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作者：Olsson, Ola; Paik, Christopher
作者单位：University of Gothenburg; New York University; New York University Abu Dhabi
摘要：This paper investigates the long-run influence of the Neolithic Revolution on contemporary cultural norms as reflected in the dimension of collectivism-individualism. We present a theory of agricultural origins of cultural divergence, where we claim that the advent of farming in a core region was characterized by collectivist values and eventually triggered the out-migration of individualistic farmers towards more and more peripheral areas. This migration pattern caused the initial cultural di...
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作者：Blattman, Christopher; Jamison, Julian; Koroknay-Palicz, Tricia; Rodrigues, Katherine; Sheridan, Margaret
作者单位：Columbia University; The World Bank; The World Bank; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
摘要：Empirical social science relies heavily on self-reported data, but subjects may misreport behaviors, especially sensitive ones such as crime or drug abuse. If a treatment influences survey misreporting, it biases causal estimates. We develop a validation technique that uses intensive qualitative work to assess survey misreporting and pilot it in a field experiment where subjects were assigned to receive cash, therapy, both, or neither. According to survey responses, both treatments reduced cri...
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作者：Michalopoulos, Stelios; Naghavi, Alireza; Prarolo, Giovanni
作者单位：Brown University; University of Bologna
摘要：This study explores the interaction between trade and geography in shaping the Islamic economic doctrine in its first few centuries. We build a model where an unequal distribution of land quality in the presence of trade opportunities conferred differential gains from trade across regions, fostering predatory behavior by groups residing in the poorly endowed territories. We show that in such an environment it was mutually beneficial to institute an economic system of income redistribution feat...
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作者：Gignoux, Jeremie; Menendez, Marta
作者单位：Paris School of Economics; INRAE; Universite PSL; Universite Paris-Dauphine; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD); Laboratoire dEconomie de Dauphine LEDa
摘要：We examine the long-term effects on individual economic outcomes of a set of earthquakes - numerous, large, but mostly not extreme - that occurred in rural Indonesia since 1985. Using longitudinal individual-level data from large-scale household surveys, together with precise measures of local ground tremors obtained from a US Geological Survey database, we identify the effects of earthquakes, exploiting the quasi-random spatial and temporal nature of their distribution. Affected individuals e...
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作者：Allen, Treb
作者单位：Northwestern University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：This paper develops a model of group borrowing that incorporates partial group liability, where borrowers are penalized if their group members default but are not held responsible for the entirety of the failed loan. The model illustrates a trade-off of group liability lending: while higher levels of group liability increase within group risk-sharing, if liability is too high, borrowers strategically default. The model predicts the existence of an optimal partial liability that maximizes trans...
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作者：Carvalho, Leandro S.; Prina, Silvia; Sydnor, Justin
作者单位：University of Southern California; University System of Ohio; Case Western Reserve University; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
摘要：We investigate whether access to savings accounts affects choices individuals make about financial risk and intertemporal tradeoffs. We exploit a field experiment that randomized access to savings accounts among a largely unbanked population of Nepalese villagers. One year after the accounts were introduced, we administered lottery choice and intertemporal-choice tasks to the treatment and control groups. We find that the treatment is more willing to take risks in the lottery-choice task and i...
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作者：Klomp, Jeroen; de Haan, Jakob
作者单位：Wageningen University & Research; University of Groningen; European Central Bank; De Nederlandsche Bank NV; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
摘要：We examine whether governments' natural resource rents are affected by upcoming elections and if so, whether the incumbent uses these additional rents for re-election purposes. Estimates of a dynamic panel model for about 60 countries for 1975-2011 suggest that elections increase natural resource rents. The incumbent uses these rents for expanding public spending and reducing taxes before elections. However, these electoral cycle effects are statistically significant only in young democracies....
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作者：Lambert, Sylvie; Rossi, Pauline
作者单位：INRAE; Paris School of Economics; Paris School of Economics; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris
摘要：Exploiting original data from a Senegalese household survey, we provide evidence that fertility choices are partly driven by women's needs for widowhood insurance. We use a duration model of birth intervals to show that women most at risk in case of widowhood intensify their fertility, shortening birth spacing, until they get a son. Insurance through sons might entail substantial health costs since short birth spacing raises maternal and infant mortality rates. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B...
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作者：Maitra, Sudeshna
作者单位：York University - Canada
摘要：I propose the use of a durables-based mixture model to identify the consumption class structure of a population. The mixture model decomposes the marginal distribution of durables ownership across all households, into three conditional distributions (one each for lower, middle and upper classes), along with their weights in the population distribution, endogenously determining class membership. This approach provides a potentially deeper understanding of the dynamics of classes, in particular ...
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作者：Enamorado, Ted; Lopez-Calva, Luis F.; Rodriguez-Castelan, Carlos; Winkler, Hernan
作者单位：Princeton University; The World Bank
摘要：The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of inequality on crime rates in a unique context, Mexico's drug war. The analysis exploits an original dataset containing inequality and crime statistics on more than 2000 Mexican municipalities over a 20-year period. To uncover the causal effect of inequality on crime, we use an instrumental variable for the Gini coefficient that combines the initial income distribution at the municipality level with national trends. Our estimates indicate that ...
