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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2016‒03‒29
24 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Jahn, Vera (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg); Steinhardt, Max Friedrich (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the impact of immigration on innovation. We exploit an immigrant placement policy which took place during the early nineties in Germany when large numbers of so called ethnic Germans entered the country. This allows us to overcome the potential bias of endogenous location decisions and to estimate how regional inflows of ethnic Germans affected patent applications over time. Although the majority of ethnic German inflows was unskilled, we do not find any evidence of a negative impact on innovations. Instead, our panel estimates suggest that immigration had no or even a positive impact on innovations. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Immigration; Ethnic Germans; Quasi-experimental setting |
| JEL: | F22 O32 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2016_164&r=eur |
| By: | J. Ignacio García-Pérez; Judit Vall Castelló; Ioana Marinescu |
| Abstract: | By reducing the commitment made by employers, fixed-term contracts can help low-skilled youth find a first job. However, the long-term impact of fixed-term contracts on these workers’ careers may be negative. Using Spanish social security data, we analyze the impact of a large liberalization in the regulation of fixed-term contracts in 1984. Using a cohort regression discontinuity design, we find that the reform raised the likelihood of male high-school dropouts working before age 19 by 9%. However, in the longer run, the reform reduced number of days worked (by 4.5%) and earnings (by 9%). |
| JEL: | J3 J41 J48 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22048&r=eur |
| By: | Hippolyte D'Albis (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Paula Gobbi (UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain); Angela Greulich (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that differences in fertility across European countries mainly emerge due to fewer women having two children in low fertility countries. It further suggests that childcare services are an important determinant for the transition to a second child to occur. The theoretical framework we propose suggests that: (i) in countries where childcare coverage is low, there is a U-shaped relationship between a couple's probability to have a second child and female's wage, while (ii) in countries with easy access to childcare, this probability is positively related with the woman's potential wage. Data from the European Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) confirm these implications when estimating a woman's probability of having a second child as a function of education. This implies that middle income women are the most affected ones by the lack of childcare coverage. |
| Keywords: | Childcare,Education,Fertility,Female Employment |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01281957&r=eur |
| By: | Elena Bárcena-Martín (Dpto. Estadística y Econometría, University of Málaga.); Maite Blázquez (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.); Santiago Budría (ICADE, CEEAplA and IZA.); Ana I. Moro Egido (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the ability of social benefits to soften the level of child deprivation. We construct a dedicated child deprivation indicator which allows us to better capture children’s circumstances and examine the effect on it of contextual and sociodemographic factors jointly through multilevel models. We contribute to the scarce literature on the effects of social spending on child-specific deprivation from a cross-national perspective. We separately estimate the effect of each social benefit function on child deprivation to evaluate the impact of those benefit functions directly targeted at children and those benefit functions with no explicit intention of child deprivation protection. Our findings suggest that in order to explain differences across European countries in the level of child deprivation, country-level determinants are crucial. Moreover, social benefits play a key role that remains even when controlling for country-level determinants. An additional finding is that the most effective social benefit functions are not necessarily those targeted at children. |
| Keywords: | Child deprivation, social protection benefits, multilevel regression |
| JEL: | I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2016–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:16/03&r=eur |
| By: | Per Johansson; Lisa Laun; Mårten Palme |
| Abstract: | Following an era of a development towards earlier retirement, there has been a reversed trend to later exit from the labor market in Sweden since the late 1990s. We investigate whether or not there are potentials, with respect to health and work capacity of the population, for extending this trend further. We use two different methods. First, the Milligan and Wise (2012) method, which calculates how much people would participate in the labor force at a constant mortality rate. Second, the Cutler et al. (2012) method, which asks how much people would participate in the labor force if they would work as much as the age group 50-54 at a particular level of health. We also provide evidence on the development of self-assessed health and health inequality in the Swedish population. |
| JEL: | I10 I14 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21969&r=eur |
| By: | Leventi, Chrysa; Rastrigina, Olga; Sutherland, Holly |
| Abstract: | Policy over the past years has seen a gradual movement away from universal social benefits towards the provision of more targeted benefit schemes. Using the European tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD, this paper aims to compare the effectiveness of income-tested benefits at different points in the economic cycle. This objective is considered in terms of coverage of households with incomes falling below various thresholds and importance in terms of the fraction of total resources that these benefits provide. The prevalence and relative weight of income-tested benefits throughout the income distribution is also examined. We compare the situation in 2009 with that in 2014 (or 2013) for fifteen EU Member States experiencing differing economic conditions over the period in question, including those which have been affected comparatively little by the crisis as well as those which have witnessed severe reductions in economic activity and employment levels and those in strong recovery by 2014. As EU-SILC micro-data containing household income for 2013 or 2014 are not available yet, standard EUROMOD routines are enhanced with additional adjustments to the EU-SILC based input data in order to take into account changes in the labour market. We attempt to indicate the sensitivity of the estimated policy effectiveness indicators to these particular changes. We conclude by discussing the methodological pitfalls and main findings of this research |
| Date: | 2016–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em2-16&r=eur |
| By: | Metzger, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Traditionally, households have been seen as acting as a single unit when it comes to savings. Although this might be correct for some parts of household savings, we question the correctness of the unitary model with respect to non-mandatory retirement savings. To answer this question we analyze the intra-household allocation of retirement savings between partners in Germany. First, the decision to save at all is analyzed using a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model, showing that the possession of retirement saving accounts among spouses is positively correlated, hinting at a 'crowding-in' of saving accounts. However, this could be only due to some tax reasons. Thus, we analyze additionally the interaction of savings between spouses using three-stage least squares, allowing for endogeneity between the spouse's savings. These results additionally show a 'crowding-in' of total retirement saving amounts between spouses, probably due to some 'recognition effect'. The unitary model of household decision making can thus be rejected with respect to retirement savings. |
| Keywords: | savings,intra-household allocation,retirement,life-cycle,unitary model,household decision,three-stage least squares |
| JEL: | D14 D91 H31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fzgdps:60&r=eur |
| By: | Krenz, Astrid |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the geographical location of workers in jobs with high-knowledge requirements in the German economy. Our analysis takes individual-level data from the German socioeconomic panel (GSOEP) and combines them with the knowledge information for different jobs that comes from the US Department of Labor. We make use of the regional information inherent to the GSOEP that can be accessed only through a special user contract. High-knowledge employment is differently distributed across the German regions. Whereas highknowledge employment in communication and media as well as public safety is rather concentrated across regions, high-knowledge employment in computers and electronics, engineering and technology, education and training and mechanical tasks is more dispersed. Eastern German regions display a lower share of highknowledge workers in computers, engineering, mechanical tasks and public safety. The results are important to understand the regional development potential across the German regions. Our analysis detects a division in high-knowledge employment between the East and West of Germany. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration,knowledge,Germany |
| JEL: | R11 R12 J24 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:277&r=eur |
| By: | Emanuele Bracco; Luisanna Onnis |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of immigration and immigration amnesties on the shadow economy. We find a robust and positive relationship between the presence of immigrants and the unobserved economic activity at the local level, but the implementation of a large immigration amnesty substantially weakens this link. Our analysis exploits newly compiled datasets of Italian immigration and shadow economy estimates for the years 1995-2006, comprising a panel of local-level aggregate statistical information, and a micro-level survey of representative households. We exploit the discontinuity created by the 2002 immigration amnesty, which increased the stock of migrants by almost 50%. |
| Keywords: | Shadow Economy, immigration, Immigration policies, Amnesties |
| JEL: | H26 J61 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:108263550&r=eur |
| By: | Laetitia Duval (Imperial College London - Imperial College London); François-Charles Wolff (UN - Université de Nantes, INED - Institut national d'études démographiques) |
| Abstract: | The Roma constitute the largest, poorest and youngest ethnic minority group in Europe. Over the last few years, they have attracted unprecedented attention with the fear of massive waves of emigrants to Western European countries. Using unique comparative data from 12 Central and SouthEast European countries, we study the pattern and determinants of Roma emigration intentions. We find that plans to go abroad are more frequent among Roma compared to non-Roma, but the ethnic gap in emigration intentions is not explained by the more disadvantaged characteristics of Roma compared to non-Roma. Among the Roma population, potential emigrants are more educated and wealthier on average. Finally, ethnic discrimination is a very influential factor that explains the intentions to emigrate within the Roma population. |
| Keywords: | Emigration intention,Roma,ethnic discrimination,Central and South-East Europe |
| Date: | 2016–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01280578&r=eur |
| By: | Beblavý, Miroslav; Fabo, Brian; Lenaerts, Karolien |
| Abstract: | In a globalised world, knowledge of foreign languages is an important skill. Especially in Europe, with its 24 official languages and its countless regional and minority languages, foreign language skills are a key asset in the labour market. Earlier research shows that over half of the EU27 population is able to speak at least one foreign language, but there is substantial national variation. This study is devoted to a group of countries known as the Visegrad Four, which comprises the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Although the supply of foreign language skills in these countries appears to be well-documented, less is known about the demand side. In this study, we therefore examine the demand for foreign language skills on the Visegrad labour markets, using information extracted from online job portals. We find that English is the most requested foreign language in the region, and the demand for English language skills appears to go up as occupations become increasingly complex. Despite the cultural, historical and economic ties with their German-speaking neighbours, German is the second-most-in-demand foreign language in the region. Interestingly, in this case there is no clear link with the complexity of an occupation. Other languages, such as French, Spanish and Russian, are hardly requested. These findings have important policy implications with regards to the education and training offered in schools, universities and job centres. |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:cepswp:11264&r=eur |
| By: | Denis Gerstorf; Christiane A. Hoppmann; Corinna E. Löckenhoff; Frank J. Infurna; Jürgen Schupp; Gert G. Wagner; Nilam Ram |
| Abstract: | Well-being development at the end of life is often characterized by steep deteriorations, but individual differences in these terminal declines are substantial and not yet well understood. This study moved beyond the typical consideration of health predictors and explored the role of social orientation and engagement. To do so, we made use of social variables at the behavioral level (self-ratings of social participation) and the motivational level (valuing social and family goals), assessed two to four years before death. We applied single- and multi-phase growth models to up to 27-year annual longitudinal data from 2,910 now deceased participants of the nation-wide German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP; ageat death: M = 74 years; SD = 14; 48% women). Results revealed that leading a socially active life and prioritizing social goals in late life were independently associated with higher late-life well-being, less pronounced late-life decline, and a lateronset of terminal decline. Significant interaction effects suggested that the effects of (reduced) social participation and (lowered) social goals were compounding each other.compound. Findings also indicated that less decline in social participation was associated with shallower rates and a later onset of well-being decline. We found little evidence that valuing family goals is associated with late-life trajectories of well-being. Associations were independent of key correlates of well-being and mortality, including age at death, gender, education, disability, hospital stays, and goals in other life domains. We discuss possible pathways by which maintaining social orientation into late life may help mitigate terminal decline in well-being. |
| Keywords: | Successful aging, life satisfaction, social support, longitudinal change, development, mortality, German Socio-Economic Panel Study, SOEP |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp821&r=eur |
| By: | Graziano Abrate (Department of Economics and Business, University of Piemonte Orientale, Italy); Federico Boffa (School of Economics and Managment, Free University of Bolzano, Italy); Fabrizio Erbetta (Department of Economics and Business, University of Piemonte Orientale, Italy); Davide Vannoni (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the link between voters’ information, corruption and efficiency in the context of a career concern model where politically connected local monopolies are in charge of the provision of a local public service. We find that both a corrupt environment and a low level of voters’ information on managerial actions induce managers to reduce effort levels, thereby contributing to drive down efficiency. We test our predictions using data on solid waste management services provided by a large sample of Italian municipalities. We estimate a stochastic cost frontier model that provides robust evidence that services provided in more corrupt regions and in regions with low voters’ information are substantially less cost efficient. We show that the negative impact of a corrupt environment is weaker for municipalities ruled by left-wing parties, while the positive impact of voters’ information is larger if the waste collection service is managed by limited liability companies. We finally quantify potential cost savings associated to operating in a less corrupt environment and in one in which voters are more informed through a simulation on six major Italian cities. The magnitude of the figures suggests that effective anti-corruption measures, and/or carefully designed incentives for citizens to acquire information, can generate significant economic benefits. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Voters’ Information, Efficiency, Solid Waste. |
| JEL: | D24 D72 D73 L25 Q53 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tur:wpapnw:035&r=eur |
| By: | O. Becker , Sascha (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We analyze EU Regional Policy during four programming periods: 1989-1993, 1994-1999, 2000-2006, 2007-2013. When looking at all periods, we focus on the growth, employment and investment effects of Objective 1 treatment status. For the two later periods, we additionally look at the effects of the volume of EU transfers, overall and in sub-categories, on various outcomes. We also analyze whether the concentration of payments across spending categories affects the effectiveness if EU transfers. Finally, we pay attention to the role of EU funding for UK regions given the current debate in the UK. |
| Keywords: | Regional transfers, Heterogeneous local average treatment effects |
| JEL: | C21 O40 H54 R11 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1118&r=eur |
| By: | Julien Albertini; Jean Olivier Hairault; ; |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a multi-sectorial search and matching model with endogenous occupational choice in a context of structural change. Our objective is to shed light on the way labor market institutions aect aggregate employment, job polarization and inequalities observed in the US and in European countries. We consider the cases of the US, France and Germany that are representative of alternative institutional settings, having the potential to induce divergent time-paths in the evolution of labor market outcomes during the process of technological transition. In the US and in Germany, we nd employment gains from technological change and job polarization, whereas, in France, the technological change reduces aggregate employment in a context of job polarization. In the US, an half of these employment gains are due to the technological change, and the other half to the changes in the LMI, the contribution of the rise in share of skilled worker being negligible. In France, the change in LMI aects new job opportunities in manual jobs: the reallocation of routine workers towards manual jobs is obstructed for want of job creations of manual services. Hence, without technological change, the fall in French employment would have been cut by 70%. The model also predicts that, without the increase in skilled labor supply, the fall in French employment would have doubled. The improvement in educational attainment dampened the unfavorable consequences of technological change. we show that Germany transforms this structural change in employment gains, only after the labor reforms implemented after the middle of the 90s. |
| Keywords: | Search and matching, job polarization, reallocation, labor market institutions |
| JEL: | E24 J62 J64 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2016-014&r=eur |
| By: | Heller Sahlgren, Gabriel (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the short- and long-term effects of retirement on mental health in ten European countries. It exploits thresholds created by regular state pension ages in a fuzzy regression-discontinuity design combined with individual-fixed effects to deal with endogeneity in retirement behaviour. The results display no short-term effects of retirement on mental health, but a large negative longer-term impact. This impact survives a battery of robustness tests, and applies to women and men as well as to people of different educational backgrounds equally. Differences compared to previous research are attributed to the study’s differentiation of short- and longer-term effects as well as its utilisation of a cleaner research design. Overall, the paper’s findings suggest that reforms inducing people to postpone retirement are not only important for making pension systems solvent, but with time could also pay a mental health dividend among the elderly and reduce public health care costs. |
| Keywords: | Mental Health; Retirement; SHARE; Regression-Discontinuity Design |
| JEL: | I10 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1114&r=eur |
| By: | Thomas Bolli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Ladina Rageth (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a new approach to measuring changes in the social status of education programmes, a type of social status that the literature has greatly neglected so far. We focus on the dual Vocational Education and Training (dual VET) system in Switzerland, which has recently received substantial attention across Europe. We argue that, holding everything else constant, a change in the relative ability of students in an education programme, in relation to the cohort, reflects a change in the social status of that programme. Using PISA scores as a proxy for cognitive ability, we apply this approach to test whether growing knowledge of the education system increases the social status of dual VET in Switzerland. Our results, which focus on immigrant students, confirm that the social status of dual VET increases with these students length of stay in Switzerland, thus reflecting their learning process about the Swiss education system. |
| Keywords: | Social Status, Vocational Education and Training, Dual VET, Apprenticeship |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:16-403&r=eur |
| By: | Steffen Müller; R. Neubäumer |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how life-cycle unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of the training firm. We start from the hypotheses that the size of training firms reduces long-run cumulated unemployment exposure, e.g. via differences in training quality and in the availability of internal labor markets, and that the access to large training firms depends positively on young workers’ ability and their luck to live in a region with many large and medium-sized training firms. We test these hypotheses empirically by using a large administrative data set for Germany and find corroborative evidence. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, training, apprenticeship, young workers, mobility, firm size |
| JEL: | D21 L10 L25 L26 L29 M13 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:5-16&r=eur |
| By: | Kruse, Juergen (Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI)) |
| Abstract: | In this article, I empirically analyze and compare the impact of innovation in green and non-green energy technologies on the economic performance of firms. My analysis is conducted on a panel of 8,619 patenting firms including 968 green energy patenters from 22 European countries over the period 2003 to 2010. I measure economic firm performance in terms of productivity and use a panel data model based on an extended Cobb-Douglas production function. My results show that green energy innovation has a statistically significant negative impact on economic firm performance. In contrast, non-green energy innovation is shown to have a statistically significant positive impact on economic firm performance. These findings suggest that private economic returns in terms of productivity are lower for green energy than for non-green energy innovation. |
| Keywords: | green energy technologies; innovation; performance; patents; technological change |
| JEL: | C33 L25 O31 Q40 Q55 |
| Date: | 2016–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:ewikln:2016_002&r=eur |
| By: | Jorge Calero (Universidad de Barcelona & IEB); Inés P. Murillo Huertas (Universidad de Extremadura); Josep Lluís Raymond Bara (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona & IEB) |
| Abstract: | The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of adult skills, as captured by cognitive competencies assessed in the PIAAC, across age cohorts, explicitly taking into account that the quality of schooling might change from one cohort to another. We estimate a model that relates numeracy and literacy competencies to age, schooling, gender and variables related to both family background and labour market performance. The specification allows us to control for changes in the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into competencies when drawing age-skill profiles. Our results show that the effect of ageing on skills, once isolated from cohort effects related to schooling, decreases monotonically across consecutive cohorts. The evolution of the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into both numeracy and literacy skills shows a remarkably similar pattern. Nonetheless, this evolution differs substantially between education levels, with the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills showing a steadier profile for intermediate than it does for higher education. Finally, empirical evidence is provided for the decomposition of the differences in the skill levels of the older vs. the prime age generations. The results suggest that the progressive expansion of schooling across younger generations partially offsets the negative effect of the irrepressible ageing of society on skills. |
| Keywords: | Adult competencies, schooling, ageing, age-skill profiles |
| JEL: | I21 J10 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2016-3&r=eur |
| By: | Doepke, Matthias; Kindermann, Fabian |
| Abstract: | It takes a woman and a man to make a baby. This fact suggests that for a birth to take place, the parents should first agree on wanting a child. Using newly available data on fertility preferences and outcomes, we show that indeed, babies are likely to arrive only if both parents desire one, and there are many couples who disagree on having babies. We then build a bargaining model of fertility choice and match the model to data from a set of European countries with very low fertility rates. The distribution of the burden of child care between mothers and fathers turns out to be a key determinant of fertility. A policy that lowers the child care burden specifically on mothers can be more than twice as effective at increasing the fertility rate compared to a general child subsidy. |
| Keywords: | Bargaining; Child Care; Fertility |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11158&r=eur |
| By: | Philipp Huebler (University of Augsburg, Department of Economics); Andreas Kucher (University of Augsburg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Intergenerational correlations of risky health behaviors such as tobacco consumption are well established. However, there is still limited empirical evidence about the underlying process through which the transmission is driven. This paper aims at analyzing parental time discounting and its role in the intergenerational transmission of smoking. The analysis is based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 2006, 2008 and 2010. We use a linear panel regression model to estimate the child’s likelihood of being a current smoker. The SOEP contains a great many of socio-economic characteristics and also meaningful measures of individual discounting behavior, namely, general patience and impulsivity. This enables us to distinguish between time preference and self-control, respectively. We ï¬ nd signiï¬ cant effects of time preference for both, mothers and fathers. That is, an increasing level of patience of parents is associated with a lower smoking probability of the child. Regarding self-control, only father’s impulsivity has a similar decreasing impact. Stratifying the sample by gender reveals substantial mother-daughter, mother-son and father-son effects. Additionally, we estimate the influence of health-related mediating factors such as parental smoking and alcohol consumption. It turns out that role modeling as well as time discounting of the parents are highly relevant in this transmission process. |
| Keywords: | family economics, intergenerational transmission, smoking, time discounting, time preference, patience, self-control, impulsivity |
| JEL: | D9 D10 I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aug:augsbe:0326&r=eur |
| By: | Bostian, Moriah (Department of Economics, Lewis & Clark College); Färe, Rolf (Department of Economics, Oregon State University); Grosskopf, Shawna (CERE and Department of Economics, Oregon State University); Lundgren, Tommy (CERE); Weber, William L. (Department of Economics and Finance, Southeast Missouri State University) |
| Abstract: | We apply recent advances in time substitution modeling to examine the environmental performance of firms in Sweden’s pulp and paper industry for the years 2002 - 2008. Our data allow us to estimate the optimal reallocation of environmental investments, expenditures and energy use to simultaneously maximize production output and minimize emissions reductions in the years immediately before and after the implementation of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. We find some evidence of overall productivity decline when considering both emissions and output objectives, due primarily to technological decline, and that cumulative dynamic inefficiency outweighs static inefficiency. A comparison of optimal investment time paths to observed investment levels indicates that firms could have improved their performance by reallocating environmental investments to early periods and production-oriented investment to later periods. |
| Keywords: | Time Substitution; Dynamic Efficiency; Environmental Performance; Environmental Investment; DEA |
| JEL: | D22 D24 M14 Q40 Q41 |
| Date: | 2016–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2016_003&r=eur |
| By: | Steve Gibbons; Stephan Heblich; Esther Lho; Christopher Timmins |
| Abstract: | Shale gas has grown to become a major new source of energy in countries around the globe. While its importance for energy supply is well recognized, there has also been public concern over potential risks – such as damage to buildings and contamination of water supplies – caused by geological disturbance from the hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) extraction process. Although commercial development has not yet taken place in the UK, licenses for drilling were issued in 2008 implying potential future development. This paper examines whether public fears about the geological impacts of fracking are evident in changes in house prices in areas that have been licensed for shale gas exploration. Our estimates suggest differentiated effects. Licensing did not affect house prices but areas where shale gas development was mentioned in the license application experienced an average house price decrease between 1 and 1.5 percent for the period 2008-2014. This was a response to geological events related to fracking. Specifically, two very minor earthquakes caused by the process in 2011 were strong drivers of this price drop. We find a 2.7-4.1 percent house price decrease in the area where the earthquakes occurred. Robustness checks confirm our findings. |
| Keywords: | Shale gas, Fracturing, Property valuation, Housing prices, Consumer expectation, hedonic price, United Kingdom. |
| Date: | 2016–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:16/671&r=eur |