Search

The intergenerational elasticity of income is considered one of the best measures of the degree to which a society gives equal opportunity to its members. While much research has been devoted to measuring this reduced-form parameter, less is known about its underlying structural determinants. Using a model with exogenous talent endowments, endogenous parental investment in children, and endogenous redistributive institutions, we identify the structural parameters that govern the intergenerational elasticity of income. The model clarifies how the interaction between private and collective decisions determines the equilibrium level of social mobility. Two societies with similar economic and biological fundamentals may have vastly different degrees of intergenerational mobility depending on their political institutions. We offer empirical evidence in line with the predictions of the model. We conclude that international comparisons of intergenerational elasticity of income are not particularly informative about fairness without taking into account differences in politico-economic institutions. (JEL E24, J62, J68, P16), I. INTRODUCTION The intergenerational elasticity of income is generally considered one of the best summary measures of the degree to which a society gives equal opportunities of success to all [...]

We quantify agglomeration spillovers by comparing changes in total factor productivity (TFP) among incumbent plants in 'winning' counties that attracted a large manufacturing plant and 'losing' counties that were the new plant's runner-up choice. Winning and losing counties have similar trends in TFP prior to the new plant opening. Five years after the opening, incumbent plants' TFP is 12 percent higher in winning counties. This productivity spillover is larger for plants sharing similar labor and technology pools with the new plant. Consistent with spatial equilibrium models, labor costs increase in winning counties, indicating that profits ultimately increase less than productivity.

Examination of the long-term employment multiplier at the local level reveals that each additional job in manufacturing at this level produces 1.6 jobs in the nontradable sector in the same city. Furthermore, adding one skilled job in the tradable section generates 2.5 jobs in local goods and services.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.11.010 Byline: David Card (a), Kevin F. Hallock (b), Enrico Moretti (a) Keywords: Non-profits; Corporate location; Donations Abstract: Does the presence of corporate headquarters in a city affect the incomes of local charities? To address this question we combine data on the head office locations of publicly traded U.S. firms with information on the receipts of local charitable organizations. Cities like Houston, San Jose, and San Francisco gained significant numbers of corporate headquarters over the past two decades, while cities like Chicago and Los Angeles lost. Our analysis suggests that attracting or retaining the headquarters of a publicly traded firm yields approximately $3-10million per year in contributions to local non-profits. Likewise, each $1000 increase in the market value of the firms headquartered in a city yields $0.60-1.60 to local non-profits. Most of the increase in charitable contributions is attributable to an effect on the number of highly-compensated individuals in a city, rather than through direct donations by the corporations themselves. The increased private sector donations from the presence of corporate headquarters do not seem to crowd out government grants to local charities. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley, 549 Evans Hall, #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States (b) Departments of Labor Economics and HR Studies, Cornell University, 391 Ives Hall (East), Ithaca, NY 14853, United States Article History: Received 28 March 2008; Revised 23 July 2009; Accepted 30 November 2009

How polls and prediction markets interacted in the context of the 2008 U.S. presidential elections is examined. A Bayesian model was found to be indicative that market price should be a function of the prior and each of the available signals. It was also found that polls with larger sample size and earlier polls are more likely to have an effect on market prices if all other factors remain constant.

A study found that voters in less tolerant parts of the U.S. were relatively more inclined to vote Republican in the presidential elections in 2008 than in 2004. While no bias against Barack Obama was observed, the trend meant fewer votes for Democratic candidates. The study found that racism did not play a major role in the elections.

The effects on the productivity of a worker by the productivity of coworkers in the same team are studied. The introduction of highly productive workers into a work team improves the productivity of other workers. Worker effort is positively related to the productivity of workers seeing him/her.

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00514.x Byline: GORDON B. DAHL (a), ENRICO MORETTI (b) Abstract: Do parents have preferences over the gender of their children, and if so, does this have negative consequences for daughters versus sons? In this paper, we show that child gender affects the marital status, family structure, and fertility of a significant number of American families. Overall, a first-born daughter is significantly less likely to be living with her father compared to a first-born son. Three factors are important in explaining this gap. First, women with first-born daughters are less likely to marry. Strikingly, we also find evidence that the gender of a child in utero affects shotgun marriages. Among women who have taken an ultrasound test during pregnancy, mothers who have a girl are less likely to be married at delivery than those who have a boy. Second, parents who have first-born girls are significantly more likely to be divorced. Third, after a divorce, fathers are much more likely to obtain custody of sons compared to daughters. These three factors have serious negative income and educational consequences for affected children. What explains these findings? In the last part of the paper, we turn to the relationship between child gender and fertility to help sort out parental gender bias from competing explanations for our findings. We show that the number of children is significantly higher in families with a first-born girl. Our estimates indicate that first-born daughters caused approximately 5500 more births per year, for a total of 220,000 more births over the past 40 years. Taken individually, each piece of empirical evidence is not sufficient to establish the existence of parental gender bias. But taken together, the weight of the evidence supports the notion that parents in the U.S. favour boys over girls. Author Affiliation: (a)University of California, San Diego, and NBER (b)University of California, Berkeley, and NBER Article History: First version received September 2005; final version accepted December 2007 (Eds.)

We use a unique data set of California births to ask whether intergenerational correlations in health contribute to the perpetuation of economic status. We find that if a mother was low birth weight, her child is significantly more likely to be low birth weight, even when we compare mothers who are sisters. Second, the intergenerational transmission of low birth weight is stronger for mothers in high poverty zip codes. Third, low birth weight affects proxies for later socioeconomic status. Fourth, these effects are stronger for women born in high poverty zip codes.

A study on the impact of underpricing of oil by Iraq under the United Nations Oil for Food program is discussed. The increase in government bribe as a result of underpricing is detailed.

The relation between education and civic participation is studied. The effect of higher education on citizen's participation in understanding the political process is examined. The experimental results of the study if schooling enhances civic participation in political process in United States and United Kingdom are presented.

The two different views of the role of elections in policy formation are evaluated. According to one view voters affect the candidates' policy choices, and the other is that they merely elect the available choices. The relevance of these policies for the U.S. House are assessed.

Economists have speculated for at least a century that the social return to education may exceed the private return. In this paper, I estimate spillovers from college education by comparing wages for otherwise similar individuals who work in cities with different shares of college graduates in the labor force. A key issue in this comparison is the presence of unobservable characteristics of individuals and cities that may raise wages and be correlated with college share. I use longitudinal data to estimate a model of non-random selection of workers among cities. I account for unobservable city-specific demand shocks by using two instrumental variables: the (lagged) city demographic structure and the presence of a land-grant college. I find that a percentage point increase in the supply of college graduates raises high school drop-outs' wages by 1.9%, high school graduates' wages by 1.6%, and college graduates wages by 0.4%. The effect is larger for less educated groups, as predicted by a conventional demand and supply model. But even for college graduates, an increase in the supply of college graduates increases wages, as predicted by a model that includes conventional demand and supply factors as well as spillovers. Keywords: Education; Externalities; Spillovers; Wages

A study showing that productivity of plants in cities is directly proportionate to college graduates in the city and the labor costs. Within a city, the spillovers from increased productivity are more in the economically related industries than in unrelated industries.

A study is conducted to examine the effects of education on children involved in criminal activities. After using census data and Federal Bureau of Investigation data, it is found that schooling reduces probability of criminal activities and arrest.

The effect of maternal education on birth outcomes is examined using Vital Statistics Natality data for 1970 to 1999. The data about the availability of colleges in the woman's country is used as an instrument for maternal education in an effort to account for the endogeneity of educational attainment.

Byline: Enrico Moretti (1) Keywords: semiparametric estimation; compensating differentials Abstract: Due to unique institutional and technological factors, seasonal agricultural jobs are characterized by much higher risk of unemployment than similar permanent jobs. I estimate compensating differentials for risk of unemployment and compare those with unemployment insurance benefits provided by the government. I use two sets of estimators. First, I calculate parametric estimates with Heckman correction. Second, I compute three versions of a distribution-free semiparametric estimator which is robust to misspecification of the residual distribution. The main finding of the paper is that there exists a positive compensating differential of 15.5% of the average wage. This corresponds to an implicit replacement rate significantly larger than the typical unemployment benefit. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley, Evans Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720 Article History: Registration Date: 16/10/2004

A semi-parametric approach for estimating small data set sample-selection problems is summarized and used in examining problems in agricultural labor economics. The approach is based on classical maximum entropy research and the generalized maximum entropy (GME) work of Golan, Judge and Miller. When applied to agricultural piece-rate or in-time rate jobs, the GME approach tended to have smaller estimated asymptotic standard errors compared to ordinary least squares.

My research focuses on different areas in applied microeconomics. One of these areas is the economics of education. My work on this area centers on the issue of social returns [...]

The statistical analysis of the trends of criminal activity in the United States is presented. The impact of regional climatic conditions and crime prevention efforts on the trends of criminal activity is examined.

The standard neoclassical economic model of migration introduced by Todaro predicts 1) that migration occurs when the expected net present value of earnings from migrating, weighted by the probability of employment in the destination country, is positive; and 2) that migrants choose as their destination country the one with the largest wage premium net of transportation costs. The pattern of Italian migration to the Americas does not conform to the standard model. I propose an alternative model in which the probability of migrating to a country depends positively on the social networks that link the migrant to that country. Econometric evidence suggests that both the timing and the destination of Italian migration between 1876 and 1913 can be explained by the presence of social networks in the destination country., In the second half of nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, 44 million people left Europe for the New World. The major countries of departure were Great [...]