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作者：Gross, Tal; Notowidigdo, Matthew J.
作者单位：Columbia University; University of Chicago
摘要：Anecdotal evidence and several observational studies suggest that out-of-pocket medical costs are pivotal in a large fraction of consumer bankruptcy decisions. In this paper, we assess the contribution of medical costs to household bankruptcy risk by exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in publicly provided health insurance. Using cross-state variation in Medicaid expansions from 1992 to 2004, we find that a 10 percentage point increase in Medicaid eligibility reduces personal bankruptcies...
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作者：Karlan, Dean; List, John A.; Shafir, Eldar
作者单位：University of Chicago; Yale University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Princeton University; Princeton University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：To further our understanding of the economics of charity, we conducted a natural field experiment. Making use of two direct mail solicitations sent to nearly 20,000 prior donors to a charity, we tested the effectiveness of $1:$1 and $1:$3 matching grants on charitable giving. We find only weak evidence that either of the matches work; in fact, for the full sample, the match only increased giving after the match deadline expired. Yet, the aggregation masks important heterogeneities: those donor...
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作者：Muller, Christophe; Trannoy, Alain
作者单位：Aix-Marseille Universite
摘要：This paper proposes a dominance approach to study inequality of well-being across countries. We consider a class of well-being indices based on the three attributes used in the HDI (Human Development Index). Indices are required to satisfy: preference for egalitarian marginal distributions of income, health and education. ALEP substitution of attributes and priority to poor countries in allocating funds to enhance health and education. We exhibit sufficient conditions for checking dominance ov...
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作者：Kaplan, David S.; Piedra, Eduardo; Seira, Enrique
作者单位：Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico; Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico
摘要：We estimate the effect on business start-ups of a program that significantly speeds up firm registration procedures. The program was implemented in Mexico in different municipalities at different dates. Our estimates suggest that new start-ups increased by about 5% per month in eligible industries, and we present evidence supporting robustness and a causal effect interpretation. Most of the effect is temporary, concentrated in the first 15 months after implementation. The estimated effect is m...
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作者：Goda, Gopi Shah
作者单位：Stanford University
摘要：In spite of the large expected costs of needing long-term care, only 10-12% of the elderly population has private insurance coverage. Medicaid, which provides means-tested public assistance and pays for almost half of long-term care costs, spends more than $100 billion annually on long-term care. In this paper, I exploit variation in the adoption and generosity of state tax subsidies for private long-term care insurance to determine whether tax subsidies increase private coverage and reduce Me...
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作者：Shin, Donggyun; Solon, Gary
作者单位：Kyung Hee University; Michigan State University
摘要：Many recent studies have investigated trends in U.S. men's earnings volatility, but the studies based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics appear to conflict with each other and with studies based on other data. We critique some of the existing methods of measuring earnings volatility, and we advocate for transparent methods that focus on simple measures of dispersion in year-to-year earnings changes. Applying such measures in the PSID, we find that, apart from the well-known counter-cyclical...
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作者：Ghatak, Maitreesh; Mueller, Hannes
作者单位：University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Institut d'Analisi Economica (IAE)
摘要：We re-examine the labor donation theory of not-for-profits and show that these organizations may exist not necessarily because motivated workers prefer to work in them, or that they dominate for-profits in terms of welfare, but because the excess supply of motivated workers makes the non-profit form more attractive to managers. We show that if firms had to compete for motivated workers then not-for-profit firms would be competed out by for-profit firms. Therefore, in the choice between not-for...
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作者：Cuff, Katherine; Marceau, Nicolas; Mongrain, Steeve; Roberts, Joanne
作者单位：University of Calgary; McMaster University; University of Quebec; University of Quebec Montreal; Simon Fraser University
摘要：This paper characterizes optimal policies in the presence of tax evasion and undocumented workers. In equilibrium, domestic workers may work exclusively in the formal sector or also in the informal sector. Surprisingly, in equilibrium, wages are always equalized between domestic and undocumented workers, even if they do not work in the same sectors of the economy. This is driven by the interaction of firm level decisions with optimal government policy. We also find that enforcement may not alw...
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作者：Habyarimana, James; Jack, William
作者单位：Georgetown University; Georgetown University
摘要：We report the results of a randomized field experiment aimed at improving the safety of long-distance mini-busses or matatus in Kenya. Our intervention combines evocative messages aimed at motivating passengers to speak up against bad driving with a lottery that rewards matatu drivers for keeping the stickers in place. Independent insurance claims data were collected for more than 2000 long-distance matatus before and after the intervention. Our results indicate that insurance claims fell by a...
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作者：Durevall, Dick; Henrekson, Magnus
作者单位：Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); University of Gothenburg
摘要：This paper carries out a critical reappraisal of the two contending theories purporting to explain long-run government spending: Wagner's Law and different variants of the ratchet effect. We analyze data spanning from the early 19th century until the present day in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Hence, in contrast to previous studies, we evaluate the validity of Wagner's Law and the ratchet effect hypothesis over a very long time period, starting at the beginning of industrialization. Cointegr...
