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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Sari Kerr; William R. Kerr; Ramana Nanda |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between house prices and entrepreneurship using micro data from the US Census Bureau. Increases in house prices are often thought to drive entrepreneurship through unlocking the collateral channel for bank loans, but this interpretation is challenged by worries regarding omitted variable biases (e.g., rising local demand) or wealth effects (i.e., that people with more valuable homes are more likely to enter entrepreneurship for reasons other than access to collateral). We construct an empirical environment that utilizes very localized price changes, exploits variations in initial home values across residents in the same zip code, and embeds multiple comparisons (e.g., owners vs. renters, homestead exemption laws by state). For the United States during the 2000-2004 period, the link of home prices to the rate of entrepreneurship through home equity channels is modest in economic magnitude. This is despite a focus on a time period that experienced the largest concentration of US home price growth over the last two decades. Even when we do connect home equity to entrepreneurship, part of the effect is linked to an increased demand for entrepreneurship. While housing collateral plays a role in the entry that we observe, it does not seem to be a major barrier to entrepreneurship in our context. |
| JEL: | E44 G21 L26 M13 R12 R31 R32 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21458&r=all |
| By: | Christian Gillitzer (Reserve Bank of Australia); Jin Cong Wang (Reserve Bank of Australia) |
| Abstract: | Understanding the relationship between housing wealth and consumption is important, because it informs the extent to which fluctuations in house prices might affect the broader economy. We investigate the relationship between housing wealth and consumption using postcode-level variation in house prices and administrative data on new passenger vehicle registrations as a proxy for consumption. In our preferred specification, we estimate an elasticity of new passenger vehicle registrations with respect to gross housing wealth of 0.4–0.5, and an average marginal propensity to consume (MPC) for new passenger vehicles of about 0.06 cents per dollar change in gross housing wealth. Assuming new vehicle registrations and total consumption have the same sensitivity to changes in housing wealth implies an MPC for total consumption of 2 cents per dollar change in gross housing wealth. But US evidence indicates that new vehicle consumption is particularly sensitive to changes in housing wealth. Assuming the same is true for Australia, our estimates imply an MPC for total consumption of less than 0.25 cents. Notably, we find evidence that the relationship between house prices and new vehicle registrations is heterogenous in income, with low-income households having a higher propensity to purchase a new vehicle following a rise in housing wealth than high-income households. This implies that the distribution of changes in house prices is relevant for understanding its effect on aggregate consumption. |
| Keywords: | consumption; house prices |
| JEL: | E21 E32 E60 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2015-08&r=all |
| By: | Seth Gershenson (American University); Stephen B. Holt (American Un iversity); Nicholas Papageorge (Johns Hopkins University) |
| Abstract: | Teachers are an important source of information for traditionally disadvantaged students. However, little is known about how teachers form expectations and whether they are systematically biased. We investigate whether student-teacher demographic mismatch affects high school teachers' expectations for students' educational attainment. Using a student fixed effects strategy that exploits expectations data from two teachers per student, we find that non-black teachers of black students have significantly lower expectations than do black teachers. These effects are larger for black male students and math teachers. Our findings add to a growing literature on the role of limited information in perpetuating educational attainment gaps. |
| Keywords: | Educational Attainment; Expectations; Stigmatization; Mismatch |
| JEL: | I24 D84 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:15-231&r=all |
| By: | Graeme O'Meara |
| Abstract: | This study contributes to the ongoing debate over the causes of housing bubbles. The argument that excessively low interest rates were responsible for the run up in house prices over the last decade has received considerable attention in the literature. However, few papers have attempted to quantify the extent of house price overvaluation in countries that have seen housing booms and busts, in addition to quantifying the looseness of monetary policy. For a sample of 10 OECD countries, we estimate fundamental house prices using demand and supply side characteristics of the housing market. This is supplemented with analysis of price to rent ratios and fundamental price to rent ratios. Loose monetary policy is defined as the deviation of the short term interest rate from the rate which the Taylor rule would prescribe. The empirical results suggest that for some countries deviations from the Taylor rule played a role in the surge in house prices and that a monetary policy stance less discretionary and more closely aligned with a Taylor rule could curtail some of the imbalance in the housing market. |
| Keywords: | Housing bubbles; Taylor rule; Monetary policy; Interest rates |
| JEL: | E52 E58 R31 F33 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/6435&r=all |
| By: | Matthew Gibson (Williams College); Maria Carnovale (Duke University) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting the natural experiment created by an unanticipated court injunction, we evaluate driver responses to road pricing. We find evidence of intertemporal substitution toward unpriced times and spatial substitution toward unpriced roads. The effect on traffic volume varies with public transit availability. Net of these responses, Milan's pricing policy reduces air pollution substantially, generating large welfare gains. In addition, we use long-run policy changes to estimate price elasticities. |
| Keywords: | road pricing, traffic policy, air pollution |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2015-16&r=all |
| By: | James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University); Timothy R. Hodge (Department of Economics, Allegheny College); Gary Sands (Urban Planning Program, Wayne State University \end{minipage}); Mark Skidmore (Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, and Department of Economics, Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | As the country reemerges from the real estate crisis, the City of Detroit, Michigan continues to struggle, and is currently in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. Falling property values have led to significant reductions in property tax revenues. In addition, the rate of property tax delinquency in Detroit is 48 percent, resulting in uncollected tax revenues of about 20 percent. This high rate of tax delinquency results from a confluence of factors including limited tax enforcement, feelings of tax inequity, and failure to provide public services, all of which have contributed to a breakdown in the social contract between the City and its residents. In this paper we develop a theoretical model of the individual decision to become delinquent on one’s property tax payments. We then use detailed parcel-level data to evaluate the factors that affect both the probability that a property owner is tax delinquent and, conditional upon delinquency, the magnitude of the delinquency. Our estimates show that properties that have lower value, longer police response times, are non-homestead (non-owner occupied residential properties), have a higher statutory tax rate, have a higher assessed value relative to sales price, are owned by a financial institution or by a Detroit resident, are delinquent on water bills, and for which the probability of enforcement is low are more likely to be tax delinquent These findings can be used to inform policies targeted at improving tax compliance within the City. |
| Keywords: | property tax, delinquency, tax compliance |
| JEL: | H26 H71 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1508&r=all |
| By: | Fu, Chao (University of WI); Wolpin, Kenneth I. (Rice University and University of PA) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of crime in which the number of police, the crime rate, the arrest rate, the employment rate and the wage rate are joint outcomes of a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. The local government chooses the size of its police force and citizens choose among work, home and crime alternatives. We estimate the model using MSA-level data. We use the estimated model to examine the effects on crime of targeted federal transfers to local governments to increase police. We find that knowledge about unobserved MSA-specific attributes is critical for the optimal allocation of police across MSA's. |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:14-020&r=all |
| By: | Creina Day |
| Abstract: | Young households in Hong Kong face particularly steep increases in house prices and low fertility despite low gender wage gaps. The model of fertility and housing in this paper explains why fertility decline need not reverse as female wages rise relative to male wages where housing land is scarce. For given house prices, demand for children may rise with female relative wages if housing comprises a sufficiently large share of childrearing. If the user cost of housing falls with rising house prices then fertility also rises. For endogenous house prices, however, growth in wages and a burgeoning working age population raises the market price of housing. In turn, fertility no longer rises with female relative wages. The analysis provides a novel mechanism whereby high population support ratios depress fertility and the results fit recent evidence that house prices affect fertility. |
| Keywords: | fertility, housing price, gender wages, working age population |
| JEL: | J10 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2015-34&r=all |
| By: | Deller, Steven (University of WI); Conroy, Tessa (University of WI); Tsvetkova, Alexandra (OH State University) |
| Abstract: | Manufacturing recruitment remains an important part of most state and local governments' economic development portfolio. Using a panel (2000 to 2011) of firm interstate migration data for manufacturer across the lower 48 states we model how state and local government fiscal policies influence firm migration patterns. We find that very few manufacturing firms migrate across state lines in any given year. State and local governments are attempting to recruit from a very small number of relocating manufacturers. Indeed, most firms that do relocate across state lines tend to move to neighboring states. Fiscal policies have mixed and somewhat inconsistent influence of manufacturing interstate migration patterns. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:wisagr:578&r=all |
| By: | Diamond, John W. (James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University); Zodrow, George R. (Rice University and Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford University) |
| Abstract: | The reports of several recent commissions focusing on deficit and debt reduction have suggested curtailing or eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction (MID). This paper examines the economic effects of such proposals to eliminate or curtail the MID. We use a dynamic, overlapping generations, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the U.S. economy to simulate both the short run and long run macroeconomic effects of such proposals, including their effects on the housing market, such as changes in housing prices, housing investment and the housing capital stock, and the mix of owner-occupied and rental housing. We also estimate the changes in tax liability by age and income group due to these changes in the MID, taking into account differences across households in whether they itemize and in the marginal tax rate at which the MID is taken, as well as the portfolio reallocations that would be expected to occur as households decide to pay down mortgage debt once the tax advantages of the MID are reduced or eliminated. In addition, we estimate how the reforms would affect the housing user cost of capital, and include estimates of the effects of eliminating or curtailing the MID for a few representative households. Finally, we also perform some rough supplemental "off-model" calculations to estimate the effects of the simulated reform-induced reductions in housing prices on the number of households with negative equity and the numbers of these homes that might be expected to end up in foreclosure proceedings. |
| JEL: | H24 H31 R21 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:14-011&r=all |
| By: | Nessa Winston (School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Much of the literature on sustainable communities and compact cities calls for higher density housing including multifamily dwellings. Some case studies suggest problems with such dwellings. However, rigorous comparative research on this topic has not been conducted to date. This paper draws on a high quality, comparative dataset, the European Social Survey, to analyse a) the quality of multifamily dwellings in European urban areas, b) the characteristics of residents of these dwellings, c) their life satisfaction compared with those living in detached housing and d) the relative importance of built form in explaining life satisfaction. One of the main findings from the multivariate analyses is that built form, including residing in multifamily housing, is not a statistically significant predictor of life satisfaction when you control for standard predictors of life satisfaction (e.g. health, employment and income) and housing and neighbourhood quality. |
| Keywords: | Quality of life, built form, housing density, life satisfaction, compact cities |
| Date: | 2015–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201515&r=all |
| By: | Torberg Falch (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Bjarne Strøm (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør (Department of Economics, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | We exploit the strict class size rule in Norway and matched individual and school register information for 1982?2011 to estimate long run causal effects on income and educational attainment. Contrary to recent evidence from the US and Sweden, we do not find any significant average effect on long run outcomes of reduced class size. We further use the large register data set and quasi-experimental strategy to estimate whether the class size effect depends on external conditions facing students and schools, such as teacher quality, extent of upper secondary school choice, school district size, local fiscal constraints and labor market conditions. Overall, we find that the class size effect does not depend on school district characteristics. The absence of class size effects on long run outcomes in Norway is consistent with earlier findings for short run outcomes using comparable data and empirical strategies. |
| Keywords: | class size, school district, quasi-experiment, educational attainment, income |
| JEL: | H7 |
| Date: | 2015–07–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:16415&r=all |
| By: | Jonas Zangenberg Hansen (Danish Rational Economic Agents Model, DREAM); Peter Stephensen (Danish Rational Economic Agents Model, DREAM) |
| Abstract: | We utilize the newly developed dynamic microsimulation model SMILE (Simulation Model for Individual Lifecycle Evaluation) to make a long-term forecast of detailed housing demand both in terms of key aggregate figures and compositional features of future Danish housing demand. SMILE simulates the life course of the full Danish population with respect to three main types of events: demographic, socioeconomic, and housing-related events. Demographic events include ageing, births, deaths, migration, leaving home, and couple formation and dissolution - all of which are key indirect drivers of future housing demand. Socioeconomic events such as education attendance and attainment, and labor market events are also important indirect drivers of housing demand because they are closely linked to the timing and direction of households' moving patterns. Finally, households move spatially and between dwelling types based on historically observed moving patterns and estimated transition probabilities by using the tree-based classification model. The key results from the simulations are: changing patterns of cohabitation with a decreasing average household size is projected to increase the number of households by roughly one-third above what the general increase in population indicates. Increasing urbanization leads to an increasing demand for multi-dwelling houses. An ageing population is expected to pent-up the demand for smaller dwellings, especially rental housing. |
| Keywords: | population projections, education, household projections, housing demand, microsimulation |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dra:wpaper:201304&r=all |
| By: | Proost, Stef; Thisse, Jacques-François |
| Abstract: | The three themes of this survey—cities, regions, and transport—are closely intertwined and gathered in the category R of the JEL Classification System. We discuss cities and regions in separate sections because they are different spatial units facing specific problems. Transport issues affect both cities and regions and are discussed in each relevant section. The introductory remarks explain both the reason for this division, as well as what spatial economics is all about. Because general economists have barely met the words cities, regions, and transport during their studies, we explain what the field of spatial economics is and define basic concepts that might not currently be in their tool box. The second section is devoted to cities; the third focuses on regions. We conclude with general policy recommendations. |
| Keywords: | cities; congestion; land; region; trade; transport |
| JEL: | R00 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10790&r=all |
| By: | Eyles, Andrew; Machin, Steve |
| Abstract: | We study the origins of what has become one of the most radical and encompassing programmes of school reform seen in the recent past amongst advanced countries – the introduction of academy schools to English secondary education. Academies are state schools that are allowed to run in an autonomous manner which is free from local authority control. Almost all academies are conversions from already existent state schools and so are school takeovers that enable more autonomy. Our analysis shows that this first round of academy conversions that took place in the 2000s generated significant improvements in the quality of pupil intake and in pupil performance. There is evidence of heterogeneity as improvements only occur for schools experiencing the largest increase in their school autonomy relative to their predecessor state. Analysis of mechanisms points to changes in headteachers and management structure as key factors underpinning these improvements in pupil outcomes. |
| Keywords: | academies; pupil intake; pupil performance |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10772&r=all |
| By: | Carlos Garriga (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis); Finn E. Kydland (University of California–Santa Barbara and NBER); Roman Šustek (Queen Mary University of London and Centre for Macroeconomics) |
| Abstract: | Mortgages are prime examples of long-term nominal loans. As a result, under incomplete asset markets, monetary policy can affect household decisions through the cost of new mortgage borrowing and the value of payments on outstanding debt. These channels are distinct from the transmission through real interest rates. A stylized general equilibrium model in corporating these features is developed. Persistent monetary policy shocks, resembling the level factor in the nominal yield curve, have larger real effects than transitory shocks. The transmission is stronger under adjustable-than fixed-rate mortgages. Higher, persistent, inflation benefits homeowners under FRMs but hurts them under ARMs. |
| Keywords: | Mortgages, Debt servicing costs, Monetary policy, Residential investment |
| JEL: | E32 E52 G21 R21 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp751&r=all |
| By: | Rainer Schulz; Martin Wersing; ; |
| Abstract: | We show that house prices from Aberdeen in the UK improve in- and out-of-sample oil price forecasts. The improvements are of a similar magnitude to those attained using macroeconomic indicators. We ex- plain these forecast improvements with the dominant role of the oil industry in Aberdeen. House prices aggregate the dispersed knowl- edge of the future oil price that exists in the city. We obtain similar empirical evidence for Houston, another city dominated by the oil in- dustry. Consistent with our explanation, we nd that house prices from economically more diversied areas in the UK and the US do not improve oil price forecasts. |
| Keywords: | oil price forecasting, house prices, knowledge spillover |
| JEL: | C53 E32 Q47 R31 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2015-041&r=all |
| By: | Pennerstorfer, Dieter; Schmidt-Dengler, Philipp; Schutz, Nicolas; Weiss, Christoph; Yontcheva, Biliana |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between information and price dispersion in the retail gasoline market. We first show that the clearinghouse models in the spirit of Stahl (1989) generate an inverted-U relationship between information and price dispersion. We construct a new measure of information based on precise commuter data from Austria. Regular commuters can freely sample gasoline prices on their commuting route, providing us with spatial variation in the share of informed consumers. We use detailed information on gas station level prices to construct price dispersion measures. Our empirical estimates of the relationship are in line with the theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | commuter data; price dispersion; retail gasoline; search |
| JEL: | D43 D83 L13 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10771&r=all |
| By: | Gary-Bobo, Robert J.; Nur, Jamil |
| Abstract: | We study the allocation of housing capital in an overlapping generations economy with competitive property and housing rental markets. In this economy, consumers inherit property from their parents when they retire. Agents have paternalistic bequest motives. All agents are identical and there is no redistribution problem. The stationary competitive equilibrium of such a model is inefficient, since old agents consume too much perishable goods and too much housing. We then show that the golden rule stationary optimum can be achieved by means of a simple system of proportional taxes. The optimal allocation is characterized by the fact that the young agents rent their homes and that the old agents own the entire stock of housing capital. An optimal tax system has the following features: the young agents' rents must be subsidized. Housing capital and rents are both taxed. But bequests must be subsidized. Bequest and rent subsidies are financed by labor income tax and property tax revenues. Rent subsidies are financed by the tax on rents. The government's budget is balanced. The negative tax on bequests can be interpreted as a pension benefit, paid out of a public pension fund, based on the market value of the housing-capital stock. |
| Keywords: | bequests; capital taxation; housing; overlapping generation; real estate; rents |
| JEL: | H2 H3 H6 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10774&r=all |
| By: | André De Palma (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS - Polytechnique - X, ENS Cachan - École normale supérieure - Cachan); Robin Lindsey (Sauder - Sauder School of Business [British Columbia] - University of British Columbia); Nathalie Picard (THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - Université de Cergy Pontoise - CNRS, Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS - Polytechnique - X) |
| Abstract: | Most traffic congestion models assume that agents make trip-timing decisions independently and receive payoffs at the origin and destination that do not depend on whether other agents are present. We depart from this paradigm by considering a variant of Vickrey's bottleneck model of the morning commute in which individuals live as couples and value time at home more when together than when alone. We show that the costs of congestion can be higher than for a comparable population of individuals living alone. The costs can be even higher if spouses collaborate with each other when choosing their departure times. To calibrate the model we estimate trip-timing preferences for married and unmarried men and women in the Greater Paris region. Jel Classifications: D11, D70, R41. |
| Date: | 2015–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01117732&r=all |
| By: | MORIKAWA Masayuki |
| Abstract: | Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), which produce skill-intensive services used as intermediate inputs, are becoming important for the economic growth and international competitiveness of advanced countries. This paper, using establishment- and firm-level micro data, analyzes the productivity of knowledge- and information-intensive services such as information services, publishers, and design services. We focus on the effect of urban density on the productivity of these services. According to the estimations, doubling the employment density of municipalities is associated with an average of around 5% higher labor productivity of the services providers, which is larger than that found in the manufacturing industry. However, the size of the economies of density is heterogeneous by individual services, suggesting that the services to be promoted by small and medium cities are different from the services for which large metropolitan cities such as Tokyo and Osaka have strong comparative advantages. |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:15050&r=all |
| By: | Camille Terrier (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests whether we observe sex-discrimination in teachers' grades, and whether such biases affect pupils' achievement during the school year. I use a unique dataset containing standardized tests, teachers' attributed grades, and pupil's behavior, all three at different periods in time. Based on double-differences, the identification of the gender bias in teachers' grades suggests that (i) girls benefit from a substantive positive discrimination in math but not in French, (ii) girls' better behavior than boys, and their initial lower achievement in math do not explain much of this gender bias. Then, I use the heterogeneity in teachers' discriminatory behavior to show that classes in which teachers present a high degree of discrimination in favor of girls at the beginning of the year are also classes in which girls tend to progress more over the school year compared to boys. |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:hal-01080834&r=all |
| By: | Gugle, Elisabeth (University of Victoria); Zodrow, George R. (Rice University and Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford University) |
| Abstract: | Most of the tax competition literature focuses on the provision of local public services to households. However, a number of papers, dating back to Zodrow and Mieszkowski (1986), analyze tax competition when capital taxes are used to finance local public services provided to businesses, examining the conditions under which such services are provided efficiently, under-provided, or overprovided. In addition, several prominent observers have noted that "benefit-related" business taxation is desirable on both efficiency and equity grounds and argued that such taxation should take the form of a tax based on production, such as an origin-based value-added tax. We evaluate this contention in this paper, comparing within the context of a standard model of interjurisdictional competition the relative efficiency properties of these alternative business taxes. Our simulation results suggest that under many circumstances it is more efficient to finance business public services with an origin-based production tax rather than a source-based capital tax. We also relate our results to others found in the existing literature on capital tax competition when public services are provided to businesses. |
| JEL: | H11 H21 H41 H42 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:14-012&r=all |
| By: | Mathieu Bunel (LEDi - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dijon - UB - Université de Bourgogne - CNRS, TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS); Yannick L'Horty (ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12, TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS); Pascale Petit (ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12, TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS) |
| Abstract: | This study’s novelty lies in the experimental measuring of place of residence effects derived from a multi-level protocol that allows one to discern the effects at different levels of spatial aggregation: large administrative units (the "département" in France), municipalities, and neighbourhoods. This protocol was applied to two administrative units (Seine-Saint-Denis and 3 the city of Paris) in the Paris region, which are geographically close but quite different in terms of socio-economic status, in order to compare the effects associated with three types of neighbourhoods: favoured areas, intermediate reputation areas , and disadvantaged areas. |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01100287&r=all |
| By: | Agarwal, Sumit (National University of Singapore); Amromin, Gene (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago); Ben-David, Itzhak (OH State University); Chomsisengphet, Souphala (US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency); Zhang, Yan (US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) |
| Abstract: | Loss mitigation actions (e.g., liquidation or renegotiation) for delinquent mortgages might be hampered by the conflicting goals of claim holders with different levels of seniority. Although similar agency problems arise in corporate bankruptcies, the mortgage market is unique because in a large share of cases junior claimants, in their role as servicers, exercise operational control over loss mitigation actions on mortgages owned by senior claimants. We show that servicers are less likely to act on the first lien mortgage owned by investors when they themselves own the second lien claim secured by the same property. When they do act, such servicers' choices are skewed towards actions that maximize the value of their junior claims, favoring modification over liquidation and short sales and deeds-in-lieu over foreclosures. We also show that such servicers find it more difficult to avoid taking actions on second lien loans when first liens are modified and that they do not modify their second lien loans on more concessionary terms. We show that these actions transfer wealth from first to second liens and moderately increase borrower welfare. |
| JEL: | G21 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2014-02&r=all |
| By: | Hippolyte D'Albis (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Eleni Iliopulos (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study a benchmark model with collateral constraints and heterogeneous discounting. Contrarily to a rich literature on borrowing limits, we allow for rental markets. By incorporating this missing market, we show that impatient agents choose to rent rather than to own the collateral in the neighborhood of the deterministic steady state. Consequently, impatient agents are not indebted and borrowing constraints play no role in local dynamics. |
| Date: | 2013–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseose:hal-00964867&r=all |
| By: | Julie Le Gallo (UMR CRESE - Université de Franche-Comté); Yannick L'Horty (TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS, ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12); Pascale Petit (TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS, ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12) |
| Abstract: | We assess the impact of lowering the cost of learning to drive in France by randomly assigning candidates to either of two groups of 18 to 25 years olds. Young people in the “test group” were given a €1000 voucher to pay for their driving lessons and were suported by a welfare centre throughout the time they were learning. Young people in the “control group” retained all the other welfare benefits for the underprivileged. The vouchers were given to 10 000 young people most of whom were not in education, employment or training. We investigate three types of outcome covering driving, housing and employment status. We analyse the specific role of local support in passing the driving test and we specifically take into account the possibility of spillover effects between treated and untreated individuals. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01100332&r=all |
| By: | Oliver Robertson |
| Abstract: | When central and local governments are called upon to evaluate the costs and benefits of large infrastructure investment projects, they must rely upon models that simplify the complex, dynamic and adaptive realities of the economic, social and political systems into which the infrastructure will be deployed. Oliver Robertson explores the merits of different modelling approaches used to evaluate large-scale transportation investments. |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwcrt:380103&r=all |
| By: | Nicholas Trachter (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond); Leena Rudanko (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Guido Menzio (University of Pennsylvania); Greg Kaplan (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Using scanner data we document some interesting patterns of pricing. We document significant differences in (1) overall price levels across stores, and (2) deviations of individual prices from the store average price. We build a model of spatial price discrimination to explore these phenomena. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:417&r=all |
| By: | Muehlenbachs, Lucia Anna (Resources for the Future); Spiller, Elisheba; Timmins, Christopher |
| Abstract: | Using data from Pennsylvania and an array of empirical techniques to control for confounding factors, we recover hedonic estimates of property value impacts from nearby shale gas development that vary with water source, well productivity, and visibility. Results indicate large negative impacts on nearby groundwaterdependent homes, while piped-water-dependent homes exhibit smaller positive impacts, suggesting benefits from lease payments. Results have implications for the debate over regulation of shale gas development. |
| Keywords: | shale gas, groundwater, property values, hedonic models, nearest neighbor matching, differences-in-differences, triple differences |
| JEL: | Q32 Q33 Q50 Q53 |
| Date: | 2013–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-13-39-rev2&r=all |
| By: | Sarah Dahmann (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates two mechanisms through which education may affect cognitive skills in adolescence: the role of instructional quantity and the timing of instruction with respect to age. To identify causal effects, I exploit a school reform carried out at the state level in Germany as a quasi-natural experiment: between 2001 and 2007, the academictrack high school (Gymnasium) was reduced by one year in most of Germany's federal states, leaving the overall curriculum unchanged. To investigate the impact of this educational change on students' cognitive abilities, I conduct two separate analyses: first, I exploit the variation in the curriculum taught to same-aged students at academictrack high school over time and across states to identify the effect of the increase in class hours on students' crystallized and fluid intelligence scores. Using rich data on seventeen year-old adolescents from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, the estimates show that fluid intelligence remained unaffected, while crystallized intelligence improved for male students. Second, I compare students' competences in their final year of high school using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The results suggest that students affected by the reform catch up with their non-affected counterparts in terms of their competences by the time of graduation. However, they do not provide any evidence for the timing of instruction to matter in cognitive skill formation. Overall, secondary education therefore seems to impact students' cognitive skills in adolescence especially through instructional time and not so much through agedistinct timing of instruction. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive Skills, Crystallized Intelligence, Fluid Intelligence, Skill Formation, Education, High School Reform |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:duh:wpaper:1504&r=all |
| By: | Merlo, Antonio (Rice University); Wolpin, Kenneth I. (Rice University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the relationship among schooling, youth employment and youth crime. The framework, a multinomial discrete choice vector autoregression, provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic interactions among a youth's schooling, work and crime decisions and arrest and incarceration outcomes. We allow for observable initial conditions, unobserved heterogeneity, measurement error and missing data. We use data from the NLSY97 on black male youths starting from age 14. The estimates indicate important roles both for heterogeneity in initial conditions and for stochastic events that arise during one's youth in determining outcomes as young adults. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:15-004&r=all |
| By: | Jonas Zangenberg Hansen (Danish Rational Economic Agents Model, DREAM); Peter Stephensen (Danish Rational Economic Agents Model, DREAM); Joachim Borg Kristensen |
| Keywords: | household formation, housing demand, denmark, microsimulation |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dra:wpaper:201308&r=all |
| By: | Baugh, Brian (OH State University); Ben-David, Itzhak (OH State University); Park, Hoonsuk (OH State University) |
| Abstract: | Online retailers have gained a total price advantage over brick-and-mortar retailers since the formers generally are not required to collect sales tax. Recently, several states have implemented laws requiring that Amazon collect sales tax during checkout. Using transaction-level data, we document that households living in these states reduce Amazon purchases by 11%, implying an elasticity of -1.5. The effect is more pronounced for large purchases (e.g., >= $250), for which we estimate a reduction of 25% in purchases and an elasticity of -3.5. We find some weak evidence of substitution of the lost purchases towards other online and brick-and-mortar retailers. |
| JEL: | D12 D40 L51 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2014-05&r=all |
| By: | Plamen Nemov (BI Norwegian Business School) |
| Abstract: | Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:append:14-22&r=all |
| By: | Yingling Fan; Andrew Guthrie; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | Waiting and transferring in transit travel are often perceived negatively and can be significant obstacles to mode shifts between automobile to transit. High-amenity stations, transit centers served by multiple routes and multimodal hubs are becoming increasingly popular as strategies for mitigating transit users' aversion to waiting and transferring. However, beyond recent evidence that realtime departure information reduces perceived waiting time, there is limited empirical evidence as to which other specific station and stop amenities can effectively influence user perceptions of waiting time. To address this knowledge gap, the authors conducted a passenger survey and video-recorded waiting passengers at different types of transit stops and stations to investigate the impacts of various station characteristics on transit users' perceptions of waiting and transferring time, controlling for weather and time of day. The authors employ regression analysis to explain the variation in riders' waiting time estimates as a function of their objectively observed waiting times, as well as station and stop amenities, while controlling for weather, time of day, self-reported and observed socio-demographic characteristics and trip characteristics. Based on the results, waits at stops with no amenities are perceived as twice as long or longer than they actually are. Benches, shelters and realtime departure information signs significantly reduce perceived waiting times. A complete package of all three nearly erases the time perception penalty of waiting. Women waiting in surroundings perceived to be insecure report waits as dramatically longer than they really are, and longer than do men and/or respondents in surroundings perceived to be secure. However, the provision of stop amenities significantly reduces this disparity. The authors recommend a focus on providing basic stop amenities as broadly as possible, continued exploration of methods for communicating arrival information and a particular focus on stops in less safe areas for improvements. |
| Keywords: | transit; waiting time; perception; realtime information; security; gender |
| JEL: | R41 C93 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:stopsandstations&r=all |
| By: | Panle Jia Barwick; Parag A. Pathak; Maisy Wong |
| Abstract: | This paper documents uniformity in real estate commission rates across markets and time using a dataset on realtor commissions for 653,475 residential listings in eastern Massachusetts from 1998-2011. Newly established real estate brokerage offices charging low commissions grow more slowly than comparable entrants with higher commissions. Properties listed with lower commission rates experience less favorable transaction outcomes: they are 5% less likely to sell and take 12% longer to sell. These adverse outcomes reflect decreased willingness of buyers' agents to intermediate low commission properties (steering) rather than heterogeneous seller preferences or reduced effort of listing agents. While all agents and offices prefer properties with high commissions, firms and agents with large market shares purchase a disproportionately small fraction of low commission properties. The negative outcomes for low commissions provide empirical support for regulatory concerns that steering reinforces the uniformity of commissions. |
| JEL: | D4 L1 L8 R2 R3 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21489&r=all |
| By: | Juan Tomas Sayago-Gomez (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University); Caleb Stair (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia Univers) |
| Abstract: | This technical document describes the foundations for three different regional economic functions implemented in MATLAB and R. These functions are Location Quotients, Coefficients of Localization, and Shift-Share Analysis. |
| Keywords: | location quotient, coefficient of specialization, shift share methodology |
| JEL: | C6 C63 C65 R10 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2015td01&r=all |
| By: | Cherrie Bucknor |
| Abstract: | Young blacks in America have had significant improvements in educational attainment since the early 1980s. They are completing high school and college at higher rates than in the past, which has helped to mitigate some of the negative employment effects of past recessions. However, wages for young blacks have declined since the late 1970s, with rates for black men in particular decreasing significantly—even for those with college degrees. The wage data also continue to show that young blacks have been hit harder than whites during the recent recession and incomplete recovery. |
| Keywords: | black, wages, education, pay, wages, wage growth, inequality, whites |
| JEL: | J J1 J15 J11 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2015-18&r=all |
| By: | Alireza Ermagun; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | The current research provides a test framework to understand whether and to what extent increasing public transit use and accessibility by transit affect health. To this end, the effect of transit mode share and accessibility by transit on general health, body mass index, and height are investigated, while controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and physical activity factors. The coefficient-p-value-sample-size chart is created and effect size analysis are conducted to explore whether the transit use is practically significant. Building on the results of the analysis, we found that the transit mode share and accessibility by transit are not practically significant, and the power of large-sample misrepresents the effect of transit on public health. The results, also, highlight the importance of data and variable selection by portraying a significant correlation between transit use and height in a multivariate regression analysis. What becomes clear from this study is that in spite of the mushrooming interdisciplinary studies in the nexus of transportation and health arena, researchers often propose short- and long-term policies blindly, while failing to report the inherent explanatory power of variables. We show that there is a thin line between false positive and true negative results. From the weakness of p-values perspective, further, we strove to alert both researchers and practitioners to the dangerous pitfall deriving from the power of large- samples. Building the results on just significance and sign of the parameter of interest is worthless, unless the magnitude of effect size is carefully quantified post analysis. |
| Keywords: | Public transit; BRFSS data; ACS data; Accessibility to jobs; p-hacking |
| JEL: | D12 I12 B23 C13 C18 R41 R42 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:transitmakesyoushort&r=all |
| By: | Amélie Boutinot (ISG - Institut Supérieur de Gestion - Institut Supérieur de Gestion); Shahzad Ansari (Judge Business School - University of Cambridge (UK)); Mustapha Belkhouja (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Vincent Mangematin (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)) |
| Abstract: | While the notion of reputation has attracted much scholarly interest, few studies have addressed the strategic issue of reputational multiplicity and managing the interactions among different types of reputations. We suggest that an organization can have several stakeholderspecific reputations – peer, market, and expert – and that reputational spillover effects (the continued influence of one reputation on another) matter at the organizational level. We test reputational spillovers on 42 French architecture companies over a period of 30 years. Our results show that over time, the three reputations interact with each other, generating positive spillovers, with the exception of market and expert reputations. We contribute by explaining how interconnected organizational reputations among different stakeholders can interact over time, how companies can strategically manage reputational spillovers, and how such spillovers influence organizations in creative and professional industries. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-01183392&r=all |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Regardless of the type of school attended (public or private, advantaged or disadvantaged), 15-year-old students spent more time in mathematics lessons in 2012 than in 2003. The average amount of time spent in mathematics classes varies by more than a factor of two across countries and economies. The more time spent in mathematics classes, the better students perform, on average; but giving students more work in class is often not enough to improve learning outcomes. |
| Date: | 2015–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:54-en&r=all |
| By: | Cécile Perret (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - Université de Savoie) |
| Abstract: | Using a decomposition of social capital nature, this research performs an original analysis of the interactions between the social, the environmental, the governance and the economic sphere and their impact on a viable development in Kabylia (Algeria). In this region, the "art of association” is the expression of territoriality. When the governance is weak and/or when there is distrust in institutions, populations, according to their culture and to their territory, get organized to find solutions to the missing public goods. In Kabylia, the survival of an ancestral social organization (tajmaat) which has anchored in tradition and rooted values sometimes allows the local populations to overcome their difficulties. This paper demonstrates that the respect for deeply rooted regional identity as a cultural heritage, is necessary to perpetuate viable territorial development. |
| Date: | 2014–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01094761&r=all |
| By: | Landerso, Rasmus (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit); Nielsen, Helena Skyt (Aarhus University); Simonsen, Marianne (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses register-based data to investigate the effects of school starting age on crime. Through this, we provide insights into the determinants of crime-age profiles. We exploit that Danish children typically start first grade in the calendar year they turn seven, which gives rise to a discontinuity in school starting age for children born around New Year. Our analysis speaks against a simple invariant crime-age profile as is popular in criminology: we find that higher school starting age lowers the propensity to commit crime at young ages. We also find effects on the number of crimes committed for boys. |
| Keywords: | criminal charges, school start, old-for-grade, violence, property crime |
| JEL: | I21 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9279&r=all |
| By: | Amy Ellen Schwartz; Jacob Leos-Urbel; Matthew Wiswall |
| Abstract: | Holding a summer job is a rite of passage in American adolescence, a first rung towards adulthood and self-sufficiency. Summer youth employment has the potential to benefit high school students’ educational outcomes and employment trajectories, especially for low-income youth. This paper examines New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). SYEP provides jobs to youth ages 14-24, and due to high demand for summer jobs, allocates slots through a random lottery system. We match student-level data from the SYEP program with educational records from the NYC Department of Education, and use the random lottery to estimate the effects of SYEP participation on a number of academic outcomes, including test taking and performance. We find that SYEP participation has positive impacts on student academic outcomes, and these effects are particularly large for students who participate in SYEP multiple times. These findings suggest substantial heterogeneity in program effects, and an important avenue for policy makers to target the program to those who might benefit from it the most. |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J38 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21470&r=all |
| By: | Stijn Oosterlynck; Yuri Kazepov,; Andreas Novy; Pieter Cools; Tatiana Sarius; Florian Wukovitsch |
| Abstract: | This paper presents stylized profiles of the welfare regimes of Austria, Italy and Belgium. It gives a brief overview of the demographic condition and socioeconomic dynamics (especially poverty) of the respective countries, its social policies and expenditures, the situation and policies with regard to labour market and activation, education and the position of ethnic minorities and housing. We combine this with descriptions of the vertical and horizontal governance system of its welfare regime. Finally, on the basis of the all this, we reflect on how a range of governance challenges for socially innovative initiatives, related to the need to coordinate a multiplicity of actors and instruments and work across various spatial scales, express themselves in each of these three welfare regimes. The main aim of this paper is to act as a background document to facilitate the comparison between case studies of socially innovative initiatives and assess how the type of welfare regime and its horizontal and vertical governance system shape the forms of social innovation that emerge in particular countries. |
| Keywords: | social innovation, welfare regime, governance, housing, labour market activation, education, ethnic minorities |
| JEL: | I H77 P16 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hdl:improv:1517&r=all |
| By: | Guido Menzio; Nicholas Trachter |
| Abstract: | We develop a search-theoretic model of the product market that generates price dispersion across and within stores. Buyers differ with respect to their ability to shop around, both at different stores and at different times. The fact that some buyers can shop from only one seller while others can shop from multiple sellers causes price dispersion across stores. The fact that the buyers who can shop from multiple sellers are more likely to be able to shop at inconvenient times (e.g., on Monday morning) causes price dispersion within stores. Specifically, it causes sellers to post different prices for the same good at different times in order to discriminate between different types of buyers. |
| JEL: | D43 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21493&r=all |
| By: | Fabio CROCCOLO; Alessandro VIOLI |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this presentation is to examine a specific rail transport sector, namely high-speed (HS) rail, in Italy. This analysis will cover the main features of the Italian HS system by studying aspects such as: the legislative framework, infrastructure, services, traffic data and market shares, in addition to regulatory matters. |
| Date: | 2013–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaab:2013/29-en&r=all |
| By: | Patrick Bonnel (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE]); Pascal Pochet (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE]) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of transport mode use is essential to understand and/or forecast travel behavior, and therefore to respond to planning needs. Given the strong economic, social, and environmental stakes related to transport mode use, especially car use, a considerable number of empirical or theoretical works can be found in the last decades. This knowledge is more and more used in order to propose new transport policies emphasizing the need to increase the use of more s.ustainable, safer and more healthful transport modes |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01115093&r=all |
| By: | Gugle, Elisabeth (University of Victoria); Zodrow, George R. (Rice University and Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford University) |
| Abstract: | The conventional wisdom in public finance is that local governments should finance public services, including those provided to businesses, with user charges that function as benefit taxes, and should in particular avoid inefficient source-based taxes on highly mobile capital. However, if user charges are not available or infeasible, several public finance experts have recently suggested that taxes on local production, such as an origin-based VAT, are a desirable alternative in that they serve as relatively efficient "benefit-related" taxes. We examine this contention formally in a model in which business public services must be financed with either a source-based tax on mobile capital, such as a property tax, or a tax on production, such as an origin-based VAT. In general, both a capital tax and a production tax are inefficient. However, consistent with the "benefit-related" view, the production tax is efficient if the production function belongs to the knife-edge case between log sub- and log supermodularity with respect to capital and public services (e.g., a Cobb-Douglas production function), while the capital tax results in underprovision of public services in this case. Similarly, if the production function is log submodular with respect to capital and public services (e.g., a CES production function with substitution elasticity greater than one), a production tax is again less inefficient than a capital tax, although both taxes result in underprovision of the public service. Finally, if the production function is log supermodular (e.g., a CES production function with substitution elasticity smaller than one), a production tax results in overprovision of the public service, while the effects of a capital tax--and thus the relative efficiency properties of the two taxes--are theoretically ambiguous. |
| JEL: | H11 H21 H41 H42 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:14-013&r=all |
| By: | Ward, Shannon; Williams, J.; van Ours, Jan (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the effects of delinquency and arrest on school leaving using information on males from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. We use a multivariate mixed proportional hazard framework in order to account for common unobserved confounders and reverse causality. Our key finding is that delinquency as well as arrest leads to early school leaving. Further investigation reveals that the effect of delinquency is largely<br/>driven by income generating crimes, and the effect of both income generating crime and arrest are greater when onset occurs at younger ages. These findings are consistent with a criminal capital accumulation mechanism. On the basis of our sample, we show that taking into account the proportion of young men affected by delinquency and arrest, that the overall reduction in education due to delinquency is at least as large as the reduction due to arrest. This highlights the need for crime prevention efforts to extend beyond youth who come into contact with the justice system. |
| Keywords: | duration models; delinquency; arrest; education |
| JEL: | C4 I2 K4 D0 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:bd8e95d4-717e-42a0-982e-057da9c6d56f&r=all |
| By: | Giulietti, Corrado (IZA); Tonin, Mirco (University of Southampton); Vlassopoulos, Michael (University of Southampton) |
| Abstract: | Discrimination in access to public services can act as a major obstacle towards addressing racial inequality. We examine whether racial discrimination exists in access to a wide spectrum of public services in the US. We carry out an email correspondence study in which we pose simple queries to more than 19,000 local public service providers. We find that emails are less likely to receive a response if signed by a black-sounding name compared to a white-sounding name. Given a response rate of 72% for white senders, emails from putatively black senders are almost 4 percentage points less likely to receive an answer. We also find that responses to queries coming from black names are less likely to have a cordial tone. Further tests demonstrate that the differential in the likelihood of answering is due to animus towards blacks rather than inferring socioeconomic status from race. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, public services provision, school districts, libraries, sheriffs, field experiment, correspondence study |
| JEL: | D73 H41 J15 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9290&r=all |
| By: | Patrizio Bianchi (Università di Ferrara - Facolta di Economia); Sandrine Labory (Università di Ferrara - Facolta di Economia) |
| Abstract: | Resilience means the capacity of a territory to react to, reconstruct, adapt and learn from a shock. The shock can be an economic crisis like the financial crisis started in 2008, or a sudden and unexpected event such as a natural disaster. The earthquakes that affected the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy in May 2012 are a case in point. On the 20th and the 29th of May of that year two earthquakes of medium intensity affected the region, with limited impact on the health of people but dramatic impact on buildings, houses, schools and industrial plants. The literature has stressed the importance of factors such as the magnitude of the natural disaster, the amount of available resources, tangible and intangible capital and endowments in favouring the resilience of places to disasters. The recovery governance has also been shown to be important, in particular democratic participation in the recovery process. We highlight through the analysis of the Emilia Romagna case that recovery governance is indeed a key aspect, and in particular the capacity of the government to rapidly set priorities and favour the cohesion of local communities. For this purpose, we argue that a key level of the recovery governance process is the meso-level of governance, namely the regional one. |
| Date: | 2014–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01166138&r=all |
| By: | Mauricio Oyarzo (Departamento de Economia, Universidad Catolica del Norte); Gianni Romani (Departamento de Administracion, Universidad Catolica del Norte); Miguel Atienza (Departamento de Economia, Universidad Catolica del Norte); Marcelo Lufin (Departamento de Economia, Universidad Catolica del Norte) |
| Abstract: | This work investigates the spatio-temporal persistence of municipal rates of business startups in Chile between 2005 and 2011, using the database of the Internal Revenue Service (SII). The analysis was made with descriptive statistical, non-parametric tests and econometric models. The results show persistent spatio-temporal clusters, representing favorable and unfavorable environments for entrepreneurship, as well as a high probability of any municipality remaining in the same cluster. The factors that explain persistence reveal distinct effects on start-up creation for each level of municipal entrepreneurship, which suggests the need for policies that take into account the spatial differences in entrepreneurial dynamism. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, regional development, spatio-temporal persistence, spatial clusters |
| JEL: | M13 R11 R1 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201508&r=all |
| By: | Silvia Cruz (State University of Campinas Campinas); Faïz Gallouj (CLERSE - CLERSE - Centre lillois d'études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques - CNRS - Université Lille 1 - Sciences et technologies); Sônia Paulino (University of Sao Paolo) |
| Abstract: | This paper is devoted to public services innovation in the municipal solid waste sector. It analyses the implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in the Bandeirantes and São João landfills in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. The analysis is based on the concept of Public-Private Innovation Networks in services (ServPPINs). Using the ServPPIN concept it was possible to identify competence gaps affecting the stakeholders involved in these CDM projects. We focus in particular on those organisational and relational competence gaps that are likely to weaken innovation feasibility and reduce the quality of solid waste services supply. In fact, innovation is closely linked to the development of new competences among service providers and users. For the most part, these will arise out of changes in interactions between actors-given that the projects in question include the coordination of various actors (public, private, and citizen). Such innovations will also arise out of changes in the environmental aspect, since in addition to monitoring of the technical parameters required for the general operation of landfills which implement CDM projects, auditing is also carried out by the Designated Operational Entities (DOE), which are responsible for validation of these projects. |
| Date: | 2013–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01133824&r=all |
| By: | Jesus Gonzalez-Feliu (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE]); Josep-Maria Salanova Grau (Hellenic Institute or Transport - Center of Research and Technologie Hellas) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a comparison between genetic and semi-greedy algorithms for a collaborative VRP in city logistics. In order to compare the performance of both algorithms on real-size test cases, we develop a cluster-first route second algorithm. The clustering phase is made by a seep algorithm, which defines the number of used vehicles and assigns a set of customers to it. Then, for each vehicle, we build a min-cost route by two methods. The first is a semi-greedy algorithm. The second is a genetic algorithm. We test both approaches on real-size instances Computational results are presented and discussed. |
| Abstract: | Cet article propose une comparaison entre algorithmes génétiques et semi-greedy pour un problème de tournées de véhicules collaboratif en logistique urbaine. Pour comparer les deux algorithmes, nous proposons des algorithmes séquentiels basés sur la même phase initiale, puis les tournées sont construites par des procédures différentes. La première est de type sem-greedy ; la deuxième un algorithme génétique. Des résultats sont presents et discutés. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00986648&r=all |
| By: | Chetty, Raj; Friedman, John; Rockoff, Jonah |
| Abstract: | Using data from North Carolina, Jesse Rothstein (2014) presents a comprehensive replication of Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff's [CFR] (2014a,b) results on teachers' impacts. In addition, Rothstein presents new evidence that he argues raises concerns about three aspects of CFR's methods and identification assumptions: their treatment of missing data, the validity of their quasi-experimental design, and their method of controlling for observables when estimating teachers' long-term effects. In this paper, we show that Rothstein's methodological critiques are not valid by replicating his new empirical findings using simulated data in which none of CFR's identification assumptions are violated. We also present supplementary empirical evidence from our data supporting the assumptions required for CFR's original analyses. Together, these results show that: (1) Rothstein's technique for imputing teacher VA for teachers with missing data generates bias, while subsamples with no missing data yield estimates of forecast bias similar to CFR's baseline results; (2) his proposed prior score \placebo test" rejects valid quasiexperimental research designs, and the correlation between changes in prior test scores and current teacher value-added he documents is an artifact of estimating teacher value-added using prior test score data; and (3) his method of controlling for covariates yields inconsistent estimates of teachers' long-term effects, while quasi-experimental designs that do not rely on controls for observables yield estimates of teachers' long-term impacts similar to CFR's baseline results. We conclude that Rothstein's important replication study is entirely consistent with – and in fact reinforces – CFR's methods and results. Our conclusions match those of Bacher-Hicks, Kane, and Staiger (2014), who replicate both CFR's results and Rothstein's findings using data from Los Angeles and also conclude that Rothstein's results raise no concerns about CFR's analysis. |
| Keywords: | education policy; teacher effects; value-added models |
| JEL: | H52 I28 J01 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10768&r=all |
| By: | Anger, Silke; Schnitzlein, Daniel D. |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive and non-cognitive skills to evaluate the importance of family background for skill formation. Based on a large representative German dataset including IQ test scores and measures of non-cognitive skills, a restricted maximum likelihood model indicates substantial influences of family background on skill formation. Sibling correlations in non-cognitive skills range from 0.223 to 0.464; therefore, at least one-fifth of the variance in these skills results from sibling-related factors. Sibling correlations in cognitive skills are higher than 0.50; therefore, more than half of the inequality in cognition can be explained by family background. Comparing these findings with those in the intergenerational skill transmission literature suggests that intergenerational correlations capture only part of the influence of family on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills, as confirmed by decomposition analyses and in line with previous findings on educational and income mobility. |
| Keywords: | Sibling correlations, family background, non-cognitive skills, cognitive skills, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-561&r=all |
| By: | Hartley, Peter (Rice University) |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:14-027&r=all |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang (National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan); Michael McAleer (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan; Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain); Yu-Chieh Wu (National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan) |
| Abstract: | Taiwan has been hailed as a world leader in the development of global innovation and industrial clusters for the past decade. This paper investigates the effects of industrial agglomeration on the use of the internet and internet intensity for Taiwan manufacturing firms, and analyses whether the relationships between industrial agglomeration and total expenditure on internet usage for industries are substitutes or complements. The sample observations are based on 153,081 manufacturing plants, and covers 26 2-digit industry categories and 358 geographical townships in Taiwan. The Heckman selection model is used to adjust for sample selectivity for unobservable data for firms that use the internet. The empirical results from two-stage estimation show that: (1) for the industry overall, a higher degree of industrial agglomeration will not affect the probability that firms will use the internet, but will affect the total expenditure on internet usage; and (2) for 2-digit industries, industrial agglomeration generally decreases the total expenditure on internet usage, which suggests that industrial agglomeration and total expenditure on internet usage are substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Industrial agglomeration and clusters; Global innovation; Internet penetration; Manufacturing firms; Sample selection; Incidental truncation |
| JEL: | D22 L60 |
| Date: | 2015–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20150098&r=all |
| By: | Mason, Joseph R. (LA State University); Imerman, Michael B. (Lehigh University); Lee, Hong (LA State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper is designed to illustrate the limitations and potential bias in using loan-level data on securitized residential mortgage for studying the risk of RMBS during and around the time of the financial crisis. Using trustee data on mortgage characteristics provided by BlackBox Logic (BBx), we examine the extent to which undisclosed mortgage characteristics distort the available data and impact risk analysis of RMBS collateral pools. Our findings illustrate that substantial amounts of loan characteristic data in crucial fields like Occupancy, Property Type, Loan Purpose, and FICO are missing from the trustee data. The frequency of missing values is staggering, ranging from just under 9% for Property Type to 29% for FICO, up to almost 85% for Originator Name, all variables used in recent studies. The omissions are correlated to some degree with the securitization sponsor and even more dramatically with the identity of the deal trustee. There are profound implications for both empirical research as well as policy decisions in the post-crisis era. First, any analysis of RMBS collateral should be built not upon the entirety of mortgage databases, but on stratified samples and should otherwise control for important sponsor and trustee fixed effects. Furthermore, the revisions for Regulation AB which require loan-level disclosure should be adopted in order to standardize mortgage disclosure. |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:upafin:14-11&r=all |
| By: | Angelucci, Manuela (University of Michigan); Prina, Silvia (Case Western Reserve University); Royer, Heather (University of California, Santa Barbara); Samek, Anya (University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | How do peers influence the impact of incentives? Despite much work on incentives, little is known about the spillover effects of incentives. We investigate two mechanisms by which these effects can occur: through peers' actions and peers' incentives. In a field experiment on snack choice (grapes versus cookies), we randomize who receives incentives, the fraction of peers incentivized, and whether or not it can be observed that peers' choices are incentivized among over 1,500 children in the school lunchroom. Incentives increase the likelihood of initially choosing grapes. However, peer spillover effects can be large enough to undo these positive effects. |
| Keywords: | food choice, incentives, spillovers, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 I1 J13 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9288&r=all |
| By: | James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University); David L. Sjoquist (Department of Economics, Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | The "Great Recession" lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, and it wreaked havoc on the revenues of state (and local) governments. While the U.S. economy has improved since the end of the Great Recession, state government revenues have in most cases still not completely recovered. We use various indicators to measure how different states have -- or have not -- recovered in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and we also attempt to explain why these different patterns of recovery have emerged. Overall, we find that some, but far from all, state governments have recovered the revenue they lost during the Great Recession. We also find that there is no single causal explanation for recovery that applies to all state governments. |
| Keywords: | recession, state government finance, local government finance |
| JEL: | H12 H20 H71 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1408&r=all |
| By: | Jeremiah Dittmar |
| Abstract: | This research studies how variations in competition and in media content characterized the use and impact of Gutenberg's printing press technology during the European Renaissance. The research constructs annual firm-level panel data on the publications produced by 7,000+ printing firms operating in over 300 European cities 1454-1600. Evidence on the timing of the premature deaths of firm owner-managers is used to isolate shocks to competition. Firms where owner-managers died experienced large negative shocks to output. However, at the city-level deaths of incumbent managers were associated with significant increases in entrance and with a positive and persistent impact on competition and city output. Variations in city supply induced by heterogeneous manager deaths are used to study the relationship between the diffusion of ideas in print and city growth. A uniquely strong relationship is observed between the new business education literature and local growth. This is consistent with historical research on the transformative impact business education ideas had on commercial practices and European capitalism. |
| Keywords: | Information technology, IO, media, growth, history, business education |
| JEL: | L1 N13 N33 N93 O11 O18 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1365&r=all |
| By: | Bel, François; Lacroix, Anne; Lyser, Sandrine; Rambonilaza, Tina; Turpin, Nadine |
| Abstract: | Tourism has the potential to make a major contribution to the development of rural areas. However, empirical evidence suggests that its economic impact is limited, because rural visitors are thought to engage in few recreational activities and are seen as low spenders. This study gives new insights into the domestic demand in areas of France described as “rural”, with data extracted from the national database provided by the French “tourism demand survey”. The results of the “activity-based segmentation” of visitors' stays in three rural regions show that during the summer season, visits to friends or relatives, which involve little expenditure and no specific activities, continue to take place. However, more expensive stays are the most common. They involve activities aimed at experiencing the outdoors or enjoying local sights, based on natural and cultural amenities that are mainly located in regional natural parks. The main forms of accommodation are campsites and rural cottages. Gastronomic tourism has also emerged as an activity that attracts higher spending visitors. These findings are discussed in relation to the results of segmentation studies in other European countries. Their academic and management implications also are presented. |
| Keywords: | domestic tourism; France; rural destinations; activity-based segmentation; amenities |
| JEL: | L83 Q26 R12 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66255&r=all |
| By: | Chernenko, Sergey (OH State University); Hanson, Samuel Gregory (Harvard University); Sunderam, Adi (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and private-label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) backed by nonprime loans played a central role in the recent financial crisis. Little is known, however, about the underlying forces that drove investor demand for these securitizations. Using micro-data on insurers' and mutual funds' bond holdings, we find considerable heterogeneity in investor demand for securitizations in the pre-crisis period. We argue that both investor beliefs and incentives help to explain this variation in demand. By contrast, our data paints a more uniform picture of investor behavior in the crisis. Consistent with theories of optimal liquidation, investors largely traded in more liquid securities such as government-guaranteed MBS to meet their liquidity needs during the crisis. |
| JEL: | G01 G22 G23 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2014-16&r=all |
| By: | Alexander Eickelpasch; Georg Hirte; Andreas Stephan |
| Abstract: | Our study provides evidence for firms' evaluation of location quality. We use a 2004 survey of 6,000 East German firms that contained questions on the importance and assessment of 15 different location factors ranging from closeness to customers and suppliers, transport infrastructure, and proximity to research institutions and universities, as well as questions about the local financial institutions and region's “image”. The results show (1) a great deal of heterogeneity in terms of which firm- or regional-level characteristics are important in the evaluation of a specific location factor, (2) that the model's explanatory power is, overall, low and thus neither location characteristics nor internal factors are fully reflected in the perceptions, (3) that a firm's business situation and whether a location factor is considered important have explanatory power for perception. One policy-relevant conclusion that we derive from these findings is that location policy should consider firms' perception of a specific location in addition to improving the actual attributes of that location. |
| Keywords: | Location Factors, Multi-Equation System, Perception Bias, Survey Data |
| JEL: | R3 R12 L2 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1497&r=all |
| By: | Mairead de Roiste |
| Abstract: | Mairéad de Róiste proposes new ways of assessing the usability of local government websites. |
| Date: | 2014–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwcrt:380206&r=all |