation. There are large disparities in outcomes across cities and across neighborhoods of the same city. Because health is closely related to the socioeconomic conditions of individuals, part of the spatial variation reflects residential segregation by income. Local characteristics also have a direct effect on health outcomes, shaping individuals' access to health services and the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles. In addition, urban environments affect health through natural atmospheric conditions, through local infrastructure in particular water, sanitation, and urban transit and through the presence of urban externalities such as traffic congestion, pollution, crime, and the spread of transmissible diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates many of these patterns, since the impact of the disease has differed sharply across cities, and much of this variation can be explained by observable local characteristics particularly population, connectivity with other cities and countries, income levels, and residential overcrowding. |
| Keywords: | Latin America;COVID-19 |
| JEL: | I18 R10 O18 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11663&r=ure |
| By: | Samson E. Agbato; Tosin B. Fateye; Victoria O. Odunfa; Tomisi O. Adegunle; Cyril A. Ajayi |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; Measures; Property Management; rental housing; Restriction |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2022–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afr:wpaper:2022-044&r=ure |
| By: | Sandor Juhasz; Gergo Pinter; Adam Kovacs; Endre Borza; Gergely Monus; Laszlo Lorincz; Balazs Lengyel |
| Abstract: | Cities host diverse people and their mixing is the engine of prosperity. In turn, segregation and inequalities are common features of most cities and locations that enable the meeting of people with different socio-economic status are key for urban inclusion. In this study, we adopt the concept of economic complexity to quantify the ability of locations – on the level of neigh- borhoods and amenities – to attract diverse visitors from various socio-economic backgrounds across the city. Utilizing the spatial distribution of point of interests inside the city of Budapest, Hungary, we construct the measures of amenity complexity based on the local portfolio of di- verse and non-ubiquitous amenities. We investigate mixing patterns at visited third places by tracing the daily mobility of individuals and characterizing their socio-economic status by the real-estate price of their home locations. Results suggest that measures of ubiquity and diversity of amenities do not, but amenity complexity correlates with the diversity of visitors to neigh- borhoods and to actual amenities alike. We demonstrate that, in this monocentric city, amenity complexity is correlated with the relative geographic centrality of locations, which in itself is a strong predictor of socio-economic mixing. Our work combines urban mobility data with economic complexity thinking to show that the diversity of non-ubiquitous amenities, central locations, and the potentials for socio-economic mixing are interrelated. nations. |
| Keywords: | urban mobility, economic complexity, amenities, social mixing |
| JEL: | R10 R30 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2232&r=ure |
| By: | Stein, Sarah; Carpenter, Ann |
| Abstract: | Heirs’ property owners are susceptible to family land loss due to the precarity of their shared ownership structure. They are also often limited in their access to the economic value of their land since they do not have clear, marketable title. Although often discussed as a rural issue, heirs’ property manifests in urban areas, as well, where these properties have spillover effects, particularly in historically disinvested communities that experience deeper susceptibility to shocks and stresses. Using the Jacksonville, FL area as a case study, we first estimate the extent of residential heirs’ property in this area. We do this using property records data. Based on these figures, we address the cumulative impacts these properties have on individual families, neighborhoods, and the broader urban region. We make efforts to account for the economic impact of these properties, on an individual family level as well as a community level. We also consider the intersection of heirs’ property with system shocks, such as recent hurricanes, as well as historic practices of racial exclusion. Our research finds that urban heirs’ property in this setting share many characteristics prior research has associated with rural heirs’ properties. Heirs’ properties tend to be found within lower-income, low-wealth (in terms of housing equity), low educational attainment, and racial and ethnic minority communities. Our regression results also indicated that neighborhoods with a higher share of the population that is Black had a significant and positive impact on heirs’ property concentration. Our spatial analysis of historic redlining practices indicated significant overlap between the concentration of heirs’ property and those areas explicitly excluded from mainstream financial investment on the basis of a neighborhood’s racial composition. We estimate that $5 billion in housing value may be locked or vulnerable to land loss in Duval County due to heirs’ property status. These properties tend to be older, have elevated vulnerability to flooding based on claims filed after Hurricane Irma, and are less likely to be insured, meaning that they are ill-prepared and at high risk for events that could further depreciate or destroy homes owned by heirs as tenants in common. |
| Keywords: | Land Economics/Use |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:assa23:316788&r=ure |
| By: | Huang, Bin (Nanjing University of Finance and Economics); Li, Bo (Nanjing University); Walker, Ian (Lancaster University); Zhu, Yu (University of Dundee) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of attending academically selective high schools on test scores, by leveraging administrative data that matches high school preferences of the population of urban middle school graduates in one Chinese prefecture in 2010 with high school student records. The standard admission channel is generally driven by merit subject to only nominal tuition fees, with contextual admission for disadvantaged students. An alternative admission channel admits lower-ability students subject to substantial selection-fees, retained by the under-funded schools. We combine a cumulative multiple-cutoff regression discontinuity design (RDD) with a within-cutoff normalizing-and-pooling fuzzy RDD strategy, based on publicly announced school-specific admission thresholds in the city-wide High School Entrance Exam (HSEE) scores. Multiple-cutoff RDD estimates show heterogeneous effects of attending schools with different degrees of selectivity, in a unified setting. Within-cutoff normalizing-and-pooling RDD allows admission thresholds to differ by willingness to pay the extra selection-fees and by eligibility for contextual admission. The estimated effects on high school leaving exam scores of attending elite schools vs normal public high schools, and of attending normal public high schools vs low-quality private high schools are insignificantly different from zero, for students who barely made it into the more selective school. However, the effect of attending the most selective flagship school vs elite schools, has a large negative and statistically significant effect, which is more pronounced for girls, for students from the semi-urban area according to hukou (household) registration, and for students who performed relatively badly in the science track subjects in the HSEE. |
| Keywords: | elite schools, school choice, fuzzy regression discontinuity design, China |
| JEL: | I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15756&r=ure |
| By: | Jiri Gregor; Jan Janku; Martin Melecky |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the pass-through from the market benchmark rate (proxied by the 5-year swap rate) to interest rates on all newly issued residential mortgage loans in the Czech Republic-an EU country. It tests for and explains the potential spatial heterogeneity in the pass-through to local mortgage rates highlighted by the literature for the US (Scharfstein & Sunderam, 2016). This spatial pass-through has not been studied in the context of the EU with its specific mortgage loan market structure. Using unique data on residential mortgages in the Czech Republic over 2016-2021, we show that the pass-through varies notably across districts and is significantly driven by local mortgage market concentration (bank market power) and the unemployment rate. We find a lower aggregate pass-through than previous studies (about 0.5). The most important pricing factors for residential mortgage loans appear to be the loan-to-value ratio, the net income of the borrower, the loan maturity, and the length of the fixed-rate period. |
| Keywords: | Banking market concentration, districts and regions, heterogeneity, interest rate pass-through, mortgage lending rates |
| JEL: | E43 G21 G51 R32 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2022/9&r=ure |
| By: | César Ducruet; Hidekazu Itoh |
| Abstract: | Based on untapped shipping and urban data, this article compares the diffusion of steam and container shipping at the port city level and at the global scale between 1880 and 2008. A temporal and multi-layered network is constructed, including the pre-existing technologies of sailing and breakbulk. The goal is to check the differences a) between innovations and their predecessors and b) between innovations, from an urban network perspective. Main results show that despite certain differences, such as historical context, voyage length, speed of diffusion, and geographical spread, the two innovations share a large quantity of similarities. They both fostered port concentration, were boosted by city size and port connectivity, bypassed upstream port sites, and diverged gradually from older technologies. This research thus contributes to the literature on cities, networks, innovation, and maritime transport. |
| Keywords: | containerization; maritime transport; port cities; regional disparity; spatial networks; steam shipping; technological change |
| JEL: | L91 N70 O18 R40 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2022-27&r=ure |
| By: | Green, Colin P. (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)); Haaland, Kristine Bekkeheien (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)); Vaag Iversen, Jon Marius (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants change the school environment. A focus has been on negative spillovers on native students' educational attainment. Yet, exposure to immigrant peers has the potential for a wider range of effects. This paper examines effects on foreign language acquisition focusing on Norway. In Norway all students are taught, and are assessed, in English from an early age. We demonstrate that exposure to native English-speaking peers increase Norwegian students' English language skills. We provide evidence that these spillover effects likely occur outside of the classroom. They are solely present for English language skills and provide evidence of positive spillovers from immigrant diversity in schools that is missing from the existing literature. Our results have implications for the wider social effects of immigration and how foreign languages are taught in schools. |
| Keywords: | immigration, English language attainment, educational attainment |
| JEL: | J15 I21 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15746&r=ure |
| By: | Scholl, Lynn; Bedoya-Maya, Felipe; Sabogal-Cardona, Orlando; Oviedo, Daniel |
| Abstract: | As transit ridership continues to fall in many cities across the globe, key policy debates continue around whether Uber and other ride-hailing services are contributing to this trend. This research explores the effects of the introduction of ride-hailing to Colombian cities on public transportation ridership using Ubers timeline as case study. We test the hypothesis that ride-hailing may either substitute or compete with public transit, particularly in cities with large transit service gaps in coverage or quality. Our analysis builds on historic transit ridership data from national authorities and uses a staggered difference-in-difference model that accounts for fixed effects, seasonality, socioeconomic controls, and the presence of integrated transport systems. Despite large reductions in transit ridership in most cities, our results suggest that Uber is not statistically associated with the observed drop in ridership. Moreover, consistent with evidence from previous research, public transit reforms implemented between 2007 and 2015 throughout Colombian cities appear to have contributed substantially to the declines in transit ridership observed across the country. Findings in this paper inform policy-targeted insights and contribute to current debates of the links between ride-hailing and public transit in cities in Latin America. |
| Keywords: | Transport Network Companies (TNC's);Latin America |
| JEL: | R40 H42 O33 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11673&r=ure |
| By: | Fongoni, Marco (Aix Marseille University); Norris, Jonathan (University of Strathclyde); Romiti, Agnese (University of Strathclyde); Shi, Zhan (University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-run effects of income inequality within adolescent peer compositions in schools. We propose a theoretical framework based on reference dependence where inequality in peer groups can generate aspiration gaps. Guided by predictions from this framework we find that an increase in the share of low-income peers within school-cohorts improves the educational outcomes of low-income students and has negative effects on high-income students. We further document a range of evidence that corroborates these results, including that they are distinct from peer non-linear ability effects. We then find that social cohesion, through better connections in the school network, has an important role in mitigating the effects of peer inequality. Our results provide evidence on the role of inequality in peer groups for long-run educational outcomes, while also demonstrating that there is potential to avoid these consequences. |
| Keywords: | inequality, peer effects, education |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I29 J24 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15785&r=ure |
| By: | Koetter, Michael; Noth, Felix |
| Abstract: | We use a new database on European real estate purchase and rental prices - the IWH European Real Estate Index - to document the relationship between staggered COVID-19 dynamics and real estate prices in 14 EU countries between January 2020 and December 2021. For most countries, we find no statistically significant response of monthly purchase and rental prices due to an increase of regional COVID-19 cases. For the UK we find that more COVID-19 cases depressed both purchase and rental prices significantly, but the economic magnitude of effects was mild during this sample period. In contrast, rents in Italy increased in response to hiking COVID-19 cases, illustrating the importance to consider heterogeneous crisis patterns across the EU when designing policies. Overall, COVID-19 dynamics did not affect real estate values significantly during the pandemic, thereby mitigating potential financial stability concerns via a mortgage lending channel at the time. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhpno:32022&r=ure |
| By: | Jeworrek, Sabrina; Brachert, Matthias |
| Abstract: | We conduct a discrete choice experiment to investigate how the location of a firm in a rural or urban region affects job attractiveness and contributes to the spatial sorting of university students and graduates. We characterize the attractiveness of a location based on several dimensions (social life, public infrastructure, connectivity) and combine this information with an urban or rural attribution. We also vary job design as well as contractual characteristics of the job. We find that job offers from companies in rural areas are generally considered less attractive. This is true regardless of the attractiveness of the region. The negative perception is particularly pronounced among persons with urban origin and singles. These persons rate job offers from rural regions significantly worse. In contrast, high-skilled individuals who originate from rural areas as well as individuals with partners and kids have no specific preference for jobs in urban or rural areas. |
| Keywords: | discrete choice experiment,job characteristics,locational preferences,rural-urban divide |
| JEL: | J61 R12 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:272022&r=ure |
| By: | Luisa Alamá-Sabater (Department of Economics and IIDL, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Miguel Ángel Márquez (Department of Economics, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and IIDL and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Júlia Cravo (Sectoral Business Statistics Unit, Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Lisboa, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | In the context of an extension of the traditional hypotheses considered by the Carlino-Mills studies, the primary aim of this paper is to test whether spillovers generated by employment change in urban or semi-urban areas have an impact on population growth in neighboring rural municipalities. To do this we develop a spatial econometric model capable of testing all the interactions existing between the different types of territories. We apply the model to 278 continental municipalities in Portugal during the period 2010–2018. The findings are particularly relevant in that they do not corroborate the “jobs follow people” hypothesis, and they reveal the positive and significant interterritorial connections between change in employment in semi-urban municipalities and population change in rural municipalities. The results suggest policies should aim to promote semi-urban-rural diffusion as a way of reversing rural depopulation. |
| Keywords: | depopulation, left-behind places, neighbors, rural, spatial effects, urban |
| JEL: | C3 O18 O21 R1 R23 R3 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2022/14&r=ure |
| By: | Céline Grislain-Letrémy; Corentin Trevien |
| Abstract: | In many countries, housing subsidies to tenants are one of the main tools for housing policy but have an inflationary impact in the short term. For the first time, by taking the French example, we assess the long-term impact of housing subsidies on price, quantity, and quality in the private rental sector. We show that housing subsidies have a long-term overall upward impact on rents, even for tenants who do not benefit from subsidies. This inflationary impact is accompanied by an increase in quantity; no impact on quality is detected. These effects are heterogeneous. For small dwellings, a few years after the extension of housing subsidies, rents stopped increasing significantly and the quantity of one-room dwellings, including new buildings, increased. |
| Keywords: | Public Policy Evaluation, Social Benefits, Housing Subsidies, Tax Incidence |
| JEL: | H22 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:886&r=ure |
| By: | Calamunci, Francesca (Sapienza University of Rome); Lonsky, Jakub (University of Liverpool) |
| Abstract: | The United States witnessed an unprecedented crime wave in the second half of the twentieth century, with the total index crime rate more than tripling between 1960-1980. Little is known about the causes of this surge in criminal activity across the country. This paper investigates the role played by the Interstate Highway System (IHS), an ambitious federal government project that led to the construction of over 40,000 miles of highways between 1956-1992. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design and a county-by-year panel dataset spanning all US counties between 1960-1993, we find that a highway opening in a county led to a 5% rise in the local index crime. This effect is driven by property crime (namely larceny and motor vehicle theft), while violent crime remained unaffected. Exploring potential mechanisms, we show that the increase in crime could be explained by the positive effect of IHS on local economic development. At the same time, we find that increases in the local law enforcement size and presence in the affected communities mitigated any substantial crime surge induced by the highway construction. |
| Keywords: | Interstate Highway System, local crime, economic development, local law enforcement |
| JEL: | H54 K42 O18 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15800&r=ure |
| By: | Pregaldini, Damiano (University of Zurich); Balestra, Simone (University of St. Gallen); Backes-Gellner, Uschi (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We study how two distinct dimensions of peer ethnic diversity (ethnic fractionalization and ethnic polarization) affect occupational choice. Using longitudinal administrative data and leveraging variation in ethnic composition across cohorts within schools, we find evidence for two opposing effects. Ethnic fractionalization increases the likelihood of students sorting into people-oriented occupations while ethnic polarization reduces this likelihood. Using data on social and cognitive skills, we provide evidence that exposure to higher levels of ethnic fractionalization enhances the students' formation of social skills and increases the likelihood of students sorting into people-oriented occupations where the returns to these skills are higher. |
| Keywords: | ethnic diversity, fractionalization, polarization, school, occupational choice |
| JEL: | H75 I21 J18 J24 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15780&r=ure |
| By: | Green, Jamaal William; Reina, Vincent |
| Abstract: | Owner Occupied housing is generally assumed to be safe and of reasonably high quality in the United States. Prior research on housing quality using the American Housing Survey generally finds housing quality is good. Recent research critiquing housing quality measures found in the AHS and offering alternative measures complicate this assumption by showing housing quality is more variable than usually assumed and the costs of housing repair needs are worth billions of dollars a year. In order to better understand the state of housing quality in owner occupied housing we present information from Philadelphia's Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP). BSRP is an emergency repair program that offers grants to low income homeowners. From 2009-2019 the city has spect a little over $98 million in repairs helping nearly 11,000 households. Comparing AHS derived estimates of housing quality to the BSRP we find that housing quality for owner occupied homes in Philadelphia may be more severe than is often assumed and that severe housing quality issues disproportionately affect Black homeowners in the city. Planners concerned with stabilizing neighborhoods, protecting property values and the racially disparate costs of homeownership should pay closer to attention to housing quality issues and look at the feasibility of emergency home repair programs in affected areas. |
| Date: | 2022–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:sgn4x&r=ure |
| By: | Matteo Benetton (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley); Simone Emiliozzi (Bank of Italy); Elisa Guglielminetti (Bank of Italy); Michele Loberto (Bank of Italy); Alessandro Mistretta (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Investment in adaptation is a critical strategy to reduce the damages from climate change, yet there is limited evidence about its effectiveness and costs. We exploit the activation of a sea wall to protect the city of Venice from increasingly high tides to provide new evidence on the capitalization of infrastructure investment in climate change adaptation into housing values. Exploiting variation in the activation of the sea wall -- based on expected tides -- as well as in the exposure of different properties - based on characteristics (ground vs higher floors, stilts elevation) - we find that the sea wall increases house prices by 3% for properties above the activation threshold and by an additional 7% for ground-floor properties. Overall, one year after the activation the sea wall generated a 4.5% increase in the value of the total residential housing stock in Venice, that is a lower bound on the total welfare gains generated by this infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | housing, climate change, adaptation, infrastructure |
| JEL: | Q54 R21 R38 O18 H54 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_735_22&r=ure |
| By: | Perez-Vincent, Santiago M.; Schargrodsky, Ernesto; García Mejía, Mauricio |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on criminal activity in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. We find a large, significant, robust, and immediate decline in crime following quarantine restrictions. We observe the effect on property crime reported to official agencies, police arrests, and crime reported in victimization surveys, but not in homicides. The decrease in criminal activity was greater in business and transportation areas, but still large in commercial and residential areas (including informal settlements). After the sharp and immediate fall, crime recovered but, as of November 2020, it did not reach its initial levels. The arrest data additionally allow us to measure the distance from the detainees' address to the crime location. Crime became more local as mobility was restricted. |
| Keywords: | Crime;Citizen security;Argentina;COVID-19;lockdown;COVID-19;COVID-19;COVID-19;COVID-19 |
| JEL: | K42 J18 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11423&r=ure |
| By: | Kohler, Karsten; Tippet, Ben; Stockhammer, Engelbert |
| Abstract: | The paper provides a framework for theorising the role of house price cycles in national growth models. We synthesise Minskyan approaches with comparative political economy (CPE) by arguing that institutions influence the extent to which countries experience what we call 'house price-driven growth models'. First, we argue that house price dynamics have been undertheorized in existing growth models analysis. Finance-led models can be properly understood only against the background of rising house prices that stimulate consumption through wealth effects and investment through construction. Second, we identify behavioural and Minskyan theories of housing cycles as suitable frameworks to theorise the impact of housing on growth. However, this literature does not provide an analysis of cross-country differences in housing cycles. Third, drawing on the CPE literature on housing systems, we argue that institutions such as homeownership rates and mortgage-credit encouraging institutions can explain differences in the intensity of housing cycles. We provide preliminary empirical support for this framework from a cross-country analysis. Our results show strong cross-country heterogeneity in the intensity of housing cycles. Countries with more intense house price cycles also tend to exhibit more volatile business and debt cycles. Homeownership rates and mortgage-credit encouraging institutions are positively correlated with the volatility of house price cycles. |
| Keywords: | Post-Keynesian Economics,Comparative Political Economy,growth models,housing,house price cycles |
| JEL: | E32 O57 R21 R31 B52 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1942022&r=ure |
| By: | Chauvin, Juan Pablo |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates what explains the variation in impacts of COVID-19 across Brazilian cities. I assemble data from over 2,500 cities on COVID-19 cases and deaths, population mobility, and local policy responses. I study how these outcomes correlate with pre-pandemic local characteristics, drawing comparisons with existing US estimates when possible. As in the United States, the connections between city characteristics and outcomes in Brazil can evolve over time, with some early correlations fading as the pandemic entered a second wave. Population density is associated with greater local impact of the disease in both countries. However, in contrast to the United States, the pandemic in Brazil took a greater toll in cities with higher income levels consistent with the fact that higher incomes correlate with greater mobility in Brazil. Socioeconomic vulnerabilities, such as the presence of slums and high residential crowding, correlate with higher death rates per capita. Cities with such vulnerabilities in Brazil suffered higher COVID-19 death rates despite their residents' greater propensity to stay home. Policy responses do not appear to drive these connections. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19;COVID-19;COVID-19;COVID-19;COVID-19;Coronavirus;Brazil |
| JEL: | I18 O18 R10 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11536&r=ure |
| By: | Rainald Borck (University of Potsdam, CESifo, DIW Berlin); Philipp Schrauth (University of Potsdam) |
| Abstract: | We use worldwide satellite data to analyse how population size and density affect urban pollution. We find that density significantly increases pollution exposure. Looking only at urban areas, we find that population size affects exposure more than density. Moreover, the effect is driven mostly by population commuting to core cities rather than the core city population itself. We analyse heterogeneity by geography and income levels. By and large, the influence of population on pollution is greatest in Asia and middle-income countries. A counterfactual simulation shows that PM2.5 exposure would fall by up to 36% and NO2 exposure up to 53% if within countries population size were equalized across all cities. |
| Keywords: | population density, air pollution, gridded data |
| JEL: | Q53 R12 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:60&r=ure |
| By: | Sabogal-Cardona, Orlando; Scholl, Lynn; Oviedo, Daniel; Crotte Alvarado, Amado; Bedoya-Maya, Felipe |
| Abstract: | With a few exceptions, research on ride-hailing has focused on North American cities. Previous studies have identified the characteristics and preferences of ride-hailing adopters in a handful of cities. However, given their marked geographical focus, the relevance and applicability of such work to the practice of transport planning and regulation in cities in the Global South is minimal. In developing cities, the entrance of new transport services follows very different trajectories to those in North America and Europe, facing additional social, economic, and cultural challenges, and involving different strategies. Moreover, the determinants of mode choice might be mediated by social issues such as the perception of crime and the risk of sexual harassment in public transportation, which is often experienced by women in large cities such as Mexico. This paper examines ride-hailing in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City, unpacking the characteristics of its users, the ways they differ from users of other transport modes, and the implications for urban mobility. Building on the household travel survey from 2017, our analytical approach is based on a set of categorical models. Findings suggest that gender, age, education, and being more mobile are determinants of ride-hailing adoption. The analysis shows that ride-hailing is used for occasional trips, and it is usually done for leisure and health trips as well as for night trips. The study also reflects on ride-hailings implications for the way women access the city. |
| Keywords: | Mexico;Ride-hailing;TNC |
| JEL: | J16 N76 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11500&r=ure |
| By: | Shuya Wu (CUP - China University of Petroleum Beijing, IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles - IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles, IFP School); Arash Farnoosh (IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles - IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles, IFP School); Yingdan Mei (CUP - China University of Petroleum Beijing) |
| Abstract: | While promoting green and low-carbon transition, clean energy facilities also have externalities, which may lead to opposition and economic losses. There is evidence that the impact of facilities decreases with distance, but existing research make strict assumption on its functional form. In this research work we explore the non-linear relationship between housing transaction prices and distances to the nearest facility without predefined functions combined with spatial smoothing in the hedonic pricing model by taking China as a case-study. We use the housing transaction data from 2015 to 2018 to estimate the distance decay of HRS (Hydrogen Refueling Station) in different regions in the rental and sale markets. The results show that the HRS has a significant negative impact on sale prices, while it has no significant impact on rental prices. In the sale market, for every 1% decrease in the distance, the house prices decrease by 6.62%, and the main impact distance is 3.5 km. In the eastern region, HRS has a significant impact on both rents and prices; in the central and western regions, there may be a positive impact on the rental market, but there is no significant impact in the northeastern region. Based on the empirical results, policy recommendations are given. |
| Keywords: | Clean energy facility, Hydrogen refueling station, Non-linear distance decay, Hedonic |
| Date: | 2022–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03898758&r=ure |
| By: | Georgios Tsiachtsiras; Deyun Yin; Ernest Miguelez (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Rosina Moreno |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effect of the High Speed Rail (HSR) network expansion on local innovation in China during the period 2008-2016. Using exogenous variation arising from a novel instrument - courier's stations during the Ming dynasty, we find solid evidence that the opening of a HSR station increases cities' innovation activity. We also explore the role of inter-city technology diffusion as being behind the surge of local innovation. To do it, we compute least-cost paths between city-pairs, over time, based on the opening and speed of each HSR line, and obtain that an increase in a city's connectivity to other cities specialized in a specific technological field, through the HSR network, increases the probability for the city to specialize in that same technological field. We interpret it as evidence of knowledge diffusion. |
| Keywords: | High speed rail, Innovation, Technology diffusion, Patents, Specialization |
| Date: | 2022–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03891705&r=ure |
| By: | Ajzenman, Nicolás; Elacqua, Gregory; Marotta, Luana; Westh Olsen, Anne Sofie |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we show that order effects operate in the context of high-stakes, real-world decisions: employment choices. We experimentally evaluate a nationwide program in Ecuador that changed the order of teaching vacancies on a job application platform in order to reduce teacher sorting (that is, lower-income students are more likely to attend schools with less qualified teachers). In the treatment arm, the platform showed hard-to-staff schools (institutions typically located in more vulnerable areas that normally have greater difficulty attracting teachers) first, while in the control group teaching vacancies were displayed in alphabetical order. In both arms, hard-to-staff schools were labeled with an icon and identical information was given to teachers. We find that a teacher in the treatment arm was more likely to apply to hard-to-staff schools, to rank them as their highest priority, and to be assigned to a job vacancy in one of these schools. The effects were not driven by inattentive, altruistic, or less-qualified teachers. The program has thus helped to reduce the unequal distribution of qualified teachers across schools of different socioeconomic backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | Order Effects;Teacher sorting;Satisficing |
| JEL: | I24 D91 I25 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11541&r=ure |
| By: | Manon Garrouste (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux], Université de Lille, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Miren Lafourcade (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - 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, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - 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, RITM - Réseaux Innovation Territoires et Mondialisation - Université Paris-Saclay, UB - Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Even though place-based policies involve large transfers toward low-income neighborhoods, they may also produce territorial stigmatization. This paper appeals to the quasi-experimental discontinuity in a French reform that redrew the zoning map of subsidized neighborhoods on the basis of a sharp poverty cutoff to assess the effect of place-based policies on school enrollment into lower secondary education. Using a difference-indifferences approach, we find strong evidence of stigma from policy designation, as public middle schools in neighborhoods below the policy cutoff , which qualified for place-based subsidies, saw a significant 3.5pp post-reform drop in pupil enrollment, compared to their counterfactual analogues in unlabeled areas lying just above the poverty threshold. This "zone-and-shame" effect is immediate but does not persist, as it is only found for the first pupil-entry cohort in middle schools immediately after the reform. We show that it was triggered by the behavioral reactions of parents from all socioeconomic backgrounds, who avoided public schools in policy areas and shifted to those in other areas or, only for richer parents, to private schools. We uncover, on the contrary, only weak evidence of stigma reversion after an area loses its designation, suggesting hysteresis in bad reputations. |
| Keywords: | School choices, Territorial stigmatization, Redlining, Urban segregation, Sorting |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03899920&r=ure |
| By: | Joan Martinez |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of teachers' gender biases on students' long-term outcomes, including high school completion, college attendance, and formal sector employment. I measure teacher bias using differences in gender gaps between teacher-assigned and blindly-graded tests, and validate the assessment-based measure with novel data on teachers' attitudes, as captured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT). I develop a large-scale online portal available to teachers and students in Peruvian public schools to collect IAT scores nationwide. This analysis provides evidence that math teachers who strongly associate males with scientific disciplines give higher scores to male students, when compared to blindly-graded test scores, while language arts teachers who strongly associate females with humanities-based disciplines award higher grades to female students. Next, using graduation, college enrollment, and matched employer-employee data on 1.7 million public high school students who were expected to graduate between 2015 and 2019, I find that female students who are assigned to more biased teachers are less likely to complete high school and apply to college than male students. Moreover, female students assigned to more biased teachers in high school are less likely to hold a job in the formal sector after graduation and have fewer paid working hours relative to their male classmates. Exposure to gender-biased teachers also leads to monthly earnings losses for women, further exacerbating the gender pay gap. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.08220&r=ure |
| By: | Jacopo Bizzotto (Oslo Business School - OsloMet); Adrien Vigier (University of Oxford - Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We consider a population of students with heterogeneous characteristics, and examine the dual design problem consisting of (a) allocating students to schools and (b) choosing how to grade students in school, with a view to optimizing students' incentives to work hard. We show that any optimal school design exhibits stratification, and more lenient grading at the top-tier schools than at the bottom-tier schools. Our results highlight a novel trade-off between the size of the pie and its equal division in the context of school design. |
| Keywords: | Education, Moral Hazard, Grading, Peer Effects, Stratification |
| JEL: | D02 D82 D86 |
| Date: | 2021–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oml:wpaper:202103&r=ure |
| By: | Dionissi Aliprantis (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland); Kristen Tauber (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland); Hal Martin (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how design features influence the success of Housing Mobility Programs (HMPs) in reducing racial segregation. Targeting neighborhoods based on previous residents' outcomes does not allow for targeting race-specific outcomes, generates uncertainty when targeting income-specific outcomes, and generates bias in ranking neighborhoods' effects. Moreover, targeting opportunity bargains based on previous residents' outcomes selects tracts with large disagreements in current and previous residents' outcomes, with such disagreements predicted by sorting since 1990. HMP success is aided by the ability to port vouchers across jurisdictions, access to cars, and relaxing supply constraints, perhaps by targeting lower-ranked neighborhoods. |
| Keywords: | housing mobility program, housing choice voucher program, opportunity mapping, opportunity atlas, neighborhood effect |
| JEL: | J15 R23 I38 H43 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2022-043&r=ure |
| By: | Vinitha Varghese |
| Abstract: | I study the impact of school consolidation on enrolment and achievement, using its staggered roll-out in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Across the years 2014, 2016, and 2017, Rajasthan merged many of its grade 1-5 schools with grade 6-10 schools to create grade 1-10 'model' schools. Twenty-three per cent of government schools were eliminated in this education reform. Media reports suggested that consolidation led to declining enrolment levels and teacher lay-offs. |
| Keywords: | Children, Education, Enrolment, Schooling |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-150&r=ure |
| By: | Sofoklis Goulas; Rigissa Megalokonomou; Yi Zhang |
| Abstract: | How much does your neighbor impact your test scores and career? In this paper, we examine how an observable characteristic of same-age neighbors—their gender—affects a variety of high school and university outcomes. We exploit randomness in the gender composition of local cohorts at birth from one year to the next. In a setting in which school assignment is based on proximity to residential address, we define as neighbors all same-cohort peers who attend neighboring schools. Using new administrative data for the universe of students in consecutive cohorts in Greece, we find that a higher share of female neighbors improves both male and female students’ high school and university outcomes. We also find that female students are more likely to enroll in STEM degrees and target more lucrative occupations when they are exposed to a higher share of female neighbors. We collect rich qualitative geographic data on communal spaces (e.g., churches, libraries, parks, Scouts and sports fields) to understand whether access to spaces of social interaction drives neighbor effects. We find that communal facilities amplify neighbor effects among females. |
| Keywords: | neighbour gender peer effects, cohort-to-cohort random variation, birth gender composition, geodata, STEM university degrees |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10112&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Maria Greve (Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Michael Wyrwich (University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We describe and compare the development trajectories of two German regions, South Saxony and Mecklenburg, with a special focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. South Saxony has a long history of self-employment and knowledge generation that results in a persistent culture of innovative entrepreneurship. In Mecklenburg, such a culture did never emerge. Differences between the entrepreneurial ecosystems in the two regions especially pertain to the level of knowledge production and its link to new business formation in innovative and knowledge-intensive industries. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, economic history, culture, regional development |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O1 O3 R11 |
| Date: | 2022–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2022-012&r=ure |
| By: | Marquez, Jose; Qualter, Pamela; Petersen, Kimberly; Humphrey, Neil; Black, Louise |
| Abstract: | Background: Loneliness is a growing public health concern, but little is known about how place affects loneliness, especially in adolescence. This is the first study to examine the influence of neighbourhoods on loneliness in early/middle adolescence. Methods: Baseline data from the #BeeWell cohort study in Greater Manchester (England) were used, with the sample comprising 36,141 adolescents (aged 12-15) across 1,590 neighbourhoods. These data were linked to neighbourhood characteristics using administrative data at the LSOA-level. Data were analysed using multilevel (individual, neighbourhood) regression models. Results: Neighbourhood explained 1.18% of the variation in loneliness. Moreover, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation inequalities in loneliness varied across neighbourhoods. Loneliness was higher in neighbourhoods with higher skills deprivation among children and young people, lower skills deprivation among adults, higher geographical barriers, lower outdoor environment deprivation, and higher population density. A longer distance from home to school was also associated with higher loneliness. More positive perceptions of the local area (feeling safe, trust in local people, feeling supported by local people, seeing neighbours as helpful, and the availability of good places to spend your free time) were associated with lower loneliness. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that local-level interventions may be particularly helpful to tackle adolescent loneliness. |
| Date: | 2022–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:hzer5&r=ure |
| By: | Wang, Chuhong (Yango University); Wang, Yonghua (Yango University); Liu, Xingfei (University of Alberta); Zhong, Jiatong (University of Alberta) |
| Abstract: | We identify the causal impact of housing demolition on employment and occupational mobility of working-age individuals in China. We exploit housing demolition events as a quasi-natural experiment and apply a two-way fixed effects approach to overcome the potential endogeneity problem. Using data from the CHFS, we find that on the extensive margin, housing demolition creates skill waste by making individuals less likely to work; while on the intensive margin, housing demolition leads to occupational upward mobility, especially among low-skilled workers. We do not find any empirical evidence that housing demolition influences internal migration flow or migrant workers' occupational mobility. |
| Keywords: | housing demolition, occupational mobility, skill, migrant, China |
| JEL: | J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15750&r=ure |
| By: | Zanoni, Wladimir; Acevedo, Paloma; Guerrero, Diego |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how slum upgrading programs impact elementary school childrens attendance in Uruguay. We take advantage of the eligibility rule that deems slums eligible for a SUP program if they have 40 or more dwelling units. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity estimator, we find that students exposed to SUPs are 17 percent less likely to be at the 90th percentile of the yearly count of school absences. That effect appears to be driven by how SUPs impact girls. These interventions have effects that last for more than five years after their implementation. We discuss some critical urban and education policy implications of our findings. |
| Keywords: | Slum Upgrading;school absences;regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | B20 C54 D04 O18 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11696&r=ure |
| By: | Pradhi Aggarwal; Alec Brandon; Ariel Goldszmidt; Justin Holz; John List; Ian Muir; Gregory Sun; Thomas Yu |
| Abstract: | Prior research finds that, conditional on an encounter, minority civilians are more likely to be punished by police than white civilians. An open question is whether the actual encounter is related to race. Using high-frequency location data of rideshare drivers operating on the Lyft platform in Florida, we estimate the effect of driver race on traffic stops and fines for speeding. Estimates obtained across traditional and machine learning approaches show that, relative to a white driver traveling the same speed, minorities are 24 to 33 percent more likely to be stopped for speeding and pay 23 to 34 percent more in fines. We find no evidence that these estimates can be explained by racial differences in accident and re-offense rates. Our study provides key insights into the total effect of civilian race on outcomes of interest and highlights the potential value of private sector data to help inform major social challenges. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:natura:00764&r=ure |
| By: | Hangen, Forrest; O'Brien, Daniel T. |
| Abstract: | Defining the ownership of rental housing can be a difficult task. In recent years there has been an increasing obscurity of ownership in administrative records as more property owners use Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) on deeds and in tax assessment records. In many cases, this obscures the nature and scale of ownership and makes research into property ownership, investors, and landlords more challenging. To overcome these challenges, we compare different text-matching methods within property tax assessment records in Boston, MA from 2004-2019. We show that the source of the difficulty in creating an accurate knowledge of landlords and their portfolios of properties has shifted in the past decade from the scale of data and the messy nature of administrative data to an intentional strategy of obscurity through LLCs. To do so, we incorporate linking to corporate records to uncover intentional ownership obscurity. We assess the prevalence of obscurity among landlords as well as the extent to which it is undermining our ability to observe patterns in rental housing in ways that cannot be accounted for solely with text-matching. These include how obscurity hides not only an increasing consolidation of property ownership in the past decade, but also concentrations of disorder and evictions. In doing so, we demonstrate a comprehensive method for uncovering this obscurity and show how this representation of property ownership can form the basis for understanding inequities in rental housing and the effects of property consolidation. |
| Date: | 2022–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:anvke&r=ure |
| By: | S. Usai; F. Guy; A. Tidu |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we assess the viability of a geographic approximation aimed to reduce the computational intensity necessary to measure spatial agglomeration with Marcon & Puech's (2017) M index. Indeed, despite representing a potentially very accurate way of measuring spatial distribution, M has not been sufficiently exploited so far because its computation needs crossing every point (i.e. firms, plants) with each other within the area under analysis - such a figure rapidly grows to unmanageable levels when the area is larger than a neighborhood or when every industry is taken into account. Consequently, practical applications of M have been exclusively experimental and circumscribed to very limited areas or to a handful of sectors. In our opinion, this is much regrettable since M provides many advantages compared to conventional measures of spatial distribution and also to other distance measures. In order to verify whether a slight geographic approximation is tolerable – which would be consistent with Marcon & Puech's (2017, p. 30) assumption that "cumulative functions are insensitive to errors at smaller scales than the distance they consider" - we compute both actual M (with no approximation whatsoever) and approximate M for every industry in Sardinia. Our aim is to compare the results obtained when plants are located exactly where they are with those obtained when plants' positions are approximated to the centroid of the municipality where they are located. We rely on a comprehensive dataset that allows us to identify the location, the specific industry and the number of employees for every single plant, and not only for firms as a whole. Our dataset's scope is not restricted to manufacturing, as it is often the case, but covers every area of activity, ranging from construction to transports and from retailers to other service industries. Moreover, we did not considered distance between approximated positions as the crow flies, but we relied on actual street distance and travel time between them - in the frequent case of orographically dishomogenous territories, it might be the case that such a measurement more accurately reflects the actual distance between establishment, than theoretical flying distance between actual locations. If our approximation in the location of plants is positively outweighed by the great accuracy of M in operationalizing detailed geographic and economic information, then such an index could really be exploited for assessing agglomeration and dispersion patterns across space and along time, especially when much information is available, as it is ever more often the case. |
| Keywords: | spatial methods;sardinia;economic geography;distance-based measures;agglomeration |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202206&r=ure |
| By: | Yang, Xiuleng; McCoy, Emma; Hough, Katherine; de Nazelle, Audrey |
| Abstract: | Traffic restriction measures may create safer and healthier places for community members but may also displace traffic and air pollution to surrounding streets. Effective urban planning depends on understanding the magnitude of changes resulting from policy measures, both within and surrounding intervention areas; these are largely unstudied in the case of Low traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN). We evaluated impacts of three LTNs in the London Borough of Islington, UK, on air pollution and traffic flows in and around intervention areas, based on monthly Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and traffic volume data provided by the local authority. We identified pre- and post-intervention monitoring periods and intervention, boundary and control sites. We then adapted the generalised difference in differences approach to evaluate the effects within LTNs and at their boundary. We found that LTNs have the potential to substantially reduce air pollution and traffic in target areas, without increasing air pollution or traffic volumes in surrounding streets. These results provide sound arguments in favour of LTNs to promote health and wellbeing in urban communities. |
| Keywords: | built environment; car-free; generalised difference-in-differences; NO; planning; policy |
| JEL: | C1 |
| Date: | 2022–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117441&r=ure |
| By: | Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Teleworking parents can better monitor and help their children with online learning. In this paper, I test whether parents' teleworkability affected children's online learning during Covid school closures. I use panel data from Invalsi, which includes the results of standardized tests given to all Italian students in grades 2 and 5 and parental characteristics. I compare changes in children's performance from grade 2 to grade 5 along two dimensions: whether they experienced Covid school closures between grade 2 and grade 5 and whether their parents work in teleworkable occupations. I also exploit variations in the length of Covid school closures and the use of online learning resources across Italian regions. My results show that one hundred school closure days widens the gap between children of teleworkable and nonteleworkable parents by 0.04 in language tests and 0.01 in maths tests. |
| Keywords: | teleworkability, online learning, COVID-19, parents |
| JEL: | I24 J81 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15754&r=ure |
| By: | Efthymia Kyriakoupoulou (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Pierre Picard (Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | Who will benefit and who will lose from a permanent increase in working from home (WFH)? This paper investigates the impact of WFH on cities of different sizes, highlights the dangers of too much WFH, and discusses aspects of the disagreement between workers and firms. Our results suggest that WFH raises urban productivity and average wages only in large cities. We also study the optimal fraction of WFH and show that workers-residents have incentives to adopt an inefficiently high WFH scheme. The implementation of remote work in the short run - at fixed rents and wages - implies higher benefits for long-distance commuters and lower benefits or even losses for short-distance ones. It also implies benefits for some firms and losses for others, which potentially explains the low prevalence of WFH before the pandemic. Finally, we show that advances in digital technology, which increase the productivity of remote workers, lead to increased welfare benefits. A calibration exercise for the average and the largest European capital cities sheds more light on the impact of WFH on cities of different sizes. |
| Keywords: | Working from home; urban structure; commuting; remote work; land use. |
| JEL: | R12 R14 R21 R49 J81 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:22-15&r=ure |
| By: | Clément Bosquet (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Pierre-Philippe Combes (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Emeric Henry (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Thierry Mayer (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Using an instrument based on a national contest in France determining researchers' location, we find evidence of peer effects in academia, when focusing on precise groups of senders (producing the spillovers) and receivers (benefiting from the spillovers), defined based on field of specialisation, gender and age. These peer effects are present even outside formal co-authorship relationships. Furthermore, the match between the characteristics of senders and receivers plays a critical role. In particular, men benefit a lot from peer effects provided by other men, while all other types of gender combinations produce spillovers twice as small. Part of the peer effects results from researchers switching research fields. |
| Keywords: | Economics of science,Peer effects,Research productivity,Gender publication gap |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-03874070&r=ure |
| By: | Tancredi Buscemi (University of Siena); Giulia Romani |
| Abstract: | Institutional design can influence the efficacy of public investment programmes. Specifically, devolution of authority may trigger tactical redistribution between different tiers of government and facilitate patronage dynamics at local level. We test this hypothesis in the context of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Cas-Mez): a massive investment programme for the development of Southern Italy (1950-1984). By 1971, a radical institutional reform modified the CasMez’s governance: the authority over funds allocation was transferred from a centralised and technical committee to the newborn Regional governments. This paper investigates how the reform affected the CasMez’s distributive politics. We focus on the period 1960-1984 and study whether municipalities aligned with the Regional government (i.e controlled by the same party) received more funds compared to unaligned ones. We combine unique historical data on local administrators with detailed information on projects approval and financing, and implement a Two-Way-Fixed-Effects strategy. Our results suggest that aligned municipalities were assigned a higher number of projects and received larger per-capita amounts, without producing any positive impact on long-run economic outcomes. The effect is driven by subsidies to local firms. This evidence supports our claim that the institutional reform of 1971 distorted funds allocation, and possibly paved the way for rent-seeking pressures by local lobbies and patronage dynamics. |
| Keywords: | institutional design, distributive politics, devolution, Cassa per il Mezzogiorno |
| JEL: | H11 H77 N94 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2022:18&r=ure |
| By: | Frank Gyamfi-Yeboah |
| Abstract: | Historically, the mortgage market in Ghana has been bedevilled by notoriously long delays in foreclosure proceedings. The delays have largely been attributed to the inefficiencies in the judicial system as the country primarily operated under the lien theory, which requires lenders to enforce their rights over the collateral under the supervision of the courts. However, the passage of two key legislations (Borrowers and Lenders Act and Home Mortgage Finance Act) in 2008 has sought to fundamentally alter the mortgage foreclosure procedure in Ghana. In particular, both legislations allow lenders to foreclose without resorting to court processes so long as they are able to obtain possession in a peaceful manner. Notwithstanding these provisions, anecdotal evidence suggests that the use of court proceedings remains the predominant means of foreclosure. In this paper, I examine the provisions in the Home Mortgage Finance Act and Borrowers and Lenders Act relating to mortgage foreclosures and investigate the effectiveness of the provisions in affording lenders an expeditious foreclosure process. |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2022–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afr:wpaper:2022-012&r=ure |
| By: | Tamás Keller (Computational Social Science - Research Center for Educational and Network Studies, Centre for Social Sciences, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates direct peer influence in upper-secondary track choice in the stratified and selective Hungarian educational system and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it tests both peer-contrasting and peer-conforming influences by considering peers’ GPA and endogenous educational choices. Second, the paper investigates mechanisms behind peer-conforming educational choices (such as peers’ normative pressure and information potential), with a focus on two structurally different peer relationships: self-selected friends and randomly assigned deskmates. The study uses a unique dataset that merges administrative data with randomized field experiment data. The results show no evidence of peer influence, after accounting for unobserved classroom homogeneity. Within the classroom, peers’ ability did not decrease, and peers’ ambitious endogenous educational choices did not increase students’ own choice of the academic upper-secondary track. Concerning the mechanisms of peer-conforming educational choices, the results reveal that peers’ informational potential (but not their normative pressure) might be the mechanism that drives students to conform to peers’ choices. This paper interprets the absence of peer influence in upper-secondary track choices as evidence that peer influence cannot derail students’ socially determined educational choices. |
| Keywords: | upper-secondary track choice, peer influence, application behavior, social contrast and conformity, deskmates, educational choice |
| JEL: | C93 I21 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:2218&r=ure |
| By: | Beuermann, Diether; Ramos Bonilla, Andrea; Stampini, Marco |
| Abstract: | We explore whether the academic benefit from attending a preferred secondary school differs between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the Jamaican Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH). The academic outcomes assessed include end of secondary and post-secondary high-stakes examinations independently administered by the Caribbean Examinations Council. Among girls, receiving PATH benefits before secondary school enrollment does not influence the academic gains from attending a more selective school. However, boys who received PATH benefits prior to secondary school enrollment benefit significantly less from subsequently attending a more selective school with respect to comparable peers who did not receive PATH benefits. These results suggest negative dynamic interactions between PATH and selective secondary schools among boys. |
| Keywords: | Academic Performance;School Selectivity;PATH;Dynamic Interactions |
| JEL: | H52 H75 I21 I26 I28 I38 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11850&r=ure |
| By: | Vasiliki A. Tzora; Nikolaos D. Philippas; Georgios A. Panos |
| Abstract: | We conduct the first nationally representative measurement of the financial capability of 15year-old students in Greece. We find discrepancies between the core, the islands, and the periphery of the country. Female students score lower in terms of all knowledge, behaviour, and attitudes. Students in experimental schools, the better performing ones, and those with more educated parents are more financially capable, reflecting the absence of a dedicated personal-finance curriculum. Awareness of household finances is positively related to financial capability. Local economic conditions matter, with students in regions affected more by the crisis exhibiting lower financial capability. |
| Keywords: | Financial capability; Students; Greece; Local environment |
| JEL: | A20 D14 G53 I21 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2022_16&r=ure |
| By: | Erdal Asker; Eric Brunner; Stephen Ross |
| Abstract: | A primary rationale for public provision of K-12 education and state financing of school spending is that education fosters civic engagement and the development of social capital. However, limited evidence exists on whether and how school spending affects civic engagement. Virtually all studies focus on the impact of educational attainment (as opposed to school spending) on political activity. We provide the first causal evidence on how school spending affects volunteerism as well as voting. The court-ordered and legislative school finance reforms that occurred throughout the United States over recent decades led to large and plausibly exogenous shocks to K-12 school spending. We estimate difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) models to isolate the causal impact of school spending on civic engagement. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), and the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS), we find that exogenous increases in school spending led to increases in the probability that young adults volunteer and the amount of time they spend volunteering. In contrast, we find little evidence that school spending impacts voting. Consistent with prior studies, we find that increases in school spending increase high school graduation and college attendance. |
| JEL: | H42 H72 I22 I26 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30711&r=ure |
| By: | Matthew A. Kraft; Megan Lane Conklin; Grace T. Falken |
| Abstract: | We examine the labor supply decisions of substitute teachers – a large, on-demand market with broad shortages and inequitable supply. In 2018, Chicago Public Schools implemented a targeted bonus program designed to reduce unfilled teacher absences in largely segregated Black schools with historically low substitute coverage rates. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that incentive pay substantially improved coverage equity and raised student achievement. Changes in labor supply were concentrated among Black and Hispanic substitutes from nearby neighborhoods with experience in incentive schools. Wage elasticity estimates suggest incentives would need to be 50% of daily wages to close fill-rate gaps. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J23 J33 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30714&r=ure |
| By: | Facundo Albornoz (University of Nottingham/CONICET/CEPR); Jake Bradley (University of Nottingham/IZA); Silvia Sonderegger (University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | Within the context of the Brexit referendum, we show that changes in the perception of social norms impact behavior. The referendum revealed new information about views over immigrants at country level. This new information caused a shift in the social norm which made xenophobic expressions more acceptable. At the margin, some of these expressions involve hate crime. We argue that the post-referendum behavioral change increased in the level of surprise at the referendum result, and that observed geographical variations of the effect depend on underlying local views on immigrants. Survey data corroborate these uncovered facts and support our theoretical mechanism. |
| Keywords: | social norm; social acceptability; xenophobia; value of information; social interactions; referendum |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:203&r=ure |
| By: | Elacqua, Gregory; Westh Olsen, Anne Sofie; Velez-Ferro, Santiago |
| Abstract: | We study the advantages, trade-offs, and challenges of employing a centralized rule to determine the allocation of teachers to schools. Data come from the centralized teacher assignment program in Ecuador, "Quiero ser Maestro," conducted by the Ministry of Education. Notably, in 2019 the program transitioned from a priority based algorithm to a strategy proof mechanism, similar to the change introduced in Boston in 2005 to assign students to schools. Using the reported preferences, we conduct a counterfactual analysis and nd substantive evidence that the adjustment in algorithm resulted in greater efficiency for the school system. However, in contrast to the Boston case, we nd the benefits stem from increasing the competition for positions among teachers, rather than by the introduction of a strategy-proof mechanism. |
| Keywords: | Education;Educational Institution;Teacher Distribution |
| JEL: | I28 H39 H41 M51 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11854&r=ure |
| By: | Kazenin Konstantin (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | This preprint examines the migration of the population of the regions of the South of Russia in the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries. Migration processes are considered in two “dimensions”. On the one hand, their development is investigated in a historical perspective, in connection with which migration in the Soviet and post-Soviet times is considered separately. On the other hand, migration flows are opposed to each other in terms of "distance", for which intraregional and interregional migrations are separately characterized. |
| Keywords: | analysis of migration flows, demographic studies |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:s21063&r=ure |
| By: | Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton University); Chi Hyun (University of Bonn); Moritz Kuhn (University of Bonn); Moritz Schularick (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Bonn, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | The racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and white Americans, with a white-to-Black per capita wealth ratio of 6 to 1. It is also among the most persistent. In this paper, we construct the first continuous series on white-to-Black per capita wealth ratios from 1860 to 2020, drawing on historical census data, early state tax records, and historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, among other sources. Incorporating these data into a parsimonious model of wealth accumulation for each racial group, we document the role played by initial conditions, income growth, savings behavior, and capital returns in the evolution of the gap. Given vastly different starting conditions under slavery, racial wealth convergence would remain a distant scenario, even if wealth-accumulating conditions had been equal across the two groups since Emancipation. Relative to this equal-conditions benchmark, we find that observed convergence has followed an even slower path over the last 150 years, with convergence stalling after 1950. Since the 1980s, the wealth gap has widened again as capital gains have predominantly benefited white households, and income convergence has stopped. |
| Date: | 2022–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03880971&r=ure |
| By: | Rui Esteves; Kris James Mitchener; Peter Nencka; Melissa A. Thomasson |
| Abstract: | Using newly digitized U.S. city-level data on hospitals, we explore how pandemics alter preferences for healthcare. We find that cities with higher levels of mortality during the Great Influenza of 1918-1919 subsequently expanded hospital capacity by more than cities experiencing less influenza mortality: cities in the top half of the mortality distribution increased their count of hospitals by 8-10 percent in the years after the pandemic. This effect persisted to 1960 and was driven by increases in non-governmental hospitals. Growth responded most in richer cities, exacerbating existing inequalities in access to healthcare. We do not find evidence that government-run hospitals or other types of city-level spending related to healthcare responded to pandemic intensity, suggesting that large health shocks do not necessarily lead to increased public provision of health services. |
| Keywords: | hospitals, healthcare, influenza, pandemics, local public goods |
| JEL: | I11 I14 J10 N32 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10089&r=ure |
| By: | Lockwood, Ben (University of Warwick and Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation); Simmler, Martin (Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation and Thuenen Institute of Rural Economics); Tam, Eddy H.F. (King's College London and Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of commercial property taxation on vacancy rates and rents in the UK, using a new data-set, and exploiting exogenous variations in property tax rates from reliefs in the UK system: small business rate relief (SBRR), retail relief and empty property relief. We estimate that the retail relief reduces vacancies by 85%, and SBRR relief by up to 49%, while empty property exemption increases them by up to 89%. The effect of retail relief on clusters of urban properties (the "High St") is no different to its overall effect. SBRR increases (decreases) the likelihood that a property is occupied by a small (large) business. We also use data on asking prices for rental properties to study the effect of reliefs on rental rates. Rental rates move in the opposite direction to vacancy rates, except in the case of empty property relief. All these findings are consistent with a novel model of directed search in the commercial property market, also presented in the paper. |
| Keywords: | Commercial Property ; Vacancy ; Occupancy ; Property Taxation JEL Codes: H25 ; H32 ; R30 ; R38 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1439&r=ure |
| By: | Priscilla Oyebola Bello |
| Abstract: | It is a crystal clear fact that Nigeria is plagued with so many investment challenges and has a long way to go in the application of Information Technology in the real estate sector. Some of these challenges include and are not limited to inadequate land titling and cadastral survey, ineffective real estate financing, insurgency, widespread corruption and a collapsing economy. Nevertheless, there has been an increased investment appetite in the Nigerian Real Estate Market in recent years. Also, it is a well-known fact that technology is an integral part of life that has changed various traditional business models and industries. Hence, the Real estate industry is no exception, as Information Technology is changing the way the industry and the market operate. In this regard, one of the aspects of technology that one cannot overlook is the Metaverse. The concept of the Metaverse is gaining acceptance in the developed world, and every real estate investor should be introduced to what this is all about, why it is gaining popularity, and how it operates. Hence, this paper aims to provide an introduction to property investment and the Metaverse with the objective of evaluating the readiness of the Nigerian Real estate investment market to operate in the Metaverse. |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2022–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afr:wpaper:2022-019&r=ure |
| By: | Guzi, Martin (Masaryk University); Kahanec, Martin (Central European University); Kureková, Lucia Mýtna (Slovak Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Across European Union (EU) labor markets, immigrant and native populations exhibit disparate labor market outcomes, signifying widespread labor market hierarchies. While significant resources have been invested in migration and integration policies, it remains unclear whether these contribute to or mitigate labor market hierarchies between natives and immigrants. Using a longitudinal model based on individual-level EU LFS and country-level DEMIG POLICY and POLMIG databases, we explore variation in changes of immigration and integration policies across Western EU member states to study how they are associated with labor market hierarchies in terms of unemployment and employment quality gaps between immigrant and native populations. Our findings imply that designing less restrictive policies may help mitigate immigrant-native labor market hierarchies by reducing existing labor market disadvantages of immigrants and making the most of their potential. |
| Keywords: | decomposition, immigrant-native gaps, labor market, DEMIG POLICY database, immigrant integration, hierarchies |
| JEL: | J15 J18 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15736&r=ure |
| By: | Peter Fisker (Development Economics Research Group, University of Copenhagen); Kenneth Mdadila (University of Dar es Salaam, School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper combines information from a representative household survey with publicly available spatial data extracted from satellite images to produce a high-resolution poverty map of Dar es Salaam. In particular, it builds a prediction model for per capita household consumption based on characteristics of the immediate neighborhood of the household, including the density of roads and buildings, the average size of houses, distances to places of interest, and night-time lights. The resulting poverty map of Dar es Salaam dramatically improves the spatial resolution of previous examples. Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) performs best in predicting household consumption levels given the input data. This result demonstrates the simplicity with which policy-relevant information containing a spatial dimension can be generated. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, small-area estimation, building footprints, prediction models |
| JEL: | O18 Q54 R11 |
| Date: | 2022–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuderg:2217&r=ure |
| By: | Bayoumi, Tamim; Barkema, Jelle |
| Abstract: | The IT revolution, underway since around 1980, has featured mediocre growth and rising geographic, educational, and generational inequality. This stands in stark contrast to the broad prosperity and convergence experienced in the 1950s and 1960s. We attribute this change to a swivel in the leading edge of productivity growth away from manufacturing largely present in towns to information technology mainly housed in “superstar” cities. Using a spatial model, we show how this can explain: rising prosperity and rapid housing inflation in “superstar” cities; falling relative wages in towns and the countryside; mediocre aggregate productivity due to increasing misallocation of labor; the loss of manufacturing jobs, especially in cities; and falling migration. |
| Date: | 2022–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8u6an&r=ure |
| By: | Luiz de Mello; João Tovar Jalles |
| Abstract: | The subnational governments, at the regional and local levels, play an important role in the prevention, management and recovery from natural disasters and pandemics/epidemics. These jurisdictions are responsible for issuing and monitoring compliance with several aspects of regulation that are essential for risk prevention, including land use and construction codes; for providing frontline services that are crucial for effective crisis management, including health care, civil protection, and public order and safety; and for rebuilding lost or damaged physical infrastructure in the recovery phase. This paper provides empirical evidence based on impulse response functions that the occurrence of natural disasters and the outbreak of pandemics/epidemics are associated with an increase in the subnational shares of government spending and revenue in the years following these shocks. These decentralisation effects vary according to specific shocks and are conditional on the business cycle: they tend to be stronger when the shocks materialise during cyclical expansions. |
| Keywords: | decentralisation; natural disasters; pandemics; epidemics; public finances; regional autonomy; impulse response functions; panel data. |
| JEL: | H11 H23 H77 Q58 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gov:wpaper:2207&r=ure |
| By: | Simon Calmar Andersen; Simon Tranberg Bodilsen; Mikkel Aagaard Houmark; Helena Skyt Nielsen |
| Abstract: | What appears to be ineffectiveness of educational interventions in the long run may actually be caused by statistical artefacts in the equating of tests taken at different time points or by the nature of the skill development in the absence of targeted interventions. We use longitudinal data on the full population of public school students in Denmark to estimate central parameters in the equating of reading test scores and in a skill formation model. We compare the model’s predictions to observed fade-out in a randomized controlled trial two and four years after the end of the intervention. Predicted and observed estimates consistently show that about half of the initial effect has faded out after four years. However, because of the concave nature of skill development, the treated students maintain more than 80 % of their time lead |
| Keywords: | persistence, growth curve, time lead, statistical artefact, test equating, RCT |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10094&r=ure |
| By: | Gajderowicz, Tomasz; Jakubowski, Maciej; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Wrona, Sylwia |
| Abstract: | The effect of school closures in the spring of 2020 on the math, science, and reading skills of secondary school students in Poland is estimated. The COVID-19-induced school closures lasted 26 weeks in Poland, one of Europe's longest periods of shutdown. Comparison of the learning outcomes with pre- and post-COVID-19 samples shows that the learning loss was equal to more than one year of study. Assuming a 45-year working life of the total affected population, the economic loss in future student earnings may amount to 7.2 percent of Poland's gross domestic product. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19,school closure,learning loss,Poland |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1206&r=ure |
| By: | Hernández Agramonte, Juan Manuel; Namen, Olga; Näslund-Hadley, Emma; Biehl, María Loreto |
| Abstract: | This paper presents novel evidence of an intervention to foster preschool students cognitive skills during COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a policy experiment that provided preschool student parents with a SMS text message program to support student learning at home. Taking advantage of existing parent networks, we study the direct effect of being selected to receive the SMS text messages, and the spillovers of being part of a parent network. We show that after 15 weeks of intervention, SMS text messages increase student cognitive skills by 0.11 to 0.12 standard deviations. The effect is driven by an increase of parental involvement through the proposed activities. We find no evidence that information is transferred within parent networks. |
| Keywords: | Education |
| JEL: | C93 I21 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11888&r=ure |
| By: | Oana Borcan (School of Economics, University of East Anglia); James Merewood (RAND Europe) |
| Abstract: | Principals are the gatekeepers of education and can influence student achievement through management practises. However in many countries discretionary staff appointments, corruption and inefficiency undermine the quality of management and education. Meritocratic selection in public service has been advocated as a tool to elevate management quality. We analyse the short-term impact of the 2016 introduction of merit-based selection for Romanian state school principals on students school-leaving test scores. Employing a staggered difference-in-difference strategy, we study the impact of competitively selected principals (compared to those appointed), and the impact of new principals (compared to principals who retain their position). The average treatment effect is small and insignificant immediately after the policy, with some evidence that new principals begin to improve outcomes two years on, particularly in schools with average historical performance. Since principals have limited management autonomy, this improvement is likely due to strategic selection of students into sitting the exam, but additional survey data also suggests the policy selects principals that are more motivated for the job. The evidence points to benefits and limitations of merit based recruitment policies in education. |
| Keywords: | Merit-based selection, public sector recruitment, school principals, test scores |
| JEL: | I21 I28 O15 M54 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:ueaeco:2022-11&r=ure |
| By: | Martínez, Lina María; Sayago, Juan Tomás |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of two place-based policies implemented in Cali, Colombia on social capital and trust. We use the CaliBRANDO survey to account for institutional and interpersonal trust, matching neighborhood of residence and where policies are applied. We set up a difference-in-difference model to estimate the impact of the policies on the indexes that measure trust. We nd that the organized sport policy improves institutional trust by about 4%. Our results are significant for soccer and basketball and not significant for futsal and other activities. The evidence does not support an effect of nightlights on trust. |
| Keywords: | Trust;Place-based policies;Social capital |
| JEL: | H41 O20 C21 L38 R10 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11894&r=ure |
| By: | Hasan, Iftekhar; Krause, Thomas; Manfredonia, Stefano; Noth, Felix |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that local banking market conditions affect mortality rates in the United States. Exploiting the staggered relaxation of branching restrictions in the 1990s across states, we find that banking deregulation decreases local mortality rates. This effect is driven by a decrease in the mortality rate of black residents, implying a decrease in the black-white mortality gap. We further analyze the role of mortgage markets as a transmitter between banking deregulation and mortality and show that households' easier access to finance explains mortality dynamics. We do not find any evidence that our results can be explained by improved labor outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Banking Deregulation, Mortality, Racial Inequality |
| JEL: | G21 I14 I15 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:142022&r=ure |
| By: | Ronan Lyons (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Elisa Maria Tirindelli (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | While city size and growth are the subject of a substantial literature, consensus is lacking on the extent to which Zipf's Law or Gibrat's Law holds across space and time. We examine city size, rank and growth in Britain 1801-2011 and show conclusions depend on city definition, sample cutoff and regression methods. We find Zipf's Law cannot be rejected under the strongest combination of data and methods, unlike if other data or methods are used. Across Zipf, Gibrat and Gini analyses, we find that urban concentration in Britain peaked in the mid-19th century but fell 1861-1911 and 1951-1991. |
| Keywords: | Great Britain; Zipf's Law; urban growth; Gibrat's Law |
| JEL: | N9 O18 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0522&r=ure |
| By: | Jan Frankowski; Joanna Mazurkiewicz; Jakub Soko³owski |
| Abstract: | Widespread modernisation of social housing is essential if the country is to avoid exacerbating energy poverty in its cities. In Poland, the inhabitants of social housing estates are people with low and insecure incomes; their homes are often in poor condition and are usually heated with either coal stoves or electric heaters. Municipal governments own social housing flats. Therefore it is up to them to improve the living conditions of residents in a sustainable manner. However, municipal governments have limited resources for modernisation, and the current energy crisis will only tighten their pockets further. We propose that three critical social criteria are considered when assessing and implementing social housing energy efficiency investments: 1) Efficiency, 2) Solidarity, and 3) Reduction of External Costs. Adhering to these criteria will allow municipalities to retrofit social housing more equitably – meaning that investments will serve those most in need while limiting their environmental impact. |
| Keywords: | energy, climate, housing, energy poverty |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:ppaper:pp022022&r=ure |
| By: | Ren, Jingqiu; Earl, Ryan; Amaral, Ernesto F. L. (Texas A&M University) |
| Abstract: | Purpose: Micro hospitals are a new form of for-profit healthcare facility with rapid expansion in some parts of the country. They continue to grow in Texas without in-depth public understanding or explicit policy guidance on their role in the healthcare system. Our project aims to define socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of areas served by micro and regular hospitals, and by doing so assess micro hospitals’ impact in expanding healthcare access for disadvantaged populations in Texas. Methodology/Approach: We 1) estimated hospital service areas (catchment areas) with a spatial model based on advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) methods using a proprietary ESRI traffic network; 2) assigned population socioeconomic measures to the catchment areas from the 2014–2018 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, weighted with an empirically tested Gaussian distribution; 3) used two-tailed t-tests to compare means of population characteristics between micro and regular hospital catchment areas, and 4) conducted logistic regressions to examine relationships between selected population variables and the associated odds of micro hospital presence. Findings: We found micro hospitals in Texas tend to serve a population less stressed in healthcare access compared to those who are more in need as measured by various dimensions of disadvantages. Research Limitations/Implications: Our analysis takes a cross sectional look at the population characteristics of micro hospital service areas. Even though the initial geographic choices of micro hospitals may not reflect the long-term population changes in specific neighborhoods, our analysis can provide policy makers a tool to examine healthcare access for disadvantaged populations at given point in time. As the population socioeconomic characteristics have long been associated with healthcare inequality, we hope our analysis will help foster structural policy considerations that balance growing healthcare delivery innovations and their social accountability. Originality/Value of Paper: We used GIS based spatial modeling to dynamically capture the potential patient basis by travel time calculated with a street network dataset rather than using the traditional static census tract to define hospital service areas. By mapping these boundaries in space we illustrated patterns that regression alone might not. Most importantly, by integrating both spatial and nonspatial dimensions of healthcare access, we demonstrated that the policy considerations on the implications of equal opportunity for healthcare access need to take into account the social realities for those experiencing the most vulnerability in our society, rather than a conceptual “equality” existing in the spatial and market abstraction. |
| Date: | 2022–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ev6r2&r=ure |
| By: | Alfano, Marco (Lancaster University); Cornelissen, Thomas (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | Due to economic interconnectedness across regions, locally confined violent conflict may have welfare effects far beyond directly affected areas. This paper focuses on Somalia's al-Shabaab insurgency and investigates whether the food transportation network propagates the effects of violent conflict to distant locations. Combining granular geospatial information on agricultural areas, roads, and itineraries, we show that conflict along transportation routes significantly increases food prices at markets located hundreds of kilometers away. Standardized estimates amount to up to half the magnitude of the effect of rainfall. Negative effects of conflict on road traffic as measured by satellite images of light emissions point towards decreases in food transportation. Moreover, conflict decreases food security, nutrition, health, and education for households living in far-away market areas. This suggests that food prices act as a propagating mechanism that links – among others – human capital to far-away conflict. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that spatial spillovers add an additional 30% to the welfare cost of local conflict. |
| Keywords: | conflict, spillover effects, food security, health, education |
| JEL: | D74 I15 I25 Q18 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15761&r=ure |
| By: | Camille Salesse (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | I estimate the relationship between income, the number of days of exposure to the four main air pollutants and the proportion of "cocktail days" with French municipal data over the period 2012-2018. I find contrasting results between rural and urban areas. The most affluent urban municipalities have on average a lower number of pollution days compared to the poorest urban municipalities. In urban areas, the pollution days are composed of an equal proportion of cocktail days between the poorest and the most affluent municipalities. On the other hand, in the rural areas the better-off municipalities have on average a higher number of days of pollution, composed of more toxic mixtures, compared to the poorer municipalities. I also show that the pollution levels and the difference in the number of pollution days between the better-off and poorer municipalities are higher in urban areas. |
| Keywords: | air pollution, cocktail, inequality, environmental justice |
| Date: | 2022–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03882438&r=ure |
| By: | Gajderowicz, Tomasz (University of Warsaw); Jakubowski, Maciej (University of Warsaw); Patrinos, Harry A. (World Bank); Wrona, Sylwia (University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | The effect of school closures in the spring of 2020 on the math, science, and reading skills of secondary school students in Poland is estimated. The COVID-19-induced school closures lasted 26 weeks in Poland, one of Europe's longest periods of shutdown. Comparison of the learning outcomes with pre- and post-COVID-19 samples shows that the learning loss was equal to more than one year of study. Assuming a 45-year working life of the total affected population, the economic loss in future student earnings may amount to 7.2 percent of Poland's gross domestic product. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, school closure, learning loss, Poland |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15787&r=ure |
| By: | Kaeser, Aflatun (Utah State University); Tani, Massimiliano (University of New South Wales) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses immigrants' views about immigration, filling an important void in the immigration literature. In particular, it explores the role of statistical discrimination as a cause of possible opposition to immigration in absence of stringent immigration policies and large volumes of undocumented immigration. We test this hypothesis using US data from the 7th wave of the World Value Survey finding that successful immigrants in the US – i.e. those in the highest socio-economic group – have negative views about immigration especially with respect to its contribution to unemployment, crime, and the risk of a terrorist attack. This effect does not arise in the case of host countries that apply stricter controls on immigration, like Australia, Canada and New Zealand, or do not attract large volumes of undocumented immigrants. We interpret these results as evidence that undocumented or uncontrolled immigration negatively affects the standing of existing high socio-economic status immigrants by lowering it in the eyes of US natives, hence triggering an anti-immigration view as a response. |
| Keywords: | immigration, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors |
| JEL: | D1 D89 D90 F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15792&r=ure |
| By: | Palm, Matthew |
| Abstract: | COVID-19 arrived in the United States and Canada at a time when the future of sustainable urban travel across the continent looked uncertain. A decade-long trend in transit ridership growth appeared to have stalled in many cities (Boisjoly et al., 2018), while automobile ownership grew. This chapter synthesizes unfolding evidence on how COVID-19 disrupted some of these existing trends in North American urban transportation while accelerating others. This synthesis is organized around three themes emerging from COVID-19 in the region: declining transit ridership, increased auto ownership or auto purchase plans, and a possible ‘new normal’ of increased telecommuting. I evaluate each theme in the context of prior trends and public policy choices feeding those trends. Untangling hype from data, the chapter concludes with recommendations on how to support travelers in the region while calling for clearer thinking from urban thought leaders and researchers on the likely long-term impact of the crisis. |
| Date: | 2022–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:dx258&r=ure |
| By: | PERTOLDI Martina (European Commission - JRC); FIORETTI Carlotta (European Commission - JRC); GUZZO Fabrizio (European Commission - JRC); TESTORI Giulia (European Commission - JRC); DE BRUIJN Martijn; FERRY Martin; KAH Stefan; SERVILLO Loris Antonio; WINDISCH Sissy |
| Abstract: | All places are important to the future wellbeing of Europe. The European Union (EU) is committed to ensuring that the development potential of places is uncovered and valorised. Integrated territorial and local development strategies promoted by EU cohesion policy are relevant tools to sustain this process. The ‘Handbook of Territorial and Local Development Strategies’ provides valuable knowledge on how to design and implement integrated strategies in areas other than urban areas. It aims to serve managing authorities of operational programmes, local strategy owners as well as other stakeholders involved in the process. The Handbook is a joint initiative by the European Commission’s Directorates-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and it benefits from the active contribution of policymakers, practitioners and scholars. |
| Keywords: | Integrated territorial development, Areas other than urban areas, Non-urban areas, Cohesion policy, Territorial tools, Community-led local development, Integrated territorial investment |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc130788&r=ure |
| By: | Raahil Madhok (University of British Columbia); Frederik Noack (University of British Columbia); Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak (Cowles Foundation, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the response of agricultural production to rural labor loss during the process of urbanization. Using household microdata from India and exogenous variation in migration induced by urban income shocks interacted with distance to cities, we document sharp declines in crop production among migrant-sending households residing near cities. Households with migration opportunities do not substitute agricultural labour with capital, nor do they adopt new agricultural machinery. Instead, they divest from agriculture altogether and cultivate less land. We use a two-sector general equilibrium model with crop and land markets to trace the ensuing spatial reorganization of agriculture. Other non-migrant village residents expand farming (land market channel) and farmers in more remote villages with fewer migration opportunities adopt yield-enhancing technologies and produce more crops (crop market channel). Counterfactual simulations show that over half of the aggregate food production losses driven by urbanization is mitigated by these spillovers. This leads to a spatial reorganization in which food production moves away from urban areas and towards remote areas with low emigration. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2349&r=ure |
| By: | Ganau, Roberto; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | We analyse the investment-to-cash flow relationship in Europe using a sample of manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) over the period 2009–2016. We investigate the effect of regional institutional quality on the investment-to-cash flow sensitivity, finding that, although credit constraints remain a serious problem for European SMEs, high-quality regional institutions contribute to mitigate the dependency on internally-generated resources to finance new investments. Improvements in local institutional quality can therefore facilitate SMEs’ access to credit–e.g. through inter-firm trade credit relationships –, but are insufficient to overcome the credit restrictions faced by European SMEs. |
| Keywords: | credit constraints; small- and medium-sized firms; manufacturing industry; institutional quality; Europe |
| JEL: | C23 R50 |
| Date: | 2022–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:112487&r=ure |
| By: | Elena Doty; Thomas J. Kane; Tyler Patterson; Douglas O. Staiger |
| Abstract: | In the three decades before the pandemic, mean achievement of U.S. 8th graders in math rose by more than half a standard deviation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Between 2019 and 2022, U.S. students had forfeited 40 percent of that rise. To anticipate the consequences of the recent decline, we investigate the past relationship between NAEP scores and students’ later life outcomes by year and state of birth. We find that a standard deviation improvement in a birth cohort’s 8th grade math achievement was associated with an 8 percent rise in income, as well as improved educational attainment and declines in teen motherhood, incarceration and arrest rates. If allowed to become permanent, our findings imply that the recent losses would represent a 1.6 percent decline in present value of lifetime earnings for the average K-12 student (or $19,400), totaling $900 billion for the 48 million students enrolled in public schools during the 2020-21 school year. |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30701&r=ure |
| By: | Murat Demirci (Department of Economics, Koc University); Andrew D. Foster (Department of Economics and Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University); Murat G. Kirdar (Department of Economics, Bogazici University and Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines disparities in health and nutrition among native and Syrian-refugee children in Turkey. With a view toward understanding the need for targeted programs addressing child well-being among the refugee population, we analyze, in particular, the Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS). The TDHS is one of few data sets providing representative data on health and nutrition for a large refugee and native population. We find no evidence of a difference in infant or child mortality between refugee children born in Turkey and native children. However, refugee infants born in Turkey have lower birthweight and age-adjusted weight and height than native infants. When we account for a rich set of birth and socioeconomic characteristics that display substantial differences between natives and refugees, the gaps in birthweight and age-adjusted height persist, but the gap in age-adjusted weight disappears. Although refugee infants close the weight gap at the mean over time, the gap at the lower end of the distribution persists. The rich set of covariates we use explains about 35% of the baseline difference in birthweight and more than half of the baseline difference in current height. However, even after that, refugee infants’ average birthweight is 0.17 standard deviations (sd) lower and their current height is 0.23 sd lower. These gaps are even larger for refugee infants born prior to migrating to Turkey, suggesting that remaining deficits reflect conditions in the source country prior to migration rather than deficits in access to maternal and child health services within Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Syrian refugees, birthweight, anthropometric measures, forced displacement, Turkey. |
| JEL: | J61 O15 F22 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:2208&r=ure |
| By: | Erwin, Christopher (Auckland University of Technology); Hennecke, Juliane (Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg); Meehan, Lisa (NZ Work Research Institute); Pacheco, Gail (NZ Work Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | A stylized fact in criminology holds that those who commit crimes are more likely to be victims of crime, and vice versa. We use population-level administrative data of all police investigations in New Zealand to examine the possibility of this victim-offender overlap. Two-way fixed effects and dynamic panel models explore intertemporal relationships between victimization and offending. This analysis reveals that victim-offender overlap predominantly reflects population heterogeneity. However, a dynamic relationship does exist, and is primarily driven by 1) criminal incidents occurring close together in time and 2) simultaneous incidents where individuals are both offenders and victims (e.g., mutually combative assaults). |
| Keywords: | victim-offender overlap, population heterogeneity, crime, victimization |
| JEL: | C55 K14 K42 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15757&r=ure |
| By: | Neal, Zachary P.; Derudder, Ben; van Meeteren, Michiel |
| Abstract: | All geographical networks can be represented as matrices, but not all matrices in geography represent networks. In this paper, we argue that a matrix must have at least three properties to represent a geographical network. First, the rows and columns must represent nodes defined at a scale that is relevant for the relationship of interest. Second, the matrix entries must represent relationships between nodes that have significance beyond dyads. Third, the values of the matrix entries must be accompanied by evidence or a rationale that they are a valid operationalization of the theoretical relationship of interest. We illustrate the relevance of the three properties through examples from the city networks literature. This contribution will guide scholars to evaluate whether a network analysis of their spatial data matrix is advisable. |
| Date: | 2022–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:6jhzm&r=ure |
| By: | NISHITATENO Shuhei |
| Abstract: | During the early 2000s, five prefectures in Japan introduced a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) policy that banned highly polluting diesel trucks and buses from entering. This paper analyzes effects of this policy intervention on air quality, new vehicle registrations, and birthweights. To do so we use a matching approach to construct a control group that is comparable to the designated areas in terms of pollution levels and road traffic volumes of regulated vehicles and apply a difference-in-differences (DD) design. We find that the LEZs led to a reduction in hourly suspended particulate matter concentrations and to reduced incidence of low birthweights in the treated prefectures relative to the control group, holding the gestational period and other controls constant. Evidence also suggests that the LEZs led to an increase in new registrations of trucks and buses, but not of passenger cars, which were exempt from the regulations. Our paper is the first to study such a large-scale LEZ intervention and to provide evidence linking LEZs to reduced incidence of low birthweights. |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:22109&r=ure |
| By: | Furth, Salim (Mercury Publication) |
| Abstract: | Abstract not available. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajw:wpaper:09588&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Governments vary greatly in the way they decide the level of funding for public primary schools, although typically it involves using a combination of rule-based and discretionary criteria. They also tend to place restrictions on how funding is used by earmarking it for particular categories of expenditure. This practice is not universal, however, and schools in some OECD countries have considerable autonomy in how they allocate their resources even if they have little influence over how much they receive. |
| Date: | 2022–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:82-en&r=ure |
| By: | Couture, Cody; Owen, Ann L. |
| Abstract: | Expectations about macroeconomic variables vary substantially by race, most notably between Black and White individuals. Our results suggest that one factor affecting the difference in expectations is that Black expectations are influenced by negative experiences with the criminal justice system. We find evidence for one channel through which these negative experiences influence expectations by showing that, relative to White respondents, Black respondents became more pessimistic about both their own economic circumstances and their inflation expectations following highly-publicized incidents related to police-involved killings. This suggests a channel through which non-economic events can affect the economy via their impact on consumer expectations. |
| Keywords: | Police Killing, Racial Differences, Consumer Expectations |
| JEL: | D14 D84 E30 |
| Date: | 2022–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115663&r=ure |
| By: | Alok Mukherjee; Erick Laming; Jihyun Kwon (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | Although municipalities play a significant role in the provision of police services (while others rely on provincial and federal police forces), they face constraints when it comes to police governance and accountability, including control over police budgets. The fifth report in the Who Does What series from the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) and the Urban Policy Lab focuses on the role that Canadian municipalities play in policing, which functions they are best suited to perform, and how they can work better with other orders of government. Mukherjee and Kwon draw attention to the municipal policing responsibilities that arise from federal mandates or areas of federal jurisdiction. They call for an inter-governmental discussion on the division of responsibilities among federal, provincial and municipal orders of government. They suggest that municipalities should fund public safety–related functions, which should be separated from those requiring armed police. Provincial legislation on policing, they argue, should accurately reflect the delineation of responsibilities, different types of policing services, the consequent structures, and municipal obligations. Laming proposes replacing the current structure of local police services boards, which includes political representation, with a purely civilian model of governance. He provides a framework to implement this approach, ending with 10 recommendations to improve the governance and accountability of local policing. |
| Keywords: | Canada, municipalities, policing, intergovernmental relations, police services boards |
| JEL: | H70 H59 K42 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mfg:mfgwdw:5&r=ure |
| By: | Gavard, Claire; Göbel, Jonas; Schoch, Niklas |
| Abstract: | An argument sometimes used to support renewable energy is that it may contribute to job creation. On the other hand, these technologies often face local opposition. On the case of Denmark, the country with the longest experience with wind power, the authors examine whether the installation of new turbines had local economic benefits. They use a quasi-experimental set-up and exploit time and regional variations at the municipal level. The authors find that the deployment of wind power contributed to the increase in personal income for entrepreneurs and some retirees. As municipalities received payments from wind investors ahead of the construction, the new wind revenues were followed by increases in local public spending. Regarding employment, the authors find very minor effects in some sectors but the aggregate local employment does not change significantly. |
| Keywords: | Wind power,renewable energy,climate policy,co-benefits,employment |
| JEL: | C23 H23 Q42 Q48 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:22058&r=ure |
| By: | Carlo Bottai; Martina Iori |
| Abstract: | Cities are key places of economic activity, as they produce an enormous amount of wealth compared to the land they cover. Their study is, therefore, of primary importance in understanding the success of nations. Given the many interactions among people that happen within them, cities are well described as complex evolving systems, and a thorough analysis of their economy should be able to deal with this complexity. A likely candidate to grasp the reality of complex evolving systems, such the economy of cities, is the Economic Complexity framework (Hidalgo and Hausmann, 2009), given its capacity to synthesize a large amount of informa- tion into a single index. We use patent data to compute the knowledge complexity index (KCI) of European metropolitan areas and describe their economy in terms of their innovative potential. Interpreted as a dimensionality-reduction algorithm, as proposed by Mealy et al. (2019), KCI helps to filter out the background noise from the abundant information produced by the interactions that happen within cities. By extending the work by van Dam et al. (2021), we highlight the relevance of going beyond the first leading eigenvector, to the analysis of which the rest of the literature is limited. We define clusters of similar cities, based on the additional dimensions obtained through this dimensionality-reduction procedure. The introduction of clusters dramatically increases the predicting power of KCI. Under this lens, the Economic Complexity framework is more than a single index: it is a powerful methodology to reveal the organized complexity hidden behind the large amount of chaotic information produced by out-of-equilibrium economic systems such as cities. |
| Keywords: | Gains from productivity; Development; Asymmetries. |
| Date: | 2022–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2022/38&r=ure |
| By: | Martin Christensen (World Bank); Damiaan Persyn (Thünen Institute) |
| Abstract: | We introduce endogenous labour supply decisions with an extensive and intensive margin in a regional computational general equilibrium model. We show that endogenising labour supply generates an additional economic loss compared to a model with fixed labour supply. Both the intensive margin and the extensive margin contribute to the higher cumulative loss in employment, consumption and GDP. A first insight from the general equilibrium framework is that the response at the external margin of labour supply is larger than what could be expected from considering wage elasticities alone, due to discouraged individuals choosing to stay out of the labour market in face of higher unemployment and a lower probability of finding a job. More insights are provided by the unique extensive regional dimension of our model. We show that country-level results hide substantial heterogeneity at the regional level. The results carry important lessons for macro-economic models used for policy evaluation: economic effects may be underestimated by models with fixed labour supply or models considering only the intensive margin of labour supply. Aggregate country level estimates may hide large differences in effects observed at the regional level. |
| Keywords: | General equilibrium modelling, labour supply, regional economics. |
| JEL: | C68 D58 J20 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:termod:202213&r=ure |
| By: | Stephan Heblich; Marlon Seror; Hao Xu; Yanos Zylberberg |
| Abstract: | We identify negative spillovers exerted by large, successful manufacturing plants on other local production facilities in China. A short-lived alliance between the U.S.S.R. and China led to the construction of 150 "Million-Rouble plants" in the 1950s. Our identification strategy exploits the ephemeral geopolitical context and the relative position of allied and enemy airbases to isolate exogenous variation in plant location decisions. We find a boom-and-bust pattern in hosting counties: treated counties are twice as productive as control counties in 1982, but 30% less productive in 2010. The average other establishment in treated counties is unproductive, does not innovate, and charges high markups. We find that (over)specialization limits technological spillovers. This prevents the emergence of new industrial clusters and leads to a flight of entrepreneurs. |
| JEL: | J24 N95 R11 R50 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30744&r=ure |
| By: | Fernihough, Alan; Lyons, Ronan C. |
| Abstract: | Ireland developed one of the world's most intensive railroad networks in the second half of the 19th century. However, the emergence of railroads occurred in tandem with a failure to industrialize and mass depopulation suggesting limited, if any, impact on the island's economy. This paper examines this claim from a trade-based market-access perspective. Matching high-resolution geospatial data for nearly 3,400 districts to existing road and waterway networks as well as Ireland's nascent railroad network, we quantify the extent of market access improvements caused by rail. Additionally, we compute an external market access measure that accounts for improved access to international ports. Our findings reveal that this distinction is vital. Improvements in domestic market access brought about by railroads had a substantial positive influence on both population density and land values, while better access to ports had the opposite, negative, effect. Overall, these conflicting forces cancel out, hiding rail's importance. However, a supplementary analysis reveals that the introduction of rail fostered a significant reorientation within the economy across two key domains: emigration and the labour-intensiveness of agriculture. Areas with relatively more access to ports experienced greater levels of emigration and a faster switch from labor-intensive tillage to pastoral farming-with differential access explaining around two-fifths of the observed shift in both variables between the Great Famine and the Great War. |
| Keywords: | Ireland,Railways,Market Access,Emigration |
| JEL: | N14 N94 O18 R12 R4 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:202211&r=ure |
| By: | Gonzalez, Felipe (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile); Miquel-Florensa, Josepa; Prem, Mounu; Straub, Stéphane |
| Abstract: | Transportation infrastructure is associated with economic development, but it can also be used for social control and to benefit the governing elite. We explore the connection between the construction of road networks, state-led repression, and land allocations in the longest dictatorship in South America: Alfredo Stroessner military regime in Paraguay. Using novel panel data from the truth and reconciliation commission, we show that proximity to roads facilitated state-led repression and the illegal allocation of agricultural plots to dictatorship allies. These results suggest that infrastructure projects can also hinder economic development. |
| Date: | 2022–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:zetmq&r=ure |
| By: | Joeng, Young Sik (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Kang, Eunjung (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Kim, Kyunghun (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Kim, Jeehye (Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements) |
| Abstract: | Since the 2008 global financial crisis, inequality has been increasing worldwide. In particular, wealth (asset) inequality is getting worse than income inequality. And Korea is no exception. This deepening of inequality is more worrisome in that it leads to inequality of opportunity while suppressing movement between classes, which in turn deepens inequality, creating a vicious cycle of inequality. This is a bigger problem than the inequality itself. The international communities are calling for stronger property taxes, including recurrent taxes on immovable property, as part of mitigating inequality and promoting inclusive growth. In Korea, there is heated discussion on property taxes, such as recurrent taxes on immovable property including the comprehensive real estate tax. Therefore, this study aims to investigate policy directions in international organizations and major countries on immovable property tax and examine the effect of property tax on the macro economy. This study examine international comparisons of immovable property tax burdens using OECD data. Next, this study analyzes the effect of immovable property tax on housing prices, inequality, and economic growth. Finally, we suggest policy implications to Korea through this. Based on our results, we present policy implications for Korea. |
| Keywords: | Immovable Property Tax; Inequality; Economic growth; Housing Price |
| Date: | 2022–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kiepwe:2022_024&r=ure |
| By: | Ge, Erhao; Cairang, Dongzhi; Mace, Ruth |
| Abstract: | Many have attempted to explain the evolutionary origins of religion and some suggest that religiosity promotes cooperation. But the empirical works evaluating the links between religious practices and social cooperative networks have been surprisingly few, and whether religious celibacy helps structure local social support remains to explore. Here, we draw on the religiosity and social support network data among residents of an agricultural Tibetan village to evaluate whether people are more likely to establish supportive relationships with religious individuals and consanguineous kins of celibates, and examine the gender-specific correlations between religiosity and personal network characteristics. We found that religious practices foster social supporting relationships overall. Consanguineous kins of celibate monks enjoy more social acceptance not only by the enhanced probability of having a supportive relationship but also by denser connections among them. Engagement in pilgrimage acts is associated with larger networks for males but not for females, partaking in daily practice correlates with denser networks for both males and females. Particular religious acts may help individuals gain particular types of social network benefits. |
| Date: | 2022–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:qpa4b&r=ure |
| By: | Tak Wing Chan (Social Research institute, University College London); Juta Kawalerowicz (Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | We use data from a large-scale and nationally representative survey to examine whether there is in Britain a trade-off between social diversity and social cohesion. Using six separate measures of social cohesion (generalised trust, volunteering, giving to charity, inter-ethnic friendship, and two neighbourhood cohesion scales) and four measures of social diversity (ethnic fractionalisation, religious fractionalisation, percentage muslim, and percentage foreign-born), we show that, net of individual covariates, there is a negative association between social diversity and most measures of social cohesion. But these associations disappear when neighbourhood deprivation is taken into account. These results are robust to alternative definitions of neighbourhood. We also investigate the possibility that the diversity–cohesion trade-off is found in more segregated neighbourhoods. But we find very little evidence to support that claim. |
| Keywords: | Social cohesion, social diversity, deprivation |
| Date: | 2022–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2210&r=ure |
| By: | Estelle Cantillon; Li Chen; Juan S. Pereyra |
| Abstract: | A classic trade-off that school districts face when deciding which matching algorithm to use is that it is not possible to always respect both priorities and preferences. The student-proposing deferred acceptance algorithm (DA) respects priorities but can lead to inefficient allocations. The top trading cycle algorithm (TTC) respects preferences but may violate priorities. We identify a new condition on school choice markets under which DA is efficient and there is a unique allocation that respects priorities. Our condition generalizes earlier conditions by placing restrictions on how preferences and priorities relate to one another only on the parts that are relevant for the assignment. We discuss how our condition sheds light on existing empirical findings. We show through simulations that our condition significantly expands the range of known environments for which DA is efficient. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.02881&r=ure |
| By: | Lazarus, Jessica; Broader, Jacquelyn; Cohen, Adam; Bayen, Alexandre PhD; Shaheen, Susan PhD |
| Abstract: | The State of California is currently moving forward with a road usage charge (RUC) demonstration program, creating promising research opportunities to examine the potential social equity implications of a shift from a gas tax to a RUC system in California. RUC . To this aim, this study investigates the relative burden of gas taxes and mileage-based RUC across various sociodemographic and geographic dimensions by examining key trends in road use, vehicle ownership, fuel consumption, use of RUC-related technologies, and attitudes/opinions related to RUC adoption. Expert interviews were conducted to increase understanding of the potential opportunities and challenges of a RUC system, particularly regarding social equity. The interviews included transportation industry professionals as well as representatives from community-based and other stakeholder organizations to understand best practices for RUC design and implementation, identify stakeholders’ concerns and potential ways to address them, and inform the design and analysis of a survey of Californians. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2022–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt1pn404q5&r=ure |
| By: | Millsap, Adam (Mercury Publication) |
| Abstract: | Abstract not available. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajw:wpaper:07778&r=ure |
| By: | Lai, Tat-kei; Wang, Luhang |
| Abstract: | In China, the relative wages of high-skilled and low-skilled workers display huge variation across different regions. We examine whether financial intermediation development can explain such variation. Conceptually, better-developed financial intermediation helps financially-constrained firms raise new capital, which is usually skilledbiased, resulting in an increased demand for skilled labor and skill premium. Using a cross-section of workers from the 1% Population Survey of 2005, we find consistent evidence; besides, the relationship is stronger among workers in industries with higher capital-skill complementarity and in non-state-owned enterprises. Overall, our results suggest that the financial market plays a role in explaining skill premium in China. |
| Keywords: | Financial intermediation,Misallocation,Skill premium,China |
| JEL: | J24 J31 O11 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2022_006&r=ure |
| By: | Alberto Delgado, José Luis; Demirbaş, Dilek; Aysan, Ahmet Faruk |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the fiscal performance of Turkey and Argentina during the period 2000 - 2021, when both countries faced rapid economic growth with the consequent impact on social welfare. This work explored two different systems: Centralization in Turkey and Federalism in Argentina and, in general, studied the decentralization impact of both systems on social welfare. This study intended to create new social welfare indexes in other to analyze the resource allocation in different regions of these countries. As a first step, we built a regional Human Development Index (HDI) for each region. This attempt is considered a new contribution to the literature and intended to fill the gap in this field. Afterward, this index was compared with the fiscal resources allocation (FRA), used as a proxy of fiscal decentralization in an econometric panel data model. By using this method, we concluded that the social welfare indexes have a positive relationship with the fiscal resource allocation in the Federal system, such as in Argentina, but not in the centralized system such as in Turkey during the period analyzed from 2000 to 2020. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal Centralization, Decentralization, HDI Index, Argentina, Turkey. |
| JEL: | D6 D60 H0 H3 N1 O10 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115432&r=ure |
| By: | Lea Cassar; Mira Fischer; Vanessa Valero |
| Abstract: | Mindfulness-based meditation practices are becoming increasingly popular in Western societies, including in the business world and in education. While the scientific literature has largely documented the benefits of mindfulness meditation for mental health, little is still known about potential spillovers of these practices on other important life outcomes, such as performance. We address this question through a field experiment in an educational setting. We study the causal impact of mindfulness meditation on academic performance through a randomized evaluation of a well-known 8-week mindfulness meditation training delivered to university students on campus. As expected, the intervention improves students' mental health and non-cognitive skills. However, it takes time before students' performance can benefit from mindfulness meditation: we find that, if anything, the intervention marginally decreases average grades in the short run, i.e., during the exam period right after the end of the intervention, whereas it significantly increases academic performance, by about 0.4 standard deviations, in the long run (ca. 6 months after the end of intervention). We investigate the underlying mechanisms and discuss the implications of our results. |
| Keywords: | performance, mental health, education, meditation, field experiment |
| JEL: | I21 C93 I12 I31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10099&r=ure |
| By: | Stephen J Terry (BU - Boston University [Boston], NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research [New York] - NBER - The National Bureau of Economic Research); Thomas Chaney (USC - University of Southern California, ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Konrad B Burchardi (Stockholm University); Lisa Tarquinio (UWO - University of Western Ontario); Tarek A Hassan (BU - Boston University [Boston], NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research [New York] - NBER - The National Bureau of Economic Research, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We show a causal impact of immigration on innovation and growth in US counties. To identify the causal impact of immigration, we use 130 years of detailed data on migrations from foreign countries to US counties to isolate quasi-random variation in the ancestry composition of US counties; interacting this plausibly exogenous variation in ancestry composition with the recent inflows of migrants from different origins, we predict the total number of migrants flowing into each US county in recent decades. We show immigration has a positive causal impact on innovation, measured as patenting of local firms, and on economic growth, measured as real income growth for native workers. We interpret those results through the lens of a quantitative model of endogenous growth and migrations. A structural estimation of this model targeting the well identified causal impact of migration on innovation suggests the large inflow of foreign migrants into the US since 1965 may have contributed to an additional 8% growth in innovation and 5% growth in wages. |
| Keywords: | Migrations, Innovation, Patents, Endogenous growth, Dynamism |
| Date: | 2022–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03869993&r=ure |
| By: | Li, Ziqi |
| Abstract: | Ridesharing, compared to traditional solo ride-hailing, can reduce traffic congestion, cut per-passenger carbon emissions, reduce parking infrastructure, and provide a more cost-effective way to travel. Despite these benefits, ridesharing only occupies a small percentage of the total ride-hailing trips. This study provides a reproducible and replicable framework that integrates big trip data, machine learning models, and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to better understand the factors that influence people's decisions to take or not to take a shared ride. |
| Date: | 2022–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:chy4p&r=ure |
| By: | Gunes, Pinar Mine (University of Alberta); Tsaneva, Magda (Clark University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of Brazil's Family Health Program (Programa Saude da Familia, FHP) on cognitive skills of fifth-grade students. We use biennial data from national exams between 2007 and 2015, and variation in the FHP implementation date across municipalities, birth cohort, and test year to identify the effect of the program on language and mathematics test scores. We find that, in northern municipalities, students exposed to FHP at or prior to birth have 0.88 points higher language and 1.30 points higher mathematics test scores compared to those exposed to FHP in childhood. The estimated effects are intent-to-treat effects and correspond to increases of 0.021sd and 0.030sd in language and mathematics test scores. We use an event-study analysis demonstrating that the largest effects of FHP on cognitive skills are for those students exposed at or prior to birth, with trivial effects if exposed after birth. We do not find evidence for changes in parental investment behavior or child school attendance, which suggests that the effects are likely due to the direct impact of the program on child cognitive development. |
| Keywords: | early life interventions, cognitive skills, community healthcare, Brazil |
| JEL: | I15 I18 I21 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15784&r=ure |
| By: | Braathen, Christian (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics); Thorsen, Inge (Dept. of Business Administration, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences); Ubøe, Jan (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Maximum entropy methods are used to infer the true trip-distribution matrix in cases where parts of the data are suppressed due to privacy concerns. Large proportions of the suppressed data are found to be inferred correctly when the marginal totals in the trip distribution are known. Entropy-based approaches are further found to outperform a strategy of ignoring suppressed information in cases with suppressed marginal totals and/or a higher cut-off value of suppressing cell information. Our methods are demonstrated to reduce the systematic bias in estimates of the distance deterrence parameter to such small numbers that it is effectively zero, preventing potentially serious bias in estimates and predictions resulting from standard spatial interaction models. Another useful contribution is to identify what scenarios an entropy-maximization approach benefits from incorporating information on times series and/or information on distances in the transportation network. |
| Keywords: | Maximum entropy methods; trip-distribution matrix; spatial interaction |
| JEL: | C00 C10 R00 R12 |
| Date: | 2022–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2022_013&r=ure |
| By: | Mkrtchyan Nikita (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Florinskaya Yulia (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | The work contains a brief overview of the research directions of youth migration in the world and in Russia, and in its main part is devoted to the analysis of the directions and structural characteristics of youth migration - in general and within Russia. |
| Keywords: | youth migration, demofraphic analysis |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:s21065&r=ure |
| By: | Stefano Carattini; Kenneth Gillingham; Xiangyu Meng; Erez Yoeli |
| Abstract: | Observability has been demonstrated to influence the adoption of pro-social behavior in a variety of contexts. This study implements a field experiment to examine the influence of observability in the context of a novel pro-social behavior: peer-to-peer solar. Peer-to-peer solar offers an opportunity to households who cannot have solar on their homes to access solar energy from their neighbors. However, unlike solar installations, peer-to-peer solar is an invisible form of pro-environmental behavior. We implemented a set of randomized campaigns using Facebook ads in the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge and Somerville, in partnership with a peer-to-peer company. In the campaigns, treated customers were informed that they could share "green reports" online, providing information to others about their greenness. We find that interest in peer-to-peer solar increases by up to 30% when "green reports," which would make otherwise invisible behavior visible, are mentioned in the ads. |
| Keywords: | Peer to peer solar; pro-environmental behavior; social rewards; visibility; Facebook |
| JEL: | C93 D91 Q20 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exc:wpaper:2022-02&r=ure |
| By: | Regan, Amelia C.; Golob, Thomas F. |
| Abstract: | Most studies of the economic benefits of Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) have focused on the passenger transportation market. Few analyses have addressed the applications of ATIS to freight operations even though using ATIS to route or divert commercial vehicles can make a significant improvement in overall traffic flow and system performance. In this study, multivariate demand models were estimated based on large-scale surveys of commercial vehicle operators in California to determine the current use and perceptions of advanced information technologies, especially advanced traveler information systems (ATIS), among these firms. Data were used to identify organizational and operational characteristics that made these technologies more or less attractive, and to predict potential adoption of the technologies by carrier type. Many characteristics proved influential including company size, type and location of operation, length of load moves, provision of intermodal service and private versus for-hire status. A secondary goal was to explore the extent to which new logistics intermediaries, especially "infomediaries" are likely to develop advanced information technologies for the freight industry. Private sector providers of ATIS have not lived up to earlier expectations. While there still may be a significant future role for private sector involvement in providing this type of information, for now the burden appears to fall primarily on state and local transportation agencies. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Commercial vehicle operators, Advanced traveler information systems, Advanced driver information systems |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt2578j4bj&r=ure |