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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Buscha, Franz; Gorman, Emma; Sturgis, Patrick; Zhang, Min |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use linked Census data to document rates of intergenerational housing mobility across ethnic groups in England and Wales. While home ownership has declined across all ethnic groups, we find substantial differences between them, with Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi households experiencing the strongest intergenerational link between parent and child housing tenure, and Black individuals having the highest rates of downward housing mobility. In contrast, those of Indian origin have homeownership rates similar to White British families, and a weaker link between parent and child housing tenure. These patterns are likely, in turn, to exacerbate existing gradients in other dimensions of ethnicity-based inequality now and in the future. |
| Keywords: | housing, social mobility, wealth transmission, ethnicity |
| JEL: | J62 I24 R31 P46 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1222&r=ure |
| By: | Jan K. Brueckner; Wenhua Liu; Wei Xiao; Junfu Zhang |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of a large-scale administrative reorganization in China, where counties are annexed into cities to accommodate urban growth. We present a simple model to illustrate how this annexation may affect firm entry decisions and in turn land market outcomes. Using nationwide data on land-lease transactions, we find that annexation raises industrial land prices in the annexed counties by 7 percent but does not reduce land prices in neighboring counties and central cities. We show that the annexed counties experienced increases in firm entry and investment, offering a plausible mechanism for the effect on industrial land prices. |
| Keywords: | urban growth, industrial land prices, annexation, China |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R14 R33 R58 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10181&r=ure |
| By: | Howard Chernick; Andrew Reschovsky (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the fiscal health of 148 U.S. central cities using a specially constructed Fiscally Standardized Cities (FiSC) database that accounts for the revenues and spending of all the governments that provide public services in cities – municipal governments, school districts, counties, and special districts. These data permit comparisons of city finance between cities with widely different governance structures. The fiscal health of a city is defined as the relationship between its expenditure needs and its revenue-raising capacity. The expenditure needs calculations are obtained from regressions of six separate categories of spending. The analysis makes it possible to identify variables that are likely to affect the cost of providing different types of local public services. Tax capacity is measured by applying average tax rates to the major tax bases used by each FiSC in the database. User-charge capacity is based on residents’ ability to pay. Own-source fiscal capacity is supplemented by grants from the federal and state governments. The empirical analysis is based on a panel dataset for 2000 through 2014. The results indicate that that a substantial number of U.S. cities are in weak fiscal health because their revenue-raising capacity, including intergovernmental transfers, falls short of their expenditure needs. Fiscal disparities, measured as the variation in these fiscal gaps, were large in both 2000 and 2014 and increased over that period. On average, own-source revenue-raising capacity grew much faster than intergovernmental transfers. The largest single contributor to the increase in fiscal disparities was the uneven growth in own-source revenue-raising capacity across cities. Targeted increases in federal and state grants could help improve the fiscal health of U.S. central cities and reduce fiscal disparities. |
| Keywords: | municipal finance, urban fiscal health, municipal revenue, municipal spending, fiscal capacity, expenditure need, transfers, intergovernmental relations |
| JEL: | H71 H72 H75 H76 H77 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mfg:wpaper:63&r=ure |
| By: | Stephen B. Billings; Mark Hoekstra; Gabriel Pons Rotger |
| Abstract: | Recent research documents a causal impact of place on the long-run outcomes of children. However, little is known about which neighborhood characteristics are most important, and at what scale neighborhood effects operate. By using the random assignment of public housing along with administrative data from Denmark, we get inside the “black box” of neighborhood effects by defining neighborhoods using various characteristics and scales. Results indicate effects on mental health and especially education are large but local, while effects on drug possession operate on a much broader scale. Additionally, unemployment and education are better predictors of outcomes than neighborhood income. |
| JEL: | I38 K42 R23 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30764&r=ure |
| By: | Rainald Borck; Philipp Schrauth |
| Abstract: | We use worldwide satellite data to analyse how population size and density affect urban pollution. We find that density significantly increases pollution exposure. Looking only at urban areas, we find that population size affects exposure more than density. Moreover, the effect is driven mostly by population commuting to core cities rather than the core city population itself. We analyse heterogeneity by geography and income levels. By and large, the influence of population on pol-lution is greatest in Asia and middle-income countries. A counterfactual simulation shows that PM2.5 exposure would fall by up to 36% and NO2 exposure up to 53% if within countries population size were equalized across all cities. |
| Keywords: | population density, air pollution, gridded data |
| JEL: | Q53 R12 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10171&r=ure |
| By: | Barajas, Jesus M; Wang, Weijing |
| Abstract: | This report describes the scope and scale of car access in rural areas, identifies barriers that rural zero-car and car-deficit households face in their mobility and access, and proposes personal and policy-level adaptations that would help these households achieve their mobility and access needs using descriptive analysis from US census microdata and interviews with 22 residents of California’s Central Valley. Results indicate that 5% of rural residents are fully carless and 18% live in a car-deficit household with less than one vehicle per adult. Both zero-car and car-deficit households tend to be in the Central Valley. Zero-car and car-deficit households in rural areas tend to be more socioeconomically disadvantaged than in nonrural areas. Both groups earn lower household incomes, are more likely to be Black, Latino, or Asian, have lower educational attainment, have more disabilities, have higher housing-cost burdens, and are more likely to be unemployed than their counterparts in nonrural areas. Almost half of workers in rural zero-car households drive alone to work compared to about a quarter in nonrural zero-car households, while mode shares are similar for car-deficit and car fully equipped households. Rural zero-car households are more likely to carpool and far less likely to take public transit. Three major themes emerged from the interviews. First, a commonality uniting the interview participants was the practice of relying on their social networks to get rides or obtain vehicle access. Second, the cost of car ownership and operation was high, placing vehicles out of reach for many. Third, alternatives to car access included public transit, medical transportation services, and car sharing, put poor availability often caused individuals to forgo trips. Interview participants shared a variety of options they saw as solutions to overcoming their barriers to lack of car access. While obtaining a vehicle was not absent from their preferred solutions, most preferred better personal access to transportation without the burden of private car ownership. The findings from demonstrate some of the complexities to consider when addressing transportation barriers in rural areas, where carlessness is less prevalent but solutions may be harder to implement than in urban areas. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Rural transportation, mobility justice, zero-car households, vehicle access |
| Date: | 2023–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0dv3b769&r=ure |
| By: | Rajesh Raj; Rath D.P. |
| Abstract: | The “club convergence” of sub-national house prices has so far been studied in respect of a number of advanced economies and emerging markets, but not for India. As such, this study contributes to this gap in literature by analyzing long-run convergence of regional house prices for a major emerging market. This study finds that city house prices in India do not converge to a single steady state, rather they form at least three clusters and converge to their respective steady state paths. The house prices are found to display conditional convergence driven by several factors, which inter alia include initial price levels, mortgage loans, and population density. The outcome of this study could be useful for policy makers in designing cluster-specific policy measures. It could also be useful for real estate fund managers, in achieving better fund diversification strategies, and the mortgage market forecasters, in reduced forecasting and modelling efforts. <p> La convergence à long terme des prix des logements infranationaux a été étudiée jusqu'à présent pour un certain nombre d'économies avancées et de pays émergents, mais pas pour l'Inde. Cette étude contribue à combler cette lacune de la littérature en analysant la convergence à long terme des prix de l’immobilier régionaux pour un marché émergent majeur. Cette étude montre que les prix des logements dans les villes indiennes ne convergent pas vers un état stable unique, mais qu'ils forment plutôt au moins trois groupes et convergent vers leurs états stables respectifs. Les prix de l’immobilier affichent une convergence conditionnelle déterminée par plusieurs facteurs, notamment les niveaux de prix initiaux, les prêts hypothécaires et la densité de population. Les résultats de cette étude pourraient être utiles aux décideurs politiques pour concevoir des mesures politiques spécifiques aux clusters. Ils pourraient également être utiles aux gestionnaires de fonds immobiliers, pour mettre en place de meilleures stratégies de diversification des fonds, et aux prévisionnistes du marché hypothécaire, pour réduire les efforts de prévision et de modélisation. |
| Keywords: | House Prices, Mortgage Market, Loans, Convergence, Club, Sub-National, India; Prix des maisons, marché hypothécaire, prêts, convergence, club, sous-national, Inde |
| JEL: | O18 R3 R21 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:893&r=ure |
| By: | Kristle Cortés; Mandeep Singh; David H. Solomon; Philip Strahan |
| Abstract: | In Australian real estate markets, about a third of properties are sold at auction. We show that properties that fail auctions sell later for a 2.6% discount. This effect increases for properties failing multiple auctions and when no bids are made. Consistent with a causal channel, the effect holds when auction failure is instrumented by the tendency of owners to anchor on nearby better properties (and thus set reserve prices too high). Prices cluster just below salient round numbers, and the discount fades over time, inconsistent with our effects reflecting unobserved property characteristics. We test for several mechanisms and conclude that most of the pricing discounts reflect stigma, which reduces potential buyers’ willingness to pay. |
| JEL: | G40 R3 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30760&r=ure |
| By: | Elias Asproudis (Swansea University); Cigdem Gedikli (Swansea University); Oleksandr Talavera (University of Birmingham); Okan Yilmaz (Swansea University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to estimate the returns to solar panels in the UK residential housing market. Our analysis applies a causal machine learning approach to Zoopla property data containing about 5 million observations. Drawing on meta-learner algorithms, we provide strong evidence fortifying that solar panels are directly capitalized into sale prices. Our results point to a selling price premium above 6 percent (range between 6.2 percent to 6.9 percent depending on the meta-learner) associated with solar panels. Considering that the average selling price is 230, 536 GBP in our sample, this corresponds to an additional 14, 293 GBP to 15, 906 GBP selling price premium for houses with solar panels. Our results are robust to traditional hedonic pricing models and matching techniques. |
| Keywords: | solar panels; residential housing market; sale prices; machine-learning; meta-learners |
| JEL: | R21 R31 Q42 Q5 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:23-01&r=ure |
| By: | Elena Meschi; Caterina Pavese |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI), this paper investigates whether the ability of classmates affects the educational attainment of immigrant students. We focus not only on the average quality of peers in the class, but we further investigate which part of the ability distribution of peers drives the effect, by assessing the role played by the extreme tails of the ability distribution. Our empirical strategy addresses students’ endogenous sorting into classes by exploiting the within-student across-subjects variation in achievements and the simultaneity problem by using predetermined measures of peers’ ability. We show that peers’ ability matters. While native students are mostly influenced by the average quality of their peers, immigrant children are detrimentally affected by the fraction of very low achievers in the classroom. Our findings provide valuable guidance to policymakers concerning the allocation of students to classes in order to foster immigrant students’ integration and learning. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, Immigrant students, Education. |
| JEL: | J15 I21 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:508&r=ure |
| By: | Yit Wey Liew (Monash University); Muhammad Habibur Rahman (Durham University); Audrey Kim Lan Siah (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how the historical rail stations condition long-run development, using Colonial Malaya as a laboratory. Constructing a novel historical data on rail stations, agglomeration centers, tin mines and rubber plantations dated back to a century and matching with contemporary data on economic activity at one-kilometer cell level, we find that the earlier a region obtains rail stations, the higher level of economic activity it performs today due to agglomeration economies. These results hold even in regions that have already abandoned colonial stations. This study signifies the role of investment on transport infrastructure to accelerate local economic activity. |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dur:durham:2023_01&r=ure |
| By: | Javier Ferri; Francisca Herranz-Baez |
| Abstract: | Increased public spending to combat an economic recession caused by a housing demand shock can significantly harm investment and employment in the housing sector, despite its positive effect on GDP. In terms of the extent of this decoupling between output at the aggregate level and in the housing sector, we find that the easier it is to reallocate employment between production sectors, the lower the reaction of hours worked to wages, and the higher the level of household indebtedness, the more pronounced the decoupling is. Using a Dynamic General Equilibrium model that incorporates a housing construction sector, we find that fiscal stimulus causes an increase in the production of tradable goods that incentivizes the demand for labor and capital, leading to higher wages, which pulls workers out of the construction sector and negatively affects residential investment and total credit. The result is a widespread welfare loss that especially hurts borrowers. Our study offers different possible explanations for the lack of consensus in the empirical evidence on the effects of fiscal policy on the construction sector. |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2023-01&r=ure |
| By: | Pauline Givord (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE), LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | This study provides new empirical evidence of birthday effects over a range of educational and socioemotional outcomes. It relies on data from the recent cycles of the Program for International School Assessment (PISA) for six European countries. Age at entry has a significant and sizeable impact on cognitive outcomes for 15-year-old students as measured in PISA. The magnitude of the birthday effects on socioemotional skills varies, but overall the results suggest that those students who enter school relatively younger have more negative relationships with their teachers and peers at school. These students also have lower intrinsic motivation and self-esteem and have less ambitious educational expectations than their peers who entered school older. |
| Keywords: | Birthday effects, PISA, Instrumental variables, socioemotional outcomes |
| Date: | 2021–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03386582&r=ure |
| By: | Prithwiraj Choudhury; Kirk Doran; Astrid Marinoni; Chungeun Yoon |
| Abstract: | We study how restrictive immigration policies and the unexpected loss of peers affect the performance of skilled migrants, exploiting the unexpected increased denials of H-1B visa extensions in the United States beginning in 2017. We find that employees who lost peers of the same ethnic background experience a substantial decrease in individual performance. To resolve the endogeneity surrounding visa denial decisions, we build an instrumental variable that exploits the fixed duration of the visas. Our mechanism tests suggest that ethnic ties boost individual performance through preferential channels of knowledge and information spillovers. |
| JEL: | J24 J61 L25 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10152&r=ure |
| By: | Arthur Guillouzouic (IPP - Institut des politiques publiques, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Emeric Henry (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Joan Monras (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UPF - Universitat Pompeu Fabra [Barcelona]) |
| Abstract: | Using French data, we provide: a) causal evidence that a drop in local public goods provision decreases private sector activity, and b) evidence consistent with monopsony power of the public sector in local labor markets. We introduce a public sector with these two key characteristics in an otherwise standard spatial equilibrium model, and show that it delivers the main stylized facts established in our data, in particular, that the share of the public sector relative to the private is independent of the productivity of the city. We emphasize the tradeoffs between allowing governments to freely choose local public employment and wages (as in most of the US public sector), versus imposing rules that constrain public sector pay with some indexation to the local cost of living (as in many European countries). We show that wage indexation limits monopsony power – leading to a larger public sector – and is optimal if the indexation is sufficiently strong. |
| Keywords: | Local public goods, Public service, Market power, Spatial economics |
| Date: | 2021–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03389155&r=ure |
| By: | Pierre Cahuc (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Stéphane Carcillo (Sciences Po - Sciences Po, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics); Andreea Minea (Sciences Po - Sciences Po, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of the labor market experience of high school dropouts four years after leaving school by sending fictitious résumés to real job postings in France. Compared to those who have stayed unemployed since leaving school, the callback rate is not raised for those with employment experience, whether it is subsidized or nonsubsidized, if there is no training accompanied by skill certification. We find no stigma effect associated with subsidized work experience. Moreover, training accompanied by skill certification improves youth prospects only when the local unemployment rate is sufficiently low, which occurs in one-fifth of the commuting zones only. |
| Date: | 2021–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03878721&r=ure |
| By: | Ashley Bradford; Johanna Catherine Maclean |
| Abstract: | Stable housing is critical for health, employment, education, and other social outcomes. Evictions reflect a form of housing instability that is experienced by millions of Americans each year. Inadequately treated psychiatric disorders have the potential to influence evictions in several ways. For example, these disorders may impede labor market performance and thus the ability to pay rent, or increase the likelihood of risky and/or nuisance behaviors that can lead to a lease violation. We estimate the effect of local access to psychiatric treatment on eviction rates. We combine data on the number of psychiatric treatment centers that offer outpatient and residential care within a county with eviction rates in a two-way fixed-effects framework. Our findings imply that ten additional psychiatric treatment centers in a county lead to a reduction of 2.1% in the eviction rate. |
| JEL: | I1 R0 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30766&r=ure |
| By: | Sangyup Choi (Yonsei University); Kimoon Jeong (Yonsei University); Jiseob Kim (Yonsei University) |
| Abstract: | What accounts for contrasting economic paths between core and periphery countries in the euro area? Unlike many studies focusing on fiscal problems, we highlight the interplay of bank mortgage lending standards and imbalances created by the common monetary policy framework. To illustrate the mechanism, we derive a country-specific monetary policy stance gap and estimate the panel VAR model of core and periphery countries, respectively. While the widening monetary policy stance gap—the accommodative stance of the ECB given individual economic conditions—induces a similar increase in the demand for mortgage credit in both regions, it is followed by sharply different responses of the supply side of mortgage credit: bank mortgage lending standards are relaxed (tightened) in periphery (core) countries, which can rationalize vastly different paths in mortgage credit, residential investment, and housing prices between the two Europes. In searching for the source of different bank lending behaviors, we find that banks in core countries, where macroprudential policies on mortgage credit are tightened and bank lending margin decreases, increase their cross-border lending to periphery countries, which could fuel excessive risk-taking in periphery countries. |
| Keywords: | Euro area; Mortgage credit; Monetary policy stance gap; Bank lending survey; Macroprudential policy; Cross-border banking flows; Panel VARs. |
| JEL: | E21 E32 E44 F52 G21 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yon:wpaper:2023rwp-209&r=ure |
| By: | Giovanni Peri; Reem Zaiour |
| Abstract: | From the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to late 2021, international immigration flows to the US decreased significantly. We document the timing and the characteristics of these significant changes in flows, their evolution until late 2022 and their geographic and sector distribution. We consider, in a similar way, changes in internal native mobility in the US, before and after Covid-19. We then connect cross-state native mobility to foreign immigration, the emergence of remote-work options, and changes in labor demand, before and after Covid. In spite of the large changes in labor markets and international migration, we do not measure any significant changes in native internal mobility. Then, using a panel regression and a shift-share IV, we find that the post-Covid drop in immigration and differential increase in remote-work options across sectors and states were not associated with changes in natives' cross-state mobility. We discuss possible implications of the decline in immigration and low native mobility on unfilled jobs in local labor markets. |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30811&r=ure |
| By: | Huh, Mun-Gu (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) |
| Abstract: | The concentration of income, jobs, and population in the Greater Seoul area (SMA) adds to the problems of regions outside of the capital area, creating a major headache for a government pursuing a goal of balanced national development. Unless structural problems that hinder such development are rectified, such as the two-tiered labor market, the spatial gap in asset values, the irrelevance of provincial universities, and the side effects of the centralized government system, migration to the SMA is unlikely to stop. Many policies have sought to promote balanced development, but the results have yielded results contrary to what was expected. Under a motto of equal opportunity regardless of location, the Yoon administration has made three pledges and designated 15 national tasks for balanced national development. These tasks seek to level an uneven playing field, one currently in which access to quality education and financial assets are determined by birth and where one grows up. These policy measures also seek to tackle other structural problems hindering to balanced development. This paper looks at the administration's three pledges and 15 policy tasks as part of a vision for decentralization, including the opportunity development zone (ODZ), a key project in a move toward market-friendly decentralization that marks a departure from the policies of previous administrations. This paper concludes with policy recommendations to achieve this decentralization, such as overhauling the control tower for decentralized and balanced national development, developing three strategies and 10 core tasks to support the Fifth Five-year Balanced National Development Plan, devising a system to coordinate and review regional policy tasks, and streamlining the special account. |
| Keywords: | Regional Policy; Opportunity Development Zone; ODZ; Balanced National Development |
| JEL: | R12 R13 R58 |
| Date: | 2022–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kietrp:2022_012&r=ure |
| By: | Chryso Aristidou (Central Bank of Cyprus); George Thucydides (Central Bank of Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to examine the main driving force(s) of residential property prices during various periods, via historical decomposition. This is achieved by establishing the contribution of di?erent structural shocks to the historical dynamics of the residential property price index. For every quarter in the sample, the growth rate of the residential property price index is decomposed into its di?erent components in order to assess the driving forces behind residential property prices ?uctuations. In e?ect, an insight into possible disconnection of property prices and economic fundamentals could potentially also be gained, thus providing indications of possible vulnerabilities building up in the sector, which would in turn impose risks on fnancial stability. Furthermore, emphasis is given on the recent surge in construction costs which is shown to play a predominant role in the recent residential property price dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Construction cost, Residential Property Price Index (RPPI), Historical Decomposition |
| JEL: | C11 C32 R30 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cyb:wpaper:2022-3&r=ure |
| By: | Jørn Rattsø (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Hildegunn E Stokke (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | Studies of wage inequality concentrate on private wages. Public sector wages are typically assumed to contribute to overall wage equality. We challenge this understanding in an analysis of the relative skill premium in public versus private sectors. The analysis of heterogeneity across gender and geography is based on rich register data for Norway. The raw data confirm the relative wage compression in the public sector. However, this is a male phenomenon and only prevalent in large cities when unobserved worker and firm characteristics are taken into account. With identification based on shifters between private and public sectors and movers between city-size groups, wage setting for female workers in the public sector increases wage inequality in all regions, particularly in the periphery. The result is consistent with policies promoting recruitment of high-educated female workers and expansion of public services in the periphery counterbalancing the desired equality effect of public wages. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality, skill premium, geography, private-public wages |
| JEL: | J31 J45 R23 |
| Date: | 2022–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:19522&r=ure |
| By: | Choi, Younjeong (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) |
| Abstract: | The Korean real estate brokerage sector has grown in size thanks to rising real estate prices and transaction volumes. Despite its importance, the industry offers low consumer utility and relatively slow innovation due to lack of incentives for competition in the quality of service and prices compared to other service sectors. As online platforms begin to offer the same services, however, the real estate brokerage market is showing signs of change, with stiffer competition, discounted fees, and improvements to the quality of service. As a result, consumers stand to benefit from better brokerage services at lower prices. Fears have risen, however, of online platforms charging higher fees to market players than other service sectors and engaging in unfair trade practices. Improving the competitiveness of the sector requires players in the market innovate. Moreover, policy measures are urgently needed to enable a win-win partnership between market players and online platforms in the sector. |
| Keywords: | Korean Real Estate Brokerage Sector; Brokerage Market; Brokerage Service; Market Innovate |
| JEL: | G24 L85 |
| Date: | 2022–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kietrp:2022_015&r=ure |
| By: | Guglielmo Maria Caporale; Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana |
| Abstract: | This paper uses fractional integration methods to examine persistence, trends and structural breaks in US house prices, more specifically the monthly Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index for Census Divisions, and the US as a whole over the period from January 1991 to August 2022. The full sample estimates imply that the order of integration of the series is above 1 in all cases, and is particularly high for the aggregate series. However, when the possibility of structural breaks is taken into account, segmented trends are detected; the subsample estimates of the fractional differencing parameter tend to be lower, with mean reversion occurring in a number of cases, and the time trend coefficient being at its highest in the last subsample, which in most cases starts around May 2020. |
| Keywords: | US house prices, fractional integration, persistence, trends, structural breaks |
| JEL: | C22 E30 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10143&r=ure |
| By: | Azzoni, Carlos R. (Departamento de Economia, Universidade de São Paulo); Castro, Gustavo H. L. (Departamento de Economia, Universidade de São Paulo) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the effects of two recent crises on regional disparities in Brazil. We consider the impact of The Great Recession of 2008 and a more intense national crisis starting in 2014. We calculate the yearly average latitude and longitude weighted by the regional share of the national GDP between 2002 and 2019 for agriculture, manufacturing, commerce & services, government, and the aggregate value added. We analyze the evolution of the average latitude and longitude over the period to check for changes in their trends after the national shocks. We analyze per capita income dispersion and associate it with the national economic performance. We estimate convergence equations, introducing the effect of the two crises on the convergence of per capita income and average wage. We present the effect of the Covid-19 crisis on regional wage convergence. Finally, we analyze the convergence pattern of skill intensity across regions, highlighting the impacts caused by the two shocks. |
| Keywords: | cycles and regional inequality; economic center of gravity; labor skill intensity |
| JEL: | R10 |
| Date: | 2023–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nereus:2023_001&r=ure |
| By: | Rosa Weber (INED - Institut national d'études démographiques, Stockholm University); Louisa Vogiazides (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Migrant integration is theoretically conceived as a multidimensional process where integration in one life domain does not necessarily imply integration in another domain. An expanding literature analyses several aspects of the lives of migrants and their children. However, to date research has mainly assessed how attainment in one life domain influences attainment in another domain. This study analyses the extent to which attainment across multiple life domains–socioeconomic, social and residential–coincides among second-generation migrants. Using Swedish register data, we compare 10, 450 children of migrants from six regions of origin, who were aged 30–40 in 2015, to individuals born in Sweden with two Swedish-born parents. Multigenerational linkages moreover allow us to control for parental socioeconomic status as well as residential characteristics when growing up. Our analyses reveal considerable disparities in social and residential outcomes between second-generation migrants and the Swedish majority group, as well as across origin groups. Differences in socioeconomic attainment are comparatively small once we account for parental characteristics and residential background. Second-generation Turkish and Middle Eastern migrants differ in terms of their social and residential outcomes when compared to the Swedish majority group, but have commensurate socioeconomic attainment. In contrast, we find overall consistency across domains for Polish, ex-Yugoslav and Latin American second-generation migrants. Our findings underline the importance of studying outcomes in multiple domains in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the life situation of second-generation migrants. |
| Keywords: | attainment, second-generation migrants, integration, socioeconomic background, register data, Sweden |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03899393&r=ure |
| By: | Seger, Julian; Stoner, Kristina; Pfnuer, Andreas |
| Abstract: | Purpose The purpose of this study is to find out if corporate real estate ownership is priced into the capital market performance of non-property companies in the UK. This is of particular interest because ownership still represents a significant weight on the balance sheets and is predominantly considered unfavourable due to its bulkiness and difficult revisability in the event of changes in space demand. This draws attention to the UK as one of the most important European economies that have been exposed to strong uncertainties and dynamics, for example, due to the withdrawal voting of the United Kingdom from the European Union (BREXIT). Design/methodology/approach A first look at the real estate assets reported in balance sheets provides insight into possible changes in ownership strategy. This serves as a basis for subdividing companies based on their real estate assets using a portfolio-based approach and that are then analysed using the Fama and French multi-factor model with regard to their influence on capital market returns. Findings In general, the share of real estate assets has fallen over the past 10 years, although coinciding with BREXIT voting, some industries such as manufacturing show a turnaround. At the same time, ownership is priced in as a factor on the capital market, which applies to a sample across industries, as well as to separately considered sectors in the manufacturing and service industries. The pricing also shows a counter-cyclical pattern. Practical implications Corporate real estate management should be aware of the negative influence of ownership, especially against the background of economic fluctuations. The reduction of ownership can reduce the associated cost of capital and increase company success. Originality/value Previous UK-related studies mostly refer to a period before the global economic crisis in 2008, and therefore, are too old to reflect a changed view on corporate real estate ownership because of new corporate environmental conditions, based on inaccurate proxies or mainly refer to the retail segment. This research gap is closed |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:135840&r=ure |
| By: | Julien Grenet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Hans Grönqvist (Linnaeus University, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Susan Niknami (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Electronic monitoring (EM) is a popular instrument to reduce large prison populations. Evidence on the effects of EM on criminal recidivism is, however, limited and it is unclear how this alternative to incarceration affects the labor market outcomes of offenders. Moreover, little is known about potential spillover effects on family members. We study the introduction of EM in Sweden in 1997 wherein offenders sentenced to up to three months in prison were given the possibility to avoid entering prison by substituting to EM. Our difference-indifferences estimates comparing the change in the prison inflow rate of eligible offenders to that of non-eligible offenders with slightly longer sentences show that the reform dramatically decreased incarcerations. Our main finding is that EM lowers criminal recidivism and improves offenders' labor market outcomes. There is also some evidence of improvements in the short and intermediate run outcomes of the children of the offenders. The main channels through which EM operates seem to be by allowing offenders to maintain regular work and potentially also by reducing employer discrimination. Our calculations suggest that the social benefits of EM are at least six to nine times larger than the fiscal savings from reduced prison expenditure. This makes the welfare improvements from EM potentially much greater than what has been previously recognized. |
| Keywords: | Electronic monitoring, Incarceration, Labor supply, Crime, Spillovers |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03920372&r=ure |
| By: | Yann Algan (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Clément Malgouyres (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IPP - Institut des politiques publiques); Thierry Mayer (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales - Centre d'analyse stratégique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Mathias Thoenig (UNIL - Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how economic incentives influence cultural transmission, using a crucial expression of cultural identity: Child naming decisions. Our focus is on Arabic versus Non-Arabic names given in France over the 2003-2007 period. Our model of cultural transmission features three determinants: (i) vertical (parental) cultural transmission culture; (ii) horizontal (neighborhood) influence; (iii) information on the economic penalty associated with Arabic names. We find that economic incentives largely influence naming choices: Would the parental expectation on the economic penalty be zero, the annual number of babies born with an Arabic name would be more than 50 percent larger. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Economics, Cultural Transmission, First Names, Social Interactions |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:halshs-03105274&r=ure |
| By: | Stefano Carattini; Kenneth Gillingham; Xiangyu Meng; Erez Yoeli |
| Abstract: | Observability has been demonstrated to influence the adoption of pro-social behavior in a variety of contexts. This study implements a field experiment to examine the influence of observability in the context of a novel pro-social behavior: peer-to-peer solar. Peer-to-peer solar offers an opportunity to households who cannot have solar on their homes to access solar energy from their neighbors. However, unlike solar installations, peer-to-peer solar is an invisible form of pro-environmental behavior. We implemented a set of randomized campaigns using Facebook ads in the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge and Somerville, in partnership with a peer-to-peer company. In the campaigns, treated customers were informed that they could share “green reports” online, providing information to others about their greenness. We find that interest in peer-to-peer solar increases by up to 30% when “green reports, ” which would make otherwise invisible behavior visible, are mentioned in the ads. |
| Keywords: | peer to peer solar, pro-environmental behavior, social rewards, visibility, Facebook |
| JEL: | C93 D91 Q20 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10173&r=ure |
| By: | Kospentaris, Ioannis; Stratton, Leslie S. |
| Abstract: | We describe how ethnic disparities in the labor market between prime aged Hispanic and non-Hispanic white men have evolved over the last 50 years. Using data from the March CPS, the Census, and the ACS, we examine several employment and earning outcomes. Hispanics have experienced sizable gains to employment: from a negative 2% prior to 1990 to a positive 4% after 2010 compared to non-Hispanics. In terms of earnings, Hispanics face a substantial negative disparity between 20% and 30% with some improvement after 2000. Most of the employment gain is driven by those with less than a high school degree, while the earnings disparity increases with education. Comparing Hispanic immigrants with natives reveals much of the employment and earnings gains are attributable to Hispanic immigrants, particularly immigrants not fluent in English. |
| Keywords: | Hispanics, ethnicity, disparities, earnings, employment, education, immigration |
| JEL: | J15 J21 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1220&r=ure |
| By: | Matthew O. Jackson; Stephen M. Nei; Erik Snowberg; Leeat Yariv |
| Abstract: | We examine friendships and study partnerships among university students over several years. At the aggregate level, connections increase over time, but homophily on gender and ethnicity is relatively constant across time, university residences, and different network layers. At the individual level, homophilous tendencies are persistent across time and network layers. Furthermore, we see assortativity in homophilous tendencies. There is weaker, albeit significant, homophily over malleable characteristics---risk preferences, altruism, study habits, and so on. We find little evidence of assimilation over those characteristics. We also document the nuanced impact of network connections on changes in Grade Point Average. |
| JEL: | D85 I21 J15 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30815&r=ure |
| By: | Ariel J. Binder; Caroline Walker; Jonathan Eggleston; Marta Murray-Close |
| Abstract: | We study racial-ethnic disparities in marital and economic status by linking American Community Survey respondents born in 1978-87 to their parents’ tax records. Conditional on childhood family income (CFI), we find that the average Black non-Hispanic woman obtains 60 percent less partner income than does the average White non-Hispanic woman, driven both by a lower propensity to be partnered and a lower partner CFI rank. These marriage market dynamics account for 85 percent of the observed—and large—gap in intergenerational family income mobility. We also show that mobility gaps are larger, and rates of intermarriage lower, in birth areas with greater CFI inequality and racial-ethnic segregation. We discuss a simple model in which these patterns originate from segmentation of the marriage market along racial-ethnic lines combined with imperfect assortative matching on economic status. We comment on the implications of our findings for policy. |
| Keywords: | marriage market, intergenerational mobility, family income, racial inequality, assortative matching, segregation, intermarriage, union formation, stratification economics |
| JEL: | D31 J12 J15 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:22-59&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel Aparicio-Pérez (Department of Finance and Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll (Department of Finance and Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and IIDL and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Institutions have been proved as a fundamental driver of long-run growth (Acemoglu et al., 2005) and, therefore, their functioning, i.e., their quality of governance, is a well-known theoretical fact in the literature on economic growth, which has been widely studied at both country and regional levels. Nevertheless, there is a lack of literature on how this relationship behaves when considering the hierarchical structure that regions and countries present. To solve this problem, we propose a novel approximation to the question, relying on multilevel econometric techniques, highly applied in other fields such as education or psychology, but much less employed in economics. We empirically analyze how much of the effect shown by the quality of government on the economic development of a given region can be attributed to the quality of government of its belonging cluster i.e the country. We argue that ignoring the multilevel logic may lead to overweighting the real influence of regional governance quality and, conversely, under-weighting (or directly overlooking) the effect of the country’s governance quality on the economic development of a given region. We show empirically that the aggregate framework (and its quality) given by the national level of institutions outweighs the effect that lower government ties may present on the economic development of a region. |
| Keywords: | economic development; Europe; quality of government; multilevel; regions |
| JEL: | D04 E02 H7 H11 O43 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2023/01&r=ure |
| By: | Germ\'an Reyes |
| Abstract: | Cognitive endurance -- the ability to sustain performance on a cognitively-demanding task over time -- is thought to be a crucial productivity determinant. However, a lack of data on this variable has limited researchers' ability to understand its role for success in college and the labor market. This paper uses college-admission-exam records from 15 million Brazilian high school students to measure cognitive endurance based on changes in performance throughout the exam. By exploiting exogenous variation in the order of exam questions, I show that students are 7.1 percentage points more likely to correctly answer a given question when it appears at the beginning of the day versus the end (relative to a sample mean of 34.3%). I develop a method to decompose test scores into fatigue-adjusted ability and cognitive endurance. I then merge these measures into a higher-education census and the earnings records of the universe of Brazilian formal-sector workers to quantify the association between endurance and long-run outcomes. I find that cognitive endurance has a statistically and economically significant wage return. Controlling for fatigue-adjusted ability and other student characteristics, a one-standard-deviation higher endurance predicts a 5.4% wage increase. This wage return to endurance is sizable, equivalent to a third of the wage return to ability. I also document positive associations between endurance and college attendance, college quality, college graduation, firm quality, and other outcomes. Finally, I show how systematic differences in endurance across students interact with the exam design to determine the sorting of students to colleges. I discuss the implications of these findings for the use of cognitive assessments for talent selection and investments in interventions that build cognitive endurance. |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2301.02575&r=ure |
| By: | Saeed Badri (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Bernd Heidergott (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Ines Lindner (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of bots on social learning in a social network setting. Regular agents receive independent noisy signals about the true value of a variable and then communicate in a network. They na¨?vely update beliefs by repeatedly taking weighted averages of neighbors’ opinions. Bots are agents in the network that spread fake news by disseminating biased information. Our main contributions are threefold. (1) We show that the consensus of the network is a mapping of the interaction rate between the agents and bots and is discontinuous at zero mass of bots. This implies that even a comparatively “infinitesimal” small number of bots still has a sizeable impact on the consensus and hence represents an obstruction to the “wisdom of crowds”. (2) We prove that the consensus gap induced by the marginal presence of bots depends neither on the agent network or bot layout nor on the assumed connection structure between agents and bots. (3) We show that before the ultimate (and bot-infected) consensus is reached, the network passes through a quasi-stationary phase which has the potential to mitigate the harmful impact of bots. |
| Keywords: | Fake news, Misinformation, Social networks, Social Media, Wisdom of Crowds |
| JEL: | D83 D85 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20220097&r=ure |
| By: | KONDO Keisuke |
| Abstract: | This study proposes a simple framework for the ex ante evaluation of migration subsidy. Recently, the Japanese government initiated a migration subsidy program to promote urban-to-rural migration for regional revitalization under the economy with a monopolar concentration in Tokyo. The ex ante evaluation framework proposed in this study formulates the payback period of interregional migration as investment behavior. In the model, households compare the sum of the expected benefits available each year after migration with the lump-sum costs of migration, which are estimated with structural estimation using the interregional migration flow data. The migration subsidy leads to an incentive for interregional migration by reducing the payback period. This study finds that households incur different migration costs at each stage of life, implying that a uniformly determined migration subsidy may have different policy effects. Counterfactual simulations provide scientific insight into the potential impact of the migration subsidy program, helping policymakers determine the optimal amount under the budget constraint. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:polidp:22031&r=ure |
| By: | Andrea Bassanini; Giulia Bovini; Eve Caroli; Jorge Casanova Ferrando; Federico Cingano; Paolo Falco; Florentino Felgueroso; Marcel Jansen; Pedro S. Martins; António Melo; Michael Oberfichtner; Martin Popp |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of labour market concentration on two dimensions of job quality, namely wages and job security. We leverage rich administrative linked employer-employee data from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain in the 2010s to provide the first comparable cross-country evidence in the literature. We show that the elasticities of wages with respect to labour market concentration are strikingly similar across countries. Increasing labour market concentration by 10% reduces wages by 0.19% in Germany, 0.22% in France, 0.25% in Portugal and 0.29% in Denmark. We find greater elasticities for job security. An increase in labour market concentration by 10% reduces the probability of being hired on a permanent contract by 0.46% in France, 0.51% in Germany and 2.34% in Portugal. In Italy and Spain, while not affecting this probability, labour market concentration has a strong negative effect on conversions to a permanent contract once hired on a temporary one. Using German and Portuguese data, we provide suggestive evidence that the similarity of our wage elasticities across countries and the greater sensitivity of job security to labour market concentration may be explained by the fact that sector-level collective bargaining is dominant in the countries we study and that it sets wages but usually not contract type. |
| Keywords: | Labour market concentration, Monopsony, Wages, Job security, Collective bargaining |
| JEL: | J31 J42 J52 L41 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp654&r=ure |
| By: | Kleinhempel, Johannes; Klasing, Mariko; Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd |
| Abstract: | Does national culture influence entrepreneurship? Given that entrepreneurship and the economic, formal institutional, and cultural characteristics of nations are deeply intertwined and co-vary, it is difficult to isolate the effect of culture on entrepreneurship. In this study, we examine the self-employment choices of second-generation immigrants who were born, educated, and currently live in one country, but were raised by parents stemming from another country. We argue that entrepreneurship is influenced by durable, portable, and intergenerationally transmitted cultural imprints such that second-generation immigrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs if their parents originate from countries characterized by a strong entrepreneurial culture. Our multilevel analysis of two independent samples –65, 323 second-generation immigrants of 52 different ancestries who were born, raised, and live in the United States and 4, 165 second-generation immigrants of 31 ancestries in Europe– shows that entrepreneurial culture is positively associated with the likelihood that individuals are entrepreneurs. Our results are robust to alternative non-cultural explanations, such as differences in resource holdings, labor market discrimination, and direct parent-child linkages. Overall, our study highlights the durability, portability, and intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial culture as well as the profound impact of national culture on entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, National culture, Cross-Cultural Studies |
| JEL: | A13 J24 J61 L26 M13 M16 O57 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115942&r=ure |
| By: | Michel Grabisch (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Agnieszka Rusinowska; Xavier Venel |
| Abstract: | We investigate the phenomenon of diffusion in a countably infinite society of individuals interacting with their neighbors in a network. At a given time, each individual is either active or inactive. The diffusion is driven by two characteristics: the network structure and the diffusion mechanism represented by an aggregation function. We distinguish between two diffusion mechanisms (probabilistic, deterministic) and focus on two types of aggregation functions (strict, Boolean). Under strict aggregation functions, polarization of the society cannot happen, and its state evolves towards a mixture of infinitely many active and infinitely many inactive agents, or towards a homogeneous society. Under Boolean aggregation functions, the diffusion process becomes deterministic and the contagion model of Morris (2000) becomes a particular case of our framework. Polarization can then happen. Our dynamics also allows for cycles in both cases. The network structure is not relevant for these questions, but is important for establishing irreducibility, at the price of a richness assumption: the network should contain at least one complex star and have enough space for storing local configurations. Our model can be given a game-theoretic interpretation via a local coordination game, where each player would apply a best-response strategy in a random neighborhood. |
| Keywords: | diffusion, countable network, aggregation function, polarization, convergence, bestresponse |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03881455&r=ure |
| By: | Ludolph, Lars |
| Abstract: | Refugees hosted in countries with advanced economies often work in low quality jobs, regardless of the education they obtained in their home countries. In this paper, I analyse the long-term impact of formal host-country education for refugees on labour market outcomes, using 22 years of microcensus data on Bosnians arriving in Austria during the 1992–1995 Bosnian war. I estimate local average treatment effects using age at the time of forced migration as an instrument for the probability of receiving education in Austria instead of Bosnia. I find that receiving a formal degree in Austria significantly reduced the probability of work below educational attainment and low-skill employment for two decades after arrival. There are visible income differences between holders of Austrian and Bosnian degrees beyond this period. Female refugees benefited significantly more from obtaining host-country education than males. |
| Keywords: | Employment quality; Human capital; Labour market integration; Refugees; Elsevier deal |
| JEL: | F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2023–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117392&r=ure |
| By: | Yann Bramoullé (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Renaud Bourlès (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Eduardo Perez-Richet (Sciences Po - Sciences Po, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We provide the first analysis of the risk-sharing implications of altruism networks. Agents are embedded in a fixed network and care about each other. We explore whether altruistic transfers help smooth consumption and how this depends on the shape of the network. We find that altruism networks have a first-order impact on risk. Altruistic transfers generate efficient insurance when the network of perfect altruistic ties is strongly connected. We uncover two specific empirical implications of altruism networks. First, bridges can generate good overall risk sharing, and, more generally, the quality of informal insurance depends on the average path length of the network. Second, large shocks are well-insured by connected altruism networks. By contrast, large shocks tend to be badly insured in models of informal insurance with frictions. We characterize what happens for shocks that leave the structure of giving relationships unchanged. We further explore the relationship between consumption variance and centrality, correlation in consumption streams across agents, and the impact of adding links. |
| Keywords: | Altruism, Networks, Risk Sharing, Informal Insurance |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-02563135&r=ure |
| By: | Ramesh, Niranjana |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the work of engineers amidst the fragments of access and use mechanisms that make up water infrastructures in the city of Chennai in south India. It sets its ethnographic investigation against a dual backdrop. One is that infrastructures in the global south have almost unequivocally come to be accepted as fragmented, even as the fragments themselves are little examined. The second is the mandate and will to order that engineering work is presumed to operate on by academic research and city managers alike. This paper brings these two provocations in juxtaposition by examining engineering work that occurs in the fragments of Chennai’s water infrastructures. In doing so, it argues that engineering modern infrastructures involves multiple, often fragmentary epistemologies that rarely fit into a singular overarching tendency, to order or otherwise. It draws attention to the distinct sub-disciplines as well as the layers of technical jobs and technological cultures constituting the profession of engineering. Tracing the social differentiation between some of these engineering pathways, the paper calls for a rethink of what counts as engineering for the purpose of infrastructure research; and how that shapes our visibility and understanding of cities and their socio-technical support structures. |
| Keywords: | urban water infrastructure; fragmentation; civil and chemical engineering; technological practice; social difference; socio-technical |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2021–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:108171&r=ure |
| By: | Duleep, Harriet; Dowhan, Dan; Liu, Xingfei |
| Abstract: | Using historical, longitudinal data on individuals, we track the earnings of immigrant and U.S.-born women. Following individuals, instead of synthetic cohorts, avoids biases in earnings-growth estimates caused by compositional changes in the cohorts that are followed. The historical data contradict key predictions of the Family Investment Hypothesis, shed light on its genesis, and inform its further testing. Challenging the perception that the quality of U.S. immigrants fell after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, immigrant women, as previously found for immigrant men, have high earnings growth. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant earning growth, human capital investment, skill transferability, immigrant quality, sample restrictions, family investment model |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J24 J31 C1 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1221&r=ure |
| By: | Giulia Brancaccio; Karam Kang |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that product design shapes search frictions and that intermediaries leverage this channel to increase their rents in the context of the U.S. municipal bond market. The majority of bonds are designed via negotiations between a local government and its underwriter. They are then traded in a decentralized market, where the underwriter often also acts as an intermediary. Exploiting variations in state regulations that limit government officials’ conflicts of interest, we provide evidence that bond design from the government’s perspective involves a trade-off between flexibility and liquidity, but the underwriter benefits from designing and trading complex bonds. Motivated by these findings, we build and estimate a model of bond origination and trades to quantify market inefficiency driven by underwriters’ role in intermediating trades and discuss policy implications. |
| JEL: | L0 L12 L15 P0 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30775&r=ure |
| By: | Gutmann, Jerg; Marchal, Léa; Simsek, Betül |
| Abstract: | This is the first global study of how institutionally entrenched gender discrimination affects the gender migration gap (GMG) using data on 158 origin and 37 destination countries over the period 1961-2019. We estimate a gravity equation derived from a random utility maximization model of migration that accounts for migrants' gender. Instrumental variable estimates indicate that increasing gender equality in economic or political rights generally deepens the GMG, i.e., it reduces female emigration relative to that of men. In line with our theoretical model, this average effect is driven by higher-income countries. In contrast, increased gender equality in rights reduces the GMG in lower-income countries by facilitating female emigration. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, Gender equality, Individual rights, Migration, RUM model |
| JEL: | F22 J16 J71 K38 O15 P48 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ilewps:67&r=ure |
| By: | Antonescu, Daniela |
| Abstract: | Digitalization is an essential element for the development of today’s society, in the context of actual geo-political challenges. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digitalization, offering new perspectives on sustainable and inclusive development. From the point of view of the regional approach, digitalization can have an important impact on the level of territorial development and on the reduction of economic and social inequalities. This paper proposes to identify the relationship between a series of indicators specific to digitization and regional GDP, with the help of panel models. The objective of the research is to estimate the relationship between GDP and two indicators specific to digitalization: online commerce and broadband internet infrastructure, the level of the eight development regions in Romania. Dependency modelling, based on econometric equations, offers the possibility of highlighting the way in which the two indicators of the digital economy contribute to the growth of GDP per capita. This analysis aims to illustrate the fact that broadband technologies and the increase in the number of people using the Internet for commercial purposes can have a positive impact on the growth of the regional economy. The results of the analysis highlighted the direct relationship of the indicators between the three variables related to the digitalization process at the level of Romania’s regions and the strong influence of broadband internet and online trade on GDP per capita, proving that any growth among independent variables will lead to an increase amongst the dependent variables. |
| Keywords: | Digitalization, GDP, regional inequalities, Panel model, OLS model. |
| JEL: | O1 O3 O31 O32 O33 R10 R12 R15 R5 |
| Date: | 2022–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115883&r=ure |
| By: | Dorothee Hillrichs (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies heterogeneity in the income elasticity of exports across origin countries. Combining insights of the economic geography literature and the home market effect literature, I argue that foreign consumer preferences drive product specifications and thus export patterns. I capture foreign consumer preferences with a multilateral income term, “quality market potential”. Analysing product-level trade flows with a gravity framework, I show that countries with high quality market potential export more to high-income destinations. The effect outweighs the standard home market effect of domestic per capita income, is strongest for developing countries, and works chiefly through the quantity margin. |
| Keywords: | Non-homothetic preferences, home-market effect, trade margins |
| JEL: | F14 R12 O19 |
| Date: | 2023–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2023001&r=ure |
| By: | Shin, Hyun Bang; Zhao, Yimin; Koh, Sin Yee |
| Abstract: | The assembled papers in this special issue jointly explore the urban manifestation of “Global China” at different scales and involving diverse actors, discussing the ways in which the urban has been reconfigured by China’s global expansion and uncovering the differentiated modes of speculative and spectacular urban production at present. Observing from Ghana, India, Malaysia and China, these papers collectively make theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to recognise the dynamics of speculation, articulation and translation in global capitalism, where China plays an increasingly significant role. In this introduction, we first set out to explain our standing point with China as method, which is an attempt to situate China in our comparative studies endeavour and to make self-reflection on what it means to study China as both an optic and a process. We then introduce the three main themes that have guided our interrogation of what global China implies. These include: (a) transplanting models and urbanism; (b) multi-scalar construction of temporality; and (c) situating the urban China model in global capitalism. These aspects are at the core of our engagement with the contributing papers in this special issue that together extend the critique of our changing urban conditions at present. |
| Keywords: | global China; China as method; urbanisation; global capitalism; China; urbanism; Tackling the UK’s International Challenges Programme (Grant Number IC3\100155). |
| JEL: | J1 N0 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2022–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117180&r=ure |
| By: | Carlsson, Mikael; Messina, Julián; Skans, Oskar Nordström |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how labor ows respond to permanent idiosyncratic shifts in rm-level production functions and demand curves using very detailed Swedish micro data. Shocks to rms physical productivity have only modest eects on rm-level employment decisions. In contrast, the paper documents rapid and substantial employment adjustments through hires and separations in response to rm-level demand shocks. The choice of adjustment margin depends on the sign of the shock: rms adjust through increased hires if these shocks are positive and through increased separations if the shocks are negative. |
| Keywords: | technology;Demand;Job flows;Worker flows |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:10986&r=ure |
| By: | Ocasio, Emily (The New School of Northern Virginia); Potter, Tristan (Drexel University) |
| Abstract: | Media coverage of violent crime both reflects and shapes how society perceives members of different demographic groups. For this reason, determining whether media coverage systematically differs across demographic groups can provide insight into societal assessments of the newsworthiness—and thus the humanity—of different groups, as well as the influence of the media in perpetuating such assessments. We merge FBI data on homicides in Massachusetts between 1976 and 1984 with the corresponding Boston Globe articles covering those homicides to study how the race, age, and sex of homicide victims and offenders interact to shape the quantity of media coverage (number of articles) and quality of media coverage (use of humanizing language as determined by NLP-assisted content analysis). Our analysis reveals rich patterns of differential media coverage across groups and subgroups, even after controlling for a battery of homicide specific confounding factors. Specifically, we document that:(i)among male homicide victims, the probability of humanizing coverage is significantly higher for white victims than for black victims, with a difference of 30 percentage points for juveniles( |
| Keywords: | Media distortion analysis; Natural language processing; Intersectional analysis; Ideal victim theory |
| JEL: | C55 L82 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:drxlwp:2023_001&r=ure |
| By: | Barsbai, Toman; Bartos, Vojtech; Licuanan, Victoria S.; Steinmayr, Andreas; Tiongson, Erwin R.; Yang, Dean |
| Abstract: | We experimentally study an intervention to reduce mistreatment of Filipino overseas domestic workers (DWs) by their employers. Encouraging DWs to show their employers a family photo while providing a small gift when starting employment reduced DW mistreatment, increased their job satisfaction, and increased the likelihood of contract extension. While generally unaware of the intervention, DWs' families staying behind become more positive about international labor migration. An online experiment with potential employers suggests that the effect operates through a reduction in employers' perceived social distance from their employees. A simple intervention can protect migrant workers without requiring destination country policy reforms. |
| Keywords: | temporary labor migration, working conditions, contract enforcement, dictator game |
| JEL: | D9 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2237&r=ure |
| By: | Luc Behaghel; Sofia Dromundo; Marc Gurgand; Yagan Hazard; Thomas Zuber |
| Abstract: | We analyze the employment effects of directing job seekers' applications towards establishments likely to recruit, building upon an existing Internet platform developed by the French public employment service. Our two-sided randomization design, with about 1.2 million job seekers and 100, 000 establishments, allows us to measure precisely the effects of the recommender system at hand. Our randomized encouragement to use the system induces a 2% increase in job finding rates among women. This effect is due to an activation effect (increased search effort, stronger for women than men), but also to a targeting effect by which treated men and women were more likely to be hired by the firms that were specifically recommended to them. In a second step, we analyze whether these partial equilibrium effects translate into positive effects on aggregate employment. Drawing on the recent literature on the econometrics of interference effects, we estimate that by redirecting the search effort of some job seekers outside their initial job market, we reduced congestion in slack markets. Estimates suggest that this effect is only partly offset by the increased competition in initially tight markets, so that the intervention increases aggregate job finding rates. |
| Keywords: | Search and Matching, Occupational Mobility, Displacement Effects |
| JEL: | E24 J60 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:900&r=ure |
| By: | Adam Zylbersztejn (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Zakaria Babutsidze (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - COMUE UCA - COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur, OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po); Nobuyuki Hanaki (Osaka University [Osaka]) |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the ongoing debate in the psychological literature on the role of thin slices of observable information in predicting others' social behavior, and its generalizability to cross-cultural interactions. We experimentally assess the degree to which subjects, drawn from culturally dierent populations (France and Japan), are able to predict strangers' trustworthiness based on a set of visual stimuli (mugshot pictures, neutral videos, loaded videos, all recorded in an additional French sample) under varying cultural distance to the target agent in the recording. Our main nding is that cultural distance is not detrimental for predicting trustworthiness in strangers, but that it may aect the perception of dierent components of communication in social interactions. |
| Keywords: | Trustworthiness, communication, hidden action game, cross-cultural comparison, laboratory experiment |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03432600&r=ure |
| By: | Han-Sol Lee; Sergey U. Chernikov; Szabolcs Nagy |
| Abstract: | Considering the growing significance of Eurasian economic ties because of South Korea s New Northern Policy and Russia s New Eastern Policy, this study investigates the motivations and locational factors of South Korean foreign direct investment (FDI) in three countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS: Kazakhstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan) by employing panel analysis (pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects, random effects) using data from 1993 to 2017. The results show the positive and significant coefficients of GDP, resource endowments, and inflation. Unlike conventional South Korean outward FDI, labour-seeking is not defined as a primary purpose. Exchange rates, political rights, and civil liberties are identified as insignificant. The authors conclude that South Korean FDI in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan is associated with market-seeking (particularly in Kazakhstan and Russia) and natural resource-seeking, especially the former. From a policy perspective, our empirical evidence suggests that these countries host governments could implement mechanisms to facilitate the movement of goods across regions and countries to increase the attractiveness of small local markets. The South Korean government could develop financial support and risk sharing programmes to enhance natural resource-seeking investments and mutual exchange programmes to overcome the red syndrome complex in South Korean society. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.13841&r=ure |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins; Jonathan P. Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper studies firm-provided training in a context of potential worker mobility. We argue that such worker mobility may be reduced by employers’ associations (EAs) through no-poach agreements. First, we sketch a simple model to illustrate the impact of employer coordination on training. We then present supporting evidence from rich matched panel data, including firms’ EA affiliation and workers’ individual training levels. We find that workers’ mobility between firms in the same EA is considerably lower than mobility between equivalent firms not in the same EA. We also find that training provision by EA firms is considerably higher, even when drawing on within-employee variation and considering multiple dimensions of training. We argue that these results are consistent with a role played by EAs in reducing worker mobility. |
| Keywords: | Employers organisations, No-poach agreements, Worker mobility |
| JEL: | J53 J62 L40 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp653&r=ure |
| By: | Ghazala Azmat (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEP - LSE - Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Ştefania Simion (University of Bristol [Bristol], CEP - LSE - Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science) |
| Abstract: | Over the last two decades, undergraduate university education in England moved from being state-funded and free for students, to costing all students substantial amounts in tuition fees. In this paper, using detailed administrative longitudinal microdata that follow all students attending state schools in England (approximately 95% of student population), we causally show that, despite the substantial reforms, enrollment fell only by 0.5 percentage points, where the effect is largely borne by those in wealthier groups, reducing the enrolment gap across socio-economic groups. Since tuition fees were introduced in conjunction with the government offering generous means-tested maintenance (cash) grants, as well as loans, our results highlight the importance of reducing financing constraints. Beyond enrollment, we find that the reforms have limited impact on students' higher education choices, such as relocation decisions, university choice, and field of study. Finally, by tracking the students after graduation, we show similarly small effects on labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Higher education, Inequality, Tuition fees, Means-tested support, Career outcomes |
| Date: | 2021–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03873819&r=ure |
| By: | Erina Ytsma |
| Abstract: | The effects of performance pay in routine, easy to measure tasks are well-documented, but they are much less understood in knowledge creation. This paper studies the effects of explicit and implicit, career concerns incentives common in knowledge work in a multitasking model, and estimates their causal effort and selection effects in knowledge creation by exploiting the introduction of performance pay in German academia as a natural experiment. Using data encompassing the universe of German academics, I find that performance incentives attract more productive academics, and research quantity increases by 14 to 18%, but without increasing output of the highest quality. The latter is explained by response heterogeneity. The quantity effort response is strongest for low productivity academics, who do not produce high quality work. High ability academics also produce more publications, but not more of the highest quality. Medium ability academics do not increase quantity but produce fewer high-quality papers. |
| Keywords: | performance pay, knowledge creation, career concerns, effort and selection effects, multitasking |
| JEL: | J33 M52 O31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10153&r=ure |
| By: | Szabolcs Nagy; Mariann Veresne Somosi |
| Abstract: | The information age is also an era of escalating social problems. The digital transformation of society and the economy is already underway in all countries, although the progress in this transformation can vary widely. There are more social innovation projects addressing global and local social problems in some countries than in others. This suggests that different levels of digital transformation might influence the social innovation potential. Using the International Digital Economy and Society Index and the Social Innovation Index, this study investigates how digital transformation of the economy and society affects the capacity for social innovation. A dataset of 29 countries was analysed using both simple and multiple linear regressions and Pearsons correlation. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that the digital transformation of the economy and society has a significant positive impact on the capacity for social innovation. It was also found that the integration of digital technology plays a critical role in digital transformation. Therefore, the progress in digital transformation is beneficial to social innovation capacity. In line with the research findings, this study outlines the implications and possible directions for policy. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.13840&r=ure |