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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Steven C. Bourassa (Florida Atlantic University); Donald R. Haurin (Ohio State University (OSU)); Patric H. Hendershott (University of Aberdeen); Martin Hoesli (University of Geneva, University of Aberdeen, and Swiss Finance Institute) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to review the international evidence on the impacts of mortgage interest deductions on homeownership rates. The probability of becoming a homeowner is a function of the relative cost of owning and renting, borrowing constraints, permanent household income, and a set of taste variables. The relative cost of owning and renting is in part a function of house prices and the annual user cost of owner-occupied housing. Tax policies affect the user cost of owner-occupied housing and, in turn, the probability of becoming a homeowner. They also affect the price of housing due to capitalization effects. We draw on a number of empirical studies that have been conducted for several countries in North America, Europe, Australasia, and Asia. The empirical evidence suggests that, contrary to popular wisdom, the MID generally does not increase the ownership rate. This result is likely due to the fact that the MID is capitalized into house prices, especially where housing supply is inelastic. |
| Keywords: | homeownership, tax policy, house prices |
| JEL: | R21 R31 G21 H2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1206&r=ure |
| By: | Bremus, Franziska; Krause, Thomas; Noth, Felix |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between mortgage supply shocks at the banklevel and regional house price growth in the U.S. using micro-level data on mortgage markets from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act for the 1990-2014 period. Our results suggest that bank-specific mortgage supply shocks indeed affect house price growth at the regional level. The larger the idiosyncratic shocks to newly issued mortgages, the stronger is house price growth. We show that the positive link between idiosyncratic mortgage shocks and regional house price growth is very robust and economically meaningful, however not very persistent since it fades out after two years. |
| Keywords: | house prices,idiosyncratic shocks,granularity,credit supply |
| JEL: | E44 G21 R20 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:32017&r=ure |
| By: | Davis, Morris A. (Rutgers University); Gregory, Jess (University of Wisconsin - Madison); Hartley, Daniel (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago); Tan, Kegon T. K. (University of Wisconsin - Madison) |
| Abstract: | We study how households choose neighborhoods, how neighborhoods affect child ability, and how housing vouchers influence neighborhood choices and child outcomes. We use two new panel data sets with tract-level detail for Los Angeles county to estimate a dynamic model of optimal tract-level location choice for renting households and, separately, the impact of living in a given tract on child test scores (which we call “child ability" throughout). We simulate optimal location choices and changes in child ability of the poorest households in our sample under various housing-voucher policies. We demonstrate that a Moving-to-Opportunity type voucher, in which people residing in high poverty tracts are given a voucher to move to low-poverty tracts, does not affect child ability as households use the voucher to move to relatively inexpensive, low-impact neighborhoods. When vouchers are restricted such that they can only be applied in tracts with large effects on children, we demonstrate the total benefits of any voucher less than $700 per month exceed the costs and the voucher that maximizes total social surplus is $300 per month. |
| Keywords: | Demographics; Neighborhood Choice; Neighborhood Effects; Moving to Opportunity; Poverty; Vouchers |
| JEL: | I31 I38 J13 R23 R38 |
| Date: | 2017–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2017-02&r=ure |
| By: | Nakakeeto, Gertrude; Pope, Jaren; Shaikh, Rahman; Asare, Eric |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical studies have investigated the impact of noise barriers on housing prices of adjacent homes. Their results have conflicting evidence. One important observation is that the existing literature examines the impact of berm barriers. Missing in this literature is the impact of barriers made out of other materials. This paper investigates the impact of Noise Barrier Walls (made out of other materials) on the market value of adjacent residential homes. We use a data set containing 141 noise barriers built in 12 counties of Washington State, U.S.A. The data on the location of noise barrier walls is obtained from Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), Environmental Service Office (ESO) -Environmental Information Program. Two models are employed, the hedonic price model and a mofied hedonic model in a quasi-random experiment. The modified Hedonic price method results are very impressive: On average, Noise Barrier walls increase prices of residential homes within 300m by 15.24% . This impact decreases as the distance from the noise barriers increases. We estimate an increase in housing prices of 6.96 % more for houses between 300m and 600m away from the noise barrier. |
| Keywords: | Highway traffic noise, noise barriers, hedonic pricing method, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252857&r=ure |
| By: | Clement Bellet |
| Abstract: | Despite a major upscaling of suburban houses over the last decades, house satisfaction has remained steady in the United States. I show that upward comparison in size can explain this paradox, as top housing size mirrored the U-shaped pattern of top income inequality. Combining data from the American Housing Survey from 1984 to 2009 with an original dataset of three millions suburban houses built between 1920 and 2009, I find that suburban owners who experienced a relative downscaling of their home due to the building of bigger units in their suburb record lower satisfaction and house values. These homeowners are more likely to upscale and subscribe to new loans. Results are robust to household fixed effects and concentrated in counties with lower segregation, suggesting a causal link between inequality and mortgage debt. In the absence of keeping up with the Joneses, I estimate the mortgage debt to income ratio would have been 25 percentage points lower at the eve of the 2008 financial crisis. |
| Keywords: | inequality; social preferences; subjective well-being; housing; household debt |
| JEL: | D01 I30 R20 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69044&r=ure |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia (CEMFI and Barcelona GSE); Antonio Miralles (UAB and Barcelona GSE) |
| Abstract: | We compare popular school choice mechanisms in terms of children’s access to better schools (ABS) than their catchment area school, in districts with school stratification and where priority is given for residence in the catchment area of the school. In a large market model with two good schools and one bad school, we find that both the Boston Mechanism and Deferred Acceptance, the most popular assignment mechanisms, convey a non-negligible risk that catchment area priority fully determines the final assignment regardless parents’ preferences. Top-Trading Cycles is an alternative that provides more access to better schools than DA. |
| Keywords: | Priorities, bad school, school choice. |
| JEL: | D78 C40 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2016_1612&r=ure |
| By: | Haisken-DeNew, John; Hasan, Syed; Jha, Nikhil; Sinning, Mathias |
| Abstract: | The Australian Government launched the My School website in 2010 to provide standardised information about the quality of schools to the Australian public. This paper combines data from this website with home sales data for the state of Victoria to estimate the effect of the publication of school quality information on property prices. We use a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the causal effect of the release of information about high-quality and low-quality schools relative to mediumquality schools in the neighborhood and find that the release of information about high-quality schools increases property prices by 3.6 percent, whereas the release of information about low-quality schools has no significant effect. The findings indicate that many buyers are unaware of the relevance of school quality information and that real estate agents pursue a strategy of disclosing information about high-quality schools to increase the sales price. Results from a survey of Victorian real estate agents provide evidence in favor of this strategy. |
| Keywords: | school quality,housing markets,information asymmetry,public policy evaluation,difference-in-difference estimation |
| JEL: | D82 D84 I24 R31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:667&r=ure |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia (CEMFI and Barcelona GSE); Annalisa Loviglio (UAB and Barcelona GSE) |
| Abstract: | Student access to education levels, tracks or majors is usually determined by their previous performance, measured either by internal exams, designed and graded by teachers in school, or external exams, designed and graded by central authorities. We say teachers grade on a curve whenever having better peers harms the evaluation obtained by a given student. We use rich administrative records from public schools in Catalonia to provide evidence that teachers indeed grade on a curve, leading to negative peer effects. We find suggestive evidence that school choice is impacted only the year when internal grades matter for future prospects. |
| Keywords: | Grading on a curve, negative peer effects, school choice. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2017_1704&r=ure |
| By: | Ahmed Ahmed (ETH Zurich); Diego Ardila (ETH Zurich); Dorsa Sanadgol (ETH Zurich); Didier Sornette (Swiss Finance Institute and ETH Zürich) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between ask and transaction prices in the Swiss residential real estate market over the 2005-2015 period. First, we present strong evidence that ask and transaction prices are co-integrated across different market segments, but they do not Granger-cause one another. Second, we analyze the cross-sectional distributions of ask and transaction prices / per living space and conclude that they do not follow the same distribution, with the distribution of transaction prices close to a log normal distribution and the distribution of ask prices exhibiting slightly fatter tails. Finally, we show significant evidence that transaction prices tend to exceed ask prices during protracted booms and bubble regimes. We discuss these empirical patterns in light of theoretical housing search models, and provide support for the hypothesis that the 2005- 2015 Swiss market has been dominated by an auction-like dynamics. Hence, although ask prices constitute a suitable proxy to follow the development of the Switzerland's real estate market, especially given the sparsity of available transaction data, they might be prone to underestimate the extent of price increases when the market is booming, and the magnitude of the correction when the market enters the bust phase of the housing cycle. |
| Keywords: | Ask prices, Transaction prices, Log normal distribution, Co-integration, Granger causality, Bubbles, LPPLS, Search models |
| JEL: | C58 G01 R31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1680&r=ure |
| By: | Lévêque, Christophe; Saleh, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of state industrialization on residential segregation between Muslims and non-Muslims in nineteenth-century Cairo using individual-level census samples from 1848 and1868. We measure local segregation by a simple inter-group isolation index, where Muslims' (non-Muslims') isolation is measured by the share of Muslim (non-Muslim) households in the local environment of each location. We find that relative to locations that did not witness changes in industrialization, the opening of Cairo railway station in 1856 differentially increased Muslims' isolation from non-Muslims (conversely, decreased non-Muslims' isolation) in its proximity and that the closures of textiles firms in 1848-1868 differentially decreased it. The results are arguably driven by a labor market mechanism, whereby state rms crowded in unskilled jobs that attracted greater net inows of rural immigrants and unskilled workers who were predominantly Muslims. |
| Keywords: | local segregation; industrialization; Middle East; railways; slums |
| JEL: | N35 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:31423&r=ure |
| By: | Jorge De la Roca (University of Southern California); Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano (LSE and University of Bologna); Diego Puga (CEMFI) |
| Abstract: | Higher ability workers benefit more from bigger cities while housing costs there are higher for everyone. However, there is little sorting on ability. We show this is partly because young individuals have an imperfect assessment of their ability, and, when they learn about it, early decisions have had a lasting impact and reduce their incentives to move. We formalize this idea through an overlapping generations model of urban sorting by workers with heterogeneous ability and self-confidence. Using data from the NLSY79, we find that the citysize choices of individuals vary with ability and self-confidence in line with our theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | Cities, sorting, agglomeration, self-confidence, ability, learning. |
| JEL: | R10 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2016_1609&r=ure |
| By: | Meng, Xin (Australian National University); Xue, Sen (Jinan University) |
| Abstract: | Over the past two decades, more than 160 million rural residents have migrated to cities in China. They are usually separated from their rural families and work in an unfamiliar, and sometimes hostile, city environment. This paper investigates to what extent city social networks alleviate mental health problems among these migrants. Using the longitudinal migrant survey from the Rural-to-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project, we find that larger social networks are significantly correlated with fewer mental health problems in both OLS and fixed effect estimates. To mitigate the endogeneity issue, we use past rainfall in the home county and the distance between home village and the closest transportation centre as the instrument variables for city social networks. The instrument variable estimates and fixed effect instrumental variable estimates suggest that an additional person in the city social networks of migrants reduces GHQ 12 by 0.12 to 0.16 Likert points. The results are robust for migrants who are less educated, who work long hours and who do not have access to social insurances in the city. |
| Keywords: | mental health, social networks, migration, China |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10481&r=ure |
| By: | Michela Tincani (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Using a theoretical model where students care about achievement rank, I study effort choices in the classroom and show that rank concerns generate peer effects. The model’s key empirical prediction is that the effect on own achievement of increasing the dispersion in peer cost of effort is heterogeneous, depending on a student’s own cost of effort. To test this, I construct a longitudinal multi-cohort dataset of students, with data on the geographic propagation of building damages from the Chilean 2010 earthquake. I find that higher dispersion in home damages among one’s classmates led, on average, to lower own Mathematics and Spanish test scores. To be able to test the theory, I develop a novel nonlinear difference-in-differences model that estimates effect heterogeneity and that relates observed damages to unobserved cost of effort. I find that some students at the tails of the predicted cost of effort distribution benefit from higher dispersion in peer cost of effort, as predicted by the theoretical model. This finding suggests that observed peer effects on test scores are, at least partly, governed by rank concerns. |
| Keywords: | ability peer effects, rank preferences, semiparametric model, structural model |
| JEL: | I20 C14 C50 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-006&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew Eyles; Stephen Machin; Sandra McNally |
| Abstract: | The change of government in 2010 provoked a large structural change in the English education landscape. Unexpectedly, the new government offered primary schools the chance to have ‘the freedom and the power to take control of their own destiny’, with better performing schools given a green light to convert to become an academy school on a fast track. In England, schools that become academies have more freedom over many ways in which they operate, including the curriculum, staff pay, the length of the school day and the shape of the academic year. However, the change to allow primary school academisation has been controversial. In this paper, we study the effect for the first primary schools that became academies. While the international literature provides growing evidence on the effects of school autonomy in a variety of contexts, little is known about the effects of autonomy on primary schools (which are typically much smaller than secondary schools) and in contexts where the school is not deemed to be failing or disadvantaged. The key finding is that schools did change their modes of operation after the exogenous policy change, but at the primary phase of schooling, academisation did not lead to improved pupil performance. |
| Keywords: | academies; pupil performance |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69027&r=ure |
| By: | OSHIRO Jun; SATO Yasuhiro |
| Abstract: | We develop a multisector general equilibrium model of a system of cities to study the quantitative significance of industrial structure in determining spatial structure. We first identify three types of wedges that capture the extent to which the standard urban economic model fails to explain empirically: efficiency and labor wedges, and amenity. We then calibrate the model to Japanese regional data and run counterfactual exercises to identify the significance of each wedge in each sector. Our analysis shows that (i) the labor wedge plays the primary role in determining the spatial structure, and (ii) the secondary sector is the most influential. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:16105&r=ure |
| By: | Avitabile, Ciro (University of Surrey); Bobba, Matteo (Toulouse School of Economics); Pariguana, Marco (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | We study how a large household windfall affects sorting of relatively disadvantaged youth over high school tracks by exploiting the discontinuity in the assignment of a welfare program in Mexico. The in-cash transfer is found to significantly increase the probability of selecting vocational schools as the most preferred options vis-a-vis other more academically oriented education modalities. We find support for the hypothesis that the transfer relaxes the liquidity constraints preventing relatively poor students from choosing a schooling career with higher out-of-pocket expenditures and higher expected returns. The observed change in stated preferences across tracks effectively alters school placement, and bears a positive effect on on-time graduation. |
| Keywords: | school choice, tracking, financial constraints, vocational education, returns to education, regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10506&r=ure |
| By: | Stephan Kampelmann; Adrian Vickery Hill |
| Abstract: | What does it mean for an urban economy to be “green”?And what is the role of public authorities in “greening” theireconomies? This report takes a new look at these questionsby exploring how local economies would look like if they werebuilt around specific places and their communities.The material in this report draws on extensive research thatbrought together scholars from different academic disciplinesand territorial authorities from Rome, Brussels and Londonaround innovative projects aiming at local economictransitions. The work was part of the TURAS programme, aresearch consortium exploring the transition towards urbanresilience and sustainability through action research in 12cities and regions across Europe. This report is based on theTURAS work package on governance and economic resilience.Observing local initiatives in practice helped us to define thecontours of a place- and community-based economy. It is anarea of activity that builds on existing natural and humanmadeassets in order to deliver value to local communities.It is also a policy field that requires the active involvement oflocal and regional authorities as “bridging actors”. Indeed,the focus of this report is about the transition process towardsa more sustainable economy and the role that territorialauthorities can play to bridge the gaps between varioustypes of stakeholders, different geographical scales as well asmultiple types of knowledge. We provide specific governancetools in form of “bridging strategies” and insights about howthese strategies can be implemented in practice. |
| Date: | 2016–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/245482&r=ure |
| By: | Neil Lee; Paul Sissons; Katy Jones |
| Abstract: | There is widespread concern about the scale and implications of urban inequality in Great Britain, but little evidence on which cities are the most unequal and why. This paper investigates patterns of wage inequality in 60 British cities. It has two principal goals: (1) to describe which cities are most unequal and (2) to assess the important determinants of inequality. The results show a distinct geography of wage inequality, the most unequal cities tend to be affluent and located in parts of the Greater South East of England. A central determinant of these patterns is the geography of highly skilled workers. Because of this, the geography of urban wage inequality reflects the geography of affluence more generally. |
| Keywords: | inequality; wages; Great Britain; cities; travel-to-Work-Areas |
| JEL: | J3 R10 R13 R23 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:62134&r=ure |
| By: | Dana Rotz; Brian Goesling; Molly Crofton; Jennifer Manlove; Kate Welti |
| Abstract: | This report presents final impact findings from a large-scale demonstration project and evaluation of the Teen Prevention Education Program (Teen PEP), an in-school, peer-to-peer sexual health promotion program that aims to reduce sexual risk behaviors and associated outcomes among high school students. |
| Keywords: | Sex education, adolescent health, peer-led, school-wide, teen pregnancy, unprotected sex, HIV, STIs, teens, contraceptives, abstinence |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:40fc2bb74d874e59a8e42463814a781e&r=ure |
| By: | Nicolas Grau; Daniel Hojman; Alejandra Mizala |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of school closure in the Chilean market-oriented educational system. Between 2000 and 2012 the system exhibited a large turnover: 1,651 schools closed -roughly one-sixth of the current stock- and 3,029 new schools entered, mostly private-voucher schools. We use a large panel of administrative data, which con- tains individual students’ academic achievement and socio-demographic characteristics, to estimate some of the potential educational costs of this dynamics. We identify a causal effect of school closures on school dropouts and grade retention. School closure increases the probability of high-school dropout between 46 and 62 percent (1.7 and 2.3 percentage points). Also, school exit implies a 78 percent increase in the probability of grade reten- tion in fifth grade. If we only consider those students that switch school at the end of the 4th grade we find an increase between 4.8 and 4.9 percentage points in grade retention. |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp439&r=ure |
| By: | Tony Beatton; Michael P. Kidd; Stephen Machin; Dipa Sarkar |
| Abstract: | This paper reports new evidence on the causal link between education and male youth crime using individual level state-wide administrative data for Queensland, Australia. Enactment of the Earning or Learning education reform of 2006, with a mandatory increase in minimum school leaving age, is used to identify a causal impact of schooling on male youth crime. The richness of the matched (across agency) individual level panel data enables the analysis to shed significant light on the extent to which the causal impact reflects incapacitation, or whether more schooling acts to reduce crime after youths have left compulsory schooling. The empirical analysis uncovers a significant incapacitation effect, as remaining in school for longer reduces crime whilst in school, but also a sizeable crime reducing impact of education for young men in their late teens and early twenties. We also carry out analysis by major crime type and differentiate between single and multiple offending behaviour. Crime reduction effects are concentrated in property crime and single crime incidence, rather than altering the behaviour of the recalcitrant persistent offender |
| Keywords: | youth crime; schooling |
| JEL: | I2 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69033&r=ure |
| By: | Gallier, Carlo; Goeschl, Timo; Kesternich, Martin; Lohse, Johannes; Reif, Christiane; Römer, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Many public goods can be provided at different spatial levels. Evidence from social identity theory and in-group favoritism raises the possibility that where higher-level provision is more efficient, subjects’ narrow concern for local outcomes (parochialism) could harm efficiency. Building on the experimental paradigm of multi-level public good games and the ‘neighborhood attachment’ concept, we conduct an artefactual field experiment with 600 participants in a setting conducive to parochial behavior. In an inter-neighborhood intra-region design, subjects allocate an endowment between a personal account, a local, and a regional public good account. The between-subjects design varies across two dimensions: One informs subjects that the smaller local group consists of members from their own neighborhood (‘neighbors’). The other varies the relative productivity at the two public goods provision levels. We find evidence for parochialism, but contrary to our hypothesis, parochialism does not interfere with efficiency: The average subject responds to a change in relative productivities at the local and regional level in the same way, whether aware of their neighbors’ presence in the small group or not. The results even hold for subjects with above-median neighborhood attachment and subjects primed on neighborhood attachment. |
| Keywords: | Social identity; parochialism; multi-level public goods; artefactual field experiment. |
| Date: | 2017–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0630&r=ure |
| By: | Lisa Dragoset; Jaime Thomas; Mariesa Herrmann; John Deke; Susanne James-Burdumy; Cheryl Graczewski; Andrea Boyle; Rachel Upton; Courtney Tanenbaum; Jessica Giffin |
| Abstract: | This report summarizes findings from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools used and examines the impact of SIG on student achievement. |
| Keywords: | SIG, School Improvement Grants, education reform, school turnaround, school improvement |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:76bce3f4bb0944f29a481fae0dbc7cdb&r=ure |
| By: | Maciej Lis; Agata Miazga; Katarzyna Salach |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to explain the regional variation of fuel poverty in Poland. The significant spatial variation of fuel poverty stems from differences in the buildings’ characteristics, income and household composition as well as the diverse advancement of urbanisation processes. The variance analysis permit the conclusion that all these factors influence both energy affordability (LIHC) and thermal comfort (subjective) dimension of fuel poverty. Energy affordability depends mainly on household’s income, whereas lack of thermal comfort is mainly due to low energy efficiency of a building. Even after factoring out the influence of these three factors there still remains a significant unexplained regional variation of lack of thermal comfort. We show that this unexplained variation is linked with the regional disparities of prices and outdoor temperatures. |
| Keywords: | fuel poverty, LIHC, thermal comfort, energy affordability, regional variation, degrees of urbanisation |
| JEL: | I32 Q40 R29 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp092016&r=ure |
| By: | Tripathi, Sabyasachi; Kaur, Hardeep |
| Abstract: | The present paper tries to investigate the relevant determinants of rural to urban migration in large agglomerations/cities in India. OLS regression analysis is used in this paper to analyse data pertaining to 51 large cities in India by using data from Census of India and unit level data of National Sample Survey (NSS) on employment and unemployment and consumption expenditure data. The OLS regression results show that city-wise employment and unemployment situation (measured by male self employed, not in labour force male, male casual labourer) have a negative impact on city level rural to urban migration. The level of poverty (measured by poverty head count ratio) and inequality conditions (measured by Gini coefficients) of a city also has a negative impact. However, infrastructure condition (availability of total number of electricity connection) of a city has a positive impact on city-wise rural to urban migration. Economic conditions also matters higher level of rural to urban migration. Finally, it suggests that cities need to equip themselves with better infrastructural facilities along with higher job opportunities to encourage urbanization through rural-urban migration for higher and sustainable economic growth in India. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization, rural to urban migration, urban economic growth, India. |
| JEL: | O10 O15 R12 |
| Date: | 2017–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76484&r=ure |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia (CEMFI and Barcelona GSE); Annalisa Loviglio (UAB and Barcelona GSE) |
| Abstract: | Having a unique cut-off to determine when children can access school induces a large heterogeneity in maturity to coexist in a classroom. We use rich administrative data of the universe of public schools in Catalonia to show that: 1) Relatively younger children do significantly worse both in tests administered at the school level and at the regional level, and they experience greater retention; 2) Younger children in our data exhibit higher dropout rates and chose the academic track in secondary school less often; 3) The effect is homogeneous across SES and significant across the whole ability distribution; 4) Younger children are more frequently diagnosed with learning disabilities. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, educational economics, kindergarten cutoff. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2016_1613&r=ure |
| By: | David, Cuberes; Rafael, González-Val |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of the Spanish Reconquest, a military campaign against the Muslims in the medieval Iberian Peninsula that ended up with the expulsion or extermination of most of the Muslim population from this territory. We use this major historical event to study the persistence of population shocks at the city level. We find that the Reconquest had an average significant negative effect on the relative and log-scale population of the main Iberian cities even after controlling for a large set of country and city-specific geographical and economic indicators, as well as city-specific time trends. Nevertheless, our results show that this negative shock was relatively short-lived, vanishing on average within the first one hundred years after the onset of the Reconquest. These results suggest that the locational fundamentals that determined the size of Iberian cities before the Reconquest were more important determinants of the fate of these cities than the direct negative impact that the Reconquest may have had on their population. Our findings can also be interpreted as weak evidence on the negative effect that war and conflict can have on urban population. |
| Keywords: | locational fundamentals; city growth; lock-in effects; warfare, conflict and cities |
| JEL: | N9 R12 |
| Date: | 2017–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76374&r=ure |
| By: | Gareth A. Jones; Dennis Rodgers |
| Abstract: | It has become increasingly commonplace to note that the past decade has witnessed a proliferation of anthropological studies dealing holistically with the dynamics of cities and city-living, to the extent that the current moment is considered to represent something of an epistemological ‘flourishing’ within anthropology, particularly in relation to the benchmark of the discipline’s historical urban mainstay, the neighbourhood ethnography. Studies explicitly offering a window onto the broader nature of urban contexts are not necessarily new, however, and indeed, were arguably the basis upon which urban anthropology originally emerged as an identifiable sub-discipline before subsequently taking a more particularistic turn. This article offers a re-appraisal of the origins and evolution of holistic urban anthropological approaches, explaining how, why, and in what context these coalesced during the first quarter of the 20th century, as well as offering an explanation for the ensuing rise of more parochial approaches to city life. It does so based on an alternative intellectual history of the famous Chicago School of Sociology (CSS), in particular highlighting the epistemological debt contemporary anthropological studies implicitly owe to the CSS, as well as the enduring lessons that the urban studies it inspired potentially continue to offer for anthropology. |
| JEL: | Q15 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:67929&r=ure |
| By: | Louis-Philippe Beland; Daniel A. Brent |
| Abstract: | We study the link between crime and emotional cues associated with unexpected traffic. Our empirical analysis combines police incident reports with observations of local traffic data in Los Angeles from 2011 to 2015. This rich dataset allows us to link traffic with criminal activity at a fine spatial and temporal dimension. Our identification relies on deviations from normal traffic to isolate the impact of abnormally bad traffic on crime. We find that traffic above the 95th percentile increases the incidence of domestic violence, a crime shown to be affected by emotional cues, but not other crimes. The results represent a lower bound of the psychological costs of traffic; an externality that is not typically quantified in contrast to pollution, health impacts and lost time that have been established in the literature. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2017-02&r=ure |
| By: | Colombelli, Alessandra; D'Ambrosio, Anna; Meliciani, Valentina; Francesco Quatraro, (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the determinants of the sectoral variety of newborn firms in different regional contexts. Based on the knowledge spillovers theory of entrepreneurship, we study the role of different dimension of knowledge variety, i.e. technological diversity and cultural diversity. This latter is measured with respect to the nationality of both foreign residents and foreign entrepreneurs. We use a unique dataset stemming from the combination of different sources of information. The results confirm that all the dimensions of knowledge variety are relevant in shaping the sectoral variety of newborn firms and point to the differential contribution of immigrant entrepreneurs in fostering the sectoral diversification in unrelated activities. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201606&r=ure |
| By: | Emily McDool (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the impact of primary converter academies on pupil progress, using data from the National Pupil Database. Adopting a difference-in-differences methodology, a positive influence of converter academies upon pupil outcomes is identified when comparing individuals exposed to academy conversion with those who complete primary school before conversion. Attending a converter academy increases a pupil’s ranking within their cohort, according to the average point score, by between 1.1 and 2.6 percentile points. Primary converter academies are found to consistently improve pupil outcomes within areas of low deprivation whereas in areas of high deprivation, the identified effect may be much greater but is more variable across years of conversion and cohorts. White pupils and pupils not in receipt of free school meals are also consistently found to benefit from converter academy attendance. |
| Keywords: | Academies, pupil performance, education policy, children |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2016013&r=ure |
| By: | Gehrsitz, Markus (University of Strathclyde); Ungerer, Martin (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | Millions of refugees made their way to Europe between 2014 and 2015, with over one million arriving in Germany alone. Yet, little is known about the impact of this inflow on labor markets, crime, and voting behavior. This article uses administrative data on refugee allocation and provides an evaluation of the short-run consequences of the refugee inflow. Our identification strategy exploits that a scramble for accommodation determined the assignment of refugees to German counties resulting in exogeneous variations in the number of refugees per county within and across states. Our estimates suggest that migrants have not displaced native workers but have themselves struggled to find gainful employment. We find very small increases in crime in particular with respect to drug offenses and fare-dodging. Our analysis further suggests that counties which experience a larger influx see neither more nor less support for the main anti-immigrant party than counties which experience small migrant inflows. |
| Keywords: | immigration, refugees, unemployment, crime, voting |
| JEL: | J6 J15 K4 D72 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10494&r=ure |
| By: | Jo Blanden; Stephen Machin |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the literature on social mobility to investigate intergenerational links in home ownership, an important marker of wealth. Repeated cross sectional data show that home ownership rates have fallen rapidly over time, and in particular amongst younger people in more recent birth cohorts. We then hone in on two British birth cohorts for whom we have information on parental home ownership. Comparing the intergenerational transmission of home ownership for individuals in the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts, we find that home ownership for 42 year olds from the 1970 birth cohorts (in 2012) shrunk disproportionately among those whose parents did not own their own home when they were children. Using housing measures in an intergenerational setting, and bearing in mind that housing is the most important component of wealth for most people, our results reinforce a picture of falling social mobility in Britain. |
| Keywords: | housing, intergenerational mobility, cohorts |
| JEL: | R31 J11 J62 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1466&r=ure |
| By: | Di Gennaro, Daniele; Pellegrini, Guido |
| Abstract: | During the last decades SUTVA has represented the "gold standard" for the identification and evaluation of causal effects. However, the presence of interferences in causal analysis requires a substantial review of the SUTVA hypothesis. This paper proposes a framework for causal inference in presence of spatial interactions within a new spatial hierarchical Difference-in-Differences model (SH-DID). The novel approach decomposes the ATE, allowing the identification of direct (ADTE) and indirect treatment effects. In addition, our approach permits the identification of different indirect causal impact both on treated (AITET) and on controls (AITENT). The performances of the SH-DID are evaluated by a Montecarlo Simulation. The results confirm how omitting the presence of interferences produces biased parameters of direct and indirect effects, even though the estimates of the ATE in the traditional model are correct. Conversely, the SH-DID provides unbiased estimates of both total, direct and indirect effects. On this basis, we provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of public policies in Italy. The estimates show the additionality of the policies on R&D expenditures. Decomposing the ATE, we demonstrate positive and significant direct effects, while the indirect impact is negative and meaningful, even if limited to the treated. |
| Keywords: | policy evaluation; spatial interferences; spillover effects; spatial hierarchical approach |
| JEL: | O38 R12 R15 R38 |
| Date: | 2016–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76467&r=ure |
| By: | Timo Hintsch (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Stefan Irnich (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) |
| Abstract: | The clustered vehicle-routing problem (CluVRP) is a variant of the classical capacitated vehicle-routing problem (CVRP) in which customers are partitioned into clusters, and it is assumed that each cluster must have been served completely before the next cluster is served. This decomposes the problem into three subproblems, i.e., the assignment of clusters to routes, the routing inside each cluster, and the sequencing of the clusters in the routes. The second task requires the solution of several Hamiltonian path problems, one for each possibility to route through the cluster. We pre-compute the Hamiltonian paths for every pair of customers of each cluster. We present a large multiple neighborhood search (LMNS) which makes use of multiple cluster destroy and repair operators and a variable-neighborhood descent (VND) for postoptimization. The VND is based on classical neighborhoods such as relocate, 2-opt, and swap all working on the cluster level and a generalization of the Balas-Simonetti neighborhood modifying simultaneously the intra-cluster routings and the sequence of clusters in a route. Computational results with our new approach compare favorably to existing approaches from the literature. |
| Keywords: | Vehicle Routing, Clustered Vehicle Routing, Large Neighborhood Search |
| Date: | 2017–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1701&r=ure |
| By: | Stephen J. Redding; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | The observed uneven distribution of economic activity across space is influenced by variation in exogenous geographical characteristics and endogenous interactions between agents in goods and factor markets. Until recently, the theoretical literature on economic geography had focused on stylized settings that could not easily be taken to the data. This paper reviews more recent research that has developed quantitative models of economic geography. These models are rich enough to speak to first-order features of the data, such as many heterogenous locations and gravity equation relationships for trade and commuting. Yet at the same time these models are sufficiently tractable to undertake realistic counterfactuals exercises to study the effect of changes in amenities, productivity, and public policy interventions such as transport infrastructure investments. We provide an extensive taxonomy of the different building blocks of these quantitative spatial models and discuss their main properties and quantification. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration; cities; economic geography; quantitative models; spatial economics |
| JEL: | F10 F14 R12 R23 R41 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69020&r=ure |
| By: | Steven C. Bourassa (Florida Atlantic University); Martin Hoesli (University of Geneva, University of Aberdeen and Swiss Finance Institute) |
| Abstract: | We show how a method that has been applied to commercial real estate markets can be used to produce high frequency house price indexes for a city and for submarkets within a city. Our application of this method involves estimating a set of annual robust repeat sales regressions staggered by start date and then undertaking an annual-to-monthly (ATM) transformation with a generalized inverse estimator. Using transactions data for Louisville, Kentucky, we show that the method substantially reduces the volatility of high frequency indexes at the city and submarket levels. We demonstrate that both volatility and the benefits from using the ATM method are related to sample size. |
| Keywords: | House Prices, High-Frequency Price Indexes, Repeat Sales Method, Scarce Data |
| JEL: | R31 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1645&r=ure |
| By: | OGAWA Hikaru; TSUBUKU Masafumi; YAMORI Nobuyoshi |
| Abstract: | We investigated how regional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and regional financial institutions evaluate the economic policies of local governments. As the local governments are expected to play a "leading role" in terms of regional revitalization, we need to analyze how to achieve effective collaboration with private financial institutions, from the point of view of local governments. Both analyses from the regional financial institutions and the regional governments are necessary to capture the overall picture of the regional revitalization policy. Therefore, in February 2016, we conducted a survey on the consciousness of local public officers in charge of industrial and commerce development policy and obtained 500 responses. This paper reports the results of the survey. According to this survey, "Chamber of Commerce and Industry," "Designated Financial Institutions," and "Other Financial Institutions" are ranked as the three most important partners for regional revitalization. It is clear that many regional officers attach importance to regional financial institutions. Moreover, they responded that the most critical barrier to collaboration for financial institutions and local governments is that "knowledge on finance is scarce on the part of local government officials." Therefore, the lack of financial knowledge of local public officers should be addressed. Also, the response rate in smaller municipalities stating that "I have never worked together with financial institutions" shows a remarkably large value compared with larger municipalities. This suggests that the motivation of local revitalization and the awareness of the importance of the collaboration between financial institutions and local governments are different between small and large local governments. In order to realize regional revitalization through collaboration between local governments and financial institutions, it is essential for national and prefectural governments to support local governments accordingly based on their circumstances. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:16064&r=ure |
| By: | Thomas Breda; Alan Manning |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the British Workplace Employee Relations Survey to investigate the impact of gender and ethnic diversity on workers’ level of trust in managers and the extent of identity with the values and objectives of the firm – dimensions of what we might call social capital within the workplace. These are both factors that one might expect to make firms more co-operative and, hence, productive. In contrast to much of the existing literature we pay particular attention to the estimation of causal effects, using an instrumental variable strategy. We find evidence that both women and minorities have higher levels of workplace trust and identity as individuals. But we also find evidence that a higher female share in the plant is associated with higher trust and identity (stronger for trust than identity) and that a higher minority share is associated lower trust and identity (stronger for identity than trust). However, in line with much of the literature, these results are not always significantly different from zero and they are sensitive to specification. |
| Keywords: | trust; identity; diversity; workplace |
| JEL: | M5 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69042&r=ure |
| By: | Alfred Garloff (institute for Employment Research (IAB)); Duncan Roth (institute for Employment Research (IAB)) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect that changes in the size of the youth population have on the wages of young workers. Assuming that differently aged workers are only imperfectly substitutable, economic theory predicts that individuals in larger age groups earn lower wages. We test this hypothesis for a sample of young, male, full-time employees in Western Germany during the period 1999-2010. In contrast to other studies, functional rather than administrative spatial entities are used as they provide a more accurate measure of the youth population in an actual labour market. Based on instrumental variables estimation, we show that an increase in the youth share by one percentage point is predicted to decrease a young worker’s wages by 3%. Our results also suggest that a substantial part of this effect is due to members of larger age groups being more likely to be employed in lower-paying occupations. |
| Keywords: | Population structure, wages, youth share, labour-market regions, instrumental variables, occupational selection |
| JEL: | J21 J31 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201706&r=ure |
| By: | Leung, Charles Ka Yui (City University of Hong Kong); Tse, Chung-Yi (University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | We add arbitraging middlemen -- investors who attempt to profit from buying low and selling high -- to a canonical housing market search model. Flipping tends to take place in sluggish and tight, but not in moderate, markets. There is the possibility of multiple equilibria. In one equilibrium, most, if not all, transactions are intermediated, resulting in rapid turnover, a high vacancy rate, and high housing prices. In another equilibrium, few houses are bought and sold by middlemen. Turnover is slow, few houses are vacant, and prices are moderate. Moreover, flippers can enter and exit en masse in response to the smallest interest rate shock. The housing market can then be intrinsically unstable even when all flippers are akin to the arbitraging middlemen in classical finance theory. In speeding up turnover, the flipping that takes place in a sluggish and illiquid market tends to be socially beneficial. The flipping that takes place in a tight and liquid market can be wasteful as the efficiency gain from any faster turnover is unlikely to be large enough to offset the loss from more houses being left vacant in the hands of flippers. Based on our calibrated model, which matches several stylized facts of the U.S. housing market, we show that the housing price response to interest rate change is very non-linear, suggesting cautions to policy attempts to “stabilize” the housing market through monetary policy. |
| Date: | 2017–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddgw:301&r=ure |
| By: | Vincent Geloso; Vadim Kufenko; Klaus Prettner |
| Abstract: | We examine the role of demographic change for regional convergence in living standards in Canada. Due to economies of scale within a family, decreasing household size has an impact on convergence in living standards, while per capita income convergence remains unaffected. We find that, by relying on per capita income, the dispersion of living standards between Canadian regions is overestimated prior to the 1990s and underestimated thereafter. As a consequence, relying on income per capita results in overestimating the speed of convergence in living standards. |
| Keywords: | Regional convergence; living standards; demographic change; household size; Canadian Economic History |
| JEL: | J1 O4 |
| Date: | 2016–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:68999&r=ure |
| By: | Marco Di Cataldo; AndrŽs Rodr’guez-Pose |
| Abstract: | The European Union promotes development strategies aimed at producing growth with Òa strong emphasis on job creation and poverty reductionÓ. However, whether the economic conditions in place in EU regions are ideal for the generation of high- and low-skilled employment and labour market inclusion is unclear. This paper assesses how the key factors behind EU growth strategies Ð infrastructure, human capital, innovation, quality of government Ð condition employment generation and labour market exclusion in European regions. The findings indicate that the dynamics of employment and social exclusion vary depending on the conditions in place in a region. While higher innovation and education contribute to overall employment generation in some regional contexts, low-skilled employment grows the most in regions with a better quality of government. Regional public institutions, together with the endowment of human capital, emerge as the main factors for the reduction of labour market exclusion Ð particularly in the less developed regions Ð and the promotion of inclusive employment growth across Europe. Length: |
| Keywords: | social exclusion, employment, skills, regions, Europe |
| JEL: | R23 J64 O52 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1704&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre DELFAUD |
| Abstract: | The aim of this exercise is twofold: to give, without further ado, students and representatives of life in the regions some clues in order to understand the birth of nouvelle-Aquitaine; and to leave for future researchers in regional economies an account from one who has observed (and lived through) the establishment of territorial reform 2014-2016. To this end, the first section retraces how we have moved on from more than half a century of stable French regional authorities to a reduction, in less than one year, of their number from 22 to 13. The second section sets out an initial synthetic vision of Nouvelle-Aquitaine emphasising two distinct characteristics: its enormous size and the evident hierarchy of its towns and cities. The third section, written, as it were, on the spot and thus without, perhaps, the required detachment, concerns the analysis of the first year “of transition” and poses questions on the future of this territorial reform. |
| Keywords: | regional reform, regional development, urban framework, Nouvelle-Aquitaine |
| JEL: | N94 R12 R50 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2017-01&r=ure |
| By: | Tomoya Mori (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | Central place analysis is a collection of theoretical and empirical attempts, originated from the Central Place Theory by Christaller (1933) and Lösch (1940), aiming to explain the spatial coordination of the provision of goods and services. The goods and services whose production is subject to scale economies are called central goods, and they are supplied from central places, typically towns and cities. The degree of scale economies associated with each central good determines the hinterland size of each central place. The central places supplying the goods associated with larger scale economies are called higher-order central places. The theory predicts the spatial coordination of central places leading to the hierarchy principle which asserts that each central place supplies all goods provided in lower-order central places, and the spacing-out property that central places of a given order are equally spaced. |
| Keywords: | Central place theory, Cities, Market area, Hierarchy principle, Spacing-out property, Economic geography, Agglomeration, Increasing returns, Transport costs |
| JEL: | R12 R14 R19 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:959&r=ure |
| By: | Emily McDool (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | Evidence of the existence of neighbourhood effects upon educational attainment remains inconclusive, though recently receiving increased attention. This study adds to the existing literature to identify whether neighbourhood deprivation impacts upon the educational outcomes of 16 year olds, adopting Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England (LSYPE) data. Using propensity score matching methods, the main results indicate that individuals living in a deprived neighbourhood are 4 percentage points less likely to obtain the expected age 16 educational outcomes relative to characteristically similar individuals living in non-deprived neighbourhoods. Additionally, significant differential neighbourhood effects are identified for individuals with parents educated to at least post-16 level, relative to individuals with below post-16 level educated parents. Findings suggest that individuals with educated parents are disadvantaged by living in a deprived neighbourhood to a greater extent than individuals with less educated parents. |
| Keywords: | Neighbourhoods, education, deprivation, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | R23 I20 I32 C40 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2017002&r=ure |
| By: | Eliasson, Jonas; Fosgerau, Mogens |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the problem of measuring the welfare benefits of a transport improvement. We formulate and analyze a rich spatial model that allows for spillovers, matching and income tax, in a setting with multiple work and residential locations and very general worker heterogeneity. The conventional consumer surplus captures part of the benefits and is calculated based on predictions of changes in travel demand and transport costs. The issue is to determine which so-called wider impacts to add to this. We find that adding the change in total output as a wider impact leads to double-counting of benefits. The output change due to spillovers should be added, while the output change due to matching is already partly included in the consumer surplus. These results are useful for applied cost-benefit analysis of transport policies. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration; spillovers; matching; cost-benefit analysis; transport policy |
| JEL: | D6 H4 R1 R4 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76526&r=ure |
| By: | Tomoya Mori (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | This article provides a review of selected researches on the mechanism, spatial scale and spatial distribution of economic agglomeration. It starts with a classification of the existing models of agglomeration in terms of the sources of agglomeration force suggested by the Spatial Impossibility Theorem by Starrett (1978). It then discusses the tension between economies and diseconomies of agglomeration. Finally it briefly touches on the measures of agglomeration and dynamic aspect of agglomeration. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration, Economic geography, Impossibility Theorem |
| JEL: | R12 R14 R19 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:960&r=ure |
| By: | Lisa Dragoset; Jaime Thomas; Mariesa Herrmann; John Deke; Susanne James-Burdumy; Cheryl Graczewski; Andrea Boyle; Rachel Upton; Courtney Tanenbaum; Jessica Giffin |
| Abstract: | This executive summary describes key findings from a report from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools used and examines the impact of SIG on student achievement. |
| Keywords: | SIG, School Improvement Grants, education reform, school turnaround, school improvement |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7118ccb332c54f90a45a192bce350828&r=ure |
| By: | Robert E. Martin; R. Carter Hill; Melissa S. Waters |
| Abstract: | We estimate cost models for both public and private research universities and use partial differentials from these models to estimate different cost effects. The results suggest both Baumol’s cost disease and Bowen’s revenue theory drive cost higher and that Bowen effects are larger than Baumol effects. Tight revenue since 2008 reversed some declines in productivity and accelerated the trend in economizing on the use of tenure track faculty. This behavior under loose and tight revenue constraints is consistent with Bowen’s revenue theory. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2017-03&r=ure |
| By: | André de Palma; Carlos Ordás Criado; Laingo M. Randrianarisoa |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes rivalry between transport facilities in a model that includes two sources of horizontal differentiation: geographical space and departure time. We explore how both sources influence facility fees and the price of the service offered by downstream carriers. Travellers’ costs include a fare, a transportation cost to the facility and a schedule delay cost, which captures the monetary cost of departing earlier or later than desired. One carrier operates at each facility and schedules a single departure time. The interactions in the facility-carrier model are represented as a sequential three-stage game in fees, times and fares with simultaneous choices at each stage. We find that duopolistic competition leads to an identical departure time across carriers when their operational cost does not vary with the time of day, but generally leads to distinct service times when this cost is time dependent. When a facility possesses a location advantage, it can set a higher fee and its downstream carrier can charge a higher fare. Departure time differentiation allows the facilities and their carrier to compete along an additional differentiation dimension that can reduce or strengthen the advantage in location. By incorporating the downstream carriers into the analysis, we also find that a higher per passenger commercial revenue at one facility induces a lower fee charged by both facilities to their carrier and a lower fare charged by both carriers at their departure facility, while a lower marginal operational cost for one carrier implies a higher fee at its departure facility, a lower fee at the other facility served by the rival carrier and a lower fare at both facilities. |
| Keywords: | Airline and facility competition, Horizontal differentiation, Location model, Spatial asymmetry, Service timing. |
| JEL: | D43 L13 L22 L93 R4 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:creacr:2017-01&r=ure |
| By: | Börjesson , Maria (KTH); Kristoffersson, Ida (VTI) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of the Swedish congestion charges 10 years on. We find that the price elasticity of the traffic across the cordon was lower when the charging levels were increased than when they were first introduced, in Stockholm and in Gothenburg. The price elasticity was also lower when the Stockholm system was extended to include the Essinge bypass (E4/E20). The implication of these results is that adjustments in charging levels between days and seasons would have a limited effect on traffic volume. Moreover, the elasticity is substantially higher in the off-peak period than in the peak. A third finding is that the long-term elasticity is declining in Gothenburg but increasing in Stockholm. Public support is also declining in Gothenburg but increasing in Stockholm. The operating costs of the systems have declined. |
| Keywords: | Congestion charges; Behavioural adaptation; Time-dependent cordon; Tolling system; Traffic effects; Public support; Transferability; System design |
| JEL: | R41 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2017–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2017_002&r=ure |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia (CEMFI and Barcelona GSE); Chao Fu (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Maia Güell (University of Edinburgh) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of school choices by households under the popular Boston mechanism (BM) and a new method to fully solve household problem that is infeasible to solve via traditional method. We estimate the joint distribution of household preferences and sophistication types using administrative data from Barcelona. Our counterfactual policy analyses show that a change from BM to the student deferred acceptance mechanism would create more losers than winners and decrease the average welfare by 1,020 euros, while a change from BM to the top trading cycles mechanism has the opposite effect and increases the average welfare by 460 euros. |
| Keywords: | School choice, Boston, deferred acceptance and top trading cycles. |
| JEL: | C78 D63 I24 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2016_1611&r=ure |
| By: | Kengo Nutahara |
| Abstract: | Carlstrom and Fuerst (2007) ["Asset Prices, Nominal Rigidities, and Monetary Policy," Review of Economic Dynamics 10, 256-275] find that monetary policy response to share prices is a source of equilibrium indeterminacy in a stickyprice economy. We find that if housing price is a target of a central bank, monetary policy response to asset price is helpful for equilibrium determinacy. |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnn:wpaper:17-001e&r=ure |
| By: | Martin Hoesli (University of Geneva, University of Aberdeen, and Swiss Finance Institute); Elias Oikarinen (University of Turku) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to examine whether securitized real estate returns reflect direct real estate returns or general stock market returns using international data for the U.S., U.K., and Australia. In contrast to previous research, which has generally relied on overall real estate market indices and neglected the potential long-term dynamics, our econometric evaluation is based on sector level data and caters for both the short-term and long-term dynamics of the assets as well as for the lack of leverage in the direct real estate indices. In addition to the real estate and stock market indices, the analysis includes a number of fundamental variables that are expected to influence real estate and stock returns significantly. We estimate vector error-correction models and investigate the forecast error variance decompositions and impulse responses of the assets. Both the variance decompositions and impulse responses suggest that the long-run REIT market performance is much more closely related to the direct real estate market than to the general stock market. Consequently, REITs and direct real estate should be relatively good substitutes in a long-horizon investment portfolio. The results are of relevance regarding the relationship between public and private markets in general, as the ‘duality’ of the real estate markets offers an opportunity to test whether and how closely securitized asset returns reflect the performance of underlying private assets. The study also includes implications concerning the recent financial crisis. |
| Keywords: | Public and Private Real Estate, REITs, Property Type, Dynamics, Leverage, Fundamentals, VECM |
| JEL: | G11 G12 G01 R33 C32 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1215&r=ure |
| By: | Rikard FORSLID; OKUBO Toshihiro |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes different development paths. Developing countries that limit the geographical movement of human capital (and firms) may end up on a different equilibrium path than countries that allow for geographical mobility. At the early stages of development (when transportation costs are high), the model has an equilibrium where low productive firms concentrate in the large market with abundant human capital, whereas the most productive firms agglomerate to the smaller region with a relatively high endowment of labor. We relate this type of equilibrium to countries in an early stage of development, where industrial productivity in periphery or small suburban cities is far higher than in capital mega-cities. As economies develop and transportation costs fall, the model switches to an equilibrium where productive firms concentrate in the larger and human capital-rich region. This corresponds to a modern equilibrium where highly productive firms concentrate in the largest and most human capital-rich regions as often seen in many developed countries. |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:17001&r=ure |
| By: | Butorina, Olga (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Chelyabinsk branch) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates economic growth in Chelyabinsk region using innovation activity as the main criteria. Using the data published by the Federal State Statistics Service of Russian Federation we analyze dynamics of the innovation index and its sub-indices in Chelyabinsk region in the period from 2000 to 2012. We perform comprehensive comparison study of dynamics of innovation activity between Chelyabinsk region and other regions in the Ural Federal District employing variety of indicators and identifying leaders and outsiders. Based on analysis of dynamics of the innovation index, indicators of scientific and technological capacities as well as number of innovative companies and innovative products, we conclude that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive overhaul of innovation policies in Chelyabinsk Region. |
| Keywords: | innovation, innovation activity, index of innovation, statistical analysis, statistical report, regional economics |
| JEL: | O0 R0 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:ppaper:ch1603&r=ure |