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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Ghani, Ejaz; Goswami, Arti Grover; Kerr, William R. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the urbanization of the Indian manufacturing sector by combining enterprise data from formal and informal sectors. It finds that plants in the formal sector are moving away from urban and into rural locations, while the informal sector is moving from rural to urban locations. Although the secular trend for India's manufacturing urbanization has slowed down, the localized importance of education and infrastructure has not. The results suggest that districts with better education and infrastructure have experienced a faster pace of urbanization, although higher urban-rural cost ratios cause movement out of urban areas. This process is associated with improvements in the spatial allocation of plants across urban and rural locations. Spatial location of plants has implications for policy on investments in education, infrastructure, and the livability of cities. The high share of urbanization occurring in the informal sector suggests that urbanization policies that contain inclusionary approaches may be more successful in promoting local development and managing its strains than those focused only on the formal sector. Cities are evolving in India from places of goods production to forges of human capital and coping mechanisms for survival. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,National Urban Development Policies&Strategies,Urban Housing and Land Settlements,Population Policies,Urban Slums Upgrading |
| Date: | 2012–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6271&r=ure |
| By: | Fougère, Denis; Poulhes, Mathilde |
| Abstract: | Chetty and Szeidl (2012) propose to estimate the effect of housing on portfolio choice by distinguishing between the effect of mortgage debt and the effect of home equity and by endogenizing these two variables. When replicating their study with French data, we obtain similar qualitative results: an increase in mortgage debt(respectively, in home equity) reduces (respectively, raises) stockholding. However, while in the US the wealth effect of holding more home equity is cancelled out by the risk effect of owning a more expensive house, in France the wealth effect dominates the risk effect. We propose some explanations for this discrepancy. |
| Keywords: | housing; mortgage debt; portfolio choice; property value |
| JEL: | C36 D14 G11 R21 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9213&r=ure |
| By: | Claudio A Agostini (Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez) |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uai:wpaper:wp_022&r=ure |
| By: | Emmanouil Tranos (VU University Amsterdam); Karima Kourtit (VU University Amsterdam); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | The majority of cities in our world is not only connected through conventional physical infrastructure, but increasingly through modern digital infrastructure. This paper aims to test whether digital connectivity leads to other linkage patterns among world cities than traditional infrastructure. Using a generalized spatial interaction model, this paper shows that geography (and distance) still matters for an extensive set of world cities analysed in the present study. With a view to the rapidly rising urbanization in many regions of our world, the attention is next focused on the emerging large cities in China in order to test the relevance of distance frictions - next to a broad set of other important explanatory variables - for digital connectivity in this country. Various interesting results are found regarding digital connectivity within the Chinese urban system, while also here geography appears to play an important role. |
| Keywords: | Digital Networks; Internet; Connectivity; World Cities; Death of Distance; Centrality; Smallâ€World Networks; Clustering; Gravity Model |
| JEL: | O18 H54 P25 |
| Date: | 2012–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120124&r=ure |
| By: | Stuart Cameron; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | Children living in urban slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh, often have poor access to school and attend different types of school than students from middle class households. This paper asks whether their experiences in school also disadvantage them further in terms of their learning outcomes and the likelihood of dropping out. It is based on interviews with 36 students aged 11-16 from both slum and middle-class backgrounds, in 2012. The paper discusses how these experiences in school are likely to heighten the risk of dropping out for slum students, analyses the results in terms of de-facto privatization and school accountability, and recommends better regulation of private tuition, and teaching styles that are less obsessed with examination results. |
| Keywords: | bangladesh; education; secondary schools; urban informal settlements; urban poverty; |
| JEL: | H74 I21 I28 I32 O18 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa672&r=ure |
| By: | Thomas Coisnon (Granem - Groupe de Recherche ANgevin en Economie et Management - Agrocampus Ouest - INRA : UMR49); Walid OUESLATI (UMR GRANEM - UMR MA 49 – Université d'Angers et Agrocampus Ouest - Université d'Angers); Julien Salanié (Granem - Groupe de Recherche ANgevin en Economie et Management - Agrocampus Ouest - INRA : UMR49) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a spatial general equilibrium analysis of an agri-environmental policy in a suburban context. We present a static monocentric model of an open city where agricultural bid-rents and agricultural amenities vary endogenously in space. Amenities are valued by households and are thus a factor of urban decentralisation. This leads us to focus on the spatial effects of agri-environmental policies promoting amenities. The model characterises a suburban mixed land-use area where households and farmers share space. We provide theoretical evidence that agri-environmental policies are not adopted uniformly by farmers and that they impact on several city features. We highlight that the funding of an agri-environmental policy through household income taxation can modify urbanisation patterns. We also discuss its distributional aspects. |
| Keywords: | agricultural amenities; land development; agri-environmental policy; urban sprawl; leapfrog; monocentric model |
| Date: | 2012–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00753221&r=ure |
| By: | Valletta, Robert G. (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) |
| Abstract: | A recent decline in geographic mobility in the United States may have been caused in part by falling house prices, through the "lock in" effects of financial constraints faced by households whose housing debt exceeds the market value of their home. I analyze the relationship between such "house lock" and the elevated levels and persistence of unemployment during the recent recession and its aftermath, using data that covers the period through the end of 2011. Because house lock will extend job search in the local labor market for homeowners whose home value has declined, I focus on differences in unemployment duration between homeowners and renters across geographic areas differentiated by the severity of the decline in home prices. The empirical analyses rely on microdata from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) files and an econometric method that enables the estimation of individual and aggregate covariate effects on completed unemployment durations in "synthetic cohort" (pseudo-panel) data. The estimates indicate the absence of a meaningful house lock effect on unemployment duration. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, house prices, mobility |
| JEL: | J6 R31 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7002&r=ure |
| By: | González-Val, Rafael; Lanaspa, Luis; Sanz, Fernando |
| Abstract: | This paper uses un-truncated city population data from six countries (the United States, Spain, Italy, France, England and Japan) to illustrate how parametric growth regressions can lead to biased results when testing for Gibrat’s law in city size distributions. The OLS results show non-monotonic behaviours depending on the sample size. Moreover, it is possible to find a critical sample size from which we reject Gibrat’s law. |
| Keywords: | Gibrat’s law; city size distribution; urban growth |
| JEL: | R00 R12 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42615&r=ure |
| By: | Francisco Martínez-Mora; Gianni De Fraja |
| Abstract: | This paper makes the following point: “detracking” schools, that is preventing them from allocating students to classes according to their ability, may lead to an increase in income residential segregation. It does so in a simple model where households care about the school peer group of their children. If ability and income are positively correlated, tracking implies that some high income households face the choice of either living in the areas where most of the other high income households live and having their child assigned to the low track, or instead living in lower income neighbourhoods where their child would be in the high track. Under mild conditions, tracking leads to an equilibrium with partial income desegregation where perfect income segregation would be the only stable outcome without tracking. |
| Keywords: | Tracking; school selection; income segregation; school choice; Tiebout. |
| JEL: | I24 H42 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:12/24&r=ure |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi; Carlo Pietrobelli; Roberta Rabellotti |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the geography of multinational corporations’ investments in the EU regions. The ‘traditional’ sources of location advantages (i.e. agglomeration economies, market access and labour market conditions) are considered together with innovation and socio-institutional drivers of investments, captured by means of regional “social filter” conditions. The introduction of a wider set of attraction factors makes is possible to empirically assess the different role played by such advantages in the location decision of investments at different stages of the value chain and disentangle the differential role of national vs. local and regional factors. The empirical analysis covers the EU-25 regions and suggests that regional-socio economic conditions are crucially important for an understanding of the location investment decisions in the most sophisticated knowledge-intensive stages of the value chain. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Multinationals, Systems of Innovation, Value Chains, Regions, European Union |
| JEL: | F21 F23 O33 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eiq:eileqs:53&r=ure |
| By: | Toshihiro Okubo (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Eiichi Tomiura (Department of Economics, Yokohama National University) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically examines how the shapes of plant productivity distributions vary across regions based on Japan's manufacturing census. We focus on the skewness to examine the asymmetry by estimating the gamma distribution at the plant level. By linking the estimated shape parameters with economic geography variables, we find that the productivity distribution tends to be significantly left-skewed, especially in cores, regions with diversified industrial compositions, regions with weak market potential, and in agglomerated industries. These findings suggest that agglomeration economies are likely to accommodate heterogeneous plants with wide ranges of productivities. |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kei:dpaper:2012-020&r=ure |
| By: | Ekeland, Ivar; Galichon, Alfred |
| Abstract: | This paper exhibits a duality between the theory of revealed preference of Afriat and the housing allocation problem of Shapley and Scarf. In particular, it is shown that Afriat’s theorem can be interpreted as a second welfare theorem in the housing problem. Using this duality, the revealed preference problem is connected to an optimal assignment problem, and a geometrical characterization of the rationalizability of experiment data is given. This allows in turn to give new indices of rationalizability of the data and to define weaker notions of rationalizability, in the spirit of Afriat’s efficiency index. |
| Keywords: | Revealed preferences; Afriat’s theorem; Optimal assignments; Indivisible allocations; |
| JEL: | D11 C60 C78 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/10574&r=ure |
| By: | Siba, Eyerusalem; Soderbom, Mans; Bigsten, Arne; Gebreeyesus, Mulu |
| Abstract: | We use census panel data on Ethiopian manufacturing firms to analyze the connections between enterprise agglomeration, firm-level output prices and physical productivity. We find a negative and statistically significant relationship between the agglomerat |
| Keywords: | agglomeration, productivity, output prices, firm-level data, Ethiopia, Africa, manufacturing |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2012-85&r=ure |
| By: | Howard, Emma; Newman, Carol; Tarp, Finn |
| Abstract: | Understanding industry agglomeration and its driving forces is critical for the formulation of industrial policy in developing countries. Crucial to this process is the definition and measurement of agglomeration. We propose a new measure and examine what |
| Keywords: | industry agglomeration, technology spillovers, labour market pooling, Vietnam |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2012-84&r=ure |
| By: | Alesina, Alberto F; Michalopoulos, Stelios; Papaioannou, Elias |
| Abstract: | This study explores the consequences and origins of contemporary differences in well-being across ethnic groups within countries. We construct measures of ethnic inequality combining ethnolinguistic maps on the spatial distribution of groups with satellite images of light density at night. Ethnic inequality is strongly inversely related to per capita income; this pattern holds when we condition on the overall degree of spatial inequality -that is also associated with underdevelopment. We further show that differences in geographic endowments across ethnic homelands explain a sizable portion of contemporary ethnic inequality. This deeply rooted inequality in geographic attributes across ethnic regions is also negatively related to comparative development. We also show that ethnic inequality goes in tandem with lower levels development within countries. Using micro-level data from the Afrobarometer surveys we show that individuals from the same ethnic group are worse off when they reside in districts with a high degree of ethnic inequality. |
| Keywords: | development; diversity; ethnicity; geography; inequality |
| JEL: | O10 O40 O43 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9225&r=ure |
| By: | Ott Toomet (Tartu University); Marco van der Leij (University of Amsterdam); Meredith Rolfe (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between unexplained racial/ethnic wage differentials on the one hand and social network segregation, as measured by inbreeding homophily, on the other hand. Our analysis is based on both U.S. and Estonian surveys, supplemented with Estonian telephone communication data. In case of Estonia we consider the regional variation in economic performance of the Russian minority, and in the U.S. case we consider the regional variation in black-white differentials. Our analysis finds a strong relationship between the size of the differential and network segregation: regions with more segregated social networks exhibit larger unexplained wage gaps. |
| Keywords: | social networks; wage differential; homophily; segregation; race; minorities |
| JEL: | J71 J31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–11–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120120&r=ure |
| By: | Halkos, George; Tzeremes, Nickolaos |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a conditional directional distance function model in order to examine the link between regional environmental efficiency and GDP per capita levels. As an illustrative example we apply our model to USA regional data revealing an inverted ‘U’ shape relationship between regional environmental efficiency and per capita income. The results derived from a non-parametric regression indicate a turning point at 49,000 dollars. |
| Keywords: | Regional environmental efficiency; Directional distance function; Conditional measures; U.S. regions |
| JEL: | Q50 C14 Q56 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42675&r=ure |
| By: | Swärdh , Jan-Erik (VTI); Andersson, Henrik (Toulouse School of Economics (LERNA)); Jonsson, Lina (VTI); Ögren , Mikael (VTI) |
| Abstract: | In this study we estimate the demand for peace and quiet, and thus also the willingness to pay for railway noise abatement, based on both steps of the hedonic model regression on property prices. The estimated demand relationship suggests welfare gains for a 1 dB reduction of railway noise as; USD 162 per individual per year at the baseline noise level of 71 dB, and USD 86 at the baseline noise level of 61 dB. Below a noise level of 49.1 dB, individuals have no willingness to pay for railway noise abatement. Our results also show the risk of using benefit transfer, i.e. we show empirically that the estimated implicit price for peace and quiet differs substantially across the housing markets. From a policy perspective our results are useful, not only for benefit-cost analysis, but also as the monetary component on infrastructure use charges that internalize the noise externality. |
| Keywords: | Benefits transfer; Hedonic regression; Railway noise; Willingness to pay |
| JEL: | C21 C26 Q51 Q53 |
| Date: | 2012–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2012_027&r=ure |
| By: | Emmanouil Tranos (VU University Amsterdam); Masood Gheasi (VU University Amsterdam); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Migration has become a prominent research theme in geography and regional science and it has been approached from various methodological angles. Nonetheless, a common missing element in most migration studies is the lack of awareness of the overall network topology, which characterizes migration flows. Although gravity models focus on spatial interaction - in this case migration - between pairs of origins and destinations, they do not provide insights into the topology of a migration network. In the present paper, we will employ network analysis to address such systemic research questions, in particular: How centralized or dispersed are migration flows and how does this structure evolve over time? And how is migration activity clustered between specific countries, and if so, do such patterns change over time? Going a step further than exploratory network analysis, this paper estimates international migration models for OECD countries based on a dual ap proach: gravity models estimated using conventional econometric approaches such as panel data regressions as well as network-based regression techniques such as MRQAP. The empirical results reveal not only the determinants of international migration among OECD countries, but also the value of blending network analysis with more conventional analytic methods. |
| Keywords: | immigration; gravity model; complex networks; community detection; MRQAP |
| JEL: | F22 O15 D85 |
| Date: | 2012–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120123&r=ure |
| By: | Randall Q. Akee (Tufts and IZA); Timothy J. Halliday (University of Hawaii at Manoa and IZA); Sally Kwak (U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Taxation) |
| Abstract: | Due to the large social costs of juvenile crime, policymakers have long been concerned about its causes. In the 2009-10 school year, the State of Hawaii responded to fiscal strains by furloughing all school teachers employed by the Department of Education and cancelling class for seventeen instructional days. We examine the effects of this unusually short school year to draw conclusions about the relationship of time in school with crime rates. We calculate marginal effects from a negative binomial model and find that time off from school is associated with significantly fewer juvenile assault and drug-related arrests, although there are no changes in other types of crimes, such as thefts and burglaries. These results are more pronounced in rural parts of the islands which tend to have lower educated, lower income households. |
| Keywords: | Education, Crime, Inequality |
| JEL: | J08 I24 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201221&r=ure |
| By: | Oscar Arce; Jose Manuel Campa; Angel Gavilan |
| Abstract: | We provide a model with sector-specific debt-collateral constraints to analyse how asymmetric financing conditions across sectors affect the aggregate investment, credit and output composition. In our model, investments in the construction sector allow for higher leverage than investments in the non-durable consumption goods sector. When borrowing constraints bind in both sectors, unit returns in the construction sector are lower due to a positive pledgeability premium, and changes in interest rates have a non-monotonic effect in the sectoral composition of investment. Specifically, a fall in interest rates triggers a relative rise in investment in the consumption goods sector when rates are relatively high, whereas the opposite effect obtains when rates are sufficiently low. We argue that this prediction of the model, which depends critically on the asymmetries of financing conditions across sectors, is consistent with the evidence for a number of OECD countries during the decade before the 2007/08 crisis. |
| Keywords: | investment and credit, pledgeability premium, collateral constraints, sectoral allocation, housing |
| JEL: | E22 E32 E44 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:1226&r=ure |
| By: | Sonia Stube Martins; Matthias Finger; Andreas Haller; Urs Trinkner |
| Abstract: | Rail passenger transport services with integrated regular interval timetables (IRIT) offer passengers a regular interval timetable for services on the railway network. IRIT have the potential to increase the quality and attractiveness of railway passenger services in comparison to other transport modes. This paper summarizes the advantages and challenges of an implementation of IRIT for railway passenger services, presents a quantitative model which simulates passenger utility in an IRIT railway system compared to other forms of timetables, and derives the main requirements for the successful introduction of IRIT. The comparison of the regulatory framework, the role of IRIT and the development of passenger railway services in CH, the NL and the UK, shows that in those countries where either IRIT has been introduced (CH) or the high frequency of trains between cities provides for a system comparable to IRIT (NL), railway services play a more important role in the modal split. The successful introduction of IRIT requires a long-run implementation schedule which identifies the necessary investment in the railway infrastructure and points out the financial resources available to make those investments. Further, IRIT requires a high level of punctuality of railway passenger services, the coordination between railway companies when designing the timetable and a priority rule for passenger railway services within IRIT when there are capacity restrictions on the railway network. |
| Keywords: | IRIT, integrated timetables, rail passenger transport services |
| JEL: | L92 L59 R41 R42 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chc:wpaper:0037&r=ure |
| By: | Kufenko, Vadim |
| Abstract: | Having shown the important role of the Russian economy in the ex-USSR region by causality tests, we proceed to empirical analysis of growth and performance of the Russian regions. A dynamic panel data approach enabled us to obtain elasticity coefficients on proxies for convergence, physical capital, labour and innovation. After including human capital in the reformulated model we resolve endogeneity and reverse causality by introducing two instrumental variable approaches. Taking advantage of the Unified State Exam data we managed to successfully endogenize human capital by number (and share) of outperforming students and by the education index. The second approach helped to improve causality between instruments and human capital: the dates of first university foundation and distance to Moscow successfully explains human capital variations due to historical and spatial characteristics of a given region. -- |
| Keywords: | growth regressions,regional analysis,human capital,system GMM,instrumental variables |
| JEL: | C01 E24 O40 O47 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohpro:382012&r=ure |
| By: | Philip Oreopoulos; Ryan Dunn |
| Abstract: | High school students from disadvantaged high schools in Toronto were invited to take two surveys, about three weeks apart. Half of the students taking the first survey were also shown a 3 minute video about the benefits of post secondary education (PSE) and invited to try out a financial-aid calculator. Most students' perceived returns to PSE were high, even among those not expecting to continue. Those exposed to the video, especially those initially unsure about their own educational attainment, reported significantly higher expected returns, lower concerns about costs, and expressed greater likelihood of PSE attainment. |
| JEL: | I2 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18551&r=ure |
| By: | Marc van der Steeg; Roel van Elk; Dinand Webbink |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of coaching in vocational education on school dropout using data from a randomized experiment. We find that one year of coaching reduces school dropout by more than 40 percent from 17 to 10 percentage points. The reduction in school dropout results from two equally important channels: a reduction of dropout from the study and a reduction of dropout from the education system once students dropped out of their studies. This suggests that coaching interventions before as well as after study dropout have contributed to less school dropout. The effectiveness of coaching is largest for students with a high ex ante probability of dropout, such as older students, males and students with an adverse socioeconomic background. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that one year of coaching is likely to yield a net social gain. |
| JEL: | I2 H43 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:224&r=ure |
| By: | Adriaan Hendrik van der Weijde (VU University Amsterdam); Erik T. Verhoef (VU University Amsterdam); Vincent A. C. van den Berg (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We formulate a horizontal differentiation model with price-sensitive demand and asymmetric transport costs, in the context of transport scheduling. Two competitors choose fares and departure times in a fixed time interval. Consumers are distributed uniformly along the interval; their location indicates their desired departure time. In a standard Hotelling model, locations are chosen before prices. In our context, the opposite order is also conceivable, but we show that it does not result in a Nash equilibrium; the same is true for a game in both variables are chosen simultaneously. We also discuss Stackelberg game structures and second-best regulation. We conclude that the addition of price-sensitive demand results in equilibria in the traditional Hotelling model with price setting; there, services are scheduled closer together than optimal. We also show that it is possible to include asymmetric schedule delay functions. Our results show that departure times can be strategic instruments. Optimal regulatory strategies depend on the value of schedule delay, and on whether the regulator can commit. |
| Keywords: | horizontal differentiation; scheduling; transport |
| JEL: | L11 L51 L91 R40 |
| Date: | 2012–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120119&r=ure |
| By: | Comin, Diego; Dmitriev, Mikhail; Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban |
| Abstract: | We study empirically technology diffusion across countries and over time. We find significant evidence that technology diffuses slower to locations that are farther away from adoption leaders. This effect is stronger across rich countries and also when measuring distance along the south-north dimension. A simple theory of human interactions can account for these empirical findings. The theory suggests that the effect of distance should vanish over time, a hypothesis that we confirm in the data, and that distinguishes technology from other flows like goods or investments. We then structurally estimate the model. The parameter governing the frequency of interactions is larger for newer and network-based technologies and for the median technology the frequency of interactions decays by 73% every 1000 Kms. Overall, we document the significant role that geography plays in determining technology diffusion across countries. |
| Keywords: | Geography; Human Interactions; Technology Diffusion |
| JEL: | O3 R0 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9208&r=ure |
| By: | Desmet, Klaus; Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban |
| Abstract: | We propose a dynamic spatial theory to analyze the geographic impact of climate change. Agricultural and manufacturing firms locate on a hemisphere. Trade across locations is costly, firms innovate, and technology diffuses over space. Energy used in production leads to emissions that contribute to the global stock of carbon in the atmosphere, which affects temperature. The rise in temperature differs across latitudes and sectors. We calibrate the model to analyze how climate change affects the spatial distribution of economic activity, trade, migration, growth, and welfare. We assess quantitatively the impact of migration and trade restrictions, energy taxes, and innovation subsidies. |
| Keywords: | carbon; climate change; growth; international and regional trade; migration; mobility frictions; regional economics; space |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9220&r=ure |
| By: | Meyer, Tobias; Thomson, Stephan L. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how post-school education decisions are affected by a one-year reduction of secondary school duration with an unchanged curriculum. Until recently, Germany had had a longstanding tradition of 13 years of schooling in preparation for university. During the last decade, however, most states abolished the 13th year. The implementation of the reform in 2003 in the state of Saxony-Anhalt provides a natural experiment for identification. Based on data from the double cohort of graduates, our estimates show significant effects of the reform. Affected female students in particular significantly delay university enrollment by one year, show a slightly lower participation in university education overall and are more likely to start a vocational education course. We can also reveal effect heterogeneity with respect to the fields of study. Due to the reform the probability of affected males studying mathematics or natural sciences is significantly reduced. |
| Keywords: | school duration, learning intensity, education decision, natural experiment, Germany |
| JEL: | I21 J18 C21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-509&r=ure |
| By: | Alan, Sule; Lóránth, Gyöngyi |
| Abstract: | Using a unique panel data set from a UK credit card company, we analyze the interest rate sensitivity of subprime credit card borrowers. In addition to all individual transactions and loan terms, we also have access to details of a randomized interest rate experiment conducted by the lender on the existing (inframarginal) loans. Access to such information by academic researchers is rare. The data and the experimental design provide us with a clean identification of heterogenous interest rate sensitivities across borrower types within the subprime population. We find that subprime credit card borrowers generally do not reduce their demand for credit when subject to increases in interest rates. However, we estimate a number of interesting responses that suggest that subprime borrowers are not a homogenous group. The paper also contributes to the literature by demonstrating the importance of isolating exogenous variation in interest rates. We show that estimating a standard credit demand equation with the non-experimental variation in the data leads to severely biased estimates. This is true even when conditioning on a rich set of controls and individual fixed effects. |
| Keywords: | subprime credit; randomized trials; liquidity constraints |
| JEL: | D11 D12 D14 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9210&r=ure |