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作者:Lehne, Jonathan; Shapiro, Jacob N.; Vanden Eynde, Oliver
作者单位:Paris School of Economics; Princeton University; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
摘要:Politically-driven corruption is a pervasive challenge for development, but evidence of its welfare effects are scarce. Using data from a major rural road construction programme in India we document political influence in a setting where politicians have no official role in contracting decisions. Exploiting close elections to identify the causal effect of coming to power, we show that the share of contractors whose name matches that of the winning politician increases by 83% (from 4% to 7%) in...
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作者:Moreno-Monroy, Ana I.; Posada, Hector M.
作者单位:Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD); Universidad de Antioquia
摘要:In this article we study the relationship between accessibility and informality using a spatial search model. In the model, formal workers commute every day to the Central Business District (CBD) to work in formal firms. Informal workers choose their commuting frequency knowing that they either can work at home and save on commuting costs, or have a higher remuneration at the CBD but incur commuting costs. We demonstrate that the difference in urban costs between formal and informal workers is...
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作者:Turnovsky, Stephen J.; Rojas-Vallejos, Jorge
作者单位:University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso
摘要:This paper uses numerical simulations to highlight the contrasting effects of consumption and investment tariff reductions on the dynamic adjustments of key measures of aggregate activity and inequality. The consumption tariff has only a weak effect on activity. If implemented instantaneously it leads to a negligible reduction in wealth inequality but a substantial increase in income inequality. If gradual, it causes a more significant decline in wealth inequality but a milder increase in inco...
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作者:Corvalan, Alejandro; Cox, Paulo; Osorio, Rodrigo
作者单位:University Diego Portales; Universidad de Talca; Universidad de Santiago de Chile
摘要:Political budget cycles have been studied at the national and local level, separately. However, when local governments depend on national resources, the central government may have incentives to manipulate intergovernmental transfers to favor politically aligned mayors, in order to use their help to mobilize voters in the next national election. This generates an indirect Political Budget Cycle (iPBC). This paper documents the presence of an iPBC in Chile. We show that, during municipal electi...
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作者:Baier, Scott L.; Bergstrand, Jeffrey H.; Clance, Matthew W.
作者单位:Clemson University; University of Notre Dame; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Pretoria
摘要:It is now widely accepted that economic integration agreements (EIAs) and other trade-policy liberalizations contribute to nations' economic growth and development and help alleviate poverty. However, the economic effects of such policies vary across countries' economic structures; for instance, developing countries face higher fixed trade costs (partly due to higher government border-crossing costs and weaker port infrastructures). We offer three potential contributions. First, we extend a st...
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作者:Aggarwal, Shilpa; Francis, Eilin; Robinson, Jonathan
作者单位:Indian School of Business (ISB); University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要:Many farmers in the developing world lack access to effective savings and storage devices. Such devices might be particularly valuable for farmers since income is received as a lump sum at harvest but expenditures are incurred throughout the year, and because grain prices are low at harvest but rise over the year. We experimentally provided two saving schemes to 132 ROSCAs in Kenya, one designed around communally storing maize and the other around saving cash for inputs. About 56% of responden...
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作者:Linarello, Andrea
作者单位:European Central Bank; Bank of Italy
摘要:Production networks can amplify the effects of trade reforms on firms performance. In this article, I examine the effect of a reduction of foreign tariffs on the productivity of supplier industries of exporters. Using a panel of Chilean plants during a period of trade liberalization with the European Union, the United States, and the Republic of Korea, I show that the average reduction in the foreign tariff faced by downstream industries (1.1 percentage points) increases the productivity of in...
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作者:Rocha, Rudi; Ulyssea, Gabriel; Rachter, Laisa
作者单位:Getulio Vargas Foundation; University of Oxford; Getulio Vargas Foundation
摘要:We exploit a unique, large-scale formalization program in Brazil to estimate the effects of reducing the costs of formality on firm formalization. We rely on both firm-level administrative data and individual panel data to show that reducing taxes once registration costs have already been eliminated reduces firm informality. This effect comes from the formalization of existing informal firms, and not from the creation of new formal businesses nor greater formal firm survival. The implied forma...
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作者:Gershman, Boris; Rivera, Diego
作者单位:American University
摘要:This paper presents a new dataset on subnational ethnolinguistic and religious diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa covering 36 countries and almost 400 first-level administrative units. We use population censuses and largescale household surveys to compile detailed data on the ethnolinguistic composition of each region and match all reported ethnicities to Ethnologue, a comprehensive catalog of world languages. This matching allows us to standardize the notion of an ethnolinguistic group and accou...
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作者:Alam, Shamma Adeeb; Poertner, Claus C.
作者单位:Dickinson College; Seattle University; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle
摘要:This paper examines the relationship between income shocks and fertility decisions. Using panel data from Tanzania, we estimate the impact of agricultural shocks on pregnancies, births, and contraception use. The likelihood of pregnancies and childbirth are significantly lower for households that experience a crop shock. Furthermore, women have significantly higher contraception use after crop losses. The increase in contraceptive use comes almost entirely from traditional contraceptive method...