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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Cuong Nguyen; Ilan Noy; Dag Einar Sommervoll; Fang Yao |
| Abstract: | On the 22nd of February 2011, much of the residential housing stock in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, was damaged by an unusually destructive earthquake. Almost all of the houses were insured. We ask whether insurance was able to mitigate the damage adequately, or whether the damage from the earthquake, and the associated insurance payments, led to a spatial re-ordering of the housing market in the city. We find a negative correlation between insurance pay-outs and house prices at the local level. We also uncover evidence that suggests that the mechanism behind this result is that in some cases houses were not fixed (i.e., owners having pocketed the payments) - indeed, insurance claims that were actively repaired (rather than paid directly) did not lead to any relative deterioration in prices. We use a genetic machine-learning algorithm which aims to improve on a standard hedonic model, and identify the dynamics of the housing market in the city, and three data sets: All housing market transactions, all earthquake insurance claims submitted to the public insurer, and all of the local authority’s building-consents data. Our results are important not only because the utility of catastrophe insurance is often questioned, but also because understanding what happens to property markets after disasters should be part of the overall assessment of the impact of the disaster itself. Without a quantification of these impacts, it is difficult to design policies that will optimally try to prevent or ameliorate disaster impacts. |
| Keywords: | house price prediction, machine learning, genetic algorithm, spatial aggregation |
| JEL: | G22 Q54 R11 R31 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8560&r=all |
| By: | Amine Ouazad |
| Abstract: | In the face of a pandemic, urban protests, and an affordability crisis, is the desirability of dense urban settings at a turning point? Assessing cities' long term trends remains challenging. The first part of this chapter describes the short-run dynamics of the housing market in 2020. Evidence from prices and price-to-rent ratios suggests expectations of resilience. Zip-level evidence suggests a short-run trend towards suburbanization, and some impacts of urban protests on house prices. The second part of the chapter analyzes the long-run dynamics of urban growth between 1970 and 2010. It analyzes what, in such urban growth, is explained by short-run shocks as opposed to fundamentals such as education, industrial specialization, industrial diversification, urban segregation, and housing supply elasticity. This chapter's original results as well as a large established body of literature suggest that fundamentals are the key drivers of growth, and that the shocks considered in this paper have not had historically a measurable long-term impact on metropolitan population growth. The chapter illustrates this finding with two case studies: the New York City housing market after September 11, 2001; and the San Francisco Bay Area in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Both areas rebounded strongly after these shocks, suggesting the resilience of the urban metropolis. |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2010.00413&r=all |
| By: | Milena Almagro; Joshua Coven; Arpit Gupta; Angelo Orane-Hutchinson |
| Abstract: | We document that racial disparities in COVID-19 in New York City stem from patterns of commuting and housing crowding. During the initial wave of the pandemic, we find that out-of-home activity related to commuting is strongly associated with COVID-19 cases at the ZIP Code level and hospitalization at an individual level. After layoffs of essential workers decreased commuting, we find case growth continued through household crowding. A larger share of individuals in crowded housing or commuting to essential work are Black, Hispanic, and lower-income. As a result, structural inequalities, rather than population density, play a role in determining the cross-section of COVID-19 risk exposure in urban areas. |
| Keywords: | Coronavirus; COVID-19; Housing crowding; Mobility; Racial disparities |
| JEL: | I10 J15 R23 |
| Date: | 2020–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:88803&r=all |
| By: | Pierre M. Picard (Department of Economics and Management, Université du Luxembourg); Thi Thu Huyen Tran (Department of Finance) |
| Abstract: | Urban green areas cover more than 6% of urban land in Europe. This paper quanti- fies the impact of urban green areas on city structures for more than 300 European cities. It discusses the economic effects of the local amenity produced by green urban areas using an urban economics model with various set of preferences. It estimates those models using data on detailed residential land uses, green urban areas and population density. It finally assesses the economic effects of reducing urban green areas in counterfactual exercises where cities are closed and open to migration and green urban land is converted to residential plots or not. By this strategy, the economic assessment accounts for the general equilibrium effects through endogenous land prices and residential space and location choices. It shows that the gross benefits of urban green areas are substantial. A uniform removal of half of the urban green areas is equivalent to 6-9% reduction of household annual income. However, the conversion of those areas to residential plots brings a net gain of approximately 4%. |
| Keywords: | Urban green areas, urban spatial structure, land use policy, amenities, optimal locations, public facilities, structural estimation |
| JEL: | C61 D61 D62 R14 R53 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:20-21&r=all |
| By: | Gambaro, Ludovica; Neidhöfer, Guido; Spieß, Christa Katharina |
| Abstract: | Devising appropriate policy measures for the integration of refugees is high on the agenda of many governments. This paper focuses on the social integration of families seeking asylum in Germany between 2013 and 2016. Exploiting regional differences in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services as an exogenous source of variation, and controlling for local level heterogeneity that could drive the results, we estimate the effect of ECEC attendance by refugee children on their parents' integration. We find a significant and substantial positive effect, in particular on the social integration of mothers. The size of the estimate is on average around 52% and is particularly strong for improved language proficiency and employment prospects. |
| Keywords: | asylum seekers,refugees,childcare,early education,integration |
| JEL: | I26 J13 J15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:20044&r=all |
| By: | Mark Trede; Michael Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | We present stylized facts of the local German labour markets in a systematic way. Using a large German administrative dataset and newly available regional price level data, we study workers' biographies at the local level. Huge regional variation is documented in: unemployment rates and nominal as well as real wages. The distinction between urban and rural areas plays a substantial role. We show that the real wage gap between East and West Germany still persists 30 years after reunification whereas unemployment rates tend to converge. We investigate monthly worker flows across 328 regions (roughly equivalent to NUTS 3 regions or "Landkreise"). Unemployed workers in depressed regions are less likely to move to a new working place in another region than unemployed workers in prosperous regions. The most (and increasingly) mobile group are unemployed workers in dense and active regions. Employed workers are less willing to move and have procyclical fluctuations in their moving rates. |
| Keywords: | labour mobility; business cycle fluctuations; regional disparities |
| JEL: | R23 J61 J63 C55 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cqe:wpaper:9320&r=all |
| By: | Yavuz Arslan; Bulent Guler; Burhan Kuruscu |
| Abstract: | Can shifts in the credit supply generate a boom-bust cycle similar to the one observed in the US around 2008? To answer this question, we develop a general equilibrium model that combines a rich heterogeneous agent overlapping-generations structure of households who make housing tenure decisions and borrow through long-term mortgages, firms that finance their working capital through short-term loans from banks, and banks whose ability to intermediate funds depends on their capital. Using a calibrated version of this framework, we find that shocks to banks' leverage can generate sizable boom-bust cycles in the housing market, the banking sector, and the rest of the macroeconomy, which provides strong support for the credit supply channel. The deterioration of bank balance sheets during the bust, the existence of highly leveraged households, and the general equilibrium feedback from the credit supply to household labor income significantly amplify the bust. Moreover, mortgage credit growth across the income distribution is consistent with recent findings that were otherwise argued to be against the credit supply channel. A comparison of the model outcomes across credit supply, house price expectation, and productivity shocks suggests that housing busts accompanied by severe banking crises are more likely to be generated by credit supply shocks. |
| Keywords: | credit supply, house prices, financial crises, household and bank balance sheets, leverage, foreclosures, mortgage valuations, consumption, and output |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:885&r=all |
| By: | Maximilian v. Ehrlich, Henry G. Overman |
| Abstract: | Spatial disparities in income levels and worklessness in the European Union are profound, persistent and may be widening. We describe disparities across metropolitan regions and discuss theories and empirical evidence that help us understand what causes these disparities. Increases in the productivity benefits of cities, the clustering of highly educated workers and increases in their wage premium all play a role. Europe has a long-standing tradition of using capital subsidies, enterprise zones, transport investments and other place-based policies to address these disparities. The evidence suggests these policies may have partially offset increasing disparities but are not sufficient to fully offset the economic forces at work. |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdv:wpaper:credresearchpaper27&r=all |
| By: | Sabina Albrecht; Riccardo Ghidoni; Elena Cettolin; Sigrid Suetens |
| Abstract: | Does exposure to ethnic minorities change the majority’s attitudes towards them? We investigate this question using novel panel data on attitudes from a general-population sample in the Netherlands matched to geographical data on refugees. We find that people who live in neighborhoods of refugees for a sufficiently long time acquire a more positive attitude. Instead, people living in municipalities hosting refugees, but not in their close neighborhood, develop a more negative attitude. The positive neighborhood effect is particularly strong for groups that are likely to have personal contact with refugees suggesting that contact with minorities can effectively reduce prejudice. |
| Keywords: | prejudice, ethnic diversity, attitudes to immigrants, discrimination, intergroup contact, refugee crisis, individual-level fixed-effects regressions, lab-in-the-field experiment |
| JEL: | J15 R23 D91 C23 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:449&r=all |
| By: | Patricia Rice; Anthony Venables |
| Abstract: | The economic shocks experienced by the UK economy in the 1970s brought major changes in the spatial distribution of employment rates in the UK. This paper traces out the long run implications of these changes, suggesting that they were highly persistent and to a large extent shape current UK regional disparities. Most of the Local Authority Districts that experienced large negative shocks in the 1970s have high deprivation rates in 2015, and they constitute two-thirds of all districts with the highest deprivation rates. We conclude that neither economic adjustment processes nor policy measures have acted to reverse the effect of negative shocks incurred nearly half a century ago. |
| Keywords: | Regional inequality, de-industrialisation, employment |
| JEL: | R11 R12 O47 O50 |
| Date: | 2020–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:918&r=all |
| By: | Ngai, L Rachel; Pissarides, Christopher A; Wang, Jin |
| Abstract: | China’s hukou system imposes two main barriers to population movements. Agricultural workers get land to cultivate but are unable to trade it in a frictionless market. Social transfers (education, health, etc.) are conditional on holding a local hukou. We show that the land policy leads to over-employment in agriculture and it is the more important barrier to industrialization. Effective land tenure guarantees and a competitive rental market would correct this inefficiency. The local restrictions on social transfers also act as disincentives to migration with bigger impact on urban migrations than to job moves to rural enterprises. |
| Keywords: | Chinese immigration; Chinese land policy; imperfect rental market; mobility barriers; hukou registration; social transfers |
| JEL: | J61 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2019–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100822&r=all |
| By: | Erin Dillon; Steven Malick |
| Abstract: | This study focused on School District of Philadelphia teachers who taught kindergarten–grade 12 in school years 2010/11 through 2016/17. |
| Keywords: | equal education, mathematical models, multivariate analysis, statistical analysis, teacher characteristics, teacher distribution, teacher effectiveness, teacher employment, teacher transfer, faculty mobility |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:bb4ccd6c30a9474bbecfc388c4f80396&r=all |
| By: | Yiou Zhang; David L. Rigby; |
| Abstract: | Do capabilities reside in firms, in regions, or in both? Most models of related diversification, building on the early work of Hidalgo et al. (2007), examine how the structure of economic activity within a region conditions the trajectory of diversification. Inter-regional flows are sometimes added to these models. The logic here is that capabilities are largely built-up within regions and sometimes shared between them. We challenge that logic, exploring whether capabilities are more likely to be built within the firm and to flow across spatial boundaries than they are to be built within the region flowing across firm boundaries. Analysis focuses on Chinese patent data spanning 286 cities over the period 1991 to 2015. We develop standard models of related diversification before examining how the branches of multi-locational firms diversify their knowledge portfolios. Evidence shows that the knowledge structure of firms is more important than the knowledge structure of regions in shaping branch diversification. We show that the influence of the firm and the region on diversification vary significantly between headquarters (HQ) branches and non-HQ branches of firms, and between the non-HQ branches of firms that are located in core and peripheral cities of China. |
| Keywords: | Related diversification; Patents; Capabilities; China |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2044&r=all |
| By: | Sergey Kichko; Wen-Jung Liang; Chao-Cheng Mai; Jacques-Francois Thisse; Ping Wang |
| Abstract: | Tech clusters play a growing role in knowledge-based economies by accommodating high-tech firms and providing an environment that fosters location-dependent knowledge spillovers and promote R&D investments by .rms. Yet, not much is known about the economic conditions under which such entities may form in equilibrium without government interventions. This paper develops a spatial equilibrium model with a competitive final sector and a monopolistically competitive intermediate sector, which allows us to determine necessary and sufficient conditions for a tech cluster to emerge as an equilibrium outcome. We show that strongly localized knowledge spillovers, skilled labor abundance, and low commuting costs are key drivers for a tech cluster to form. Not only is the productivity of the final sector higher when intermediate firms cluster, but a tech cluster hosts more intermediate firms and more R&D and production activities, and yields greater worker welfare, compared to what a dispersed pattern would generate. With continual improvements in infrastructure and communication technology that lowers coordination costs, tech clusters will eventually be fragmented. |
| Keywords: | high-tech city, knowledge spillovers, intermediate firm clustering, land use, commuting, R&D |
| JEL: | D51 L22 O33 R13 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8527&r=all |
| By: | Cathrin Sollner; Dirk Fornahl; |
| Abstract: | Literature nowadays claims that innovation is no longer an only ‘one-organization-show’ but that more and more organizations conduct innovative activities in collaboration. To collaborate successfully, cognitive, social, geographic and institutional distances have to be bridged. Especially interesting is the moderating impact of informal institutions, as being at the basis of every human interaction. However, an extensive investigation is still missing. Therefore, the present research makes a first step in closing this research gap, revealing that informal institutional distances are like a diverse puzzle not to be underestimated, as each of the dimensions has different effects on different forms of distances. |
| Keywords: | research collaboration; informal institutional distance; proximity interactions; patent quality |
| JEL: | D91 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2047&r=all |
| By: | Francesco Fasani (QMUL, CEPR, CReAM and IZA); Tommaso Frattini (University of Milan, LdA, CEPR, CReAM and IZA); Luigi Minale (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, CReAM and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the medium to long-term effects on refugee labour market outcomes of the temporary employment bans being imposed in many countries on recently arrived asylum seekers. Using a newly collected dataset covering almost 30 years of employment restrictions together with individual data for refugees entering European countries between 1985 and 2012, our empirical strategy exploits the geographical and temporal variation in employment bans generated by staggered introduction and removal coupled with frequent changes at the intensive margin. We find that exposure to a ban at arrival reduces refugee employment probability in post-ban years by 15%, an impact driven primarily by lower labour market participation. These effects are not mechanical, since we exclude refugees who may still be subject to employment restrictions, are non-linear in ban length, confirming that the very first months following arrival play a key role in shaping integration prospects, and last up to 10 years post arrival. We further demonstrate that the detrimental effects of employment bans are concentrated among less educated refugees, translate into lower occupational quality, and seem not to be driven by selective migration. Our causal estimates are robust to several identification tests accounting for the potential endogeneity of employment ban policies, including placebo analysis of non-refugee migrants and an instrumental variable strategy. To illustrate the costs of these employment restrictions, we estimate a EUR 37.6 billion output loss from the bans imposed on asylum seekers who arrived in Europe during the so-called 2015 refugee crisis. |
| Keywords: | asylum seekers, economic assimilation, asylum policies |
| JEL: | F22 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2010&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Levasseur (SADAPT - Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | Objective: This article explores the relationship between childhood obesity and educational outcomes in Mexico, a country where excess weight is predominant. Design: Using complementary multivariate estimators, we empirically investigate the association between childhood excess weight, measured in 2002, and schooling attainment measured 10 years later. Non-linear specifications are tested, and heterogeneous effects according to gender, living area and economic backgrounds are investigated. Setting: To fill the literature gap, this study focuses on the understudied context of emerging countries such as Mexico. Participants: Panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (2002–2012) are used. We restricted the sample to adolescent individuals who had between 9 and 15 years old in 2002 (attended primary or secondary school in 2002). The survey provides an accurate follow-up information on weight, height and waist circumference for each individual. Results: Controlling for a comprehensive set of covariates, we find that the relationship is non-linear in Mexico. While weight-based childhood obesity and abdominal adiposity are significantly associated with lower school attainment, at least in urban settings, no schooling gap is found between overweight students and their normal-weight counterparts. Along with rural–urban heterogeneity, obesity-based educational penalties appear to be stronger for girls and students from privileged economic backgrounds. Conclusions: These results emphasise the co-occurrence of anti-fat and pro-fat social norms in Mexican schools: while anti-fat norms may particularly concern female, richer and urban students, pro-fat norms might persist among male, poorer and rural students. These findings have important implications for public policy, namely about awareness anti-obesity programmes. |
| Keywords: | Mexico,Childhood obesity,Central adiposity,Educational outcomes |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02935999&r=all |
| By: | Polina Bugakova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Ilya Prakhov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Despite the unified system of admission to universities in Russia, applicants can still face unequal access to higher education. This can lead to an inefficient choice of the educational strategy and result in the increased inequality. This paper analyzes the barriers which restrict the interregional accessibility of higher education in the context of the Unified State Exam (USE). We propose an analytical model, reflecting the influence of channels such as family, school characteristics, and place of birth, on the educational strategies of youth. We assume that these factors affect the likelihood of being enrolled at university both directly and indirectly through USE scores. Given the unequal regional economic development and the differences in educational opportunities, we argue that university choice can be limited for certain cohorts of applicants, depending on their place of origin, because of differences in the magnitude of the barriers. An empirical examination of the model, based on data from the longitudinal study ‘Trajectories in education and careers’, shows that students from Moscow or Moscow Region are most likely to enroll at university, since they face the lowest barriers. The problem of the accessibility of higher education is more acute for residents of large cities or regional capitals: their likelihood of matriculating is limited by a large number of factors (cognitive abilities, SES, school characteristics). Residents of other settlements (small towns or villages), are least likely to be admitted to university, facing the highest barriers and gender inequality. |
| Keywords: | higher education, accessibility of higher education, regional educational markets, the Unified State Exam |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:58edu2020&r=all |
| By: | Javier Aliaga Lordemann (Full Fellow Member at ABCE); Alejandra Terán Orsini (Junior Researcher at INESAD) |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to analyze the evolution of the Bolivian vehicle stock in the mid-term and its policy implications. First, we analyze the relationship between income and vehicle ownership in the country during the period 1970 - 2017 through robust econometric techniques. Based on these results, we use an energy-mix accounting model programmed in General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) to analyze how the vehicle fleet and the derived demand of gasoline, natural gas and diesel oil evolved over time. Finally, we observe the trajectory of CO2eq in the transport sector for different types of vehicle categories. Our results prove that the relationship between vehicle ownership and per capita income is highly non-linear and we observe an excessive increase in the vehicle fleet during the last decade. Both of these results will speed up the saturation level of the vehicle fleet in Bolivia. With more equivalented vehicles (EV) on the roads, we expect that the consumption of derivatives will increase over the next years. Hence, we assume imbalances in diesel oil and gasoline production and a lower decarbonization path. Without an energy policy in the transport sector or any energy efficiency measures, the consumption of derivatives would grow 6.9 times and the total emissions of CO2eq would increase 7.93 times in the 2000-2035 period. |
| Keywords: | Car ownership, integrated energy-transport modelling, energy-mix, emissions . |
| JEL: | H23 C25 L62 L9 O3 Q47 Q5 R4 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adv:wpaper:202004&r=all |
| By: | Maria C. Raven; Matthew J. Niedzwiecki; Margot Kushel |
| Abstract: | The authors evaluated whether randomization to permanent supportive housing (PSH) versus usual care reduces the use of acute health care and other services among chronically homeless high users of county†funded services. |
| Keywords: | criminal justice , frequent users , homelessness , integrated data , permanent supportive housing |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:a8ff833d2aa741ca8eb507f5aacc8f84&r=all |
| By: | Christopher R. Esposito; ; |
| Abstract: | This article studies how new locations emerge as advantageous places for the creation of ideas. Analysis of a novel patent-based dataset that traces the flow of knowledge between inventions and across time reveals that inventors initiate knowledge production in new places through a three-stage process. In the first stage, about 50 years before knowledge production in a region reaches an appreciable volume, local inventors begin to experiment with a few promising ideas developed in other places. In the second stage, inventors use the promising ideas developed elsewhere to create a large number of highly impactful inventions locally. In the third stage, inventors source high-impact ideas from their local environs and produce an even larger number of inventions, albeit of lower quality. Overall knowledge production in regions peaks in this third stage, but novelty and the potential for future knowledge growth decline. |
| Keywords: | Regional development, innovation, knowledge transmission, agglomeration |
| JEL: | O33 R12 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2046&r=all |
| By: | Selina McCoy (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin and Trinity College Dublin); Delma Byrne (National University of Ireland Maynooth and Geary Institute, University College Dublin); Pat O Connor (University of Limerick and Geary Institute, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with the underlying question of what shapes the assessment of children's mathematical ability: focusing particularly on parents' and teachers' perceptions of that ability in the context of children’s attainment (measured using standardised mathematics tests). We suggest that such perceptions may reflect the impact of gender stereotypes: overestimating boys' and underestimating girls' achievements in the area. The influence of the children's own interests, attitudes and behaviour on these gender stereotypical perceptions are also explored. The paper draws on the Growing Up in Ireland study, providing rich data on children, their families and school contexts. The results show that as early as nine years old, girls' performance at mathematics is being underestimated by teachers and primary care givers alike relative to boys'. While teacher (and parent) judgments reflect children's attitudes towards school and academic self-concept, as well as their actual performance, there remains a notable gender differential in judgements. The findings raise concerns for girls' subsequent mathematics performance and for their academic self-concept in a society where mathematics is highly valued as an indicator of intelligence. Importantly, in the context of the move towards teacher-assessed grading in many education systems during the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding, and challenging, gender-stereotyping by both parents and teachers becomes critically important. |
| Keywords: | Gender stereotypes; mathematics; teacher perception; parent perception; academic self-concept; academic performance |
| Date: | 2020–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:202010&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Magontier |
| Abstract: | While natural hazards have never been so frequent in modern history, the political economy of disaster preparation remains largely understudied. To prepare for natural disasters, local governments can adopt mitigation measures (e.g., infrastructure elevation, retrofitting, shelter construction, etc.). However, in doing so, there is a trade-off between risk reduction and risk disclosure as these initiatives may signal latent dangers of a place to unsuspecting homebuyers. Increased media coverage may ease this trade-off by revealing these dormant risks. I develop a measure of newspaper coverage of storms using data on newspapers’ circulation and occurrence of storms at the ZIP code level in the United States. Using the variation in this measure, I identify the effects of heightened media attention on local governments’ mitigation efforts under the Hazard Mitigation Grant program managed by FEMA. I find that when newspaper coverage is high, jurisdictions that have experienced severe storms tend to implement significantly more mitigation projects. Conversely, when coverage of storms is low, jurisdictions do not undertake mitigation projects after being hit by a storm. My results are primarily driven by ZIP codes with high pre-treatment levels of vacant housing units, housing units occupied by renters, and housing units owned with a mortgage. I argue that local governments may be strategically underinvesting in disaster preparation to avoid revealing their jurisdictions’ inherent risk to otherwise uninformed property investors. |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdv:wpaper:credresearchpaper29&r=all |
| By: | Erin Dillon; Steven Malick |
| Abstract: | These appendixes describes the methods and supporting analysis used in the study. |
| Keywords: | equal education, mathematical models, multivariate analysis, statistical analysis, teacher characteristics, teacher distribution, teacher effectiveness, teacher employment, teacher transfer, faculty mobility |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:386a8799de274bf1af6981b2ce699fb5&r=all |
| By: | Ekaterina Nastina (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Anna Almakaeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This research focuses on emancipative value orientations, regional factors and their interaction in determining social capital in Russia. We are especially interested in how the effects vary for formal and informal social capital, measured as different types of civic engagement. Applying multilevel regression modeling on national survey data MegaFOM 2017 and available official statistics, we find that emancipative values significantly increase the probability of taking part in civic activities, yet the effect is larger and more uniform across regions for formal social capital. Contrary to expectations and previous cross-country studies, the moderating effect of emancipative values prevalence is either insignificant or rather unstable and goes in the negative direction. Moreover, other regional resources do not significantly moderate the relation between individual emancipative values preference and social capital. |
| Keywords: | social capital, emancipative values, informal social capital, formal social capital, civic engagement, regional studies |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:95/soc/2020&r=all |
| By: | Eliasson, Jonas; Savemark, Christian; Franklin, Joel |
| Abstract: | When benefits of proposed infrastructure investments are forecasted, residential location is usually treated as fixed, since very few operational transport models are able to forecast residential relocation. It has been argued that this may constitute a source of serious error or bias when evaluating and comparing the benefits of proposed infrastructure investments. We use a stylized simulation model of a metropolitan region to compare calculated benefits for a large number of infrastructure investments with and without taking changes in residential location into account. In particular, we explore the changes in project selection when assembling an optimal project portfolio under a budget constraint. The simulation model includes endogenous land prices and demand for residential land, heterogeneous preferences and wage offers across residents, and spillover mechanisms which affect wage rates in zones. The model is calibrated to generate realistic travel patterns and demand elasticities. Our results indicate that ignoring residential relocation has a small but appreciable effect on the selected project portfolio, but only a very small effect on achieved total benefits. |
| Keywords: | Cost-benefit analysis, land use, wider impacts, land use/transport interaction models. |
| JEL: | R14 R40 R42 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103085&r=all |
| By: | Rebecca Allen (Teacher Tapp); John Jerrim (Social Research Institute, UCL Institute of Education, University College London); Sam Sims (Centre for Education Policy and Equaliising Opportunities, UCL Institute of Education, University College London) |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has radically disrupted schooling, placing additional demands on teachers. This paper uses unique longitudinal survey data to track changes in teacher wellbeing as the virus hit the UK. It documents sharp spikes in teachers' anxiety as schools were locked down and as announcements around reopening were made. Teachers in fee-paying schools displayed higher levels of anxiety during the summer term when schools were closed, most likely because they delivered more `live' online lessons than state school teachers. Head teachers experienced particularly large increases in anxiety and reported that they were more likely to leave the profession as a result of the experience. |
| Keywords: | teachers, wellbeing, mental health, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:20-15&r=all |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jenam and Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH)); Maria Kristalova (Friedrich Schiller University Jena); Michael Wyrwich (University of Groningen, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the reasons for the pronounced regional differences of new business formation after the transformation from a socialist planned system to a market economy in East Germany. Relatively high start-up rates are found in regions that had a well-qualified workforce and a relatively high share of remaining self-employed at the end of the socialist period. This also holds for high-tech manufacturing start-ups. Based on our conclusion that policy should account for these initial regional conditions, we use two criteria to introduce a classification of regions. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, new business formation, regional conditions, transformation, East Germany |
| JEL: | L26 R11 N94 P25 |
| Date: | 2020–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2020-014&r=all |
| By: | Bruno de Borger (University of Antwerp); Ismir Mulalic (Technical University of Denmark); Jan Rouwendal (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Most studies of the effects of transport infrastructure on the performance of individual firms have focused on marginal expansions of the rail or highway network over time. In this paper, we study the short-run effects of a large discrete shock in the quality of transport infrastructure, viz. the opening of the Great Belt bridge connecting the Copenhagen area with a neighboring island and the mainland of Denmark. We analyse the effect of the opening of the bridge on the productivity of firms throughout the country using a two-step approach: we estimate firm- and year-specific productivity for a large panel of individual firms, using the approaches developed by Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) and De Loecker (2011). Then, controlling for firm-fixed effects, we relate productivity to a calculated measure of accessibility that captures the effect of the opening of the bridge. We find large productivity effects for firms located in the regions near the bridge, especially for relatively small firms in the construction and retail industry. Estimation results further suggest statistically significant but small positive wage effects throughout the country, even in regions far from the bridge. Finally, there is some evidence that the bridge has stimulated new activities in the Copenhagen region at the expense of firms disappearing on the neighboring island Funen. |
| Keywords: | production functions, productivity, accessibility, agglomeration, transport infrastructure |
| JEL: | R12 H54 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190065&r=all |
| By: | Elie Murard (IZA - Institute of Labor Economics); Seyhun Orcan Sakalli (King’s Business School, King’s College Londo) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the long-term consequences of mass refugee inflow on economic develop-ment. After the Greco-Turkish war of 1919–1922, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forciblyresettled from Turkey to Greece, increasing the host population by more than 20% within afew months. To examine the long-term effects of this event, we build a novel geocoded datasetlocating refugee settlements across the universe of more than four thousand Greek municipali-ties that existed in 1920. Using a battery of empirical strategies relying on different margins ofspatial and temporal variation in the refugee inflow, we find that localities with a greater shareof Greek refugees in 1923 display higher level of prosperity and industrialization sixty yearsafter the event. These long-run benefits of refugees appear to be driven by the provision of newagricultural know-how and the transfer of technological knowledge in textile, which fosteredgrowth through higher diversity in complementary skills. The economic gains of the resettle-ment were lower in places where refugees were clustered in separate enclaves and where theirskills were less easily transferable due to local geographic conditions. |
| Keywords: | Refugees, Immigration, historical persistence, economic development |
| JEL: | O10 O43 N34 N44 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2005&r=all |
| By: | Kabir Dasgupta (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University); André Diegmann (Halle Institute for Economic Research,Centre for European Economic Research); Tom Kirchmaier (Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School); Alexander Plum (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to challenge the implicitly made assumption in the economics of crime literature that findings are universally applicable across cultures and race. Based on very precise judicial and demographic data from New Zealand we are able to replicate the results of an earlier study by Dustmann and Landersø (2018) across the average of the population. However, when splitting out by ethnicity we can show that the effect is entirely driven by the white part of the population and that there is no effect on the native Maori. The particular effect we are exploiting is the gender of the first-born child on convictions rates. The strong ethnic divide is observed along many dimensions. Our results serve as a caution that research can amplify implicit ethnic and racial bias. |
| Keywords: | Crime Research, Racial Bias |
| JEL: | K42 K49 L38 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:202010&r=all |
| By: | Edo, Anthony (CEPII, Paris); Ragot, Lionel (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Rapoport, Hillel (Paris School of Economics); Sardoschau, Sulin (Humboldt University Berlin); Steinmayr, Andreas (University of Munich); Sweetman, Arthur (McMaster University) |
| Abstract: | The share of the foreign-born in OECD countries is increasing, and this article summarizes economics research on the effects of immigration in those nations. Four broad topics are addressed: labor market issues, fiscal questions, the political economy of immigration, and productivity/international trade. Extreme concerns about deleterious labour market and fiscal impacts following from new immigrants are not found to be warranted. However, it is also clear that government policies and practices regarding the selection and integration of new migrants affect labour market, fiscal and social/cultural outcomes. Policies that are well informed, well crafted, and well executed beneficially improve population welfare. |
| Keywords: | immigration, labor market and fiscal effects of immigration, integration, diversity and productivity, trade and migration, political economy of immigration, refugees |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13755&r=all |
| By: | Gaia Narciso (Trinity College Dublin); Battista Severgnini (Copenhagen Business School); Gayane Vardanyan (Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | What is the long-run impact of large negative historical events on the individual decision to migrate? We investigate this research question by looking at the effect of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1850) on the long-run individual decision to migrate to the US during the Age of the Mass Migration. We construct a unique dataset based on two early 20th century Irish Censuses and the Ellis Island Administrative Records. This allows us to test whether the Great Irish Famine, one of the most lethal episodes of mass starvation in history, had a long-run impact on individuals’ migration decisions. Controlling for individual and geographical characteristics, we find that the Irish Famine was a significant long-run driver of individuals’ migration choices. |
| Keywords: | mass migration, negative shock, long-run impact, Great Famine |
| JEL: | F22 N33 N93 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2003&r=all |
| By: | Danny McGowan (University of Birmingham); Huyen Nguyen (Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), and Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate if lenders price or securitize mortgages to mitigate credit risk. Exploiting exogenous variation in regional credit risk created by differences in foreclosure law along US state borders, we find that financial institutions respond to the law in heterogeneous ways. In the agency market where Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) provide implicit loan guarantees, lenders transfer credit risk using securitization and do not price credit risk into mortgage contracts. In the non-agency market, where there is no such guarantee, lenders increase interest rates as they are unable to shift credit risk to loan purchasers. The results inform the debate about the design of loan guarantees, the common interest rate policy, and show that underpricing regional credit risk leads to an increase in the GSEs’ debt holdings by $79.5 billion per annum, exposing taxpayers to preventable losses in the housingmarket. |
| Keywords: | loan pricing, securitization, credit risk, GSEs |
| JEL: | G21 G28 K11 |
| Date: | 2020–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2020-013&r=all |
| By: | Hande Inanc; Megan McIntyre |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a stark rise in youth unemployment across the nation. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Youth, Unemployment, Race , Ethnicity |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:a9ab305fdff94a64b1e5f7176d58dfac&r=all |
| By: | Matthew Johnson; Daniel Thal |
| Abstract: | This report evaluates the impact of the Ewing Marion Kauffman School on student college enrollment, high school graduation, achievement, attendance, and suspensions. |
| Keywords: | Kauffman School, charter schools, student achievement, education, elementary education, secondary education, college enrollment |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:f0c4d4cd361948fba1c86f9e2ad27343&r=all |
| By: | Reham Rizk (The British University in Egypt); Ronia Hawash (Butler University) |
| Abstract: | Education inequality has always been a concern for policy makers due to its long-term and intergenerational impacts. This paper examines the determinants and the sources of education inequality among the youth in the MENA region using harmonized income and expenditure surveys. More attention is given to income and regional disparities as source of education inequality. The paper makes use of the Recentered Influence Functions (RIF) unconditional regression techniques to examine youth education inequality measured by years of schooling and to identify the determinants of Gini index of education across countries. The findings show that higher household income reduces education inequality among youth in Iraq and higher education expenditure reduces education inequality for youth in both Egypt and Iraq. Health expenditure is found to be having insignificant impact on education inequality for youth in all countries. Moreover, increasing the number of earners in the household reduce education inequality in both Jordan and Palestine and increases youth education inequality in Iraq and Egypt. It has been also deduced that rural regions are at a disadvantage in terms of educational attainment and educational inequality in comparison to urban regions across all countries and all income quartiles. The decomposition of rich-poor education inequality, reveals that the education gap among youth appear to increase for the poor compared to the rich. Finally, there is a declining trend in youth educational inequality over time for Egypt and Iraq. However, the gap seems to be widening for Jordan and Palestine. |
| Date: | 2020–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1394&r=all |
| By: | Marina Cavalieri (Università di Catania); Massimo Finocchiaro Castro (Università di Reggio Calabria); Calogero Guccio (Università di Catania) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between the presence of organised crime in government institutions and the educational outcomes achieved by primary school students undertaking the INVALSI test in Italy. To this purpose, we employ a contemporary index of mafia institutional infiltration that proxies the (scale of) values that parents transmit to their children and that are likely to impact on their educational achievements. Furthermore, combining contemporary individual-level educational outcomes with historical data on mafia infiltration, we control for endogeneity concerns through an IV strategy. Focusing on the outcomes obtained in the INVALSI tests and controlling for results manipulation, we show that the lowest test performance can be found in the southern regions of Italy, where the presence of organised crime is the highest. We interpret this result as a rational choice of families and students living in provinces affected by the presence of organised crime due to the lower expected returns to investment in education. The results are robust to the use of different measures of organised crime, to the inclusion of different sets of controls, different subsamples and to relaxing the exclusion restriction in the IV strategy. |
| Keywords: | organised crime, mafia-type organisations, education outcomes, investments in education, INVALSI, Italy |
| JEL: | D73 I21 H72 K42 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:97&r=all |
| By: | Benjamin Elsner; Jeff Concannon |
| Abstract: | One of the fundamental questions in the social sciences is whether modern welfare states can be sustained as countries welcome more immigrants. On theoretical grounds, the relationship between immigration and support for redistribution is ambiguous. Immigration may increase ethnic diversity, which may reduce the support for redistribution. On the other hand, natives may demand more redistribution as an insurance against labour market risks brought by immigration. In this chapter, we review the theoretical and empirical literature on immigration and redistribution from across the social sciences. We focus on two themes, namely the effect of immigration on natives’ support for redistribution, and the effect on the actual setting of tax and spending policies. Recent empirical evidence suggests that immigration lowers the support for redistribution and leads to lower taxation and spending. However, the magnitude of these effects appears to be highly context-dependent. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Redistribution; Public policy |
| JEL: | F22 H2 H4 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:202024&r=all |
| By: | Manudeep Bhuller (University of Oslo); Andreas R. Kostøl (Arizona State University); Trond C. Vigtel (University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | How the internet affects job matching is not well understood due to a lack of data on job vacancies and quasi-experimental variation in internet use. This paper helps fill this gap using plausibly exogenous roll-out of broadband infrastructure in Norway, and comprehensive data on recruiters, vacancies and job seekers. We document that broadband expansions increased online vacancy-postings and lowered the average duration of a vacancy and the share of establishments with unfilled vacancies. These changes led to higher job-finding rates and starting wages and more stable employment relationships after an unemployment-spell. Consequently, our calculations suggest that the steady-state unemployment rate fell by as much as one-fifth. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Information, Job Search, Matching |
| JEL: | D83 J63 J64 L86 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2002&r=all |
| By: | Chen, Zhenshan |
| Keywords: | Resource/Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304607&r=all |
| By: | Hernant, Mikael (Högskolan i Skövde (HIS), Institutionen för Handel och Företagande); Julander, Claes-Robert (Center for Retailing) |
| Abstract: | Much of what we know about the effects of competition on store performance emanate from SCP studies of grocery retail stores located in different geographical markets. These studies have provided empirical support for the notion that low competition endows firms with market power, enabling them to set higher prices compared to firms located in more competitive markets. However, to what extent the effect of competition on prices translates into higher gross margins and higher profits and profitability on the store level appears to be an unanswered question. One reason being that valid and reliable data on the profitability of individual stores never or very seldom are disclosed for research by retail companies. This study takes previous empirical research on the effects of local competition in retailing one step further, by investigating the relationships between competition and various aspects of economic performance of 168 supermarkets, all owned and managed by individual retailers affiliated to the voluntary ICA chain in Sweden. A unique database has been created by pooling data from income statements and balance sheets with details on local competition. Local competition is depicted in three dimensions: concentration, horizontal vs. intertype competition, and spatial monopoly. The main contribution of this study is that it establishes an empirical relationship between competition and bottom-line economic performance. The results show that competition has a significant effect on conduct and financial performance. In more competitive markets, supermarkets price lower, conduct “more” on non-price attributes, and achieve lower profitability compared to stores facing little competition. This study thus validates the SCP-paradigm and it explicitly shows that market power opportunities on the local market level is translated into higher profitability performance of stores. As such, the study has important implications for competition authorities’ actions as well as for retail management decisions. |
| Keywords: | Retailing; Competition; store profitability |
| Date: | 2020–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastma:2020_004&r=all |
| By: | Gadi Barlevy (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago); Jonas Fisher (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:append:20-5&r=all |
| By: | Nora Lustig (Tulane Economics); Yang Wang (Nanjing Audit University) |
| Abstract: | China is characterized by high prefiscal overall, urban-rural and regional inequality. Applying standard fiscal incidence analysis, we estimate the redistributive effect of taxes and social spending on income distribution and poverty. In particular, we estimate the effect of direct and indirect taxes, direct cash transfers, contributory pensions, indirect subsidies, and in-kind transfers (education and health) on overall inequality and poverty, the urban-rural income gap, and income inequality between regions. The results show that the fiscal system is inequality- reducing overall and between regions. However, the urban-rural gap rises and the postfiscal headcount ratio is higher than prefiscal poverty in rural areas. Both are undesirable outcomes given that rural residents are poorer. They are largely explained by the considerably lower contributory pensions received by rural residents. |
| Keywords: | Poverty and Inequality in China, Urban-Rural Gap, Regional Disparity, Taxes, Transfers, Incidence Analysis. |
| JEL: | D31 H22 I38 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2003&r=all |
| By: | Anping Chen (School of Economics, Jinan University); Nicolaas Groenewold (Economics Discipline, Business School, University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | Since 2007 China’s real GDP growth rate has slowed from a level of over 10% per annum to below 7%. Given China’s regional diversity, an important aspect of the slowdown is the possible spatial variation in its experience. This is the issue we consider in this paper and we analyse this question in the context of the regional economic resilience framework. We proceed in two stages. In the first we analyse a measure of provincial slowdown (a sensitivity index) and of the variability of the slowdown based just on growth rates and examine the correlation of these measure with a number of commonly-used provincial characteristics. In the second stage we decompose regional growth rates into national and province-specific components using a VAR model and argue that since resilience concerns the response of provinces to a national shock, it is properly analysed using just the national component of the growth rate rather than the growth rate as such. We therefore analyse a sensitivity index and a variability index based just on the national component of growth and find that this extension is important both for ranking provinces according to resilience and for correlations of resilience with determinants capturing provincial characteristics. Generally we find that provinces close to the coast with new- rather than old-industry structures are less resilient and tended to suffered greater variability in growth during the slowdown. |
| Keywords: | China, growth, provincial growth, provincial response, regional resilience |
| JEL: | E37 O47 O53 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:20-15&r=all |
| By: | Paul Vertier; Max Viskanic (Sciences Po); Matteo Gamalerio (Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB)) |
| Abstract: | Large migrant inflows have in the past spurred anti-immigrant sentiment, but is there a way small inflows can have a different impact? In this paper, we exploit the redistribution of migrants in the aftermath of the dismantling of the “Calais Jungle” in France to study the impact of the exposure to few migrants. Using an instrumental variables approach, we find that in the presence of a migrant center (CAO), the percentage growth rate of vote shares for the main far-right party (Front National, our proxy for anti-immigrant sentiment) between 2012 and 2017 is reduced by about 12.3 percentage points. Given that the Front National vote share increased by 20% on average between 2012 and 2017 in French municipalities, this estimation suggests that the growth rate of Front National votes in municipalities with a CAO was only 40% compared to the increase in municipalities without a CAO (which corresponds to a 3.9 percentage points lower increase). These effects, which dissipate spatially and depend on city characteristics, and crucially on the inflow’s size, point towards the contact hypothesis (Allport (1954)). |
| Keywords: | migrant inflows; voting |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/39r598j3pm8vmq8cj5p2pnev7v&r=all |
| By: | Matteo Tubiana (University of Bergamo); Ernest Miguelez (GREThA UMR CNRS 5113 - Université de Bordeaux); Rosina Moreno (AQR-IREA Research Group, University of Barcelona. Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics. Av. Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Innovation rarely happens through the actions of a single person. Innovators source their ideas while interacting with their peers, at different levels and with different intensities. In this paper, we exploit a dataset of disambiguated inventors in European cities to assess the influence of their interactions with co-workers, organizations’ colleagues, and geographically co-located peers, to understand if the different levels of interaction influence their productivity. Following inventors’ productivity over time and adding a large number of fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity, we uncover critical facts, such as the importance of city knowledge stocks for inventors’ productivity, with firm knowledge stocks and network knowledge stocks being of smaller importance. However, when the complexity and quality of knowledge is accounted for, the picture changes upside down and closer interactions (individuals’ co-workers and firms’ colleagues) become way more important. |
| Keywords: | Inventors, Productivity, Stock of knowledge, Interactions. JEL classification: O18, O31, O33, O52, R12. |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:202013&r=all |
| By: | Neil Bhutta; Andrew C. Chang; Lisa J. Dettling; Joanne W. Hsu |
| Abstract: | New data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) show that long-standing and substantial wealth disparities between families in different racial and ethnic groups were little changed since the last survey in 2016; the typical White family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times the wealth of the typical Hispanic family. |
| Date: | 2020–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2020-09-28-2&r=all |
| By: | Ira Nichols-Barrer; Nicholas Ingwersen; Elena Moroz; Matt Sloan |
| Abstract: | This report provides baseline results for the evaluation of the ILEI activity. |
| Keywords: | Georgia, international, education quality, school rehabilitation |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:b0bd20e3287a4b5583315f1d0afb5f3a&r=all |
| By: | Mikhail A. Vsemirnov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | With intensive industrialization process St. Petersburg faced with urbanization by the second half of the 19th century. Due to the transformation of the city green spaces became part of this pro-cess, so environmental as well as health care issues occurred at the center of public debates. It was then that issues related to urban green spaces occurred in the focus of public attention. They became the main topics in periodicals, as well as in special brochures and publications on urban development. Gardens and parks were perceived as an important element of the urban environ-ment, as a significant public good, and they were crucial due to the recreational and sanitary point of view, as places necessary for residents to relax and to improve their health while walking there. As a result, green spaces have become part of the process of forming the public sphere in St. Petersburg. Ceasing to be private, they gradually offered more leisure activities for all resi-dents of the city. However, the (re)making of green spaces in St. Petersburg was a result of a clash of interests of different actors involved – gardeners and architects, who were members of professional communities, and representatives of the city municipality. The same interest was paid by citizens whose voices are explicitly seen in periodicals. Each interest group had different vision of how urban gardens and parks should have been organized and functioned. Examining extensive body of sources that included journal and wallpaper publications and official docu-ments of the office of city authorities I would like to analyze how different communities of ex-perts that were involved in these transformations worked with nature in the urban environment and to focus on contested character of the emerging green public spaces. |
| Keywords: | green spaces, St. Petersburg in 19th century, urbanization, spatial history, urban history |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:190/hum/2020&r=all |
| By: | Maria Tsouri; ; |
| Abstract: | The proximity literature usually treats proximity in terms of common attributes shared by agents, disregarding the relative position of an actor inside the network. This paper discusses the importance of such dimension of proximity, labelled as in-network proximity, and proposes an empirical measurement for it, assessing its impact (jointly with other dimensions of proximity) on the creation of strong knowledge network ties in ICT in the region of Trentino. The findings show that actors with higher in-network proximity are more attractive for both other central actors and peripheral ones, which is further strengthening their position within the network. |
| Keywords: | knowledge networks, in-network proximity, strong ties, proximity dimensions |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2045&r=all |
| By: | Biasi, Barbara (Yale School of Management); Sarsons, Heather (University of Chicago Booth School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Does flexible pay increase the gender wage gap? To answer this question we analyze the wages of public-school teachers in Wisconsin, where a 2011 reform allowed school districts to set teachers' pay more flexibly and engage in individual negotiations. Using quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of the introduction of flexible pay driven by the expiration of preexisting collective-bargaining agreements, we show that flexible pay increased the gender pay gap among teachers with the same credentials. This gap is larger for younger teachers and absent for teachers working under a female principal or superintendent. Survey evidence suggests that the gap is partly driven by women not engaging in negotiations over pay, especially when the counterpart is a man. This gap is not driven by gender differences in job mobility, ability, or a higher demand for male teachers. We conclude that environmental factors are an important determinant of the gender wage gap in contexts where workers are required to negotiate. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, flexible pay, teacher salaries, bargaining |
| JEL: | J31 J71 J45 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13754&r=all |
| By: | Anna Bindler (University of Cologne and University of Gothenburg); Nadine Ketel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Little is known about the costs of crime to victims. We use unique and detailed register data on victimisations and monthly labour market outcomes from the Netherlands and estimate event-study designs to assess short- and long-term effects of criminal victimisation. Across offences, both males and females experience significant decreases in earnings (up to -12.9%) and increases in benefit receipt (up to +6%) after victimisation. The negative labour market responses are lasting (up to four years) and accompanied by shorter-lived responses in health expenditure. Additional analyses suggest that the victimisation is a life-changing event leading to escalation points in victims’ lives. |
| Keywords: | Crime; victimisation; labour market outcomes; event-study design |
| JEL: | K4 J01 J12 I1 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:030&r=all |
| By: | Tselios, Vassilis; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to assess the extent to which different levels of decentralisation across regions of the European Union (EU) affected citizens' perceptions about European integration over the period 1973-2002. The paper uses Eurobarometer Surveys to explore by means of multinomial logistic regressions whether decentralisation was an important factor behind the varying perceptions about Europe. Two dimensions of decentralization-political and fiscal-are considered in the analysis, alongside several compositional and contextual effects. The results of the analysis show that fiscal decentralisation was fundamental for citizens' support for European integration, while there is limited evidence that political decentralisation played a similar role. Hence, while fiscal decentralisation may have given prominence to the economic benefits of European integration, political decentralisation was more associated with its economic costs. Taking into account that history matters, this paper raises potentially interesting insights for the design of policies aimed at promoting social cohesion. |
| Keywords: | European Union; fiscal decentralisation; perceptions of attitudes; political decentralisation; regions |
| JEL: | H30 H72 |
| Date: | 2020–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:106617&r=all |
| By: | Todd Honeycutt; Janine Zweig; Megan Hague Angus; Sino Esthappan; Johanna Lacoe; Leah Sakala; Douglas Young |
| Abstract: | This report provides an overview of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s deep-end reform and the findings from the evaluation. It offers a high-level view of the Foundation’s activities related to the reform, the activities sites developed and implemented, and the successes and challenges that the Foundation and sites encountered. |
| Keywords: | Adolescents and Youth , Crime and Justice , Race and Ethnicity, Juvenile justice reform, developmental evaluation |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7ba8e8da86894816a93fa14a8fe76861&r=all |
| By: | Alexander M. Danzer (KU Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, IZA Bonn, CReAM, CESifo); Carsten Feuerbaum (KU Eichstaett-Ingolstadt , Max Planck Institute); Fabian Gaessler (Max Planck Institute) |
| Abstract: | While economic theory suggests substitutability between labor and capital, little evidence exists regarding the causal effect of labor supply on inventing labor-saving technologies. We analyze the impact of exogenous changes in regional labor supply on automation innovation by exploiting an immigrant placement policy in Germany during the 1990s and 2000s. Difference-in-differences estimates indicate that one additional worker per 1,000 manual and unskilled workers reduces automation innovation by 0.05 patents. The effect is most pronounced two years after immigration and confined to industries containing many low-skilled workers. Labor market tightness and external demand are plausible mechanisms for the labor-innovation nexus. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply, automation, innovation, patents, labor market tightness, quasi-experiment |
| JEL: | O31 O33 J61 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2014&r=all |
| By: | Christophe Andre (Economics Department, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France); David Gabauer (Data Analysis Systems, Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Hagenberg, Austria); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates spillovers between the housing sentiment index of Bork et al. (2020), common factors in US real housing returns and their volatility (derived from a time-varying dynamic factor model with stochastic volatility), GDP growth and real interest rates, using the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive version of the Diebold and Yilmaz (2012, 2014) methodology. We find that in contrast to spillovers from the common factor in housing returns, reverse spillovers are relatively weak. Net spillovers from the common factor of housing returns to housing sentiment and GDP increase durably after the Global Financial Crisis. This suggests that, while a shock to housing prices is likely to have a significant impact on housing sentiment and the economy, a purely exogenous shock to housing sentiment, may in itself have little impact on housing returns and volatility. |
| Keywords: | Common Housing Market Movements, Sentiment, Time-Varying Spillovers |
| JEL: | C32 R31 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:202091&r=all |
| By: | Bahar, Dany (Brookings Institution); Ibanez, Ana Maria (Inter-American Development Bank); Rozo, Sandra V. (USC Marshall School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Between 2014 and 2020 over 1.8 million refugees fled from Venezuela to Colombia as a result of a humanitarian crisis, many of them without a regular migratory status. We study the short- to medium-term labor market impacts in Colombia of the Permiso Temporal de Permanencia program, the largest migratory amnesty program offered to undocumented migrants in a developing country in modern history. The program granted regular migratory status and work permits to nearly half a million undocumented Venezuelan migrants in Colombia in August 2018. To identify the effects of the program, we match confidential administrative data on the location of undocumented migrants with department-monthly data from household surveys and compare labor outcomes in departments that were granted different average time windows to register for the amnesty online, before and after the program roll-out. We are only able to distinguish negative albeit negligible effects of the program on the formal employment of Colombian workers. These effects are predominantly concentrated in highly educated and in female workers. |
| Keywords: | migration, work permit, labor markets, amnesties |
| JEL: | F22 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13743&r=all |
| By: | Jeanette Schmidt (Johannes Gutenberg University); Stefan Irnich (Johannes Gutenberg University) |
| Abstract: | The generalized traveling salesman problem (GTSP) is the problem of finding a cost-minimal cycle in a clustered graph so that exactly one vertex of every cluster is contained in the cycle. We introduce three new GTSP neighborhoods that allow the simultaneous permutation of the sequence of the clusters and the selection of vertices from each cluster. The three neighborhoods and some known neighborhoods from the literature are combined into a simple but effective iterated local search (ILS) for the GTSP. The simplicity of the ILS consists in its straightforward random neighborhood selection within the local search and an ordinary record-to-record ILS acceptance criterion. The computational experiments on four symmetric standard GTSP libraries show that, with some small refinements, the ILS can compete with state-of-the-art algorithms, although it is simple in structure and less involved to code compared to many other metaheuristics. |
| Date: | 2020–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2020&r=all |
| By: | Stefano Basilico (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration); Holger Graf (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | The concept of Bridging Technologies (BTs) refers to technologies which are important for the regional knowledge base by connecting different fields and thereby enabling technological development. We provide analytical tools to identify BTs and study their evolution over time. We apply these tools on several levels. Our findings indicate that large patenting regions are not necessarily the ones that embed most new technologies in their Knowledge Space (KS). Our findings reveal that the German KS became less dependent on important technologies, such as transport, machinery and chemicals over the period 1995-2015. Changes in the German KS in terms of the development of new BTs are due to a regionally dispersed process rather than driven by single regions. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Spaces, Network Analysis, Bridging Technology, Revealed Relatedness, GPT, Centrality |
| JEL: | O33 O34 R11 |
| Date: | 2020–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2020-012&r=all |
| By: | Megan Hague Angus |
| Abstract: | This brief describes findings from a developmental evaluation of Annie E. Casey Foundation’s deep end reform effort. Those efforts, which aim to safely reduce the use of out of home placements for youth, especially those of color, in juvenile courts. The brief focuses on youth and family engagement as a major component of the reforms. |
| Keywords: | Adolescents and Youth , Families , Crime and Justice , Race and Ethnicity, Juvenile Justice System, Engagement |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:223d68a3da594e24808c686d116d12e6&r=all |
| By: | Manuel Hernandez (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)); Danilo Trupkin (Universidad de Buenos Aires) |
| Abstract: | Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:append:18-226&r=all |
| By: | Oosterbeek, Hessel (University of Amsterdam); ter Meulen, Simon (University of Amsterdam); van der Klaauw, Bas (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | To study the long-term effects of school-starting-age rules in a setting with early ability tracking, we exploit the birth month threshold used in the Netherlands. We find that students born just after the threshold perform better at the end of primary school than students born just before it. This translates into increased placement in high ability tracks in secondary education. This difference diminishes gradually during subsequent stages, and we find no effect on the highest attained educational level. Those born just before the threshold enter the labor market somewhat younger and therefore have more labor market experience and higher earnings at any given age until 40. We conclude that early ability tracking does not harm long-term outcomes of children who were, for exogenous reasons, placed in a lower track. |
| Keywords: | relative cohort age, school starting age, early tracking |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13751&r=all |
| By: | Stephen Lipscomb; Megan Shoji; Jeffery Terziev; Cheri A. Vogel; Nikki Aikens; Patricia Snyder; Margaret Burchinal |
| Abstract: | This set of tables presents national information from a study conducted by the National Center for Education Evaluation (NCEE). |
| Keywords: | Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, special education services, preschool children with disabilities, interventions |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:a58d8d82b940449891e910d09d2a33aa&r=all |
| By: | Ioannis Bournakis (Middlesex University); Mona Said (American University in Cairo); Antonio Savoia (University of Manchester); Francesco Savoia (University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | Income distribution is seen as instrumental to human development and to a number of development outcomes through a variety of channels. It is also considered important in itself, as testified by its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet existing research on income inequality in developing economies has not devoted much attention to the regional dimension. This is important, as progress in reducing income inequality at national level on SDG Goal 10 is only a partial success if a country presents large regional variation, where very unequal regions coexist alongside relatively equal ones. This paper contributes to fill this gap by offering a case study on Egypt, and adds to our knowledge of income inequality in the Arab region, an area that has not seen extensive empirical analysis. Using newly assembled data by LIS and a range of inequality measures, the paper shows that there has generally been an increase in income inequality during 1999-2015 and finds evidence of unconditional convergence in income distribution across Egyptian Governorates. This result implies that income inequality in less unequal regions grows faster than in more equal regions, regardless of regional characteristics. Second, the speed of convergence has not been uniform: sustained for most regions, but significantly slower or even lacking for some regions. Finally, convergence across regions has been significant also for the bottom forty per cent and proportion of people living below 50% median income, implying that maintaining this convergence process will be an important policy avenue to guarantee that progress on SDG 10 will be geographically widespread, achieving shared prosperity at both the national and regional level. |
| Date: | 2020–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1400&r=all |
| By: | Wang, Haoluan |
| Keywords: | Resource/Energy Economics and Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304382&r=all |
| By: | Zichen Deng (Norwegian School of Economics); Maarten Lindeboom (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of a massive salt iodization program on human capital formation of school-aged children in China. Exploiting province and time variation, we find a strong positive impact on cognition for girls and no effects for boys. For non-cognitive skills, we find the opposite. We show in a simple model of parental investment that gender preferences can explain our findings. Analyses exploiting within the province, village-level variation in gender attitudes confirm the importance of parental gender preferences. Consequently, large scale programs can have positive (and possibly) unintended effects on gender equality in societies with son preference. |
| Keywords: | Iodine, parental investments, gender attitudes, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | I15 J16 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2020–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20200067&r=all |
| By: | Björn Nilsson (Université Paris-Saclay); Racha Ramadan (Cairo University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to quantify the effects from migration on net income distributions, disentangling the roles played by factor reallocation and remittances, and focusing on two (primarily) destination countries (Spain and Italy) and two (primarily) origin countries (Jordan and Iraq). Using LIS-ERF data sets for the four countries; the paper relies separately on a variant of a shift-share instrument to identify the effect of migration on inequalities at the regional level in Spain and Italy, and on quantile regression to estimate the impact of receiving remittances on per capita expenditure in Iraq and Jordan. The results suggest that migration increases inequality in both origin and receiving countries. |
| Date: | 2020–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1390&r=all |