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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Gallego, Juan; Montoya, Sergio; Sepúlveda, Carlos |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of urban fiscal policies on housing value. We use a focalization system in Bogotá where certain subsidies and taxes are targeted based on a classification of houses according to external conditions and urban surroundings (socioeconomic stratification). We use a regression discontinuity design, and a rich dataset on cadastre appraisal and housing characteristics, to assess whether a higher tax burden affects the property value. Our results suggest that the usual (negative) capitalization effect is compensated by other channels. We show evidence that as stratum increases, investment on the house maintenance improve. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Economía, Finanzas públicas, Impuestos, Investigación socioeconómica, Políticas públicas, Vivienda, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:994&r=ure |
| By: | García-López, Miguel Ángel; Moreno-Monroy, Ana I. |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of urban spatial structure on income segregation in Brazilian cities between 2000 and 2010. Our results show that, first, local density conditions increase income segregation: the effect is higher in monocentric cities and smaller in polycentric ones. Second, the degree of monocentricity-polycentricity also affects segregation: while a higher concentration of jobs in and around the CBD decreases segregation in monocentric cities, a higher employment concentration in and around subcenters located far from the CBD decreases segregation in polycentric cities. Third, results are heterogeneous according to city size: local density does not increase segregation in small (monocentric) cities, it increases segregation in medium size cities, and it decreases segregation in large (polycentric) cities. Finally, results also differ between income groups: while local density conditions increase the segregation of the poor, a more polycentric configuration reduces the segregation of the rich. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Desarrollo urbano, Investigación socioeconómica, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:957&r=ure |
| By: | Gabriele Galati; Federica Teppa |
| Abstract: | We study the extent to which house price dynamics differ across market segments and possible drivers of this heterogeneity. We construct a data set for individual houses and mortgages, based on a survey of about 500 Dutch households conducted over the period 2003-2016. We estimate a dynamic panel data model of house price dynamics by means of the Arellano-Bond estimator. Three main empirical results emerge. First, we generally find that house price dynamics imply a convergence towards their long-run equilibrium value, as indicated by a low serial correlation coefficient and a positive estimated mean reversion coefficient. Second, there is evidence that the housing market in the Netherlands is inefficient. Third, there is important heterogeneity across different market segments, with some markets being more "cyclical" than others. In particular, the speed of convergence of house price dynamics and the efficiency of housing markets depends on the geographical location, the degree of urbanization, and the type and year of construction of a house. We do not find evidence of significant heterogeneity across different types of mortgage financing and households' income. |
| Keywords: | Housing market dynamics; house prices; heterogeneity; survey data; panel analysis |
| JEL: | D14 G12 R32 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:564&r=ure |
| By: | DiMaggio, Marco (Harvard Business School and NBER); Kermani, Amir (University of California, Berkeley, and NBER); Ramcharan, Rodney (University of Southern California); Yu, Edison (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of uncertainty on consumer credit outcomes. We develop a local measure of economic uncertainty capturing county-level labor market shocks. We then exploit microeconomic data on mortgages and credit-card balances together with the crosssectional variation provided by our uncertainty measure to show strong borrower-specific heterogeneity in response to changes in uncertainty. Among high risk borrowers or areas with more high risk borrowers, increased uncertainty is associated with housing market illiquidity and a reduction in leverage. For low risk borrowers, these effects are absent and the cost of mortgage credit declines, suggesting that lenders reallocate credit towards safer borrowers when uncertainty spikes. A similar pattern is observed in the unsecured credit market. Taken together, local uncertainty might independently affect aggregate economic activity through consumer credit markets and could engender greater inequality in consumption and housing wealth accumulation across households. |
| Keywords: | consumer credit; mortgages; credit cards; lending practices; |
| JEL: | D14 D80 E52 G21 |
| Date: | 2017–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:17-21&r=ure |
| By: | Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo; Duque, Juan Carlos; Urrego, Joaquin A. |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between urban public transportation innovation and crime. In 2004, the city of Medellin in Colombia developed an innovative public transportation system based on cable cars (Metrocable) to reach dense, isolated and dangerous neighborhoods. Using Spatial Difference in Difference approaches and a rich dataset at spatial analytical level, using max-p modeling, we explore the effects of the Metrocable on crime and its mechanisms. We find a significant impact on homicides reduction in the treated neighborhoods, especially in the medium run. Homicides decreased around 41% more than the general crime reduction in the city between 2004 and 2006, and by 49% between 2004 and 2012. We explore two mechanisms through which this intervention may affect the level of criminality, one is reducing the travel costs and improving accessibility to the rest of the city for low-income population (socioeconomic mechanism); the other is the increasing of the probability of apprehension for potential and active o enders (deterrent mechanism). |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Innovación, Investigación socioeconómica, Pobreza, Seguridad ciudadana, Transporte, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:978&r=ure |
| By: | Martins, Luis; Pereira, Manuel C |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a large multi-country database with data from the OECD PISA program to disentangle the effects of birthdate on educational performance. As far as age effects are concerned, we conclude that children are disadvantaged because they are the youngest in class (relative age effect), not because they are young per se. Our findings go against delaying mandatory school entry as a general policy, as there is no gain from a rise in entry age - keeping age differences among students constant - to make up for the shortening of length of schooling. Such an evidence that postponing school entry postpones learning is more marked for children belonging to disadvantaged households. In contrast, the relative age effect does not interact with family background, and remains stable across school entry age cohorts. The size of this effect, measured at the age 15 is not large, but its interaction with early grade retention and tracking may enhance long-term effects. Finally, we do not detect an association between birthdate and achievement originating in unobservable characteristics of students. |
| Keywords: | birthdate and attainment, school entry age |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80607&r=ure |
| By: | Akamatsu, Takashi; Mori, Tomoya; Osawa, Minoru; Takayama, Yuki |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits a wide variety of existing economic geography models in a many-region setup. It investigates the spatial scale of agglomeration and dispersion intrinsic to each model. In our unified analytical framework, these models reduce to two canonical classes: one with a global dispersion force and the other with a local dispersion force. Their formal distinction is that the former is dependent, whereas the latter is independent of the distance structure of the model. These classes exhibit two stark differences. The first difference concerns their response to transport costs: Global and local dispersion forces are triggered by higher and lower transport costs, respectively. Consequently, in a realistic model with both types of dispersion forces, a decrease in transport costs simultaneously causes both agglomeration at the global scale and dispersion at the local scale. The second difference concerns the agglomeration pattern: multiple agglomerations emerge and spread globally over the regions in the former, whereas agglomeration always takes the form of a unimodal regional distribution of mobile agents in the latter. Endogenous agglomeration mechanisms generally do not isolate the locations at which agglomerations grow or decline for a given change in transport costs. However, they offer predictions for the global spatial distribution of agglomerations as well as the local spatial extent of an individual agglomeration. This knowledge provides a consistent explanation for the set of seemingly unrelated empirical results from reduced-form regressions on regional agglomerations (e.g., Baum-Snow, 2007; Baum-Snow, Brandt, Henderson, Turner and Zhang, 2017; Duranton and Turner, 2012; Faber, 2014); it provides a new set of testable hypotheses. Moreover, our analytical framework provides formal predictions of treatment effects in the structural model-based approaches for regional agglomeration. Applications to the most standard formulations (e.g., Allen and Arkolakis, 2014; Redding and Sturm, 2008) are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration, dispersion, spatial scale, multiple equilibria, bifurcation |
| JEL: | C62 F15 F22 R12 R13 |
| Date: | 2017–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80689&r=ure |
| By: | Yang, Guangliang; Li, Lixing; Fu, Shihe |
| Abstract: | We combine the 2005 China Inter-Census Population Survey data and the 2004 China Manufacturing Census to test whether workers, particularly rural migrants, benefit from labor market Marshallian externalities. We find that workers in general, and rural migrants in particular, benefit from labor market pooling effect (measured by total employment in a city-industry cell) and human capital externalities (measured by share of workers with a college degree or above in a city-industry cell). These findings are robust to various sorting bias tests. However, rural migrants benefit much less than do local or urban workers, possibly because rural migrants lack social networks and are discriminated doubly in terms of being both “rural” and “migrants.” Our findings have policy implications on how Chinese cities can become skilled during the rapid urbanization process coupled with global competition. |
| Keywords: | Rural migrants; labor market agglomeration economies; Marshallian externalities; labor market pooling; human capital externalities |
| JEL: | J30 J61 J71 O15 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80713&r=ure |
| By: | Alves, Guillermo |
| Abstract: | I study slum growth in contemporary urbanization processes by estimating a spatial equilibrium model with houses with and without basic water and sanitation services in Brazilian cities between 1991 and 2010. Slum growth results from households moving to cities following higher wages (elasticity of 1.7), this movement impacting cities’ serviced housing rents much more (elasticity of 0.4) than unserviced ones (elasticity of 0.1), and these rent changes impacting households’ location decisions more for serviced (elasticity of -0.5) than for unserviced houses (elasticity of -0.4). I show that the effect of urban economic growth on cities’ slum incidence depends critically on what happens in other cities. When a few cities grow, they experience higher slum incidence because they are the focus for migrants coming from rural areas and less dynamic cities. When all cities grow, slum incidence declines in all cities as a result of two forces. First, each individual city faces less housing demand pressure as migration between cities becomes more balanced and rural migrants flow to all cities. Second, generalized economic growth improves households’ incomes nation-wide, allowing households to switch to higher quality non-slum housing. In terms of common slum policies, I show that the effects of slum repression on any individual city are mild and decrease with the number of other cities repressing slums. If all cities repress slums by making unserviced housing 20% more expensive, this lowers aggregate urbanization by 0.4% and low income households’ welfare by 1.1%. On the other hand, a generalized slum upgrading policy turning 10% of cities’ 1991 unserviced housing stock into serviced housing, increases aggregate urbanization by 1.1%, low income households’ welfare by 4.0%, and high income households’ welfare by 3.6%. |
| Keywords: | Investigación socioeconómica, Pobreza, Vivienda, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:958&r=ure |
| By: | O´Clery, Neave; Lora, Eduardo |
| Abstract: | Cities thrive through the diversity of their occupants because the availability of complementary skills enables firms in the formal sector to grow, delivering increasingly sophisticated products and services. The appearance of new industries is path dependent in that new economic activities build on existing strengths, leading cities to both diversify and specialize in distinct areas. Hence, the location of necessary capabilities, and in particular the distance between firms and people with the skills they need, is key to the success of urban agglomerations. Using data for Colombia, this paper assesses the extent to which cities benefit from skills and capabilities available in their surrounding catchment areas. Without assuming a priori a definition for cities, we sequentially agglomerate the 96 urban municipalities larger than 50,000 people based on commuting time. We show that a level of agglomeration equivalent to between 45 and 75 minutes of commuting time, corresponding to between 62 and 43 cities, maximizes the impact that the availability of skills has on the ability of agglomerations to generate formal employment. Smaller urban municipalities stand to gain more in the process of agglomeration. A range of policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Educación, Investigación socioeconómica, Sector privado, Trabajo y protección social, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:959&r=ure |
| By: | Takashi Akamatsu (Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University); Tomoya Mori (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Minoru Osawa (School of Engineering, Tohoku University); Yuki Takayama (Institute of Science and Engineering, KanazawaUniversity) |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits a wide variety of existing economic geography models in a many-region setup. It investigates the spatial scale of agglomeration and dispersion intrinsic to each model. In our unified analytical framework, these models reduce to two canonical classes: one with a global dispersion force and the other with a local dispersion force. Their formal distinction is that the former is dependent, whereas the latter is independent of the distance structure of the model. These classes exhibit two stark differences. The first difference concerns their response to transport costs: Global and local dispersion forces are triggered by higher and lower transport costs, respectively. Consequently, in a realistic model with both types of dispersion forces, a decrease in transport costs simultaneously causes both agglomeration at the global scale and dispersion at the local scale. The second difference concerns the agglomeration pattern: multiple agglomerations emerge and spread globally over the regions in the former, whereas agglomeration always takes the form of a unimodal regional distribution of mobile agents in the latter. Endogenous agglomeration mechanisms generally do not isolate the locations at which agglomerations grow or decline for a given change in transport costs. However, they offer predictions for the global spatial distribution of agglomerations as well as the local spatial extent of an individual agglomeration. This knowledge provides a consistent explanation for the set of seemingly unrelated empirical results from reduced-form regressions on regional agglomerations (e.g., Baum-Snow, 2007; Baum-Snow, Brandt, Henderson, Turner and Zhang, 2017; Duranton and Turner, 2012; Faber, 2014); it provides a new set of testable hypotheses. Moreover, our analytical framework provides formal predictions of treatment effects in the structural model-based approaches for regional agglomeration. Applications to the most standard formulations (e.g., Allen and Arkolakis, 2014; Redding and Sturm, 2008) are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration, Dispersion, Spatial scale, Multiple equilibria, Bifurcation |
| JEL: | R12 R13 F15 F22 C62 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:974&r=ure |
| By: | Gete, Pedro; Zecchetto, Franco |
| Abstract: | We analyze the removal of the credit-risk guarantees provided by the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) in a model with agents heterogeneous in income and house price risk. We find that wealth inequality increases, driven by higher mortgage spreads and housing rents. Housing holdings become more concentrated. Foreclosures fall. The removal benefits high-income households, while hurting low- and mid-income households (renters and highly leveraged mortgagors with conforming loans). GSE reform requires compensating transfers, sufficiently high elasticity of rental supply, or linking GSE reform with the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction. |
| Keywords: | Default, Loan Guarantees, Housing, Inequality, Mortgages, Rents |
| JEL: | E51 G21 H81 R2 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80643&r=ure |
| By: | Buonnano, Paolo; Vargas, Juan F. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between economic inequality and crime in Colombian municipalities. Following recent scholarly research that suggests that the legacy of slavery is largely manifest in persistent levels of economic inequality, we instrument economic inequality with a census-based measure of the proportion of slaves in each municipality before the abolition of slavery in the 19 century. We also explore the robustness of our estimates to relaxing the exclusion restriction, as the slavery instrument is only plausibly exogenous. We document a strong association between inequality and both violent and property crime rates at the municipal level. Our estimates are robust to including traditional determinants of crime (like population density, the proportion of young males, the average education level, the quality of law enforcement institutions, and the overall economic activity), as well as current ethnic differences and geographic characteristics that may be correlated both with the slave economy and with crime. |
| Keywords: | Educación, Economía, Equidad e inclusión social, Investigación socioeconómica, Pobreza, Seguridad, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:987&r=ure |
| By: | Jayson Danton; Alexander Himbert |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of the bid-rent function for vertical locations within residential buildings using rooftop quality geocoded rental price data. We find that residential bidders value the ease of access that is intrinsically offered on the ground floor by paying between 1.5-3% ground floor premium. Our analysis shows that the ground floor premium is indeed a valuation of access similar to the valuation of access to the Central Business District (CBD) in a monocentric setting and that the ground floor premium is equivalent to moving between 250- 450 meters closer to the CBD in the cities in our sample. Our empirical framework provides a starting point for the analysis of vertical residential sorting. More precisely, we find evidence of heterogeneous house price spillovers at different vertical locations that manifest via gentrification. |
| Keywords: | Rental Price Gradient, Vertical Gradient, Access, Amenities |
| JEL: | O18 R21 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lau:crdeep:17.11&r=ure |
| By: | Engelbert Stockhammer; Rafael Wildauer (Kingston University) |
| Abstract: | The past decades have witnessed a strong increase in household debt and high growth of private consumption expenditures in many countries. This paper empirically investigates four explanations: First, the expenditure cascades hypothesis argues that an increase in inequality induced lower income groups to copy the spending behaviour of richer peer groups and thereby drove them into debt (‘keeping up with the Joneses’). Second, the housing boom hypothesis argues that increasing property prices encourage household spending and household borrowing due to wealth effects, eased credit constraints and the prospect of future capital gains. Third, the low interest hypothesis argues that low interest rates encouraged households to take on more debt. Fourth, the financial deregulation hypothesis argues that deregulation of the financial sector boosted credit supply. The paper tests these hypotheses by estimating the determinants of household borrowing using a panel of 11 OECD countries (1980-2011). Results indicate that real estate prices and low interest rates were the most important drivers of household debt. In contrast the data does not support the expenditure cascades hypothesis as a general explanation of debt accumulation across OECD countries. Our results are consistent with the financial deregulation hypothesis, but its explanatory power for the 1995-2007 period is low. |
| Keywords: | household debt, income distribution, property prices |
| JEL: | D31 E12 E51 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp1710&r=ure |
| By: | Margarida Rodrigues (European Commission - JRC); Federico Biagi (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | The use of digital technologies for learning is high on the policy agenda and is believed to benefit disadvantaged groups of students especially. This study assesses the extent to which the association between learning outcomes and the use of digital technologies differs systematically between students with different socio-economic statuses. We start by summarizing the existing evidence on the causal effects of digital technologies on learning outcomes. We highlight the relative lack of evidence on the pedagogical use of digital technologies on disadvantaged students when compared to the general student population. The overall consensus emerging from the literature is that the causal effect of digital technologies is mixed. While it is unclear whether disadvantaged students are differently affected by them, the available evidence does not suggest that digital technologies contribute to further disparities in students' learning outcomes. Using data from PISA 2015, we document that students from low socio-economic backgrounds start using digital devices later in life, have slightly less access to ICT at home and tend to use ICT less intensively especially in out-of-school activities than their counterparts. In the multivariate analysis, we find a positive association between disadvantaged students' achievement and the use of ICT for some purposes, but only among those students who use ICT less intensively. However, we find no evidence that this association is systematically different from that of students from higher socio-economic backgrounds. The exception is the use of ICT outside of school for general purposes by low-intensity users: in this case, disadvantaged students would particularly benefit from using ICT more intensively. Furthermore, we also find that - among low-intensity users of ICT - the probability of being a resilient student is positively correlated with the use of ICT at school for educational purposes and at home for schoolwork and general purposes. More generally, our research suggests that low-intensity users of ICT are likely to be using ICT sub-optimally, both at home and at school, and would benefit (in terms of PISA scores) from using ICT more intensively. However, the fact that medium and high-intensity users of ICT typically would not gain from additional ICT use is consistent with the hypothesis that the relationship between use of ICT and learning outcomes is inversely U-shaped. |
| Keywords: | Digital technologies, Low socio-economic status, Students' Achievement, PISA |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I29 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc106999&r=ure |
| By: | Goytia, Cynthia; Dorna, Guadalupe |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between urban sprawl and changing patterns of inequality and segregation in metropolitan areas of Argentina. The existing literature has endeavored to study the determinants of the expansion of cities, but less attention has been placed in understanding the effects of this sprawl on the livelihood of the people that live in them. Understanding whether different patterns of urban extension determine both segregation and inequality is extremely relevant in the context of fast growing urban agglomerates of Latin American countries. Among other findings, we provide evidence that there is segregation of the poor and not of the rich in all urban agglomerates but in Greater Buenos Aires, where segregation of the affluent, not the poor, prevails in the areas of greater informal urban expansion, measured by the extension of informal settlements. Yet, not all the patterns of urban development and built-up growth have the same effect. More leapfrog appears to explain greater segregation -particularly of the poor- while both infill and extension are positively related to more homogeneous urban agglomerations. This means that the most disadvantaged are more evenly distributed in agglomerations that have not seen much of their sprawl due to discontinue urban expansion of their borders. Finally, we also find a positive association between more unequal municipalities and greater slum expansions. The causality of this relationship is unclear and further analysis could be promising. It might be the case that more unequal municipalities allow for institutional environments in which slums can grow faster. Or it might well be that places which have experienced more accelerated slum growth have become more unequal because of the arrival of new families that accentuates such disparities. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Desarrollo social, Desarrollo urbano, Economía, Equidad e inclusión social, Investigación socioeconómica, Pobreza, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:972&r=ure |
| By: | Estrada, Ricardo |
| Abstract: | I use detailed applications data to document a case in which, contrary to prevailing concerns, increasing school stratification by ability co-existed with stable stratification by family income: Mexico City public high schools. To understand this puzzle, I develop a model that shows that the effect of an overall increase in the demand for elite schools on school stratification by family income is a horse race between the correlations of family income and ability, and family income and demand. My empirical analysis reveals an initial (and decreasing) demand gap by family income that explains the observed stability in stratification. |
| Keywords: | Educación, Economía, Investigación socioeconómica, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:1065&r=ure |
| By: | Alfredo Marvão Pereira (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg VA 23187); Rui Manuel Pereira (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg VA 23187) |
| Abstract: | We use the industry-specific effects of twelve different infrastructure investments in Portugal to inform about the mechanisms through which such investments affect economic activity. Our main findings are as follows. First, demand-side effects that are approximated by adding the short-term and long-term construction effects are very important. They are over 60% of total effects for airport investments, ports, refineries, and water, and over 45% for national roads, municipal roads, telecommunications, health and education. Second, site-location effects that are approximated by real-estate effects are also very significant, in particular for national roads, highways and railroads, with 30%, 35% and 64% of the total effects, respectively. They are negative for water and electricity, and zero for municipal roads, airports, and refineries, and negligible for ports, i.e., all these are cases in which we would expect adverse or small location effects. Third, the functional channel relating to internationally-traded goods, approximated by the effects on the primary sector, on manufacturing, and on transportation, is much less significant, although we estimate meaningful effects on heavy industry from investments in all types of road infrastructures, ports, health, and education, as well as on light industry from ports. Fourth, a functional effect affecting non-traded industries, mostly private and public services is much more relevant. It accounts for more than 30% of the effects in the cases of municipal roads, airports, and refineries, and in excess of 20% for highways, railroads, telecommunications, health and education. The fact that most functional effects accrue to non-traded industries is likely to affect international competitiveness adversely. Naturally, these results cannot be automatically generalized, as the nature of the effects of infrastructure investments crucially depends on the level of development of the country in question, on the maturity of its existent infrastructure systems, and on the rigor of all decisions pertaining to infrastructure investment. Nevertheless, they establish that, as infrastructure investments are concerned, the dominance of virtuous supply side effects is not a foregone conclusion and, conversely, the relevance of Keynesian effects cannot be dismissed. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure investment, Output, Industry-level, Supply-side effects; Demand-side effects, Vector-autoregressive, Portugal |
| JEL: | C32 E22 H54 L90 L98 O52 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:0076&r=ure |
| By: | Stephen Gibbons; Henry Overman; Matti Sarvimäki |
| Abstract: | We study the local economic impacts of a major regeneration programme aimed at enhancing the quality of life of local people in deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. The analysis is based on a panel of firm and area level data available at small spatial scales. Our identification strategies involve: a) exploiting the fine spatial scale of our data to study how effects vary with distance to the intervention area; and b) comparing places close to treatment in early rounds of the programme with places close to treatment in future rounds. We consider the long run impact of schemes funded between 1995 and 1997 on outcomes up to 2009. Our estimates suggest that the programme increased workplace employment in the intervention area but this had no impact on the employment rates of local residents. |
| Keywords: | single regeneration budget, regeneration, employment, neighbourhoods, urban policy |
| JEL: | R11 J08 H50 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0218&r=ure |
| By: | Akbar, Prottoy; Duranton, Gilles |
| Abstract: | We provide a novel approach to estimate the deadweight loss of congestion. We implement it for road travel in the city of Bogotá using information from a travel survey and counterfactual travel data generated from Google Maps. For the supply of travel, we find that the elasticity of the time cost of travel per unit of distance with respect to the number of travelers is on average about 0.06. It is close to zero at low levels of traffic, then reaches a maximum magnitude of about 0.20 as traffic builds up and becomes small again at high levels of traffic. This finding is in sharp contrast with extant results for specific road segments. We explain it by the existence of local streets which remain relatively uncongested and put a floor on the time cost of travel. On the demand side, we estimate an elasticity of the number of travelers with respect to the time cost of travel of 0.40. Although road travel is costly in Bogotá, these findings imply a small daily deadweight loss from congestion, equal to less than 1% of a day’s wage. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Investigación socioeconómica, Transporte, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:1028&r=ure |
| By: | Saing, Chan Hang; Cannonier, Colin |
| Abstract: | We exploit the exogenous variations of arsenic contamination across regions in Cambodia and apply two-period difference-in-differences (DID) to examine the impact of arsenic-contaminated groundwater on school participation among children aged 5-17. We find that conditional on the DID assumption, a standard deviation increase in the arsenic reduced the probability of having ever been enrolled for children aged 5-17 by approximately 0.017. The effects for girls are slightly larger than those for boys. Our results are robust to adding parental education, province fixed effects and zone trends. We also show that children of all specific age groups experienced the reduction in their probabilities of having ever been enrolled, while the children, who were between 12 and 17 years old, currently enrolled and active in the labor market, experienced more reduction in school enrollment relative to their peers, who were not active in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Arsenic,Cambodia,Difference-in-Differences,School participation |
| JEL: | O15 I28 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:95&r=ure |
| By: | Arrosa, María Laura; Gandelman, Néstor |
| Abstract: | We use a life satisfaction approach for the valuation of public goods and amenities in Latin American cities. We apply a homogenous database of seventeen cities gathered by the Development Bank of Latin America CAF. Using the estimated monetary value for several public goods and neighborhood amenities we construct a city level quality of life index. We find that access to electricity, access to running water and security are the three largest valued urban characteristics in terms of life satisfaction and housing satisfaction. The monetary equivalent valuations represent more than duplicating the household per capita income. Lacking access to them has a tremendous impact on quality of life. We also show that although richer households have more access, public good and amenities are a source for reductions in quality of life disparities. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Investigación socioeconómica, Servicios públicos, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:979&r=ure |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (RMIT University); Karlsson, Charlie (KTH) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of regional context on innovation persistency of firms. Using five waves of the Community Innovation Survey in Sweden, we have traced firms’ innovative behaviour from 2002 to 2012, in terms of four Schumpeterian types of innovation: product, process, organizational, and marketing. Employing transition probability matrix and dynamic Probit model and controlling for an extensive set of firm-level characteristics, we find that certain regional characteristics matter for innovation persistency of firms. In particular, those firms located in regions with (i) thicker labour market or (ii) higher extent of knowledge spillover exhibit higher probability of being persistent innovators up to 14 percentage points. Such higher persistency is mostly pronounced for product innovators. |
| Keywords: | location; innovation; persistence; product innovations; process innovations; market innovations; organizational innovations; firms; Community Inno¬vation Survey |
| JEL: | D22 L20 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2017–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2017_011&r=ure |
| By: | Garrido, Nicolás; Vargas, Miguel |
| Abstract: | The aim of this work is to study the relationship between high-skilled workers’ segregation and productivity in Latin American cities. This relationship is not clear at first sight. On the one hand high-skilled workers’ spatial concentration would take advantage of agglomeration economies and cause positive spillovers amongst the most advantaged that could compensate productivity losses due the existence of low-skilled workers ghettos. On the other hand, it would be the case that those spillovers are not enough for compensating the worse-off groups’ productivity losses, and hence the aggregated productivity would be negatively affected. We calculate this group segregation for a group of Latin American countries’ most important cities. We found a negative and significant relationship amongst cities’ productivity and high-skilled workers segregation. However, we found evidence of a quadratic relationship between segregation and productivity as well. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Investigación socioeconómica, Trabajo y protección social, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:1016&r=ure |
| By: | Alzúa, María Laura; Amendolaggine, Julián; Cruces, Guillermo; Greppi, Catrihel |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of a social housing policy program implemented in Argentina, exploiting the random assignment rule to identify the policy's causal effect on labor market and other socio-economic outcomes. In particular, this paper evaluates an intervention that combines access to quality housing at a heavily subsidized cost, the granting of property rights, and relocation in a suburb of Rosario, Argentina's third largest city. In a preliminary analysis, based on administrative social security records, we find that the policy generates a reduction in registered employment by more than 7 percentage points, especially for women and beneficiaries over 50 years of age. We went further and conducted a purposely-designed household survey among a sample of beneficiaries in order to understand the underlying mechanisms and welfare implications of these results. All in all, our analysis points to the existence of an income effect and confirms the registered fall in formal employment and labor force participation. We do not find an increase in informalization, although beneficiaries' perceived access to local job opportunities are signicantly reduced. |
| Keywords: | Economía, Investigación socioeconómica, Trabajo y protección social, Vivienda, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:971&r=ure |
| By: | Estrada, Ricardo; Gignoux, Jérémie |
| Abstract: | We exploit data on the future earnings students at high school completion expect to receive with and without a college education, together with information on learning achievement and college outcomes, to study the benefits from admission into a system of elite public high schools in Mexico City. Using data for the centralized allocation of students into schools and an adapted regression discontinuity design strategy, we estimate that elite school admission increases the future earnings and returns students expect from a college education. These gains in earnings expectations seem to reflect improvement in actual earnings opportunities, as admission to this elite school system also enhances learning achievement and college graduation outcomes. This provides evidence of the earnings benefits from attending elite schools. |
| Keywords: | Educación, Investigación socioeconómica, Trabajo y protección social, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:1017&r=ure |
| By: | Fischer, Jack R.; McPhail, Joseph E.; Rodrigues, Nathan; Orazem, Peter |
| Abstract: | Mandatory stress testing has been acclaimed by banking regulators as a key response to preventing future financial crises. Each year banks in the United States with over $50 Billion in assets must perform a Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) . Banks with over $10 Billion are subject to Dodd-Frank Act Stress Testing (DFAST). This study examne the relative importance of international or national macroeconomic shocks, state-level shocks, and idiosyncratic shocks on mortgage rate charge-offs for the universe of all banks for the 2002-2014 period. We find tha banks with over $10 billion in assets have charge-off rates that are very sensitive to macroeconomic shocks, while those aggregate shocks have almost no power to explain the charge-off rates of smaller banks. The results suggests that bank stress tests are appropriately targeted at only the largest banks whose assets are most responsive to macroeconomic shocks.Smaller bank portfolio performance is driven by idiosyncratic shocks of the sort identified in traditional bank examination. State-level shocks are as or more important in explaining small bank charge-off rates as are national shocks. The findings also support the view that the largest banks are subject to added risk compared to small banks because of the high correlation between large bank loan performance and aggregate shocks, implying that large banks require larger capital reserves. |
| Date: | 2017–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genstf:201707130700001027&r=ure |
| By: | Saskia Vennix (Microeconomic Information Department, NBB) |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the economic importance of air transport and airport activities in Belgium in terms of value added, employment and investment over the 2013-2015 period 1 . The sector considered embraces not only the activities directly connected with air transport, but also all those that take place on site at the six Belgian airports (Antwerp, Brussels,Charleroi, Kortrijk, Liège and Ostend). The study reviews the direct and indirect effects of the sector on the basis of microeconomic data (mainly obtained from the Central Balance Sheet Office) and mesoeconomic data (from the National Accounts Institute). It also includes a social balance sheet analysis and an indication of credit risk using statistical models from the NBB’s In-house Credit Assessment System (ICAS). In 2015, air transport and airport activities generated € 6 billion in direct and indirect value added (i.e. 1.5 % of Belgian GDP) and employed around 62 500 people in full-time equivalents (FTEs)either directly or indirectly (1.5 % of domestic employment including the self-employed). Brussels and Liège Airport remain the country’s biggest airports, respectively in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in March 2016, the regional airports received part of Brussels’ passenger traffic. All in all, Brussels recovered fairly quickly, especially freight traffic, but also passenger traffic resumed gradually to tie in with growth again since November 2016. Brussels and Liège are the fastest growing airports during the 2013-2015 period, respectively in terms of value added and employment. At Ostend Airport, these economic variables slumped in line with the evolution of freight traffic volumes. Antwerp’s growth rates went into the red as well, mainly under the influence of the difficulties faced by VLM Airlines. At Charleroi and Liège, the trend of value added is downward, while that is not the case for employment. The smallest changes are recorded in Kortrijk. |
| Keywords: | air transport, airport activities, sector analysis, indirect effects, employment, value added, investment. |
| JEL: | C67 D40 J21 L93 R15 R34 R41 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201705-324&r=ure |
| By: | Duque, Valentina; Rosales-Rueda, María; Sánchez, Fabio |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how early-life conditions interact with subsequent human capital investments to influence future educational outcomes. To provide causal evidence, we exploit two sources of exogenous variation: i) variation in early-life environments resulting from a child's exposure to extreme rainfall and drought shocks in early-life; and ii), variation in subsequent investments resulting from the availability of conditional cash transfers (CCT) that promote investments in children's health and education. Using Colombian administrative data, we combine a natural experiment with a regression discontinuity design using the CCT assignment rule. Results show that, although the CCT has an overall positive impact on children's educational outcomes, it does not have a differential effect on children exposed to early-life shocks; however, the overall effect of the program is large enough to mitigate the negative impact of the weather shock. These findings have important policy implications as they provide evidence of the role of social policies in closing gaps generated by early-life trauma. |
| Keywords: | Desarrollo social, Educación, Equidad e inclusión social, Investigación socioeconómica, Salud, Niñez, Familia, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:955&r=ure |
| By: | Katharine Robb; Clair Null; Peter Teunis; Habib Yakubu; George Armah; Christine L. Moe |
| Abstract: | Rapid urbanization has contributed to an urban sanitation crisis in low-income countries. |
| Keywords: | Urban sanitation, low-income countries, Accra, Ghana, SaniPath study |
| JEL: | F Z |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:125427ab3c2945b6b7f93e2ce2183e77&r=ure |
| By: | Cristina Bernini (University of Bologna); Alessandro Tampieri (University of Bologna and CREA, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of urbanization on the specific components of the happiness function. We exploit the dataset HADL on Italian citizens over the period 2010-2013. A multilevel approach is used to take into account of regional heterogeneity in the happiness’s determinants. We find that, in line with much of the literature, urbanization is negatively related to subjective well-being. However, the impact of urbanization changes depending on the specific happiness spheres: while satisfaction with economic conditions is not affected by urbanization, job and family satisfaction increase with urbanization. Conversely, satisfaction with health, friendship, spare time and environment decrease with urbanization. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being, happiness function, urbanization, regions, multilevel models |
| JEL: | I31 R10 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:17-10&r=ure |
| By: | Braeseman, Fabian; Stephany, Fabian |
| Abstract: | Aiming to explain the European divide with respect to social and political values, scholars in the past have relied on a simplified four- (or even two-) dimensional regime model which tranches the continent according to the social capacities of its inhabitants. This „cartography“ of „Social Europe“ proves to be outdated by the presented findings. In this work, we apply a factor analysis model to the most commonly used approximations of social capital on the European Social Survey. The analysis shows that three distinct dimensions of social capital measures are important in Europe: additionally to generalised social capital, which is usually approximated by generalised trust, there is one dimension of civic engagement and one of communitarian values. This distinction leads to a new social landscape of Europe, which highlights the relevance of considering regional and cross-border clusters in all relevant social capital dimensions. A hierarchical multi-level model that controls for individual and regional characteristics emphasises the importance of the spatial clustering in Europe with respect to social capital. In addition, we explore, as a novelty in social capital literature, a classification tree to model generalized trust. The results of the non-parametric model reveal that Protestantism and education are good benchmarks to classify trust on an individual level. Based on these findings we argue for the necessity of policies with a regional focus that take the different sub-national structures of social capacity in Europe into account. |
| Keywords: | classification trees,factor analysis,social capital,multi-level modeling |
| JEL: | C33 C38 D70 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:agawps:07&r=ure |
| By: | J. Sebastian Amador-Torres (Banco de la República de Colombia); Jose Eduardo Gomez-Gonzalez (Banco de la República de Colombia); Sebastian Sanin-Restrepo (Banco de la República de Colombia) |
| Abstract: | We use hazard models to study the determinants of housing price bubbles’ duration. We answer two related questions: i). Does prolonged domestic monetary policy easing increase the duration of housing price bubbles? And, ii). Does prolonged monetary policy easing in the US influences housing bubbles’ duration in other OECD countries? Our results suggest that the answer to the first question is a clear yes, while the answer to the second question is an indirect yes. Other variables that are also good predictors of the duration of bubbles are GDP growth and the degree of financial market development. Bubbles in developed financial markets tend to last longer. Other institutional variables, such as loan-to-value caps and limits to banking leverage, population growth and the consumer confidence index, have no effect on the probability of ending a bubble. Our results have relevant policy implications. Classification JEL: G01; G12; C22. |
| Keywords: | Housing bubbles; Bubble formation; Recursive right-tailed unit root tests; Duration; Hazard function; OECD. |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:1005&r=ure |
| By: | Brunow, Stephan (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Birkeneder, Antonia; Rodriguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | "This paper examines the link between the endowment of creative and science based STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - workers and the level of the firm and firm- and city-/regional-level innovation in Germany. It also looks into whether the presence of these two groups of workers has greater benefits for larger cities than smaller locations, thus justifying policies to attract these workers in order to make German cities 'smarter'. The empirical analysis is based on a probit estimation, covering 115,000 plant-level observations between 1998 and 2015. The results highlight that firms that employ creative and STEM workers are more innovative than those that do not. However, the positive connection of creative workers to innovation is limited to the boundaries of the firm, whereas that of STEM workers is as associated to the generation of considerable innovation spillovers. Hence, attracting STEM workers is more likely to end up making German cities smarter than focusing exclusively on creative workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Date: | 2017–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201724&r=ure |
| By: | OKUBO Toshihiro; Alexander F. WAGNER; YAMADA Kazuo |
| Abstract: | We employ a comprehensive database of Japanese manufacturing firms, covering up to 220,000 firm-year observations, to examine the role that ownership structure plays in explaining differences in export and innovation decisions of firms. Firms with higher foreign ownership are more export-oriented and engage more in innovation. This result holds controlling for differences in incentive structures (the use of stock options, which themselves are also associated with more export and innovation activities) and is robust to the use of an instrument exploiting peer effects with regard to foreign ownership. We also show that pre-World War II differences in cognitive skills and non-cognitive characteristics (attitudes) still explain modern-day, cross-prefecture differences in firm choices. Overall, our results suggest that both firm-internal corporate governance and the employee pool from which a company can draw upon can play an important role for the export and innovation activity of firms. |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:17099&r=ure |
| By: | Duque, Juan Carlos; Patino, Jorge Eduardo; Betancourt, Alejandro |
| Abstract: | Slum identification in urban settlements is a crucial step in the process of formulation of propoor policies. However, the use of conventional methods for slums detection such as field surveys may result time consuming and costly. This paper explores the possibility of implementing a low-cost standardized method for slum detection. We use spectral, texture and structural features extracted from very high spatial resolution imagery as input data and evaluate the capability of three machine learning algorithms (Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine and Random Forest) to classify urban areas as slum or no-slum. Using data from Buenos Aires (Argentina), Medellin (Colombia), and Recife (Brazil), we found that Support Vector Machine with radial basis kernel deliver the best performance (over 0.81). We also found that singularities within cities preclude the use of a unified classification model. |
| Keywords: | Ciudades, Desarrollo urbano, Economía, Equidad e inclusión social, Georreferenciación, Investigación socioeconómica, Pobreza, Políticas públicas, Servicios públicos, Vivienda, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:975&r=ure |
| By: | Battaglia, Marianna (Universidad de Alicante); Chabé-Ferret, Bastien (Université catholique de Louvain); Lebedinski, Lara (Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN)) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of residential segregation on fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between ethnically homogeneous and mixed neighbor- hoods. Our results show that Roma in less segregated areas tend to have significantly fewer children (around 0.9). Most of the difference arises from Roma in less segregated areas waiting substantially more after having a boy than their counterparts in more segregated areas. We account for the endogeneity of the level of segregation using (il)legal possibility to build in the area at the time of its creation as an instrument. We find that the true gap due to segregation is actually larger than that estimated by OLS (around 1.4). We finally provide evidence that exposure to the Serbian majority culture is the main mechanism at play, as opposed to differences in opportunity cost of time, migration patterns, family arrangements and returns to education. |
| Keywords: | fertility, residential segregation, ethnic minority, culture |
| JEL: | J13 J15 R23 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10929&r=ure |
| By: | Kumar, Dr.B.Pradeep |
| Abstract: | In recent times, internal migration has intensified in different parts of the world. In tune with this, migration issues in Kerala have assumed different dimensions thanks to the inflow of a large number of migrants from the far away states like Assam and West Bengal. This has made Kerala a destination which attracts internal migrants besides being a state sending its own people to the Middle East and Europe. The large influx of migrants has caused precarious socio-economic issues in Kerala society. At the same time, Kerala’s dying productive sectors find resurrection only on the ride of the present wave of migrant workers to the State. Set in this background, this paper intends to look into these issues and try to bring out policy interventions by the government to improve the living conditions of migrant workers. |
| Keywords: | Migration, foreign remittances, Labor Market, Discrimination, Intervention |
| JEL: | J01 J6 J62 |
| Date: | 2016–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80586&r=ure |
| By: | Giuliano, Paola (University of California, Los Angeles); Nunn, Nathan (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | When does culture persist and when does it change? We examine a determinant that has been put forth in the anthropology literature: the variability of the environment from one generation to the next. A prediction, which emerges from a class of existing models from evolutionary anthropology, is that following the customs of the previous generation is relatively more beneficial in stable environments where the culture that has evolved up to the previous generation is more likely to be relevant for the subsequent generation. We test this hypothesis by measuring the variability of average temperature across 20-year generations from 500–1900. Looking across countries, ethnic groups, and the descendants of immigrants, we find that populations with ancestors who lived in environments with more stability from one generation to the next place a greater importance in maintaining tradition today. These populations also exhibit more persistence in their traditions over time. |
| Keywords: | cultural persistence, cultural change, tradition |
| JEL: | N10 Q54 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10930&r=ure |
| By: | Sergey V. Smirnov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Nikolay V. Kondrashov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Regional statistics published by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) are reviewed in terms of quality, and radical disagreement between “month-on-month” and “year-on-year” monthly statistics is identified. In view of this, an original method is proposed for estimating the level of Regional Economic Activity (REA), based on monthly official regional statistics in five key sectors of the Russian economy: industry, construction, retail trade, wholesale trade, and paid services for the population. This method transforms current “year-on-year” growth rates into specially constructed dichotomous variables, which eliminate the excessive volatility and inaccuracy of the initial time series. On these grounds, REA indices are estimated for all Russian constituent entities for the period from January 2005 to May 2017. Composite REA indices for all five economic sectors, eight federal districts, and Russia as a whole are then calculated. Methods for visualising multidimensional regional data are also proposed. They allow us to track the regional peculiarities of the Russian economy and to discern the current phase of the business cycle more accurately and without any additional lag. Several illustrative examples for the possible application of these indices in real time monitoring and analyses are provided |
| Keywords: | business cycles, economic activity, regions, federal districts of Russia. |
| JEL: | E32 R11 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:169/ec/2017&r=ure |
| By: | Roketskiy, Nikita |
| Abstract: | I develop a model of collaboration between tournament participants in which agents collaborate in pairs, and an endogenous structure of collaboration is represented by a weighted network. The agents are forward-looking and capable of coordination. They value collaboration with others and higher tournament rankings. I use von Neumann-Morgenstern stable sets as a solution. I find stable networks in which agents collaborate only within exclusive groups. Both absence of intergroup collaboration and excessive intragroup collaboration lead to inefficiency. I provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of efficient outcomes in winner-takes-all tournaments. I show that the use of transfers does not repair efficiency. |
| Keywords: | networks; tournaments |
| JEL: | C71 D85 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12194&r=ure |
| By: | Olga Lorenz (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union) |
| Abstract: | How and why commuting contributes to our well-being is of considerableimportance for transportation policy and planning. This paper analyses the relation between commuting and subjective well-being by considering several cognitive (e.g. satisfaction with family life, leisure, income, work, health) and affective (e.g., happiness, anger, worry, sadness) componentsof subjective well-being. Fixed-effects models are estimated with German Socio-Economic Panel data for the period 2007 – 2013. In contrast to previous papers in the literature, according to which commuting is bad for overall life satisfaction, we find no evidence that commuting in general is associated with a lower life satisfaction. Rather, it appears that longer commutes are only related to lower satisfaction with particular life domains, especially family life and leisure time. Time spent on housework, child care as well as physical and leisure activities mediate the association between commuting and well-being. |
| Keywords: | commuting distance, emotion, satisfaction, time use, well-being |
| JEL: | I10 I31 R40 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201707&r=ure |
| By: | Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato; Owen M. Zidar |
| Abstract: | This paper documents facts about the state corporate tax structure — tax rates, base rules, and credits — and investigates its consequences for state tax revenue and economic activity. We present three main findings. First, tax base rules and credits explain more of the variation in the state corporate tax revenue than tax rates do. Second, although states typically do not offset tax rate changes with base and credit changes, the effects of tax rate changes on tax revenue and economic activity depend on the breadth of the base. Third, as states have narrowed their tax bases, the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues has diminished. Overall, changes in state tax bases have made the state corporate tax system more favorable for corporations and are reducing the extent to which tax rate increases raise corporate tax revenue. |
| JEL: | H2 H25 H71 R5 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23653&r=ure |
| By: | Giampaolo Lecce (Bocconi University - Department of Economics); Laura Ogliari (Bocconi University); Tommaso Orlando (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We study how cultural distance affects the rejection of imposed institutions. To this purpose, we exploit the transplantation of Piedmontese institutions on Southern Italy which occurred during the Italian unification. We assemble a novel and unique dataset containing information on episodes of brigandage, a form of violent uprising against the unitary government, at the municipal level. We use geographic distance from local settlements of Piedmontese descent as a proxy for cultural distance between each municipality and the new rulers. We find robust evidence that cultural distance from the origins of the transplanted institutions is significantly associated with more intense resistance to these institutions. Our results further suggest that the rejection of the transplanted institutions may have a long lasting effect on political participation. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Institutional Transplantations, Culture, Social Unrest, Electoral Turnout |
| JEL: | N43 D74 P16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2097&r=ure |
| By: | Scheller, Friedrich |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the role of the relative regional group size for the labor market integration of three different ethnic groups in Germany. The analysis addresses the question of whether there is a consistent group size effect, or if group size functions differently for different immigrant groups and for different indicators of labor market integration in Germany. Using data provided by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) multilevel cross-classification models are fitted. The final dataset contains 10,970 observations from Turkish, Greek, and Italian immigrants, and their offspring. Results generally show no effect of relative regional group size on the risk of unemployment, but a significant effect on job status. The effect is nonlinear, and manifests differently for each ethnic group. It becomes apparent that findings on the relationship between group size and labor market integration found for one immigrant group cannot readily be extended to other origin groups. |
| Keywords: | group size,labor market integration,migration,cross-classification,Gruppengröße,Arbeitsmarktintegration,Migration,Kreuzklassifizierung |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:udesoz:201703&r=ure |
| By: | Cortés, Darwin; Santamaría, Julieth; Vargas, Juan |
| Abstract: | In November 2008, Colombian authorities dismantled a network of Ponzi schemes, making hundreds of thousands of investors lose tens of millions of dollars throughout the country. Using original data on the geographical incidence of the Ponzi schemes, this paper estimates the impact of their break down on crime. We find that the crash of Ponzi schemes differentially exacerbated crime in affected districts. Confirming the intuition of the standard economic model of crime, this effect is only present in places with relatively weak judicial and law enforcement institutions, and with little access to consumption smoothing mechanisms such as microcredit. In addition, we show that, with the exception of economically-motivated felonies such as robbery, violent crime is not affected by the negative shock. |
| Keywords: | Economía, Investigación socioeconómica, Sector financiero, Seguridad, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblpap:843&r=ure |
| By: | Tjaden, Jasper Dag; Schwemmer, Carsten; Khadjavi, Menusch |
| Abstract: | We study ethnic discrimination in Europe's largest carpooling marketplace. Using a unique dataset with more than 17,000 rides, we estimate the effects of drivers' perceived name origins on the demand for rides. Carpooling is a novel application for studying ethnic discrimination where consumer choice entails social interaction with the service provider (i.e. driver). We find large discrimination effects for drivers with Arab, Turkish or Persian sounding names. Further analyses support assumptions consistent with statistical discrimination. Our findings broaden the perspective of ethnic discrimination by shedding light on subtle, everyday forms of discrimination in social markets and fuel ongoing discussions about anti-discrimination efforts in an era in which markets increasingly move online. |
| Keywords: | ethnic discrimination,statistical discrimination,taste-based discrimination,online markets,computational social science |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2087&r=ure |