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作者：Gruber, Jonathan; McKnight, Robin
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; Wellesley College
摘要：We investigate the impact of limited network insurance plans in the context of the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission (GIC), the insurance plan for state employees. Our quasi-experimental analysis examines the introduction of a major financial incentive to choose limited network plans that affected a subset of GIC enrollees. We find that enrollees are very price sensitive in their decision to enroll in limited network plans. Those who switched spent almost 40 percent less on medical care...
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作者：Mironov, Maxim; Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina
作者单位：IE University; Paris School of Economics
摘要：We provide evidence of corruption in allocation of public procurement and assess its efficiency. Firms with procurement revenue increase tunneling around regional elections, whereas neither tunneling of firms without procurement revenue, nor legitimate business of firms with procurement exhibits a political cycle. Data are consistent with the corruption channel-cash is tunneled to politicians in exchange for procurement contracts-and inconsistent with alternative channels. Using the strength o...
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作者：Goulder, Lawrence H.; Hafstead, Marc A. C.; Williams, Roberton C., III
作者单位：Stanford University; Resources for the Future; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park
摘要：Economists have tended to view emissions pricing (e.g., cap and trade or a carbon tax) as the most cost-effective approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This paper offers a different view. Employing analytical and numerically solved general equilibrium models, it provides plausible conditions under which a more conventional form of regulation-namely, the use of a clean energy standard (CES)-is more cost-effective. The models reveal that the CES distorts factor markets less because it i...
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作者：Freedman, Seth
作者单位：Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington
摘要：Because geographic variation in medical care utilization is jointly determined by both supply and demand, it is difficult to empirically estimate whether capacity itself has a causal impact on utilization in health care. In this paper, I exploit short-term variation in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) capacity that is unlikely to be correlated with unobserved demand determinants. I find that available NICU beds have little to no effect on NICU utilization for the sickest infants, but do inc...
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作者：Kopczuk, Wojciech; Marion, Justin; Muehlegger, Erich; Slemrod, Joel
作者单位：Columbia University; University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; University of California System; University of California Davis; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
摘要：In simple models, the incidence of a tax is independent of the identity of the remitting party. We illustrate that this prediction fails to hold if opportunities for evasion differ across economic agents. Second, we estimate how the incidence of state diesel taxes varies with the point of collection, where the remitting party varies across states and over time. Moving tax collection upstream from retailers substantially raises the pass-through of diesel taxes to consumers. Furthermore, tax rev...
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作者：Skimmyhorn, William
作者单位：United States Military Academy; United States Department of Defense; United States Army
摘要：This study estimates the effects of Personal Financial Management Course attendance and enrollment assistance using a natural experiment in the US Army. New enlistees' course attendance reduces the probability of having credit account balances, average balances, delinquencies, and adverse legal actions in the first year after the course, but it has no effects on accounts in the second year or credit scores in either year. The course and its enrollment assistance substantially increase retireme...
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作者：Chen, Alice; Oster, Emily; Williams, Heidi
作者单位：Brown University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine microdata from the United States with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability. While the importance of birth weight varies across comparison countries, relative to all comparison countries the United States has similar neonat...
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作者：Field, Erica; Jayachandran, Seema; Pande, Rohini; Rigol, Natalia
作者单位：Duke University; Northwestern University; Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：Does the lack of peers contribute to the observed gender gap in entrepreneurial success? A random sample of customers of India's largest women's bank was offered two days of business counseling, and a random subsample was invited to attend with a friend. The intervention significantly increased participants' business activity, but only if they were trained with a friend. Those trained with a friend were more likely to have taken out business loans, were less likely to be housewives, and report...
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作者：Amarante, Veronica; Manacorda, Marco; Miguel, Edward; Vigorito, Andrea
作者单位：Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay; University of London; Queen Mary University London; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：There is limited empirical evidence on whether cash transfers to poor pregnant women improve children's birth outcomes and potentially help weaken the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Using a unique array of program and social security administrative - micro-data matched to longitudinal vital statistics in Uruguay, we estimate that participation in a generous social assistance program led to a sizable reduction in the incidence of low birthweight. The effect is due to faster intrauterine gr...
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作者：Cai, Jing
作者单位：University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
摘要：This paper uses a natural experiment to study the impact of an agricultural insurance program on household production, borrowing, and saving behavior. The empirical strategy includes difference-in-differences and triple difference estimations. The results show that insurance provision increases the insured crop production by 16 percent and raises borrowing by 29 percent. Interestingly, it does not affect total household savings; however, it does affect the relative proportion of flexible-term ...
