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作者：Rockoff, Jonah E.; Lockwood, Benjamin B.
作者单位：Columbia University
摘要：We examine the implications of separating students of different grade levels across schools for the purposes of educational production. Specifically, we find that moving students from elementary to middle school in 6th or 7th grade causes significant drops in academic achievement. These effects are large (about 0.15 standard deviations), present for both math and English, and persist through grade 8, the last year for which we have achievement data. The effects are similar for boys and girls, ...
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作者：Oster, Emily; Shoulson, Ira; Quaid, Kimberly; Dorsey, E. Ray
作者单位：University of Chicago; University of Rochester; Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington
摘要：Individual, personalized genetic information is increasingly available, leading to the possibility of greater adverse selection over time, particularly in individual-payer insurance markets. We use data on individuals at risk for Huntington disease (HD), a degenerative neurological disorder with significant effects on morbidity, to estimate adverse selection in long-term care insurance. We find strong evidence of adverse selection: individuals who carry the HD genetic mutation are up to 5 time...
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作者：Ziebarth, Nicolas R.; Karlsson, Martin
作者单位：Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung; Technical University of Darmstadt
摘要：This study estimates the reform effects of a reduction in statutory sick pay levels on sickness absence behavior and labor costs. German federal law reduced the legal obligation of German employers to provide 100% continued wage pay for up to six weeks per sickness episode. In 1996 statutory sick pay was decreased to 80% of foregone gross wages. Within the reform's target group - private sector employees - this measure increased the proportion of employees having zero days of absence between 6...
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作者：Heim, Bradley T.; Lurie, Ithai Z.
作者单位：Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; United States Department of the Treasury
摘要：This paper estimates the effect of an increase in the deductibility of health insurance premiums for self-employed individuals on the probability of being self-employed. Using a panel of tax returns from 1999 to 2004, we estimate fixed effects instrumental variable regressions for the probability of being self-employed, entering into self-employment, and exiting from self-employment. Our results suggest that this policy increased the probability of being self-employed by 1.5 percentage points,...
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作者：Angrist, Joshua D.; Chen, Stacey H.; Frandsen, Brigham R.
作者单位：University of London; Royal Holloway University London
摘要：The veterans disability compensation (VDC) program, which provides a monthly stipend to disabled veterans, is the third largest American disability insurance program. Since the late 1990s, VDC growth has been driven primarily by an increase in claims from Vietnam veterans, raising concerns about costs as well as health. We use the draft lottery to study the long-term effects of Vietnam-era military service on health and work in the 2000 Census. We find no evidence that military service affecte...
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作者：Ashworth, Scott; Shotts, Kenneth W.
作者单位：University of Chicago; Stanford University
摘要：Elections sometimes give policy makers incentives to pander, i.e., to implement a policy that voters think is in their best interest, even though the policy maker knows that a different policy is actually better for the voters. Pandering incentives are typically attenuated when voters learn, prior to the election, whether the policy chosen by the incumbent truly was in their best interest. This suggests that the media can improve accountability by reporting to voters information about whether ...
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作者：Barbieri, Stefano; Malueg, David A.
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Riverside; Tulane University
摘要：We introduce threshold uncertainty, a la Nitzan and Romano (1990), into a private-values model of voluntary provision of a discrete public good. Players are allowed to make any level of contribution toward funding the good, which is provided if the cost threshold is reached. Otherwise, contributions are refunded. Conditions ensuring existence and uniqueness of a Bayesian equilibrium are established. Further restricting the threshold uncertainty to a uniform distribution, we show the equilibriu...
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作者：Brunner, Eric J.; Ross, Stephen L.
作者单位：University of Connecticut; Quinnipiac University
摘要：This paper examines whether the voter with the median income is decisive in local spending decisions. Previous tests have relied on cross-sectional data while we make use of a pair of California referenda to estimate a first difference specification. The referenda proposed to lower the required vote share for passing local educational bonding initiatives from 67 to 50% and 67 to 55%, respectively. We find that voters rationally consider future public service decisions when deciding how to vote...
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作者：Carpenter, Jeffrey; Myers, Caitlin Knowles
作者单位：Middlebury College
摘要：We examine motivations for prosocial behavior using new data on volunteer firefighters that contain a dictator game based measure of altruism, surveyed measures of other behavioral factors, and call records that provide an objective measure of time spent volunteering. Controlling for a variety of other explanations, we find that the decision to volunteer is positively correlated with altruism as well as with concern for social reputation or image. Moreover, by utilizing variation in the presen...
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作者：Tang, Ning; Mitchell, Olivia S.; Mottola, Gary R.; Utkus, Stephen P.
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania
摘要：To evaluate the extent of inefficient behavior in 401(k) pensions, now the dominant form of retirement saving in America, we attribute inefficiencies separately to the employer's menu design versus participant portfolio elections. Results from our analysis of over 1000 plans and a million participants demonstrate that most sponsors offer efficient investment menus, but participants undo this by constructing inefficient portfolios thus reducing their potential retirement wealth by one-fifth. Be...
