The latest posts by language: All en cn de dk ee eo es fi fr gr hr hu id ir it jp nl no pl pt ro rs ru se si sk tr vn

EconAcademics.org

Blog aggregator for economics research

2019-01-21

• Lo que no te han contado del Elefante de Milanovic
  by Ancora Imparando in Elblogsalmon, 2019-01-21 18:14:07 UTC

  Toca hablar de desigualdad . Proclamado por muchos como el gráfico más importante de los últimos años, el Elefante de Milanovic no deja indiferente a nadie en el mundillo. Hoy, intentaremos rellenar sus lagunas más comunes. Vemos renta relativa en X (si, de cada 100, cobro más que 61 y menos que 37, seré el percentil 62) y su crecimiento en Y. De ahí el mote de "elefante": poco crecimiento en la cola, torso alto, caída en la curva de la trompa y repunte de megaricos. Spoiler: la globalización no afecta a todos por igual . La lectura habitual afirma que pobres y ricos se h [...]

• Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2019-01-21 17:11:12 UTC

  By: Alberto Alesina  (Department of Economics, Harvard University, IGIER Bocconi, NBER and CEPR);  Michela Carlana  (Harvard Kennedy School and IZA);  Eliana La Ferrara  (Department of Economics, IGIER and LEAP, Bocconi University); Paolo Pinotti  (Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University, DONDENA, and Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti) Abstract: If individuals become aware of their stereotypes, do they change their behavior? We study this question in the context of teachers’ bias in grading immigrants and native children in middle schools. Teachers give lower grade [...]

• On the Possibility of Progress
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2019-01-21 17:07:09 UTC

  By: Romer, Paul M.  (New York University) Abstract: Paul M. Romer delivered his Prize Lecture on 8 December 2018 at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University. Keywords: long-term growth; JEL: O00 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2018_004&r= ltv [...]

• Strikes, Employee Workplace Representation, Unionism, and Industrial Relations Quality in European Establishments
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2019-01-21 17:05:24 UTC

  By: John T. Addison ;  Paulino Teixeira Abstract: Using cross-country data, this paper investigates the relationship between workplace representation and strikes. Works councils are associated with reduced strike activity. However, where union members make up a majority of works councillors, such union-dominated councils experience greater strike activity than do their counterparts with minority union membership, and also more strikes than establishments with union workplace representation where union members are in a minority. Dissonance between the parties as to the state of industrial [...]

• Inequality and Well-Being
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2019-01-21 17:04:24 UTC

  By: Borooah, Vani Abstract: This chapter investigates a neglected area in the study of human development relating differences in human development between social groups in a country. Failure to take account of such inter-group inequalities might lead one to exaggerate a country’s developmental achievements. Conversely, one would get a more accurate picture of a country’s achievements with respect to human development only after one had taken cognisance of the fact that the fruits of development were unequally distributed between its various communities. There is a further issue. Not only [...]

• The Economics of Skyscraper Height (Part III)
  by Jason Barr in Building the skyline, 2019-01-21 14:01:34 UTC

  Jason M. Barr      January 28, 2019 Note this is Part III of a three-part series on the economics of skyscrapers. Part I can be read here and Part II can be read here . When we look at the world’s tallest buildings, we can’t but help think they are too tall—the product of greed and vanity. But this is too simplistic. In a previous post , I proposed nine different theories as to why supertall buildings might rise so high (though there certainly may be more). I would argue, however, that these theories can be categorized into one of four groups. First can be called “good economics”; the second “ [...]

• Simon McNamara’s journal round-up for 21st January 2019
  by sjmcnamara1 in The Academic Health Economists' Blog, 2019-01-21 12:00:11 UTC

  Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot . If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch . Assessing capability in economic evaluation: a life course approach? The European Journal of Health Economics [ PubMed ] Published 8th January 2019 If you have spent any time on social media in the last week th [...]

2019-01-18

• Does competition help or hinder bank stability in the UK?
  by bankunderground in Bank Underground, 2019-01-18 09:00:53 UTC

  Sebastian de-Ramon, Bill Francis and Michael Straughan. There is a debate in the regulatory and academic community about whether competition is good or bad for bank stability, particularly following the financial crisis (see Chapter 6 of the Independent Commission on Banking final report ). The debate tends to be seen as a head-to-head argument between two camps: those that see competition as bad for stability (competition-fragility) versus those that see competition as good (competition-stability). In new research , we look at how competition affects the stability of banks in the UK. [...]

2019-01-17

• The Indirect Costs of Lehman’s Bankruptcy
  by Blog Author in Liberty Street Economics, 2019-01-17 12:00:00 UTC

  Erin Denison, Michael Fleming, and Asani Sarkar Fifth of five posts In our previous post , we assessed losses to customers and clients from foregone opportunities after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008. In this post, we examine losses to Lehman and its investors in anticipation of bankruptcy. For example, if bankruptcy is expected, Lehman’s earnings may decline as customers close their accounts or certain securities (such as derivatives) to which Lehman is a counterparty may lose value. We estimate these losses by analyzing Lehman’s earnings and stock, bond [...]

• Thesis Thursday: Firdaus Hafidz
  by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog, 2019-01-17 07:00:26 UTC

  On the third Thursday of every month, we speak to a recent graduate about their thesis and their studies. This month’s guest is Dr Firdaus Hafidz who has a PhD from the University of Leeds . If you would like to suggest a candidate for an upcoming Thesis Thursday, get in touch. Title Assessing the efficiency of health facilities in Indonesia Supervisors Tim Ensor , Sand Tubeuf Repository link http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/21575 What are some of the key features of health and health care in Indonesia? Indonesia is a diverse country, with more than 17 thousand islands and 500 district [...]

2019-01-14

• The Panic of 2007-8: What happened?
  by maryfricker in RepoWatch, 2019-01-14 18:13:45 UTC

  Ten years after the Panic of 2007-8, there’s still major disagreement about what caused the financial crisis and the Great Recession. That’s the sobering revelation in a flurry of commentary written for the 10th anniversary of the Lehman bankruptcy. Lehman filed on Sept. 15, 2008, and that’s generally considered to be the day the crisis erupted, although a panic had been building since early 2007 . From Yale professor Gary Gorton : Ten years after the crisis began in the first quarter of 2007 , there is no consensus on the cause of the crisis. Explanations abound. It is unfortunate that ther [...]

• Bad Precedent
  by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 2019-01-14 13:53:07 UTC

  “No.” Response of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell to question: “If the President asked you to resign, would you do it?” Interview by Neil Irwin (time mark 16:27), The New York Times , January 4, 2019. Recent reports that President Trump wanted to fire Board Chairman Powell in response to Federal Reserve interest rate hikes are unprecedented. Denials from senior officials― Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Hassett ―have even less credibility than would a statement (or tweet) from the President himself. We find this entire discussion extremely dishea [...]

• Brendan Collins’s journal round-up for 14th January 2019
  by Bren Collins in The Academic Health Economists' Blog, 2019-01-14 12:00:27 UTC

  Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot . If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch . Income distribution and health: can polarization explain health outcomes better than inequality? The European Journal of Health Economics [ PubMed ] Published 4th December 2018 One of my main interests is healt [...]

2019-01-13

• 61. Mujeres Referentes e Investigadoras de Economía y Empresa: Visibilidad en Galicia y España, año 2018
  by MCG Blogs de Economía in Economía y desarrollo de España y Galicia, 2019-01-13 20:35:00 UTC

  Foto: De izquierda a derecha, tres profesoras de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela en el Acto de presentación del Directorio de Referentes Gallegas: Isabel Neira (Profesora de Economía), Mª Carmen Guisán (Profesora Ad Honorem de Economía) y Cristina Areas, Profesora de Ciencia Política), Ciudad de la Cultura. Santiago de Compostela, 17-12-2018. 1. NOTICIAS DE GALICIA 1.1) Nace Referentes gallegas: visibilidad de las mujeres expertas La Asociación Executivas de Galicia, presidida por Carla Reyes Uschinsk,  ha tenido la iniciativa de crear un Directorio de Mujeres Referentes, en el que se [...]

2019-01-12

• A Great Passes: Harold Demsetz
  by cpirrong in Streetwise Professor, 2019-01-12 19:40:20 UTC

  Last week, the great economist Harold Demsetz passed away at age 88. Harold (whom I knew slightly) was truly a giant, who made seminal contributions to industrial organization, property rights economics, transactions cost economics (especially his early recognition of the bid-ask spread as a cost of transacting, well before it became a focus of research in finance), information economics, and the theory of the firm. He also coined the memorable phrase “nirvana economics,” which skewered the then-prevalent (and alas, too often currently prevalent) tendency to compare imperfect market out [...]

2019-01-11

• Innovation and Trade Policy in a Globalized World
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2019-01-11 22:50:59 UTC

  Ufuk Akcigit, Sina T. Ates and Giammario Impullitti http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1589&r=all How do import tariffs and R&D subsidies help domestic firms compete globally? How do these policies affect aggregate growth and economic welfare? To answer these questions we build a dynamic general equilibrium growth model where firm innovation endogenously determines the dynamics of technology, market leadership and trade flows, in a world with two large open economies at different stages of development. Firms R&D decisions are driven by (i) the defensive innovation motive, (ii) the expa [...]

• Highlights from the Fourth Bi-annual Global Research Forum on International Macroeconomics and Finance
  by Blog Author in Liberty Street Economics, 2019-01-11 12:00:00 UTC

  By Ozge Akinci, Roland Beck, Paola Donati, Linda Goldberg, and Livio Stracca Achieving and maintaining global financial stability has been at the forefront of policy discussions in the decade after the eruption of the global financial crisis. With the purpose of exploring key issues in international finance and macroeconomics from the perspective of what has changed ten years after the crisis, the fourth bi-annual Global Research Forum on International Macroeconomics and Finance , organized by the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Reserve Bank of [...]

2019-01-10

• What is evidence?
  by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling, 2019-01-10 13:39:58 UTC

  By now you’ll all have seen Robert Yeh’s paper showing that there is no evidence that parachutes save the lives of people jumping from a plane. This raises a question for all social scientists: what counts as evidence? I suspect we tend to overweight some kinds of evidence, and underweight others. Yeh’s paper is a lovely illustration of a general problem with randomized control trials – that they tell us how a treatment worked under particular circumstances, but are silent about its effects in other circumstances. They can lack external validity Yeh shows that parachutes are useless for someon [...]

2019-01-09

• Does debt lead to European prosperity?
  by Bruno Duarte in EUnomics, 2019-01-09 04:59:09 UTC

  EU competition rules, an exclusive competence of the European Union, limit firm concentration with relevant implications to input and consumer markets alike. For instance, firms operating in  competitive markets  benefit more  from positive shocks to borrowing costs, particularly when leveraged. Firms operating in markets where competition is mute rely less on positive monetary supply shocks as higher profit margins make it indifferent to financing costs. Concurrently, firms in more competitive markets are more efficient, with firms competing in an international market implementing “ cost mini [...]

2019-01-08

• How clever people help societies work together better
  by ? in PolicyBristol Hub, 2019-01-08 08:40:52 UTC

  via shutterstock.com Andis Sofianos, University of Heidelberg; Aldo Rustichini, University of Minnesota, and Eugenio Proto, University of Bristol What drives people to cooperate with each other? And what characteristics lead a person to do something that [...]

2019-01-07

• Papers of the Moment
  by Francis Diebold in No Hesitations, 2019-01-07 13:50:00 UTC

  Happy New Year! I was surprised at the interest generated when I last listed a few new intriguing working papers that I'm reading and enjoying.  Maybe another such posting is a good way to start the new year.  Hear are three: Understanding Regressions with Observations Collected at High Frequency over Long Span Chang, Yoosoon; Lu, Ye; Park, Joon Y. Abstract: In this paper, we analyze regressions with observations collected at small time interval over long period of time. For the formal asymptotic analysis, we assume that samples are obtained from continuous time stochastic processes, and let t [...]

• European unemployment insurance
  by Bruno Duarte in EUnomics, 2019-01-07 07:51:29 UTC

  The insurance is in fact, as  President Juncker clearly presents , a contribution to national unemployment benefit costs made by the EU Budget’s redistribution mechanism to mitigate asymmetric shocks and by the reform reform compensation mechanism (presented in the  tabled regulation  as an “incentive” to reform). I’m in favour of the latter, having suggested it months before it was proposed by the European Commission. The asymmetric shock absorber also makes sense in a Europe prone to asymmetric shock. As previously explored on this  blog  and a post to the  RSA , asymmetries in Europe prevai [...]

2019-01-04

• IPA’s weekly links
  by Jeff Mosenkis (IPA) in Chris Blattman, 2019-01-04 18:40:27 UTC

  Guest Post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action Hope everybody’s off to a great new year, and good luck to all the job candidates interviewing at ASSA. Also, remember from the last links  that Ben Casselman , who’s been co-reporting on sexual harassment in economics for the New York Times, is there and happy to meet confidentially with anybody who wants to tell him about their experience. If you’re not on twitter, feel free to email me and I’ll put you in touch with him (confidentially of course). Above screenshot from Lee Crawfurd , enjoying the demotivate Stata modul [...]

2019-01-03

• Designing a Carbon Tax and Dividend Scheme When People Differ by Place of Residence, Occupation and Investment Holdings
  by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics, 2019-01-03 16:48:00 UTC

  I support introducing a large carbon tax to mitigate climate change risk.� �Economists recognize that such a policy will introduce price effects (substitution effects) that will help mitigate the climate change challenge.� We also recognize that this policy will introduce income effects that will lower the real incomes of several different sets of people in our economy.� This blog post will discuss 3 sets of people who would be adversely affected by carbon pricing.� The anticipation of such a negative income effect creates an incentive for those affected groups to oppose the carbon tax.� I hav [...]

• The Economics of Skyscraper Height (Part II)
  by Jason Barr in Building the skyline, 2019-01-03 13:59:59 UTC

  Jason M. Barr     January 3, 2019 Note this is Part II of three-part series on the economics of skyscrapers. Part I can be read here . When we think of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, the natural reaction is to insist that they are “ freak projects ,” built by ego-driven, greedy developers who imposes their will onto a city. And yet, this whiff of conspiratorial thinking exists side-by-side with our fascination with tall buildings. Countless coffee table books—skyscraper porn, if you will—have been published that compare the world’s tallest buildings, and offer dazzling photos and fancy drawi [...]

2019-01-02

• Why Local Labor Market Concentration Is Lower Than It Used to Be, Even As National Concentration Increases
  by Kevin Rinz in Pro-Market, 2019-01-02 13:35:10 UTC

  A new study compares the trends in national and local industrial concentration between 1976 and 2015, and explains why they diverged.     The idea that firms may enjoy some wage-setting power in the labor market, commonly referred to as monopsony power, has received renewed attention in both public and academic debates over the last few years. Some policymakers have even suggested that monopsony power could play a role in stagnant wage growth and increased inequality. While little direct evidence on that possibility has been available until recently, the predicates for it to be true seem to b [...]

2018-12-27

• Real Military Pay
  by ProGrowthLiberal in EconoSpeak, 2018-12-27 18:57:00 UTC

  Donald Trump lies about everything including military pay : Trump Brags To Troops About A Fictional Giant Pay Raise He Got Them - The president told military personnel in Iraq that they’ll get a raise of over 10 percent, their first in a decade. But it’s 2.6 percent, and they get a hike every year. Dave Jamieson even notes that Bill Kristol has called out Trump on this whopper. But to me this is not the story. The real story is that Trump thinks our troops are stupid. As I read this sad account, I thought of a classic paper by Robert Lucas on the role of monetary policy in the New Classical [...]

2018-12-24

• Organizational Equilibrium with Capital
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2018-12-24 16:52:26 UTC

  By Marco Bassetto, Zhen Huo and José-Víctor Ríos-Rull http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2018-20&r=dge This paper proposes a new equilibrium concept – organizational equilibrium – for models with state variables that have a time inconsistency problem. The key elements of this equilibrium concept are: (1) agents are allowed to ignore the history and restart the equilibrium; (2) agents can wait for future agents to start the equilibrium. We apply this equilibrium concept to a quasi-geometric discounting growth model and to a problem of optimal dynamic fiscal policy. We find that the allo [...]

• Breaking the political link
  by Bruno Duarte in EUnomics, 2018-12-24 08:31:24 UTC

  Mr Morris  and  Mr Jenkins  gift us on Christmas Eve with an urgent request to break the political link between sovereigns and banks.  While the political link does exist, and the  ECB published  about it, it is arguably not the reason why banks invest in their own countries’ sovereign debt. In fact, “ Lower levels of Returns on Assets lead banks to invest more heavily in government securities, and coherently the smaller the differential between the risk-weighted return on loans and securities, the more the banks tend to invest in government bonds. (…) (This happens as) government securities p [...]

2018-12-23

• Annual Review 2018
  by noreply@blogger.com (David Stern) in Stochastic Trend, 2018-12-23 02:35:00 UTC

  I've been doing these annual reviews since 2011. They're mainly an exercise for me to see what I accomplished and what I didn't in the previous year. This year was a bit of a struggle at times, so it's a good idea to remind myself of what I did manage to accomplish. Me and my mother holding my brother in 1967 Going into this year, I had high expectations for getting more research done, as I finished my term as economics program director at Crawford at the end of 2017. In the first semester, I was teaching a new course, or rather a subject I last taught more than a decade ago – environmental ec [...]

2018-12-21

• 1931: When British trade turned inward
  by Artemis Photiadou in British Politics and Policy at LSE, 2018-12-21 00:00:15 UTC

  In 1931, the UK imposed barriers that increased the Empire’s share of British trade and decreased its multilateral nature, write Alan de Bromhead , Alan Fernihough , Markus Lampe , and Kevin O’Rourke . Here they revisit the extent to which trade policy was responsible for the shift towards intra-imperial trade, but do so through adopting an entirely different approach. In a 2016 survey paper, Goldberg and Pavcnik note that trade economists have moved away from studying the impact of trade policy. Concluding that this may reflect the fact that trade policy has become so liberal, they ask a str [...]

2018-12-20

• Uneven gains: the macroeconomic and welfare effects of the business tax reform
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2018-12-20 19:38:07 UTC

  By Oliver Pardo http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000416:017011&r=dge This paper assess the macroeconomic and welfare effects of the 2017 tax reform in the US. This assessment is carried out by simulating the enacted business tax cuts in a dynamic general equilibrium model calibrated to replicate the household income distribution in the US. The simulation suggests that the cuts will lead to increases in investment, wages and output, although the welfare gains are quite unevenly distributed across households. Long-run investment increases by one percentage point of the baseline GDP, leading to a [...]

2018-12-19

• La Diversidad de Genero en los Consejos tras la Ley de Igualdad 2007
  by J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz in Nada Es Gratis, 2018-12-19 06:07:42 UTC

  de J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz, Manu García y Manu Yáñez. Es por todos conocido que las mujeres están infrarrepresentadas en las posiciones de liderazgo. Los “ techos de cristal ” son generalizados en prácticamente todas las áreas y organizaciones, tanto privadas como públicas, y los datos parecen indicar que existen restricciones o barreras invisibles en el ascenso o la promoción de las mujeres dentro de las organizaciones. Las mujeres son mayoritarias entre los graduados de los países desarrollados, y a pesar de que su participación laboral ha aumentado significativamente, sigue siendo muy minorit [...]

2018-12-18

• An individual look at poverty, across multiple dimensions
  by Isis Gaddis in Let's Talk Development, 2018-12-18 15:34:00 UTC

  What we (don’t) know about gender gaps in multidimensional poverty … Gender gaps are pervasive in many dimensions of well-being. Globally, almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women , because of past (and sometimes present) gender inequalities in access to schooling. Women are also often more “time poor ” than men due to the double burden of labor market activities and domestic chores and more “ asset poor ” due to gender biased laws , traditions and institutions. [...]

• Segregation of women into low-paying occupations in the United States
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-18 14:45:56 UTC

  By: Carlos Gradín We extend the conventional framework for measuring segregation to consider stratification of occupations by gender, i.e. when women or men are predominantly segregated into low-paying jobs. For this, we propose to use concentration curves and indices. Our empirical analysis using this approach shows that the decline over time in occupational gender segregation in the US has been accompanied by a deeper, longer reduction in gender stratification. We further investigate the role of workers’ characteristics, showing that gender differences cannot explain the levels of [...]

• Ageing Poorly? Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-18 14:45:02 UTC

  By: Ferreira, Francisco H. G.  (World Bank) ;  Firpo, Sergio  (Insper, São Paulo) ;  Messina, Julián  (Inter-American Development Bank) The Gini coefficient of labor earnings in Brazil fell by nearly a fifth between 1995 and 2012, from 0.50 to 0.41. The decline in earnings inequality was even larger by other measures, with the 90-10 percentile ratio falling by almost 40 percent. Although the conventional explanation of a falling education premium did play a role, an RIF regression-based decomposition analysis suggests that the decline in returns to potential experience was the main f [...]

• Do Equal Rights for a Minority Affect General Life Satisfaction?
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-18 14:42:30 UTC

  By: Berggren, Niclas  (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) ;  Bjørnskov, Christian  (Aarhus University) ;  Nilsson, Therese  (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) While previous research examines how institutions matter for general life satisfaction and how specific institutions embodying equal rights for gay people matter for the life satisfaction of gays, we combine these two issues to analyze how the latter type of institutions relates to general life satisfaction. The question is how people in general are affected by laws treating everyone equally irres [...]

• The Gender Pay Gap Across Countries: A Human Capital Approach
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-18 14:41:31 UTC

  By: Solomon Polachek  ;  Jun Xiang The gender wage gap varies across countries. For example, among OECD nations women in Australia, Belgium, Italy and Sweden earn 80% as much as males, whereas in Austria, Canada and Japan women earn about 60%. Current studies examining cross-country differences focus on the impact of labor market institutions such as minimum wage laws and nationwide collective bargaining. However, these studies neglect labor market institutions that affect women†s lifetime work behavior — a factor crucially important in gender wage gap studies that employ individua [...]

• Origins of happiness
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-18 14:40:02 UTC

  By: Andrew Clark  ;  Sarah Flèche  ;  Richard Layard  ;  Nattavudh Powdthavee  ;  George Ward Understanding the key determinants of people’s life satisfaction makes it possible to suggest policies for how best to reduce misery and promote wellbeing. A forthcoming book by Richard Layard and colleagues discusses evidence on the origins of happiness in survey data from Australia, Germany, the UK and the United States. Keywords: happiness, wellbeing, government, mental health URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:497&r= ltv [...]

2018-12-17

• The Economics of Skyscraper Height (Part I)
  by Jason Barr in Building the skyline, 2018-12-17 14:12:57 UTC

  Jason M. Barr      December 17, 2018 Clark and Kingston In 1930, W. C. Clark and J. L. Kingston (CK), an economist and architect, respectively, published a book called, The Skyscraper: A Study in the Economic Height of a Modern Office Buildings . In this work, they act as a hypothetical developer of a Manhattan office skyscraper. Their aim was to determine a height for the structure which maximized the return, given the rents, and the costs of land and construction. In fined-grained detail, they laid out the various elements of erecting such a building, including floor plans, and the all the [...]

2018-12-14

• The Demand for Apartments versus Single Family Homes
  by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics, 2018-12-14 14:01:00 UTC

  In New York City, Hong Kong, Shanghai and London and Paris,� rich people live in apartments.� President Trump owns several apartments in Manhattan.� Poor people also live in apartments.� These apartments are of different sizes, located in different areas and in different buildings and apartments are of different quality levels as well.� In the United States, the vast majority of people live in spread out single family homes. The majority's choice to not live in multi-family apartment buildings has social consequences.� If more of us lived in apartments in multi-family buildings, then we would [...]

2018-12-13

• Collateral Booms and Information Depletion
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2018-12-13 15:49:27 UTC

  By Vladimir Asriyan, Luc Laeven and Alberto Martín http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1064&r=dge We develop a new theory of information production during credit booms. In our model, entrepreneurs need credit to undertake investment projects, some of which enable them to divert resources towards private consumption. Lenders can protect themselves from such diversion in two ways: collateralization and costly screening, which generates durable information about projects. In equilibrium, the collateralization-screening mix depends on the value of aggregate collateral. High collateral values r [...]

2018-12-12

• 2018 Saw Simultaneous Wildfires Devastate California. That Could be the New Normal
  by ? in Discover Top Stories, 2018-12-12 20:27:11 UTC

  (Inside Science) -- Just a few weeks ago, two large wildfires caused massive destruction and at least 91 deaths in California, the Woolsey fire near Los Angeles and the Camp fire that engulfed the town of Paradise in the north. Residents and firefighters s [...]

• Minneapolis 2040: The most wonderful plan of the year
  by Jenny Schuetz in The Avenue, 2018-12-12 15:42:34 UTC

  By Jenny Schuetz Perhaps proximity to the North Pole has its advantages. On December 7, Santa Claus (a.k.a. the Minneapolis City Council ) delivered an early holiday gift to Twin Cities urbanists: several key zoning reforms, neatly packaged in an 1100-page comprehensive plan . YIMBYs around the country have been following the pitched battle over the plan’s most revolutionary feature : whether to allow small apartment buildings in neighborhoods currently zoned for only single-family homes. The approved plan would change the allowed residential uses on roughly half the city’s land. But, this is [...]

2018-12-11

• ¡No más regalos envenenados a costa nuestra!
  by Leopoldo in La Silla Vacía, 2018-12-11 18:55:14 UTC

  @LeopoldoTweets A nadie le gusta pagar impuestos. Pero son inevitables (tanto como la muerte, dice el adagio). Ausente una utopía libertaria, los necesitamos para financiar al Estado. Lo que definitivamente a nadie le gusta y que sí podríamos evitar es pagar impuestos cuando otros, que también podrían poner su parte, no lo hacen. Y eso es lo que sucede en Colombia. Lo más grave es que esta tragedia (porque lo es) la promueve el propio Estado al incorporar en su estatuto tributario un costal de regalos injustificados (una exención por acá, un subsidio por allá). Como lo he dicho antes , la Le [...]

• The Substitution and Income Effects Induced by Introducing Carbon Taxes
  by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics, 2018-12-11 15:41:00 UTC

  The protests in France over raising gasoline taxes there highlights that middle class people understand that higher carbon taxes have income effects.  If you drive 15,000 miles a year and if your vehicle achieves 30 miles per gallon and if the price of gasoline increases from $4 to $4.40 due to a 10% increase in the gas tax, then your disposable income declines each year by (15000/30)*.4 = $200. Economists celebrate the substitution effects induced by the carbon tax --- that people who drive will demand more fuel efficient vehicles and drive them less.  On the supply side, the tax will nudge f [...]

• Los efectos de revelar a los profesores sus propios estereotipos
  by Libertad González in Nada Es Gratis, 2018-12-11 06:30:33 UTC

  La semana pasada asistí a un seminario de Paolo Pinotti , profesor en la Universidad Bocconi de Milán. Paolo lleva unos años implicado en un proyecto muy interesante, en el que intentan potenciar los resultados escolares de los niños de origen inmigrante en Italia. En un trabajo anterior encontraban que un programa de tutorías y orientación aumentaba la proporción de niños (varones) de origen inmigrante y alta capacidad que elegían asistir a un instituto académico o técnico en lugar de uno vocacional. En el estudio que nos presentó el otro día, se centraban en determinar si los profesores tien [...]

2018-12-10

• Social Norms, Labor Market Opportunities, and the Marriage Gap for Skilled Women
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-10 19:28:43 UTC

  By: Bertrand, Marianne  (University of Chicago);  Cortes, Patricia  (Boston University);  Olivetti, Claudia  (Boston College);  Pan, Jessica  (National University of Singapore) Abstract: In most of the developed world, skilled women marry at a lower rate than unskilled women. We document heterogeneity across countries in how the marriage gap for skilled women has evolved over time. As labor market opportunities for women have improved, the marriage gap has been growing in some countries but shrinking in others. We discuss the comparative statics of a theoretical model in which the (negat [...]

• Crisis at Home: Mancession-induced Change in Intrahousehold Distribution
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-10 19:27:30 UTC

  By: Olivier Bargain  (GREQAM – Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d’Aix-Marseille – ECM – Ecole Centrale de Marseille – CNRS – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – AMU – Aix Marseille Université – EHESS – École des hautes études en sciences sociales);  Laurine Martinoty  (CES – Centre d’économie de la Sorbonne – CNRS – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – UP1 – Université Panthéon-Sorbonne) Abstract: The Great Recessions was essentially a ‘mancession’ in countries like Spain, the UK or the US, i.e. it hit men harder than women for they were disproportion [...]

• Emigration, Remittances and the Subjective Well-Being of Those Staying Behind
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-10 19:26:33 UTC

  By: Ivlevs, Artjoms  (University of the West of England, Bristol);  Nikolova, Milena  (University of Groningen);  Graham, Carol Lee  (Brookings Institution) Abstract: Despite growing academic and policy interest in the subjective well-being consequences of emigration for those left behind, existing studies have focused on single origin countries or specific world regions. Our study is the first to offer a global perspective on the well-being consequences of emigration for those staying behind using several subjective well-being measures (evaluations of best possible life, positive affect [...]

• Government education expenditures, pre-primary education and school performance: A cross-country analysis
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-10 19:25:28 UTC

  By: Daniela Del Boca  (University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto);  Chiara Monfardini  (University of Bologna);  Sarah Grace See  (University of York) Abstract: Using data from OECD’s PISA, Eurostat and World Bank’s WDI, we explore how child cognitive outcomes at the aggregate country level are related to macroeconomic conditions, specifically government education expenditures and early education experience. We find that both government expenditures in education and attendance to early child care are associated with better later school performance. We also consider different childca [...]

• Self Confidence Spillovers and Motivated Beliefs
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-10 19:24:34 UTC

  By: Ritwik Banerjee  (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and IZA);  Nabanita Datta Gupta  (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark); Marie Claire Villeval  (University of Lyon) Abstract: Is success in a task used strategically by individuals to motivate their beliefs prior to taking action in a subsequent, unrelated, task? Also, is the distortion of beliefs reinforced for individuals who have lower status in society? Conducting an artefactual field experiment in India, we show that success when competing in a task increases the performers’ self-co [...]

• The Returns to Schooling Unveiled
  by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog, 2018-12-10 19:23:37 UTC

  By: Cardoso, Ana Rute  (IAE Barcelona (CSIC));  Guimaraes, Paulo  (Banco de Portugal);  Portugal, Pedro  (Banco de Portugal);  Reis, Hugo  (Banco de Portugal) Abstract: We bring together the strands of literature on the returns to education, its spillovers, and the role of the employer shaping the wage distribution. The aim is to analyze the labor market returns to education taking into account who the worker is (worker unobserved ability), what he does (the job title), with whom (the coworkers) and, also crucially, for whom (the employer). We combine data of remarkable quality – exhaust [...]

• Navigating in Cloudy Skies
  by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 2018-12-10 12:14:25 UTC

  “Interest rates are still low by historical standards, and they remain just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy‑‑that is, neither speeding up nor slowing down growth .” Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell , November 28, 2018. “We’re a long way from neutral at this point, probably.” Video Interview of Chairman Powell by Judy Woodruff, PBS (at the 8:05 mark), October 3, 2018. Stargazers hate clouds. Even modest levels of humidity and wind make it hard to “see” the wonders of the night sky. Very few places on our planet have consistently [...]

• Rita Faria’s journal round-up for 10th December 2018
  by Rita Faria in The Academic Health Economists' Blog, 2018-12-10 12:00:31 UTC

  Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot . If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch . Calculating the expected value of sample information using efficient nested Monte Carlo: a tutorial . Value in Health [ PubMed ] Published 17th July 2018 The expected value of sample information (EVSI) represent [...]

2018-12-08

• What moves markets more, Twitter or traditional news?
  by ? in EUROPP European Politics and Policy, 2018-12-08 07:29:35 UTC

  Twitter has become a key communication tool for world leaders, but how does the impact of tweets on financial markets compare to the impact of traditional news? Based on a new study, Costas Milas, Theodore Panagiotidis and Theologos Dergiades identify a cl [...]

2018-12-06

• Recession risk and the circularity problem, by Scott Sumner
  by ? in Econlog, 2018-12-06 19:45:35 UTC

  [Trigger warning for acrophobics like me.] I have fond memories of growing up in the Midwest, and seeing big white mushroom-shaped water towers on the outskirts of small towns: Back in 1970, a friend of mine told me about some guys he knew that played a game of dare.  They’d go to the top of one of these, and then gradually crawl down as far as they dare, before climbing back up.  But if you make a mistake and go to far, over the horizon, then it’s all over.  I’m a bit acrophobic, so it makes me queasy every time I think about this story, which is several times a year. The reason I frequently [...]

• Quantitative Easing
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2018-12-06 18:55:43 UTC

  By Wei Cui and Vincent Sterk http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfm:wpaper:1830&r=dge Is Quantitative Easing (QE) an effective substitute for conventional monetary policy? We study this question using a quantitative heterogeneous-agents model with nominal rigidities, as well as liquid and partially liquid wealth. The direct effect of QE on aggregate demand is determined by the difference in marginal propensities to consume out of the two types of wealth, which is large according to the model and empirical studies. A comparison of optimal QE and interest rate rules reveals that QE is indeed a very po [...]

2018-12-04

• Blind to luck
  by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling, 2018-12-04 16:23:35 UTC

  In a good article on how graduating in a recession does long-lasting damage to one’s career, Tim Harford says “it’s easy to overlook luck.” It is indeed. Evidence for this has been uncovered in experiments by Nattavudh Powdthavee and Yohanes Riyanto. They got students in Singapore and Thailand to bet upon tosses of a fair coin and found that people were willing to pay to back the bet of students who had correctly called previous tosses. “An average person is often happy to pay for what could only be described as transparently useless advice” they conclude. This is startling. But it has been co [...]

• Handel og fertilitet – og TV – i Afrika
  by Christian Bjørnskov in Punditokraterne, 2018-12-04 13:33:17 UTC

  Mens jeg naturligvis passer mine forpligtelser i Danmark, opholder jeg mig for tiden og indtil slutningen af januar rent fysisk ved Alfred Weber Instituttet ved Universitetet i Heidelberg. En af fordelene ved at være på et velrenommeret universitet midt i Europa er, at der kommer en række forskere på besøg, og de fleste giver et seminar. Og nogle af dem er faktisk interessante. Dagens seminar var et af typen, der både var interessant og overraskende. Det blev givet at Manoel Bittencourt (University of Witwatersrand) som præsenterede “ Trade Openness and Fertility Rates in Africa. ” Papiret er [...]

2018-12-03

• E Pluribus Unum: single vs. multiple point of entry resolution
  by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 2018-12-03 13:22:14 UTC

  “The turmoil that followed the failure of Lehman and the decision to rescue AIG … underscored the absence of a third alternative to the options of bailout or disruptive bankruptcy.” Daniel K. Tarullo, October 18, 2013 . Addressing the calamity posed by the failure of large, global financial intermediaries has been high on the post-crisis regulatory reform agenda. When Lehman Brothers―a $600 billion entity―failed, it took heroic efforts by the world’s central bankers to prevent a financial meltdown. The lesson is that a robust resolution regime is a critical element of a resilient financial sys [...]

• En skandinavisk matchningsmarknad för doktorandseminarier
  by Gäst in Ekonomistas, 2018-12-03 13:11:26 UTC

  I dagarna har 21 har lyckliga doktorander i Sverige, Norge och Danmark fått besked om att de under 2019 kommer att få presentera sin forskning vid nationalekonomiska institutioner i de tre nämnda länderna. Detta är ett resultat av ett nytt program med syfte att träna doktorander inför internationella akademiska arbetsmarknader. I detta gästinlägg beskriver Tommy Andersson (Lunds universitet) och Randi Hjalmarsson (Göteborgs universitet) bakgrunden och utfallet av detta program. Idén att systematiskt erbjuda doktorander möjligheten att presentera sin forskning vid seminarier utanför sina hemins [...]

2018-12-01

• REED: The Devil, the Deep Blue Sea, and Replication
  by replicationnetwork in The Replication Network, 2018-12-01 08:51:09 UTC

  In a recent article (“ Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Tensions Between Scientific Judgement and Statistical Model Selection ” published in Computational Brain & Behavior),  Danielle Navarro identifies blurry edges around the subject of model selection. The article is a tour de force in thinking largely about statistical model selection. She writes, “ What goal does model selection serve when all models are known to be systematically wrong? How might “toy problems” tell a misleading story? How does the scientific goal of explanation align with (or differ from) traditional statistical [...]

2018-11-29

• Should I stay or should I go? Austerity, unemployment and migration
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2018-11-29 14:27:31 UTC

  By Guilherme Bandeira, Jordi Caballé, and Eugenia Vella http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1839&r=dge High unemployment and fiscal austerity during the Great Recession have led to significant migration outflows in those European countries that suffered a deep deterioration of their economy, Greece being the most obvious case. This paper introduces endogenous migration in a small open economy DSGE model to analyze the business cycle effects from the interaction of fiscal consolidation instruments with migration. A tax-based consolidation induces the strongest increase in emigration, leadi [...]

2018-11-28

• La organización de la empresa familiar y confianza durante una crisis
  by admin in Nada Es Gratis, 2018-11-28 06:07:56 UTC

  de  Mircea Epure En una intervención reciente en Bloomberg, Luigi Zingales alertaba sobre la poca sostenibilidad de la rigidez organizativa y la gestión más personal que profesional de las empresas familiares. Estas empresas suelen seguir políticas corporativas que barajan la fiel representación de las preferencias de los accionistas, la conservación del legado familiar y una fuerte incrustación en las normas sociales locales (evidencia aquí ). Sus particularidades y su documentada prevalencia alrededor del mundo, incluso entre las grandes empresas, hicieron que el interés en sus actividades e [...]

• Carlos Ghosn ou les limites de la latitude managériale
  by Michel Albouy in Contrepoints, 2018-11-28 03:35:12 UTC

  Par Michel Albouy. Un article de The Conversation L’annonce de l’ interpellation de Carlos Ghosn , PDG de Renault et président de Nissan et de Mitsubishi Motors, à Tokyo le 19 novembre 2018 a provoqué une véritable onde-choc dans le monde des affaires et des marchés financiers . En une journée, l’action Renault passait de 65,1 à 55,6 euros, soit une baisse de 14,6 % ou encore une perte de capitalisation boursière de 2,8 milliards d’euros. Dans sa séance du 19 novembre 2018, le conseil d’administration de Renault s’est réuni à la suite de l’ouverture de la procédure judiciaire visant Carlos Gho [...]

2018-11-26

• Star Trek and the Economics of the Future (Part I): Tribalism versus Terranism
  by Jason Barr in Building the skyline, 2018-11-26 12:46:53 UTC

  Jason M. Barr      November 26, 2018 You are a barbarian….Don’t sound so incredulous, captain. We all are. A killer first, a builder second. A hunter, a warrior, and—let’s be honest—a murderer. That is our joint heritage, is it not? –Anan 7, Leader of the High Council of Eminiar VII, to James T. Kirk, Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise (TOS:S1:E:23, A Taste of Armageddon ) Here in the 21 st century, it is clear that the Homo sapiens of Planet Earth are moving inexorably towards one common global community— a Terran Community —rather than a series of independent nation-states. While we may retain [...]

• Sam Watson’s journal round-up for 26th November 2018
  by Sam Watson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog, 2018-11-26 12:00:19 UTC

  Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot . If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch . Alcohol and self-control: a field experiment in India . American Economic Review Forthcoming Addiction is complex. For many people it is characterised by a need or compulsion to take something, often to prevent [...]

2018-11-19

• Why “Many-Model Thinkers” Make Better Decisions
  by Scott E. Page in HBR Blog Network, 2018-11-19 16:00:30 UTC

  “To be wise you must arrange your experiences on a lattice of models.”  — Charlie Munger Organizations are awash in data — from geocoded transactional data to real-time website traffic to semantic quantifications of corporate annual reports. All these data and data sources only add value if put to use. And that typically means that the data is incorporated into a model. By a model, I mean a formal mathematical representation that can be applied to or calibrated to fit data. Some organizations use models without knowing it. For example, a yield curve, which compares bonds with the same risk pro [...]

• From Basel to the Volcker Rule: A FinReg Glossary
  by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 2018-11-19 13:24:10 UTC

  “A multitude of federal agencies, self-regulatory organizations, and state authorities share oversight of the financial system under a framework riddled with regulatory gaps, loopholes, and inefficiencies.” The Volcker Alliance, Reshaping the Financial Regulatory System , p. 1, 2015. Over the past century, an alphabet soup of agencies and rules overseeing and guiding domestic and cross-border finance has emerged. The wave of regulation following the 2007-09 crisis added to the complexity of this framework. With that in mind, we have developed this glossary to help students and teachers navigat [...]

2018-11-16

• Unemployment Insurance Take-up Rates in an Equilibrium Search Model
  by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog, 2018-11-16 21:29:32 UTC

  By Stéphane Auray, David L. Fuller and Damba Lkhagvasuren http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2018-14&r=dge From 1989-2012; on average 23% of those eligible for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in the US did not collect them. In a search model with matching frictions; private information associated with the UI non-collectors implies the market equilibrium is not Pareto optimal. The cause of the Pareto inefficiency is characterized along with the key features of collector vs. non-collector outcomes. Non-collectors transition to employment at a faster rate and a lower wage relative to t [...]

• Lower returns to education may lead to lower fertility
  by Bruno Duarte in EUnomics, 2018-11-16 06:26:35 UTC

  Galor and Weil’s  model of fertility and technological frontier (widely replicated by  other authors ) concludes individuals choose between allocating their available effort to increasing the quantity of descendants or improving the quality of descendant’s human capital. The model foresees that this choice shall inevitably lead to decreasing fertility as society improves its technological profile: individuals improve their income and from a certain moment onwards technology improvements leads to lower fertility and higher human capital. Consider the following chart Yellow – wage premia of ba [...]

2018-11-15

• Angry Brexiters
  by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling, 2018-11-15 13:48:24 UTC

  Brian Cox asks a good question : The thing I don’t understand about these Conservative MPs is that they are such angry people. They haven’t done badly out of Britain - they aren’t on the receiving end of their own policies. And yet they want to smash everything up. The EU, The Union and now their own party. It’s no coincidence that many of those he has in mind such as Rees-Mogg and Johnson - though we might add Farage and Banks – come from posh backgrounds. We know that our preferences adapt (pdf) to our circumstances. As Amartya Sen has written, “deprived people tend to come to terms with t [...]

• ¿Por qué no crecen los salarios en España? (II): Paro, Subempleo y Precariedad
  by Florentino Felgueroso in Nada Es Gratis, 2018-11-15 06:23:36 UTC

  Florentino Felgueroso y Marcel Jansen En la primera parte de esta serie de entradas sobre la moderación salarial en España mostramos la importancia que tiene analizar el fenómeno desde una perspectiva dinámica del mercado de trabajo, es decir, comparando los salarios de los empleos que se crean, los que se destruyen y los que sobreviven. Así, mostramos que los salarios medianos habían crecido en la última década a una tasa del 2% anual, si aislábamos el efecto composición negativo generado por las altas y bajas laborales que se producen mayormente por debajo de la mediana. En esta entrada exam [...]

2018-11-14

• Is human flourishing primarily about psychological health, capability or opportunity?
  by Winton Bates in Freedom and Flourishing, 2018-11-14 20:25:00 UTC

  This question is not just an intellectual puzzle. The way we answer it has important practical implications. The main point I want to make is that the appropriate answer if we are thinking about the flourishing of a close relative, friend or acquaintance is not appropriate if we are thinking about public policy. Before attempting to answer the question, I need to outline the three different approaches. The psychological health approach:   Martin Seligman is a leading exponent of this approach. In his book, ‘Flourish’, Seligman suggests that well-being theory ‘is essentially a theory of uncoe [...]

2018-11-12

• Sam Watson’s journal round-up for 12th November 2018
  by Sam Watson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog, 2018-11-12 15:46:49 UTC

  Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot . If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch . Estimating health opportunity costs in low-income and middle-income countries: a novel approach and evidence from cross-country data . BMJ Global Health.  Published November 2017. The relationship between health [...]

Privacy Legal