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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Guerra, Erick Strom |
| Abstract: | Mexico City is a suburban metropolis, yet most of its suburbs would be unfamiliar to urbanists accustomed to thinking about US metropolitan regions. Mexico City’s suburbs are densely populated—not thinly settled—and its residents rely primarily on informal transit rather than privately-owned automobiles for their daily transportation. These types of dense and transit-dependent suburbs have emerged as the fastest-growing form of human settlement in cities throughout Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Wealthier and at a later stage in its economic development than other developing-world metropolises, Mexico City is a compelling place to investigate the effects of rising incomes, increased car ownership, and transit investments in the dense, peripheral areas that have grown rapidly around informal transit in the past decades, and is a bellwether for cities like Dakar, Cairo, Lima, and Jakarta. I begin this dissertation with a historical overview of the demographic, economic, and political trends that have helped shape existing urban form, transportation infrastructure, and travel behavior in Mexico City. Despite an uptick in car ownership and use, most households—both urban and suburban—continue to rely on public transportation. Furthermore, suburban Mexico City has lower rates of car ownership and use than its central areas. In subsequent chapters, I frame, pose, and investigate three interrelated questions about Mexico City’s evolving suburban landscape, the nature of households’ travel decisions, and the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior. Together, these inquiries tell a story that differs significantly from narratives about US suburbs, and provide insight into the future transportation needs and likely effects of land and transportation policy in these communities and others like them in Mexico and throughout the developing world. First, how has the influence of the built environment on travel behavior changed as more households have moved into the suburbs and aggregate car use has increased? Using two large metropolitan household travel surveys from 1994 and 2007, I model two related-but-distinct household travel decisions: whether to drive on an average weekday, and if so, how far to drive. After controlling for income and other household attributes, I find that the influence of population and job density on whether a household undertakes any daily car trips is strong and has increased marginally over time. By contrast, high job and population densities have a much smaller influence on the total distance of weekday car travel that a household generates. For the subset of households whose members drive on a given weekday, job and population densities have no statistical effect at all. Contrary to expectations, a household’s distance from the urban center is strongly correlated with a lower probability of driving, even after controlling for income. This effect, however, appears to be diminishing over time, and when members of a household drive, they drive significantly more if they live farther from the urban center. The combination of informal transit, public buses, and the Metro has provided sufficient transit service to constrain car use in the densely populated suburban environments of Mexico City. Once suburban residents drive, however, they tend to drive a lot regardless of transit or the features of the built environment. Second, how much are the recent trends of increased suburbanization, rising car-ownership, and the proliferation of massive commercially-built peripheral housing developments interrelated? To investigate this question, I first disentangle urban growth and car ownership trends by geographic area. The fastest-growing areas tend to be poorer and have had a much smaller impact on the size of the metropolitan car fleet than wealthier, more established neighborhoods in the center and western half of the metropolis. I then zoom in to examine several recent commercial housing developments. These developments, supported by publicly-subsidized mortgages, contain thousands of densely-packed, small, and modestly-priced housing units. Their residents remain highly reliant on public transportation, particularly informal transit, and the neighborhoods become less homogenous over time as homeowners convert units and parking spaces to shops and offices. Finally, I use the 2007 household travel survey to model households’ intertwined decisions of where to live and whether to own a car. As expected, wealthier and smaller households are more likely to purchase vehicles. However, they prefer to live in more central areas where households with cars tend to drive shorter distances. If housing policy and production cannot adapt to provide more centrally-located housing, growing incomes will tend to increase car ownership but concentrate more of it in areas where car-owning households drive much farther. Third, how has the Metro’s Line B, one of the first and only suburban high-capacity transit investments, influenced local and regional travel behavior and land use? To explore this question, I compare travel behavior and land use measures at six geographic scales, including the investment’s immediate catchment area, across two time periods: six years before and seven years after the investment opened. Line B, which opened in stages in 1999 and 2000, significantly expanded Metro coverage into the densely populated and fast-growing suburban municipality of Ecatepec. While the investment sparked a significant increase in local Metro use, most of this increase came from people relying on informal transit, rather than cars. While this shift reduced transit fares and increased transit speeds for local residents, it also increased government subsidies for the Metro and had no apparent effect on road speeds. Furthermore, the Metro remains highly dependent on informal transit to provide feeder service even within Ecatepec. In terms of land use, the investment increased density around the stations but appears to have had little to no effect on downtown commercial development, where it might have been expected to have a significant influence. In short, the effects of Line B demonstrate much of the promise and problem with expanding high capacity transit service into the suburbs. Ridership is likely to be high, but so too will be the costs and subsidies, while the effects on car ownership and urban form are likely to be modest. Individually, each chapter contributes to a specific body of transportation and planning literature drawn from the US as well as developing countries. Collectively, they point to connection between land use and transportation in Mexico City that is different from the 3 connection in US and other rich-world cities. In particular, there is a physical disconnect between the generally suburban homes of transit users and the generally central location of high-capacity public transit. Addressing this disconnect by shifting housing production from the periphery to the center or by expanding high-capacity transit to the periphery would require significant amounts of time and public subsidy. Thus, contemporary policies to reduce car use or increase accessibility for the poor in the short and medium term would do well to focus on improving the flexible, medium-capacity informal transit around which the city’s dense and transit-dependent suburbs have grown and continue to grow. |
| Keywords: | City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning |
| Date: | 2013–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt88t7k9p5&r=ure |
| By: | Sabine D'Costa; Henry G. Overman |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with the urban wage premium and addresses two central issues about which the field has not yet reached a consensus. First, the extent to which sorting of high ability individuals into urban areas explains the urban wage premium. Second, whether workers receive this wage premium immediately, or through faster wage growth over time. Using a large panel of worker-level data from Britain, we first demonstrate the existence of an urban premium for wage levels, which increases in city size. We next provide evidence of a city size premium on wage growth, but show that this effect is driven purely by the increase in wage that occurs in the first year that a worker moves to a larger location. Controlling for sorting on the basis of unobservables we find no evidence of an urban wage growth premium. Experience in cities does have some impact on wage growth, however. Specifically, we show that workers who have at some point worked in a city experience faster wage growth than those who have never worked in a city. |
| Keywords: | urban wage premium, agglomeration, cities, wage growth, worker mobility |
| JEL: | R23 J31 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0135&r=ure |
| By: | Gabriel M. Ahfeldt |
| Abstract: | I define a composite amenity that provides aesthetic and consumption value to local residents: Urbanity. A novel data set of geo-tagged photos shared in internet communities serves as a proxy for urbanity. From the spatial pattern of house prices and photos I identify the value of urbanity in two of the largest cities in Europe: Berlin and London. I find an elasticity of indirect utility with respect to urbanity of about 1%. The aggregated willingness-to-pay equates to about $1bn per year in each city. The results demonstrate the important role cities play as centers of leisure, consumption, and beauty. |
| Keywords: | Amenities, consumer city, hedonic analysis, photography geography, property prices |
| JEL: | R20 R30 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0136&r=ure |
| By: | Eva Gutierrez Puigarnau; Jos N. van Ommeren (VU) |
| Abstract: | One of the classic predictions of urban economic theory is that high-income and low-income households choose different residential locations and therefore, conditional on workplace location, have different commuting patterns. According to theory, the effect of household income on commuting distance may be positive or negative. Empirical tests of this effect are not standard, due to reverse causation and lack of good control variables. To address reverse causation, estimates of household income on commuting distance are derived using changes in distance through residential moves keeping workplace location constant. Our results show that the (long-run) income elasticity of distance is non-negative and around 0.14 for dual wage-earners. |
| JEL: | D1 J3 R2 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:244&r=ure |
| By: | Meta Brown; Sarah Stein; Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of large swings in the housing market on nonmortgage borrowing, including student, credit card, auto, and home equity debts. For this purpose, we use CoreLogic geographic house price variation, matched with rich data on consumer liabilities from the Equifax-sourced FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel. The length and timing of our panel allow us to study the consumer debt portfolio response to house price changes during a boom-and-bust cycle of historic magnitude as well as during more ordinary times. In first-differenced instrumental variables estimation, we find that during 1999-2001, homeowners substituted out of nonhousing (largely credit card) debt and into home equity-based debt at a nearly dollar-for-dollar rate in response to house price increases. During the housing boom of 2002-06, however, homeowners abandoned the practice of substituting into less costly debt as equity grew, and instead increased obligations across the board. From 2007-12, sample homeowners experienced a 23 percent average house price decline, and withdrew from home equity debt without adding to non-housing debt. We observe substantial heterogeneity in this pattern: Substitution in both 1999-2001 and 2007-12 ranges from 50 cents to more than dollar-for-dollar for older and prime borrowers, while the decidedly nonprime borrow more modestly, show less evidence of substitution, and shed large amounts of all types of debt from 2007-12. Finally, difference-in-differences and FD-IV estimates are consistent with both 1) a 2012 relative debt overhang of at least $1,800 on average, despite little remaining home equity advantage, for homeowners who experienced a more pronounced boom-and-bust cycle and 2) little substitution out of home equity debt into student loans in response to recent house price declines. |
| Keywords: | Housing - Prices ; Consumer credit ; Debt ; Home ownership |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:617&r=ure |
| By: | Russell Golman; Steven Klepper |
| Abstract: | Geographic clustering of industries is typically attributed to localized, pecuniary or non-pecuniary externalities. Recent studies across innovative industries suggestthat explosive cluster growth is associated with the entry and success of spinoff firms. We develop a model to explain the patterns regarding cluster growth and spinoff formation and performance, without relying on agglomeration externalities. Clustering naturally follows from spinoffs locating near their parents. In our model, firms grow and spinoffs form through the discovery of new submarkets based on innovation. Rapid and successful innovation creates more opportunities for spinoff entry and drives a region’s growth. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration, Clusters, Entry, Innovation, Spinoffs |
| JEL: | L25 O31 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1309&r=ure |
| By: | Gabriel Pino; Juan de Dios Tena; Antoni Espasa |
| Abstract: | We study the performance of different modelling strategies for 969 and 600 monthly price indexes disaggregated by sectors and geographical areas in Spain, regions, and in the EA12, countries, in order to obtain a detailed picture of inflation and relative sectoral prices through geographical areas for each economy, using the forecasts from those models. The study also provides a description of the spatial cointegration restrictions which could be useful for understanding price setting within an economy. We use spatial bi-dimensional vector equilibrium correction models, where the price indexes for each sector are allowed to be cointegrated with prices in neighbouring areas using different definitions of neighbourhood. We find that geographical disaggregation forecasts are very reliable on a regional level in Spain as they improve the forecasting accuracy of headline inflation relative to alternative methods. Geographical disaggregation forecasts are also reliable for the EA12 but only because derived headline inflation forecasting is not significantly worse than alternative forecasts. These results show that regional analysis within countries is appropriate in the euro area. These highly disaggregated forecasts can be used for competitive and other type of macro and regional analysis |
| Keywords: | Spatial cointegration, Regional and sectoral prices, Regional analysis, Relative prices, Price setting, Competitiveness |
| JEL: | C2 C5 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wsrepe:ws130807&r=ure |
| By: | Robert W. Fairlie; Jonathan Robinson |
| Abstract: | Computers are an important part of modern education, yet many schoolchildren lack access to a computer at home. We test whether this impedes educational achievement by conducting the largest-ever field experiment that randomly provides free home computers to students. Although computer ownership and use increased substantially, we find no effects on any educational outcomes, including grades, test scores, credits earned, attendance and disciplinary actions. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even modestly-sized positive or negative impacts. The estimated null effect is consistent with survey evidence showing no change in homework time or other "intermediate" inputs in education. |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19060&r=ure |
| By: | Enid Slack (Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance); Richard M. Bird (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | Municipal amalgamation is often seen as one way to ensure that municipalities are large enough to be financially and technically capable of providing the extensive array of services with which they are charged. The idea is presumably that municipalities will be able not only to reap economies of scale, but also to coordinate service delivery over the enlarged territory as well as share costs equitably and reduce (even eliminate) spillovers of service delivery across local boundaries. This paper evaluates the extent to which municipal amalgamation in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, in 1998 achieved the provincially-stated objective of saving costs as well as its impact on taxes, financial viability, and local access and responsiveness. We conclude that the end result was the creation of a city that manages to be both too small and too big at the same time. The amalgamation probably increased the financial viability of at least the smaller and poorer municipalities in the newly created City of Toronto by increasing their access to the tax base of the amalgamated city as a whole and it also equalized local services so that everyone can enjoy a similar level of services. However, it had no significant effect on either the financial sustainability of Toronto or its capacity to deal with financial crises, nor did it achieve cost savings or solve any of the problems that the city and region faced in the last decade and continue to face in this one. The new city remains much too small to address the regional issues that plague the greater Toronto region (such as transportation and land use planning and economic development) while resulting in resulted in reduced access and participation by residents in local decision-making. On balance, it seems unlikely that anyone looking back with knowledge of the small and questionable gains that appear to have been realized would willingly have undertaken the complex, extended and painful process of metropolitan amalgamation. |
| Keywords: | local government, metropolitan area, amalgamation, municipal reorganization |
| Date: | 2013–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1305&r=ure |
| By: | Kerstin Enflo; Joan R. Rosés |
| Abstract: | In many countries, regional income inequality has followed an inverted Ushaped curve, growing during industrialisation and market integration and declining thereafter. By contrast, Sweden’s regional inequality dropped from 1860 to 1980 and did not show this U-shaped pattern. Accordingly, today’s regional income inequality in Sweden is lower than in other European countries. We note that the prime mover behind the long-run reduction in regional income differentials was structural change, whereas neo-classical and technological forces played a relatively less important role. However, this process of regional income convergence can be divided into two major periods. During the first period (1860-1940), the unrestricted action of market forces, particularly the expansion of markets and high rates of internal and international migrations, led to the compression of regional income differentials. In the subsequent period (1940-2000), the intended intervention of successive governments appears to have also been important for the evolution of regional income inequality. Regional convergence was intense from 1940 to 1980. In this period, governments aided the convergence in productivity among industries and the reallocation of the workforce from the declining to the thriving regions and economic sectors. During the next period (1980-2000), when regional incomes diverged, governments subsidised firms and people in the declining areas. |
| Keywords: | Convergence, Regional policy, Neo-classical growth model, Labour reallocation |
| JEL: | N94 N93 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp12-09&r=ure |
| By: | Effrosyni Adamopoulou; Ezgi Kaya |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on young adults living with their parents in the U.S. and studies the role of peers. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)we analize the influence of high school friends on the coresidence of young adults with their parents. We address the challenges in the identification of peer effects in a static framework and employ an instrumental variable technique and control for state fixed effects in order to mitigate them. We then move to a dynamic framework and exploit differences in the timing of leaving the parental home among peers. Our results indicate that there are statistically significant peer effects on the nest-leaving behavior of young adults. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, Friends, Living arrangements, Leaving parental home |
| JEL: | D1 J1 J6 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1310&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew D. Paciorek |
| Abstract: | One of the drivers of housing demand is the rate of new household formation, which has been well below trend in recent years, leading to persistent weakness in the housing market. This paper studies the determinants of household formation in the United States, including demographic and behavioral changes, and how they evolve over the long and short runs. There are three main findings: First, because older adults tend to live in smaller households, the aging of the U.S. population over the past 30 years has reduced the average household size, or equivalently, pushed up the headship rate and household formation. Second, after stripping out the effects of the aging population, the residual behavioral component of the headship rate has declined over time, thanks largely to rising housing costs. This shift has reduced household formation, all else equal. Finally, the short-run dynamics of headship and household formation reflect the effects of the business cycle. In particular, I find that poor labor market outcomes have played an important role in depressing the headship rate in recent years. Consequently, household formation could increase substantially as the labor market recovers and the headship rate returns to trend. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-26&r=ure |
| By: | Leguizamon, Sebastian; Leguizamon, Susane; Christafore, David |
| Abstract: | We examine the varying influence of the presence of homosexual couples on average home prices with different compositions of educational attainment and race. We find that a higher number of homosexuals in relatively higher educated areas is associated with higher average prices and lower average prices in areas with less educated residents. The magnitude of positive influence and negative influence is lower when the number of black residents increases. This suggests that education is associated with a greater revealed tolerance for homosexuals, but the influence of education is less for areas with a higher percent black, perhaps due to homophily. |
| Keywords: | Sexual Orientation; Homophily; Race; Education; Prejudice |
| JEL: | J15 R21 |
| Date: | 2013–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47068&r=ure |
| By: | Nora E. Gordon |
| Abstract: | Goldin and Katz (2008) document the key role that the educational attainment of native-born workers in the U.S. has played in determining changing returns to skill and income distribution in the twentieth century, emphasizing the need to understand the forces driving the supply of educated workers. This paper examines stagnation in high school graduation rates from about 1970 to 2000, alongside dramatic changes in elementary and secondary educational institutions and income inequality over those years. I review the policy history of major changes in educational institutions, including but not limited to the massive increase in school spending, and related literature. I then present descriptive analysis of the relationships between income inequality and both graduation and school spending from 1963 to 2007. Results suggest that inequality at the top of the income distribution, which was negatively correlated with the establishment of public secondary schooling earlier in the twentieth century, was positively correlated not only with education spending levels but also with aggregate high school graduation rates at the state level in this later period. |
| JEL: | I2 I20 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19049&r=ure |
| By: | Miyazaki, Takeshi |
| Abstract: | The empirical literature investigating the role of key features of local governments regarding decisions on consolidation tends to use a dummy that takes 1 if adjacent local governments decide to merge. Under the estimation method, it is difficult to identify which governments have no incentive to merge. The current study presents an empirical test of decision on consolidation using voting data from Japanese local referenda that distinctively identify the preferences of specific individual municipalities. I find evidence that municipalities that could enjoy large economies of scale from a merger prefer consolidation, and large and small municipalities are likely to merge. |
| Keywords: | Boundary reform, economics of scale, local referenda, median voter model, municipal consolidation |
| JEL: | H11 H76 H77 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:588&r=ure |
| By: | Pamela Bombarda (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how market access strategies, export and FDI, respond to changes in level of integration. Empirical evidence shows that both rm exports and multinational activity are affected by trade liberalization episode. To account for the strong positive correlation between export and FDI, we develop a general equilibrium model that features firm heterogeneity, trade and FDI with final and intermediate products. Dierent spatial networks are considered to quantify the effect of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) on supply mode decisions, for both partner and excluded countries. The model sheds new light on the mechanisms through which geography reshapes the concentration of economic activities inside and outside the PTA area. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous firms; PTA; Spatial networks; Intrafirm trade |
| JEL: | F12 F15 F23 R12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2013-25&r=ure |
| By: | Raven Molloy; Christopher L. Smith; Abigail Wozniak |
| Abstract: | We examine explanations for the secular decline in interstate migration since the 1980s. After showing that demographic and socioeconomic factors can account for little of this decrease, we present evidence suggesting that it is related to a downward trend in labor market transitions--i.e. a decline in the fraction of workers moving from job to job, changing industry, and changing occupation--that occurred over the same period. We explore a number of reasons why these flows have diminished over time, including changes in the distribution of job opportunities across space, polarization in the labor market, concerns of dual-career households, and a strengthening of internal labor markets. We find little empirical support for all but the last of these hypotheses. Specifically, using data from three cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys spanning the 1970s to the 2000s, we find that wage gains associated with employer transitions have fallen, possibly signaling a growing role for internal labor markets in determining wages. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-27&r=ure |
| By: | Florentino Felgueroso; María Gutiérrez-Domènech; Sergi Jiménez-Martín |
| Abstract: | Over the last 50 years, some important reforms in European countries were aimed at improving the system of vocational studies. By contrast, the Spanish educational law (LOGSE) from 1990 moved in the opposite direction. While the LOGSE increased the number of compulsory schooling years from 8 to 10, it also eliminated vocational studies of first grade (FP-I, ages 14 to 16), thereby reducing flexibility. Dropout rates in Spain decreased from 70% in 1977 to 30% in 1995, but remained at roughly 30% until recent years, twice the EU27 average. This paper analyses the role of LOGSE, and other factors, in explaining why school dropout stopped its declining trend in the last two decades. Results show that the introduction of the new system was negative for male dropout and the abolishment of FP-I for female dropout. The reform also decreased the track choice opportunities for students and, hence, it reduced the probability of following the vocational track after completion of the compulsory stage. It is quite likely that the lack of FP-I affected more males, which in turn could help explain why we find that the reform was negative for male students while somehow positive for females. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2013-04&r=ure |
| By: | Roberto Dell’Anno (University of Salerno); Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (International Center for Public Policy. Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we argue that renter’s illusion may not be a form of asymmetric information neither irrationality but rather a way to include in our economic analysis evidence that while homo oeconomicus aims to do a good job of making choices, he frequently is not able to do that. Taxpayers do not know the “objective” world but take decisions according to mental and often biased representations of “their” world. We develop a simple model where misperception plays a fundamental role in the behavior of renters and allows overcoming the dichotomy between rational and irrational renter's behavior. In the paper we also pursue the two complementary aims of introducing “cognitive limitation” into the theory of local public finance and of filling a gap in this literature regarding the lack of micro-foundations for the renter’s illusion hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Renter effect; Renter’s illusion; Fiscal illusion; Behavioral local public finance. |
| Date: | 2013–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1303&r=ure |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Engdahl, Mattias (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor market impact of opening borders to low-wage countries. The analysis exploits time and regional variation provided by the 2004 EU enlargement in combination with transport links to Sweden from the new member states. The results suggest an adverse impact on earnings of present workers in the order of 1 percent in areas close to pre-existing ferry lines. The effects are present in most segments of the labor market but tend to be greater in groups with weaker positions. The impact is also clearer in industries which have received more workers from the new member states, and for which across-the-border work is likely to be more common. There is no robust evidence on an impact on employment or wages. At least part of the effects is likely due to channels other than the ones typically considered in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Migration policy; immigration; labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2013_011&r=ure |
| By: | Alexiadis, Stilianos |
| Abstract: | The regional policy problem is often conceived as a trade-off between aggregate efficiency and interregional equity. A policy to allocate investment across regions frequently causes a contradiction in the aims of regional policy, in the sense that it might lead to high rates of aggregate growth accompanied with an unequal distribution of income across regions. On the other hand, a policy to reduce regional inequalities may in fact be inefficient to promote growth of the economy as a whole. It is argued further that under certain conditions the contradiction between aims can be avoided. |
| Keywords: | Optimal Control Theory, Regional Disparities, Regional Policy |
| JEL: | R0 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47063&r=ure |
| By: | Mitze, Timo (University of Southern Denmark); Stephan, Andreas (Jönköping International Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview over simultaneous equation models (SEM) in the context of analyses based on regional data. We describe various modelling approaches and highlight close link of SEMs to theory and also comment on the advantages and disadvantages of SEMs.We present selected empirical works using simultaneous-equations analysis in regional science and economic geography in or-der to show the wide scope for applications. We thereby classify the empirical contributions as either being structural model presentations or vector autoregressive (VAR) models. Finally, we provide the reader with some details on how the various models can be estimated with available software packages such as STATA, LIMDEP or Gauss. |
| Keywords: | Structural Equation Models; Regional Science and Economics; Empirical Applications; Software |
| JEL: | C33 C87 |
| Date: | 2013–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0309&r=ure |
| By: | Emilia Del Bono; Marco Francesconi; Yvonne Ke;;y; Amanda Sacker |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impacts of family inputs - i.e., maternal employment, child care and home learning - on the early development of British children. Using rich longitudinal data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study we estimate cognitive and non-cognitive achievement production functions that allow outcomes to depend on the history of family inputs and unobserved child endowments. We find evidence of small effects on early child outcomes of all the family inputs under consideration. Nonetheless, according to some models, family inputs are found to reduce socio-economic status inequalities in early child development quite substantially, while according to other models they are found to magnify them. Attempting to equalize child outcomes through early policy interventions that generically affect family inputs may therefore prove difficult. |
| Date: | 2013–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:726&r=ure |
| By: | Shamena Anwar; Patrick Bayer; Randi Hjalmarsson |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from 700 felony trials in Sarasota and Lake Counties in Florida from 2000-2010 to examine the role of age in jury selection and trial outcomes. The results imply that prosecutors are more likely to use their peremptory challenges to exclude younger members of the jury pool, while defense attorneys exclude older potential jurors. To examine the causal impact of age on trial outcomes, the paper employs a research design that isolates the effect of the random variation in the age composition of the pool of eligible jurors called for jury duty. Consistent with the jury selection patterns, the empirical evidence implies that older jurors are significantly more likely to convict. Results are robust to the inclusion of broad set of controls including county, time, and judge fixed effects. These findings imply that many cases are decided differently for reasons that are completely independent of the true nature of the evidence in the case – i.e., that there is substantial randomness in the application of criminal justice. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:duk:dukeec:13-8&r=ure |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Ufuk Akcigit; Nicholas Bloom; William R. Kerr |
| Abstract: | We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A key feature is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using detailed US Census micro data on firm-level output, R&D and patenting. The model provides a good fit to the dynamics of firm entry and exit, output and R&D, and its implied elasticities are in the ballpark of a range of micro estimates. We find industrial policy subsidizing either the R&D or the continued operation of incumbents reduces growth and welfare. For example, a subsidy to incumbent R&D equivalent to 5% of GDP reduces welfare by about 1.5% because it deters entry of new high-type firms. On the contrary, substantial improvements (of the order of 5% improvement in welfare) are possible if the continued operation of incumbents is taxed while at the same time R&D by incumbents and new entrants is subsidized. This is because of a strong selection effect: R&D resources (skilled labor) are inefficiently used by low-type incumbent firms. Subsidies to incumbents encourage the survival and expansion of these firms at the expense of potential high-type entrants. We show that optimal policy encourages the exit of low-type firms and supports R&D by high-type incumbents and entry. |
| Keywords: | industrial policy, productivity growth, innovation, R&D |
| JEL: | E02 L1 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1216&r=ure |