The Gap within the Gap: Using Longitudinal Data to Understand Income...
Gaps in educational achievement between high- and low-income children are growing. Administrative datasets maintained by states and districts lack information about income but do indicate whether a...
View ArticleDepreciation of Business R&D Capital -- by Wendy C.Y. Li, Bronwyn H. Hall
We develop a forward-looking profit model to estimate the depreciation rates of business R&D capital. By using data from Compustat, BEA, and NSF between 1987 and 2008, and the newly developed...
View ArticleDynamic Effects of Teacher Turnover on the Quality of Instruction -- by Eric...
It is widely believed that teacher turnover adversely affects the quality of instruction in urban schools serving predominantly disadvantaged children, and a growing body of research investigates...
View ArticleTobacco Regulation and Cost-Benefit Analysis: How Should We Value Foregone...
Recent tobacco regulations proposed by the Food and Drug Administration have raised a thorny question: how should the cost-benefit analysis accompanying such policies value foregone consumer surplus...
View ArticleCognitive Performance and Labor Market Outcomes -- by Dajun Lin, Randall...
We use information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and supplementary data sources to examine how cognitive performance, measured at approximately the end of secondary...
View ArticleDoes "Ban the Box" Help or Hurt Low-Skilled Workers? Statistical...
Jurisdictions across the United States have adopted "ban the box" (BTB) policies preventing employers from conducting criminal background checks until late in the job application process. Their goal is...
View ArticleExternal and Internal Validity of a Geographic Quasi-Experiment Embedded in...
This paper analyzes a geographic quasi-experiment embedded in a cluster-randomized experiment in Honduras. In the experiment, average treatment effects on school enrollment and child labor were...
View ArticleBuffering Volatility: A Study on the Limits of Germany's Energy Revolution --...
Based on German hourly feed-in and consumption data for electric power, this paper studies the storage and buffering needs resulting from the volatility of wind and solar energy. It shows that joint...
View ArticleThe Holders and Issuers of International Portfolio Securities -- by Vahagn...
Research on the geographical distribution of international portfolios has mainly focused on data aggregated to the country level. We exploit newly-available data that disaggregates the holders and...
View ArticleThe Scandinavian Fantasy: The Sources of Intergenerational Mobility in...
This paper examines the sources of differences in social mobility between the U.S. and Denmark. Measured by income mobility, Denmark is a more mobile society, but not when measured by educational...
View ArticleDoes Disease Cause Vaccination? Disease Outbreaks and Vaccination Response --...
Childhood vaccinations are an important input to disease prevention, but vaccination rates have declined over the last decade due largely to parental fears about vaccine dangers. Education campaigns on...
View ArticleBanking the Unbanked? Evidence From Three Countries -- by Pascaline Dupas,...
We experimentally test the impact of expanding access to basic bank accounts in Uganda, Malawi, and Chile. Over two years, 17%, 10%, and 3% of treatment individuals made five or more deposits,...
View ArticlePopular Acceptance of Inequality due to Brute Luck and Support for Classical...
U.S. survey respondents' views on distributive justice are shown to differ in two specific, related ways from what is conventionally assumed in modern optimal tax research. A large share of...
View ArticleTaking Orders and Taking Notes: Dealer Information Sharing in Treasury...
The use of order flow information by financial firms has come to the forefront of the regulatory debate. A central question is: Should a dealer who acquires information by taking client orders be...
View ArticleTrends and Cycles in Small Open Economies: Making The Case For A General...
Economic research into the causes of business cycles in small open economies is almost always undertaken using a partial equilibrium model. This approach is characterized by two key assumptions. The...
View ArticleEconomic Conditions and Children's Mental Health -- by Ezra Golberstein,...
Research linking economic conditions and health largely ignores children's mental health problems, which are the most common and consequential health issues for children and adolescents. We examine the...
View ArticleOn the Distribution of the Welfare Losses of Large Recessions -- by Dirk...
How big are the welfare losses from severe economic downturns, such as the U.S. Great Recession? How are those losses distributed across the population? In this paper we answer these questions using a...
View ArticleEfficiency of Flexible Budgetary Institutions -- by T. Renee Bowen, Ying...
Which budgetary institutions result in efficient provision of public goods? We analyze a model with two parties bargaining over the allocation to a public good each period. Parties place different...
View ArticleThe Effect of Occupational Licensing on Consumer Welfare: Early Midwifery...
Occupational licensing is intended to protect consumers. Whether it does so is an important, but unanswered, question. Exploiting variation across states and municipalities in the timing and details of...
View ArticleMeasuring Time Preferences -- by Jonathan D. Cohen, Keith Marzilli Ericson,...
We review research that measures time preferences - i.e., preferences over intertemporal tradeoffs. We distinguish between studies using financial flows, which we call "money earlier or later" (MEL)...
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