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作者:Martin, Ian W. R.; Pindyck, Robert S.
作者单位:University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要:Faced with numerous potential catastrophes-nuclear and bioterrorism, mega-viruses, climate change, and others-which should society attempt to avert? A policy to avert one catastrophe considered in isolation might be evaluated in cost-benefit terms. But because society faces multiple catastrophes, simple cost-benefit analysis fails: even if the benefit of averting each one exceeds the cost, we should not necessarily avert them all. We explore the policy interdependence of catastrophic events, a...
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作者:Hartline, Jason D.; Lucier, Brendan
作者单位:Northwestern University; Microsoft
摘要:The optimal allocation of resources in complex environments-like allocation of dynamic wireless spectrum, cloud computing services, and Internet advertising-is computationally challenging even given the true preferences of the participants. In the theory and practice of optimization in complex environments, a wide variety of special and general purpose algorithms have been developed; these algorithms produce outcomes that are satisfactory but not generally optimal or incentive compatible. This...
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作者:de Janvry, Alain; Emerick, Kyle; Gonzalez-Navarro, Marco; Sadoulet, Elisabeth
作者单位:University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Tufts University; University of Toronto
摘要:In many developing countries property rights over rural land are maintained through continuous personal use instead of by land titles. We show that removing the link between land use and land rights through the issuance of ownership certificates can result in large-scale adjustments to labor and land allocations. Using the rollout of the Mexican land certification program from 1993 to 2006, we find that households obtaining certificates were subsequently 28 percent more likely to have a migran...
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作者:Ales, Laurence; Kurnaz, Musab; Sleet, Christopher
作者单位:Carnegie Mellon University
摘要:This paper considers the normative implications of technical change for tax policy design. A task-to-talent assignment model of the labor market is embedded into an optimal tax problem. Technical change modifies equilibrium wage growth across talents and the substitutability of talents across tasks. The overall optimal policy response is to reduce marginal income taxes on low to middle incomes, while raising those on middle to high incomes. The reform favors those in the middle of the income d...
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作者:Kaas, Leo; Kircher, Philipp
作者单位:University of Konstanz; University of Edinburgh
摘要:We develop and analyze a labor market model in which heterogeneous firms operate under decreasing returns and compete for labor by posting long-term contracts. Firms achieve faster growth by offering higher lifetime wages, which allows them to fill vacancies with higher probability, consistent with recent empirical findings. The model also captures several other regularities about firm size, job flows, and pay, and generates sluggish aggregate dynamics of labor market variables. In contrast to...
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作者:Feenstra, Robert C.; Inklaar, Robert; Timmer, Marcel P.
作者单位:University of California System; University of California Davis; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Groningen
摘要:We describe the theory and practice of real GDP comparisons across countries and over time. Version 8 of the Penn World Table expands on previous versions in three respects. First, in addition to comparisons of living standards using components of real GDP on the expenditure side, we provide a measure of productive capacity, called real GDP on the output side. Second, growth rates are benchmarked to multiple years of cross-country price data so they are less sensitive to new benchmark data. Th...
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作者:Edmond, Chris; Midrigan, Virgiliu; Xu, Daniel Yi
作者单位:University of Melbourne; New York University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Duke University
摘要:We study the procompetitive gains from international trade in a quantitative model with endogenously variable markups. We find that trade can significantly reduce markup distortions if two conditions are satisfied: (i) there is extensive misallocation, and (ii) opening to trade exposes hitherto dominant producers to greater competitive pressure. We measure the extent to which these two conditions are satisfied in Taiwanese producer-level data. Versions of our model consistent with the Taiwanes...
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作者:Low, Hamish; Pistaferri, Luigi
作者单位:University of Cambridge; Stanford University
摘要:We provide a life-cycle framework for comparing insurance and disincentive effects of disability benefits. The risks that individuals face and the parameters of the Disability Insurance (DI) program are estimated from consumption, health, disability insurance, and wage data. We characterize the effects of disability insurance and study how policy reforms impact behavior and welfare. DI features high rejection rates of disabled applicants and some acceptance of healthy applicants. Despite worse...