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作者：Dunn, Abe
摘要：The pharmaceutical industry is characterized as having substantial investment in R&D and a large number of new product introductions, which poses special problems for price measurement caused by the quality of drug products changing over time. This paper applies recent demand estimation techniques to individual-level data to construct a constant-quality price index for anti-cholesterol drugs. Although the average price for anti-cholesterol drugs does not change over the sample period, I find t...
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作者：Brachet, Tanguy; David, Guy; Drechsler, Andrea M.
作者单位：Charles River Associates; University of Pennsylvania
摘要：The effect of shift structure on worker performance and productivity is of increasing interest to firms and regulatory bodies. Using approximately 743,000 emergency medical incidents attended by 2,381 paramedics in Mississippi, we evaluate the extent that paramedics' performance toward the end of shifts is impacted by shift length. We find evidence that performance deteriorates toward the end of long shifts, and argue that fatigue is the mediating factor. Our calculations imply that such deter...
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作者：Lucas, Adrienne M.; Mbiti, Isaac M.
作者单位：University of Delaware; Southern Methodist University
摘要：We examine the impact of the Kenyan Free Primary Education program on student participation, sorting, and achievement on the primary school exit examination. Exploiting variation in pre-program dropout rates between districts, we find that the program increased the number of students who completed primary school, spurred private school entry, and increased access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We argue that the program was welfare enhancing as it promoted educational access witho...
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作者：Loken, Katrine V.; Mogstad, Magne; Wiswall, Matthew
作者单位：University of Bergen; University of London; University College London; New York University
摘要：We assess the implications of nonlinearity for IV and FE estimation when the estimated model is inappropriately assumed to be linear. Our application is the causal link between family income and child outcomes. Our nonlinear IV and FE estimates show an increasing, concave relationship between family income and children's outcomes. We find that the linear estimators miss the significant effects of family income because they assign little weight to the large marginal effects in the lower part of...
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作者：Kaboski, Joseph P.; Townsend, Robert M.
作者单位：University of Notre Dame; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：This paper evaluates the short-and longer term impact of Thailand's Million Baht Village Fund program, among the largest scale government microfinance iniatives in the world, using pre- and post-program panel data and quasi-experimental cross-village variation in credit per household. We find that the village funds have increased total short-term credit, consumption, agricultural investment, and income growth (from business and labor), but decreased overall asset growth. We also find a positiv...
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作者：Macours, Karen; Schady, Norbert; Vakis, Renos
作者单位：Paris School of Economics; INRAE; Inter-American Development Bank; The World Bank
摘要：Cash transfer programs have become extremely popular in the developing world. A large literature analyzes their effects on schooling, health and nutrition, but relatively little is known about possible impacts on child development. This paper analyzes the impact of a cash transfer program on early childhood cognitive development. Children in households randomly assigned to receive benefits had significantly higher levels of development nine months after the program began. There is no fade-out ...
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作者：Sacerdote, Bruce
作者单位：Dartmouth College
摘要：I examine long-term academic performance and college going for students affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Students who are forced to switch schools due to the hurricanes experience sharp declines in test scores in the first year following the hurricanes. However, by the third and fourth years after the disaster, evacuees displaced from Orleans Parish see a 0.18 standard deviation improvement in scores. Gains are concentrated among students initially in the lowest quintiles of the test s...
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作者：Stange, Kevin M.
作者单位：University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
摘要：This paper quantifies the option value arising from sequential schooling decisions made in the presence of uncertainty and learning about academic ability. College attendance has option value since enrolled students have the option, but not obligation, to continue in school after learning their aptitude and tastes. I estimate that option value accounts for 14 percent of the total value of the opportunity to attend college for the average high school graduate and is greatest for moderate-aptitu...
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作者：Magruder, Jeremy R.
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要：South Africa has very high unemployment, yet few adults work informally in small firms. This paper tests whether centralized bargaining, by which unionized large firms extend arbitration agreements to nonunionized smaller firms, contributes to this problem. While local labor market characteristics influence the location of these agreements, their coverage is spatially discontinuous, allowing identification by spatial regression discontinuity. Centralized bargaining agreements are found to decr...
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作者：Abrams, David S.
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania
摘要：Increasing criminal sanctions may reduce crime through two primary mechanisms: deterrence and incapacitation. Disentangling their effects is crucial for optimal policy setting. I use sentence enhancements due to the introduction of state add-on gun laws to isolate the deterrent effect of incarceration. Using cross-state variation in the timing of law passage dates, I find that the average add-on gun law results in a roughly 5 percent decline in gun robberies within the first 3 years. This resu...
