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作者：Cesur, Resul; Tekin, Erdal; Ulker, Aydogan
作者单位：University of Connecticut; American University; Deakin University
摘要：We examine the impact of widespread adoption of natural gas as a source of fuel on infant mortality in Turkey, using variation across provinces and over time in the intensity of natural gas utilisation. Our estimates indicate that the expansion of natural gas infrastructure has resulted in a significant decrease in the rate of infant mortality. Specifically, a one-percentage point increase in natural gas intensity - measured by the rate of subscriptions to natural gas services - would cause th...
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作者：Guala, Francesco; Filippin, Antonio
作者单位：University of Milan; IZA Institute Labor Economics
摘要：Group identity can influence significantly people's attitudes towards monetary allocations. In this article, we reassess the representation of group identity using social preference models. First, we show that the influence of group identity varies unsystematically across different types of mini-dictator games and cannot be described using a well-behaved preference function. Second, we demonstrate that the effect is not robust to slightly increasing the complexity of the task, suggesting that ...
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作者：Bhattacharya, Joydeep; Chakraborty, Shankha
作者单位：Iowa State University; University of Oregon
摘要：Inspired by the historical English experience, we modify the Beckerian paradigm of fertility by incorporating costly, societal influence on contraception. Heterogeneous, generationally-linked households choose between 'traditional' and 'modern' contraception. The modern has a higher fixed but lower variable cost of averting childbirths. Initially the rich adopt the modern, which unleashes society-wide diffusion. Eventually everyone switches, lowering fertility further and across households. Ha...
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作者：Folke, Olle; Persson, Torsten; Rickne, Johanna
作者单位：Uppsala University; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Stockholm University; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)
摘要：We exploit close elections in Swedish municipalities to test whether relatives of politicians who become mayors obtain economic benefits. We find no benefits for the siblings of new mayors, but the average earnings of children of newly appointed mayors rise by about 15%. Administrative information on occupational and residence status show that the higher earnings are unlikely reflect an illegitimate allocation of jobs. But the evidence suggests that children of election-winning mayors are more...
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作者：Reuben, Ernesto; Wiswall, Matthew; Zafar, Basit
作者单位：Columbia University; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - New York
摘要：Using an experiment to measure overconfidence and preferences for competitiveness and risk, this article investigates whether these measures explain gender differences in college major choices and expected future earnings. We find that individuals who are overconfident and overly competitive expect to earn significantly more. In addition, gender differences in overconfidence and competitiveness explain 18% of the gender gap in earnings expectations. These experimental measures explain as much ...
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作者：Goux, Dominique; Gurgand, Marc; Maurin, Eric
作者单位：Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris; Paris School of Economics; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Paris School of Economics
摘要：At the end of middle school, many low-achieving students realise that they do not have the ability to get into selective high school programmes, which may be a source of disengagement and eventually lead them to drop out of high school. Based on a randomised controlled trial, this article shows that a series of meetings facilitated by the school principals can help low-achievers to formulate educational objectives better suited to their academic aptitudes. By changing the high school plans of ...
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作者：Mitra, Anirban; Mitra, Shabana
作者单位：University of Oslo; Indian Institute of Management (IIM System); Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
摘要：We investigate how electoral competition affects the income distribution in society. We utilise a standard probabilistic voting setup where parties compete at two stages. Our model delivers that greater electoral competition in a district results in equalisation of incomes therein. We check for these relationships using data from Indian national elections which are combined with consumption expenditure data rounds from the National Sample Survey Organization (1987-8 and 2004-5) to yield a dist...
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作者：Pavoni, Nicola; Yazici, Hakki
作者单位：Bocconi University; Bocconi University; Sabanci University
摘要：We study optimal taxation of savings in an economy where agents face self-control problems and the severity of these problems possibly depends on age. Focusing on quasi-hyperbolic discounting, we show that if agents' ability to self-control increases concavely with age, then savings should be subsidised and the subsidy should decrease with age. Quantitatively, we find that the optimal subsidies in our calibrated model with age-dependent self-control are much larger than those implied by models...
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作者：Cramton, Peter; Ockenfels, Axel
作者单位：University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; University of Cologne
摘要：The 2010 German 4G spectrum auction was an unusually large simultaneous ascending multi-band auction. The bidding was competitive and the final assignment was efficient. However, our analysis suggests that independent and rational bidders had an opportunity to coordinate implicitly on a low-revenue outcome. Coordination was difficult, though, because of a multiplicity of focal points. One important focal point involved post-auction negotiations, posing risks to bidders and the auctioneer. We a...
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作者：Di Tillio, Alfredo; Ottaviani, Marco; Sorensen, Peter Norman
作者单位：Bocconi University; University of Copenhagen
摘要：We investigate the impact of conflicts of interests on randomised controlled trials in a game-theoretic framework. A researcher seeks to persuade an evaluator that the causal effect of a treatment outweighs its cost, to justify acceptance. The researcher can use private information to manipulate the experiment in three alternative ways: (i) sampling subjects based on their treatment effect, (ii) assigning subjects to treatment based on their baseline outcome, or (iii) selectively reporting exp...
