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作者:Aggarwal, Shilpa; Aker, Jenny C.; Jeong, Dahyeon; Kumar, Naresh; Park, David Sungho; Robinson, Jonathan; Spearot, Alan
作者单位:Indian School of Business (ISB); Cornell University; The World Bank; KDI School of Public Policy & Management; University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz
摘要:Little is known about the evolution and persistence of the effects of one-time cash transfers, especially in rural agricultural settings with limited productive investment opportunities. We use bimonthly phone surveys to estimate dynamic impacts for cash transfer recipients in Liberia and Malawi. We find immediate increases in food security that attenuate over time but do not entirely dissipate even 1.5-2 years later, driven by increased farm investments and production. We find increases in fa...
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作者:Bluhm, Richard; Lessmann, Christian; Schaudt, Paul
作者单位:University of Stuttgart; Leibniz Association; Technische Universitat Dresden; Ifo Institut; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; KU Leuven
摘要:We study the link between regional capitals and urban development. We exploit new global data on hundreds of first-order administrative and capital city reforms from 1987 until 2018 to estimate the capital city premium. Gaining capital status increases city growth in the medium term, spilling over to nearby cities. The capital premium varies with the size of the territory governed by the city, and political status complements favorable economic fundamentals. We document two mechanisms: migrati...
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作者:Dahis, Ricardo; Szerman, Christiane
作者单位:Monash University; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
摘要:Changes in political boundaries aimed at devolving power to local governments are common across many countries. We examine the economic impacts of government unit creation through splitting. Exploiting reforms that led to sharp increases in the number of municipalities in Brazil, we show that voluntary splitting enlarges the public sector, enhances public service delivery, and stimulates long-term economic activity in new local governments. These gains are not offset by losses elsewhere and ar...
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作者:Clemens, Michael A.; Lewis, Ethan G.
作者单位:Johns Hopkins University; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Dartmouth College; National Bureau of Economic Research; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
摘要:US firms hiring foreign workers in low-skill nonfarm jobs face a binding quota on the H-2B visa, allocated in part through a randomized lottery. We evaluate the quota's marginal impact using the lottery, a novel firm survey, and a pre-analysis plan. Firms exogenously employing more H-2B workers in low-skill jobs increase production (elasticity 0.20-0.22), investment (1.5-2.1), and profits (0.15). The elasticity of substitution between H-2B and US workers is very low (0.8-2.2). Thus, the effect...
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作者:Kinnerud, Karin; Lorentzon, Louise
作者单位:BI Norwegian Business School
摘要:We conduct a large-scale field experiment in the Swedish pension system to examine to what extent information and search frictions explain dominated high-fee index fund choices. Three findings stand out: (i) Letters that increase awareness of a dominated choice and reduce search costs of finding the dominating alternative improve savers' investment choices. (ii) While the average effects are positive, a majority of investors are unresponsive to information that essentially removes search costs...
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作者:Ajzenman, Nicolas; Elacqua, Gregory; Marotta, Luana; Olsen, Anne Sofie
作者单位:McGill University; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Inter-American Development Bank; Novo Nordisk
摘要:We evaluate a nationwide zero-cost intervention to reduce teacher sorting, where lower-income students are more likely to attend understaffed schools with less qualified teachers. Our approach was grounded in an insight from behavioral economics known as order effects. In the treatment arm, the teacher job application platform showed hard-to-staff schools first, while, in the control group, schools were displayed alphabetically. Treated teachers were more likely to apply to hard-to-staff schoo...
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作者:Gupta, Atul; La Forgia, Ambar; Sacarny, Adam
作者单位:University of Pennsylvania; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Columbia University
摘要:Firms often exploit weaknesses in government contracts to boost revenues, yet little is known about how they allocate these funds. We study how hospitals allocated $3 billion obtained from gaming a Medicare loophole. The average gaming hospital increased Medicare and total revenue by around 10 percent, implying large spillovers on other payers. Nonprofit hospitals deployed most funds toward operating costs. For-profits-driven by a large chain-deducted funds off their balance sheets, distributi...
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作者:Garg, Teevrat; Gennaioli, Caterina; Lovo, Stefania; Singer, Gregor
作者单位:University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of London; Queen Mary University London; University of Reading; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
摘要:We examine the effect of intergroup competition on within-group violent conflict in Indonesia. Using a triple-differences design, we find that higher competition for national government transfers between villages reduces within-village conflict. These effects persist regardless of the competition's outcome, are stronger in ethnically fractionalized and segregated villages, and are accompanied by higher attendance in village meetings. Our results are consistent with external competition favorin...
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作者:Reck, Daniel; Seibold, Arthur
作者单位:University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; University of Munich
摘要:We analyze welfare under reference-dependent preferences. We decompose the first-order welfare effects of reference point and price changes into direct and behavioral effects. The sign of these effects depends on the form of reference-dependent payoffs; which effects are welfare relevant depends on whether reference dependence reflects a bias. We characterize corresponding social welfare effects in terms of estimable reduced-form parameters and normative judgments. We apply our framework to re...
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作者:Xu, Xiaogeng; Metsalampi, Satu; Kirchler, Michael; Kotakorpi, Kaisa; Matthews, Peter Hans; Miettinen, Topi
作者单位:Hanken School of Economics; University of Turku; University of Innsbruck; Tampere University; Middlebury College
摘要:Received wisdom holds that income rank matters for life satisfaction, but causal evidence on the nature and impact of income comparisons is limited. We randomize individuals from a representative sample of mid-career Finns to receive personal rank information from one of several reference groups. We find strong evidence of the effect of rank information on income satisfaction, but weaker effects on life satisfaction, and some evidence of real effects in experimental and administrative data. Ef...