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作者：Andrabi, Tahir; Das, Jishnu; Khwaja, Asim Ijaz; Zajonc, Tristan
作者单位：The World Bank; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Claremont Colleges; Pomona College
摘要：This paper illustrates the central role of persistence in estimating and interpreting value-added models of learning. Using data from Pakistani public and private schools, we apply dynamic panel methods that address three key empirical challenges: imperfect persistence, unobserved heterogeneity, and measurement error. Our estimates suggest that only one-fifth to one-half of learning persists between grades and that private schools increase average achievement by 0.25 standard deviations each y...
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作者：Olken, Benjamin A.; Singhal, Monica
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Informal payments are a frequently overlooked source of local public finance in developing countries. We use microdata from ten countries to establish stylized facts on the magnitude, form, and distributional implications of this informal taxation. Informal taxation is widespread, particularly in rural areas, with substantial in-kind labor payments. The wealthy pay more, but pay less in percentage terms, and informal taxes are more regressive than formal taxes. Failing to include informal taxa...
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作者：Almond, Douglas; Mazumder, Bhashkar
作者单位：Columbia University; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Chicago
摘要：This paper uses the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as a natural experiment in diurnal fasting and fetal health. Among births to Arab parents in Michigan, we find prenatal exposure to Ramadan results in lower birth weight. Exposure in the first month of gestation also reduces the number of male births. Turning to long-term fetal origins effects, we find Muslims in Uganda and Iraq are 20 percent more likely to be disabled as adults if early pregnancy overlapped with Ramadan. Estimated effects are...
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作者：Di Tella, Rafael; Franceschelli, Ignacio
作者单位：Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Northwestern University
摘要：We construct measures of the extent to which the four main newspapers in Argentina report government corruption on their front page during the period 1998-2007 and correlate them with government advertising. The correlation is negative. The size is considerable-a one standard deviation increase in monthly government advertising is associated with a reduction in the coverage of the government's corruption scandals of 0.23 of a front page per month, or 18 percent of a standard deviation in cover...
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作者：Dupas, Pascaline
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
摘要：We use a randomized experiment to test whether and what information changes teenagers' sexual behavior in Kenya. Providing information on the relative risk of HIV infection by partner's age led to a 28 percent decrease in teen pregnancy, an objective proxy for the incidence of unprotected sex. Self-reported sexual behavior data suggests substitution away from older (riskier) partners and toward same-age partners. In contrast, the official abstinence-only HIV curriculum had no impact on teen pr...
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作者：Dobbie, Will; Fryer, Roland G., Jr.
作者单位：Harvard University; Harvard University; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), an ambitious social experiment, combines community programs with charter schools. We provide the first empirical test of the causal impact of HCZ charters on educational outcomes. Both lottery and instrumental variable identification strategies suggest that the effects of attending an HCZ middle school are enough to close the black-white achievement gap in mathematics. The effects in elementary school are large enough to close the racial achievement gap in both ma...
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作者：Angrist, Joshua D.; Chen, Stacey H.
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Academia Sinica - Taiwan
摘要：Draft-lottery estimates of the causal effects of Vietnam-era military service using 2000 census data show marked schooling gains for veterans. We argue that these gains can be attributed to Vietnam veterans' use of the GI Bill rather than draft avoidance behavior. At the same time, draft lottery estimates of the earnings consequences of Vietnam-era service are close to zero in 2000. The earnings and schooling results can be reconciled by a flattening of the age-earnings profile in middle age a...
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作者：Anderson, Michael L.; Matsa, David A.
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Northwestern University
摘要：While many researchers and policymakers infer from correlations between eating out and body weight that restaurants are a leading cause of obesity, a basic identification problem challenges these conclusions. We exploit the placement of Interstate Highways in rural areas to obtain exogenous variation in the effective price of restaurants and examine the impact on body mass. We find no causal link between restaurant consumption and obesity. Analysis of food-intake micro-data suggests that consu...
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作者：Currie, Janet; Walker, Reed
作者单位：Columbia University
摘要：We exploit the introduction of electronic toll collection, (E-ZPass), which greatly reduced both traffic congestion and vehicle emissions near highway toll plazas. We show that the introduction of E-ZPass reduced prematurity and low birth weight among mothers within 2 kilometers (km) of a toll plaza by 10.8 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively, relative to mothers 2-10 km from a toll plaza. There were no immediate changes in the characteristics of mothers or in housing prices near toll plaza...
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作者：Aslund, Olof; Edin, Per-Anders; Fredriksson, Peter; Gronqvist, Hans
作者单位：Uppsala University; Stockholm University; Stockholm University
摘要：We examine to what extent immigrant school performance is affected by the characteristics of the neighborhoods that they grow up in. We address this issue using a refugee placement policy that provides exogenous variation in the initial place of residence in Sweden. The main result is that school performance is increasing in the number of highly educated adults sharing the subject's ethnicity. A standard deviation increase in the fraction of high-educated in the assigned neighborhood raises co...
