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Online retailers worldwide invest beyond their core business of retailing to offer their own delivery services (ODS) to deliver products to customers' homes through their own logistics network. How does this shift to ODS affect customers' behaviors and sales performance? When and why do retailers venture beyond their core competence to offer ODS? To explore these questions, the authors analyze 250,055 customer transactions over 10 years across 416 cities and 49 product categories from JD, a major online retailer in China. Using difference-in-differences models, causal mediation analysis, and the synthetic control method, they find that ODS increases customers' monthly spending by 7.8% and grows city-level sales by 11.9%. This study is the first to quantify the sales impact of ODS and shed light on when and why it works. The findings reveal that ODS has greater value for markets with lower trust levels, infrequent customers, high-risk product categories, and consumers who prefer the focal retailer (versus that of third-party sellers). Causal mediation analysis further reveals that ODS not only improves delivery quality but also builds customer trust, which together increase customers' monthly spending, purchase frequency, and the number of items ordered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the internet has upended numerous industries, but none more so than news production. The connectivity fostered by digitization has been accompanied by the emergence of content aggregation, the proliferation of fake news, and the extended geographic reach of industry leaders, all of which have served to hollow out local reporting capacity. In this work, we examine the result of changes wrought by the internet on an outcome of theoretical and practical significance: corruption. Inasmuch as newspapers are viewed as an important investigative arm of local communities, it is possible that corrupt local actors will be emboldened in their absence. To test this hypothesis, we employed a difference-in-differences approach, exploiting the phased closure of major daily newspapers across the country. Our results indicate a significant and positive correlation between federal corruption charges and newspaper closures. Further, we observed no evidence that the rise in online news vendors or the democratization of the press ameliorates this effect. This suggests a key issue with the increased geographic reach of digitized firms in the form of "information blindness" to local issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soda taxes are an increasingly popular policy tool that discourages purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages. This study analyzes how emphasis on marketing conduct elements and their effectiveness might change after soda tax introductions. Prior studies on the effect of soda taxes focus on price increases but neglect other relevant marketing conduct tools (i.e., promotional frequency, promotional discount depth, and feature promotion frequency). This study documents the changes to marketing conduct elements and their effectiveness due to the introduction of soda tax across more than 200 retail stores in five markets. Findings related to price changes are consistent with prior literature; in addition, the study reveals a substantial, hitherto overlooked decrease in promotional frequency (−2%), promotional depth (−12%), and feature promotion frequency (−14%) compared with matched control markets, exacerbating the tax's negative sales effect. Introducing a soda tax also considerably influences the marketing conduct's effectiveness, such that consumers become less sensitive to changes in regular price, feature promotions, and the depth of the promotional discount but respond more to the presence of promotions. Importantly, marketing conduct and effectiveness changes do not align (e.g., while consumers become more sensitive to promotion frequency, managers often reduce them), a relevant insight for policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although price increases are common in business-to-consumer and business-to-business (B2B) markets, research examining the consequences of price increases on financial performance outcomes in B2B contexts is scarce. This study takes a relationship perspective on price increases and examines how a portfolio price increase affects the financial performance of the customer relationship and whether and how this effect varies between international business customers from different cultures. Based on objective data from 966 international B2B customers of a chemical goods company, this study examines a large-scale field intervention. Results show that higher portfolio price increases, although rooted in an increase of upstream costs, bring more severe harm to B2B customers' sales revenue than lower portfolio price increases. These consequences vary with customers' cultures as B2B customers with culture-specific communal norms are more susceptible to the magnitude of portfolio price increases than customers without such norms. International B2B companies, therefore, need to refrain from implementing uniform price increases and should consider their business customers' cultural origin when designing and implementing price increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates how review moderation transparency affects the volume, length, and negativity of reviews. A change to the Yelp platform in 2010, introducing review moderation and displaying filtered reviews, created a natural experiment. We used a panel dataset of online reviews from the same set of restaurants on both the Yelp and TripAdvisor platforms in a difference-in-differences (DID) model to test how review moderation transparency affected our outcome variables. We found that increasing review moderation transparency negatively affects review volume but positively affects review negativity. The results also indicate that providing review moderation transparency reduces review length, especially for reviews with positive sentiment. Our findings suggest that providing review moderation transparency induces users to invest less effort in review contributions, especially when they are submitting positive reviews. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results as they relate to the design and use of online review platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membership-based free shipping (MFS) has been increasingly adopted by online retailers. However, its effectiveness is understudied. This study leverages a consumer transaction data set provided by an online retailer and uses a stacked difference-in-differences approach to quantify the enrollment effect of MFS on consumers' purchase behaviors and their net revenue contribution to the retailer. Interestingly, MFS enrollment does not lift average consumers' spending at the beginning of the enrollment, as they break large orders into smaller ones. Retailers do not gain incremental net revenue due to the increased shipping costs during this period. However, the free shipping benefit may build a switching barrier that motivates consumers to purchase more often with larger order sizes over time. It eventually leads to increased spending and revenue contribution. MFS also increases members' purchase variety and impulse purchases. In addition, the authors find that there is a greater increase in net revenue contribution after enrollment for light buyers, variety seekers, and those who are willing to pay shipping fees before enrollment. Surprisingly, MFS has a negative impact on the revenue contribution of heavy buyers, the conventional best-value consumers. Moreover, MFS can effectively strengthen consumer–retailer relationships by reducing customer churn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using detailed patient-level data, we show that patients who enjoyed relevant medical training (physicians and midwives) are 3.1 percentage points less likely to receive a C-section than semi-expert patients (nurses and physiotherapists). We examined whether this treatment gap diminishes after a Dutch law reform that aimed to (1) strengthen patients' position in health care processes and (2) increase quality of care through more openness about clinical decisions and learning from medical incidents. We hypothesize that prescriptions of the law, such as more internal debates about appropriate treatment and improved communication of clinical decisions and potential complications during consultations, are expected to make semi-expert patients more informed. Exploiting the reform in a difference-in-differences approach, in which semi-expert patients constitute the treatment group and expert patients the control group, we show that the likelihood of semi-expert patients receiving a C-section after the reform is eight percentage points lower than the changes in C-section rates among expert patients. Given that the reform especially impacted the information level of semi-experts, these findings seem to support the idea that the treatment gap is driven, at least to some extent, by agency discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing age, it becomes more difficult for unemployed workers to find a new job. Due to age-related negative stereotypes, employers typically prefer younger applicants. This study analyzes a marketing campaign of a local employment agency in Germany that drew attention to the problem of negative age-related stereotypes and highlighted the high value of older workers. The goal of the campaign was to increase the hiring rate of older unemployed. Using comprehensive register data and applying a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the information conveyed through the campaign (via banners, interviews, job fairs, and informational brochures) did indeed change firms’ hiring behavior. The intervention increased the employment rate of workers aged 50 to 59 with unemployment experience by approximately 3 percentage points. The positive employment effects of the campaign appear to be somewhat more pronounced for women than for men. We conclude that an information campaign to overcome age-related negative stereotypes might be an appropriate measure to highlight the value of older workers and increase their employment chances. In the context of the demographic change, therefore, an information campaign might help to fight against a shrinking workforce and an impending shortage of skilled labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution and carbon emissions are highly homogeneous and closely correlated. The cobenefit and spillover effects of environmental policies have garnered increasing attention in recent years. This study adopts low-carbon city pilot policies as a policy perspective to investigate the comprehensive effect of reducing air pollution and mitigating carbon emissions. By employing the difference-in-differences model, this study examines the impact of low-carbon city pilot policies on air pollution and carbon emissions across 281 Chinese cities, further analyzing the influencing mechanism and heterogeneity of policy effects. The findings of this study indicated that: (1) low-carbon city pilot policies could significantly mitigate urban carbon emissions (−0.117), while increasing air pollution (0.134), thus resulting in the spillover effect. The benchmark regression results passed a series of robustness tests. (2) The spillover effect generated through three influencing mechanisms: market resource crowd-out, industrial structure lock-in, and environmental policy substitution. (3) The local characteristics of cities, such as economic development, resource endowment, and administrative authority, would inevitably influence the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policies. Eastern cities, resource-based cities, and prefecture-level cities have yielded obvious spillover effects. Consequently, this study proposes several policy implications to coordinate urban planning to curb air pollution and carbon emissions, including exploring policy combinations, guiding resource inputs, considering local characteristics, and establishing comprehensive monitoring systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of whether welfare benefits imprison recipients in unemployment traps has been at the centre of academic and political debates in recent decades. Empirical evidence at the micro level supports the existence of work disincentive effects of welfare benefits, although of a small magnitude. However, the question of whether this translates into lower aggregate employment remains unsettled. This study innovates the existing literature by providing an estimation of the impact of the monetary component of the Italian minimum income scheme (MIS) on the employment rate. Isolating this impact from the spurious pro‐work effects of the Active Labour Market Policies embedded in every contemporary MIS is possible because in the Italian case, in the first quarters of implementation of the policy, the activation side was not operating. We adopt a difference‐in‐differences method and find that the impact of the monetary component of the Italian MIS on the employment rate is not statistically significant. The finding is robust to different treatment definitions, different specification models and weighted and unweighted econometric analysis. We then carry out a heterogeneous analysis and find that the impact, despite being indistinguishable from zero on average, is significant and negative for provinces with weak labour demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how performance-based funding (PBF) for public four-year institutions in the U.S. is associated with the production of short-term certificates. Results indicate that high-dosage PBF is associated with increases in both the number of short-term certificate programs offered and the number of short-term certificates awarded, even though PBF's incentives for the four-year sector typically focus on bachelor's degree attainment. Given the challenges of improving performance on bachelor's degrees, particularly in the midst of insufficient resources and support, institutions may be turning to certificates as alternative sources of revenue to address the financial uncertainty induced by PBF. The findings shed light on the broader impact of PBF on institutional behavior, beyond those directly relating to formalized performance metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) addresses food insecurity for low-income households, which is associated with access to care. Many US states expanded SNAP access through policies eliminating the asset test (ie, restrictions based on SNAP applicant assets) and/or broadening income eligibility. The objective of this study was to determine whether state SNAP policies were associated with the use of mammography among women eligible for breast cancer screening. Data for income-eligible women 40 to 79 years of age were obtained from the 2006 to 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Difference-in-differences analyses were conducted to compare changes in the percentage of mammography in the past year from pre- to post-SNAP policy adoption (asset test elimination or income eligibility increase) between states that and did not adopt policies expanding SNAP eligibility. In total, 171,684 and 294,647 income-eligible female respondents were included for the asset test elimination policy and income eligibility increase policy analyses, respectively. Mammography within 1 year was reported by 58.4%. Twenty-eight and 22 states adopted SNAP asset test elimination and income increase policies, respectively. Adoption of asset test elimination policies was associated with a 2.11 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.07-4.15; P =.043) percentage point increase in mammography received within 1 year, particularly for nonmetropolitan residents (4.14 percentage points; 95% CI, 1.07-7.21 percentage points; P =.008), those with household incomes <$25,000 (2.82 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.68-4.97 percentage points; P =.01), and those residing in states in the South (3.08 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.17-5.99 percentage points; P =.038) or that did not expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (3.35 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.36-6.34; P =.028). There was no significant association between mammography and state-level policies broadening of SNAP income eligibility. State policies eliminating asset test requirements for SNAP eligibility were associated with increased mammography among low-income women eligible for breast cancer screening, particularly for those in the lowest income bracket or residing in nonmetropolitan areas or Medicaid nonexpansion states. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green place-based policy is crucial for balancing economic competitiveness and environmental protection. However, there is scarce literature examining its impact on environmental pollution and the underlying mechanisms at the micro level. This paper treats China's National Demonstration Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) as a quasi-natural experiment and systematically evaluates its effect on pollution using a difference-in-differences (DID) approach. With data from Chinese industrial firms and counties, this research reveals that the EIP leads to a significant reduction of 54.36% in firms' sulfur dioxide (SO 2) emissions. Moreover, increasing R&D investment, reducing SO 2 emission intensity, implementing production process pollution control, and dynamic adjustments of firm entry and exit are significant influencing mechanisms. Heterogeneity tests indicate a stronger SO 2 reduction effect of the EIP program on firms in eastern regions, capital-intensive industries, and non-state-owned enterprises. This study suggests that the Chinese government should support the establishment of EIP, conduct a coordinate system, strategically plan the industrial chain, establish a pollution monitoring and early warning system, enhance information disclosure, and give greater emphasis to the construction of EIPs in central and western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether the implementation of this policy fosters low-carbon innovation amongst enterprises and identifies the mechanisms underpinning its effects. Utilising low-carbon patent authorisation data from A-share listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets between 2008 and 2019, this study employs a difference-in-differences model to conduct a multi-dimensional empirical examination of these questions. The findings indicate that the low-carbon city pilot policy can stimulate low-carbon innovation at the enterprise level to a certain extent, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of rigorous tests. The impact of low-carbon innovation is more pronounced in the authorisation of invention patents, with the pilot policy exerting a more significant influence on state-owned enterprises and enterprises with strong political affiliations. Further analysis reveals that government subsidies constitute the primary mechanism through which the pilot policy takes effect, effectively promoting low-carbon innovation in enterprises. This paper offers theoretical and empirical support for evaluating the low-carbon city pilot policy at the enterprise level and advances policy implications in three areas: further policy development, enterprise characteristics, and the application of various policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Education researchers often encounter scenarios where an abrupt policy change occurs within or across jurisdictions or populations that affect key student outcomes. Difference-in-differences is a research design analysts can use to estimate causal effects of these "natural experiments." This article introduces education researchers to the difference-in-differences approach. We provide an overview of the standard two-by-two design, which examines changes in outcomes over time between a treated and an unaffected group. Then, we discuss the key assumptions and threats to validity that researchers must address to have maximum confidence in their results. We also discuss commonly used alternative specifications that provide researchers with a more nuanced approach to estimating policy effects. Throughout the paper, we illustrate the difference-in-differences approach using the example of the implementation of an after-school tutoring program to increase economically disadvantaged students' academic performance. In supplementary material, we provide Stata code to help assist researchers adapt the approach to their own scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The randomized control trial (RCT) is the primary experimental design in education research due to its strong internal validity for causal inference. However, in situations where RCTs are not feasible or ethical, quasi-experiments are alternatives to establish causal inference. This paper serves as an introduction to several quasi-experimental designs: regression discontinuity design, difference-in-differences analysis, interrupted time series design, instrumental variable analysis, and propensity score analysis with examples in education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to quantify the effect of the closure of daycare facilities during the early stage of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the stress of parents with preschool children. Using household panel data collected before and after the pandemic, we estimated difference-in-differences models and their extensions. Our empirical results show that the closure of daycare facilities significantly worsened parental stress as measured by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. The negative effects of daycare closures on parental stress levels were greater for mothers, non-regular workers, and households with relatively older children. In contrast, on parents in metropolitan areas or those with younger children, no significant effects of daycare closures were observed. We discuss the two conflicting pathways—the increased childcare burden and the decreased risk of children's infection—through which daycare closures affected parental distress, interpret the heterogeneous effects accordingly, and provide policy implications. Our results suggest that a risk-based, local closure policy could have been effective in reducing parental stress during the emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to online teaching during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to various concerns about educational quality. The study investigates the consequences of this transition on student performance for a prominent university in Northern Italy. Comprehensive administrative data allows us to monitor students' performance and to have detailed socioeconomic information about them. Using a difference-in-differences design with lecturer fixed effects, we exploit the unique timing of the lockdown that fell together with the start of the summer term in 2020. We find no marked effects on students' average grades in higher education in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effects of increasing the transparency of parliamentary speeches on polarization and other types of MP behavior. We utilize the 1989 introduction of TV broadcasting to the Finnish government's parliamentary question hours held on the first Thursday of every month. By contrast, the question hours held on other Thursdays of the month were not televised until 2007, allowing us to use a difference‐in‐differences design. We find a positive effect on government–opposition divides, but no evidence that the TV broadcasting of question hours would affect left–right polarization, differences between individual parties, or within‐party group differences. We also observe an increase in attendance and a negative effect on the number of speeches, but no effects on topics discussed, speech length or interruptions. Our results suggest there is no trade‐off between increased transparency and left–right polarization. However, the presence of TV cameras can fuel other political divides and increase politicians' effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the implementation of traffic and movement restrictions as governments were trying to limit the spread of the virus. Tourism has been affected by these travel restrictions. We examine the impact of curfews and the re-opening of borders on road traffic accidents. We investigate the effects of lockdown on motor vehicle collisions by analyzing recorded car accidents in 58 districts in Greece. We employ a difference-in-differences approach to compare motor vehicle collisions in 2020 with the previous five years. We reveal a decline in road traffic collisions during the curfew period (with 1617 fewer collisions). This is followed by an increase after the re-opening of borders (168 more vehicle collisions in tourist-popular areas despite the decline in tourist arrivals), compared to what would have been expected in the absence of the pandemic restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deployment of biorefineries as part of the European Union's Bioeconomy Strategy aims at contributing to the transition to a climate-neutral economy and creating jobs and growth in rural areas. In this study, we examine the impact of biorefinery establishment on the EU labour market, using the quasi-experimental method difference-in-differences (DiD) by accounting for regional characteristics at the NUTS-2 level. The findings demonstrate that introducing biorefineries to a region can create additional employment opportunities, particularly in primary production and logistics activities. However, the results do not show significant differences in regional gross value added compared with regions without biorefineries. To maximise the positive impact of biorefineries, options for a more tailored and equitable approach are suggested, taking into account regional characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reveals the source of exporters' better environmental performance (exporters' environmental premium) for Chinese firms with a model based on heterogeneous firm theory and empirical analysis with a difference‐in‐differences method based on the Chinese export tax refund reduction in 2004 and comprehensive firm‐level environmental survey data. The results show that exporting releases Chinese firms' financing constraints and enables them to upgrade production technologies quickly by applying advanced production technology (capital‐embodied technological upgrading) rather than by upgrading abatement technologies, to drive down sulfur dioxide (SO2) intensity and energy intensity. Exporting also reduces a firm's average energy intensity and SO2 intensity by reallocating resources from energy‐intensive and polluting production and firms to cleaner ones, that is, the resource reallocation effect. However, Chinese firms cannot expand their production much when trade costs decrease, which makes it difficult for the scale effect to work well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the effects of financial openness (FO) on the environment have not been assessed at the micro level of enterprises. This article uses the difference‐in‐differences method to explore the pollution abatement effect of FO. The results show that FO can effectively promote pollution abatement with a significant environmental performance enhancement effect. In addition, the pollution abatement effect of FO is stronger in large, heavy industrial, and state‐owned enterprises. Besides, FO significantly alleviates financing constraints and promotes the pollution abatement by driving R&D investment and strengthening the intensity of end‐of‐pipe treatment. Policy recommendations are given to steadily expand the FO pattern, improve the financial disclosure system of small and medium‐sized enterprises, and optimize subsidies for increased R&D investment to stimulate pollution abatement. A reference for other emerging economies, especially transitioning economies, is provided to fully utilize the financial system under construction or improvement to realize the value of pollution control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Energy‐consuming rights trading policy (ECRTP) is an important environmental regulatory policy in China. The study's goal is to determine how trading in energy‐consuming rights and urban innovation status effects also promote ecological civilization and high‐quality development. The purpose of the study examines the relationship between ECRTP and urban innovation quality (UIQ). Using data from 271 Chinese cities between 2011 and 2020, a difference‐in‐difference (DID) model is used to theoretically and empirically analyze the effects of ECRTP on UIQ. The findings of the study are as follows: First, ECRTP showed a significant improvement in UIQ, although a lagged effect. This outcome offers fresh proof that the "Porter hypothesis" holds water in China. Second, mechanism analysis indicated that ECRTP could improve UIQ with industrial structure upgrading (ISU) and capital deepening. Third, analysis of spillover effects indicates that ECRTP has a key spillover impact on UIQ. Analysis of spillover effects indicates a positive influence of ECRTP on UIQ in surrounding cities. Fourth, heteroggeneity analysis further reveals the impact of ECRTP on UIQ is particularly pronounced in resource‐based and large‐scale cities. These findings are significant and also provide a valuable supplement to the existing study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March of 2017 Utah announced its intent to lower the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) for driving from 0.08 to 0.05 g/dL. However, this change did not take effect until 2019. We employ a difference‐in‐ differences strategy on Utah counties using neighboring states as controls to test whether this policy change significantly affected the number of traffic accidents or the severity of those accidents. Results show the policy appears to temporarily decrease the total number of accidents, limited primarily to property damage‐ only accidents. We believe these results may be partially explained by drivers who, after the policy is enacted, avoid reporting property damage‐only accidents if possible. Using insurance claims data, we show there is no corresponding fall in insurance claims or payouts suggesting that the fall in total accidents likely comes from under‐reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse a quasi-experiment where a much sought-after state secondary school with no close substitutes unexpectedly reduced its enrolment zone twice over a three-year period. We use difference-in-differences to estimate the impact of the two downsizings on housing sales prices. We use controls for housing characteristics for pooled cross section or housing fixed effects for repeat sales, test for parallel trends, and conduct numerous robustness checks. In our main analysis, we find the first downsizing may decrease housing prices between 3.2% and 12.9%, with most estimates statistically significant, while the second downsizing may decrease prices between 2.1% and 7.2%, with most estimates insignificant. Tests in the pre-treatment period suggest parallel trends cannot be rejected, though some cross section interactions are significant when the two downsizings are analysed separately. We conclude the school zone's first downsizing likely had a negative effect on housing prices of a small to moderate magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn 2015, the Government of India launched Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), a flagship gender-based awareness campaign program, to promote girls’ survival and education in India. The existing literature has a dearth of rigorous empirical evidence on the impact of this program on girls’ well-being. This study fills this gap in the literature. We examine the impact of the BBBP program on girls’ educational and learning outcomes. Using data from multiple large nationally representative surveys, we estimate the impact of the BBBP program by employing difference-in-differences framework. We do not find any statistically significant impact of the program on girls’ enrollment, their grade completion, and girl-specific educational expenditure. Our empirical results also suggest limited impact of the BBBP program on girls’ learning outcomes. These results are robust to alternative empirical specifications. We also examine heterogeneity of our results across different age-cohorts in rural and urban India as well as states with disparate levels of economic development. Furthermore, we triangulate some of our quantitative results using qualitative data collected from school teachers and parents of girl children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term mortality effects of particulate air pollution have been investigated in a causal analytic frame, while causal evidence for associations with gaseous air pollutants remains extensively lacking, especially for carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). In this study, we estimated the causal relationship of long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), CO, SO2, and ozone (O3) with mortality. Utilizing the data from National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study, we applied a variant of difference-in-differences (DID) method with conditional Poisson regression and generalized weighted quantile sum regression (gWQS) to investigate the independent and joint effects. Independent exposures to NO2, CO, and SO2 were causally associated with increased risks of total, nonaccidental, and cardiovascular mortality, while no evident associations with O3 were identified in the entire population. In gWQS analyses, an interquartile range-equivalent increase in mixture exposure was associated with a relative risk of 1.067 (95% confidence interval: 1.010–1.126) for total mortality, 1.067 (1.009–1.128) for nonaccidental mortality, and 1.125 (1.060–1.193) for cardiovascular mortality, where NO2 was identified as the most significant contributor to the overall effect. This nationwide DID analysis provided causal evidence for independent and combined effects of NO2, CO, SO2, and O3 on increased mortality risks among the US general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021, we employ the difference-in-differences (DID) estimation method as an exogenous impact of a quasi-natural experiment and analyze the effects of carbon risk on corporate financialization. We observe that increased carbon risk decreases with corporate financialization, which is more pronounced for financially constrained and stateowned enterprises. Furthermore, we find that carbon risk increases green innovation, which restrains corporate financialization. Our research not only enriches the relevant influence on carbon risk and corporate financialization but also provides Chinese evidence for the Porter hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Permanent supportive housing (PSH) programs, which have grown over the last decade, have been associated with changes in health care utilization and spending. However, little is known about the impact of such programs on use of prescription drugs critical for managing chronic diseases prevalent among those with unstable housing. Objective: To evaluate the effects of PSH on medication utilization and adherence among Medicaid enrollees in Pennsylvania. Design: Difference-in-differences study comparing medication utilization and adherence between PSH participants and a matched comparison cohort from 7 to 18 months before PSH entry to 12 months post PSH entry. Subjects: Pennsylvania Medicaid enrollees (n = 1375) who entered PSH during 2011–2016, and a propensity-matched comparison cohort of 5405 enrollees experiencing housing instability who did not receive PSH but received other housing services indicative of episodic or chronic homelessness (e.g., emergency shelter stays). Main Measures: Proportion with prescription fill, mean proportion of days covered (PDC), and percent adherent (PDC ≥ 80%) for antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-asthmatics, and diabetes medications. Key Results: The PSH cohort saw a 4.77% (95% CI 2.87% to 6.67%) relative increase in the proportion filling any prescription, compared to the comparison cohort. Percent adherent among antidepressant users in the PSH cohort rose 7.41% (95% CI 0.26% to 14.57%) compared to the comparison cohort. While utilization increased in the other medication classes among the PSH cohort, differences from the comparison cohort were not statistically significant. Conclusions: PSH participation is associated with increases in filling prescription medications overall and improved adherence to antidepressant medications. These results can inform state and federal policy to increase PSH placement among Medicaid enrollees experiencing homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this population‐based registry study was to examine the impact of cancer on employment outcomes in adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors and their partners and associated sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Methods: A total of 2456 AYA cancer patients, diagnosed in 2013 and aged 18 through 39 years old, were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry and linked to employment data from Statistics Netherlands, from which 1252 partners of AYAs could be identified. For both patients and their partners, a control group with same age, migration background, and sex was selected. The impact (i.e., causal effect) was estimated by implementing a doubly robust difference‐in‐differences method, from 3 years before to 5 years after cancer diagnosis. Results: Patients suffered a reduced employment probability (3.8 percentage points) and number of hours worked when employed (3.8%). This effect was larger for females, and individuals with a migration background, high tumor stage, or diagnosed with a central nervous system tumor/hematologic malignancy. In regard to employment, no significant effect could be found for the patients' partners, although a 5.5 percentage‐point increase in employment probability was found in partners who were either unemployed or worked fewer than 400 hours. Conclusions: A cancer diagnosis significantly affects employment outcomes of AYA patients with cancer. Patients at risk should have access to services such as job counseling to help them return into society in the best possible way. No objective impact on partners' employment outcomes was found; however, subjective well‐being was not taken into account. Plain Language Summary: This study estimated the causal effect of a cancer diagnosis on employment outcomes.Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors face a reduction in both employment probability and the number of hours worked when employed.Partners that were unemployed or worked the least number of hours a year before diagnosis had a 5.5 percentage‐point increased employment probability, but for other partners effects are small. This population‐based registry study provides insight in the impact of cancer on employment outcomes in adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors and their partners until 5 years after diagnosis. AYA cancer survivors and partners at risk should have access to services to help them return into society in the best way possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Board members are critical in resolving agency conflicts. However, many are unable to perform their function due to their distance, as they are not present at board meetings. As of Instruction no. 561, the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) regulated remote voting for Boards of Directors, allowing for greater attendance at meetings and, as a result, increased involvement. In this context, this research examines the effect of remote voting by Boards of Directors on executive compensation and financial performance of publicly traded firms in Brazil. Originality/value: This research is innovative in the sense that it examines the effect of the Board of Directors remote voting on the CEO compensation and financial performance of the firm, using an innovative methodology. Design/methodology/approach: We applied a quasi-experimental method (difference-in-differences) to assess the effects of a given group (treatment) before and after the event, significantly reducing endogeneity when considering an exogenous shock to the system. Findings: As a result, the estimation of the main model reveals statistically significant differences between the effects of treatment and control on profitability and executive remuneration, indicating that remote voting mitigated agency problems by generating a substitution effect for explicit incentives (as evidenced by the decrease in executive remuneration) and by providing greater accounting performance for companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods have become common study designs for evaluating the effects of changes in policies, including health policies. They also have potential for providing real-world effectiveness and safety evidence in pharmacoepidemiology. To effectively add to the toolkit of the field, however, designs—including both their benefits and drawbacks—must be well understood. Quasi-experimental designs provide an opportunity to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated without requiring the measurement of all possible confounding factors, and to assess population-level effects. This requires, however, other key assumptions, including the parallel trends or stable weighting assumptions, a lack of other concurrent events that could alter time trends, and an absence of contamination between exposed and unexposed units. The targeted estimands are also highly specific to the settings of the study, and combining across units or time periods can be challenging. Case studies are presented for 3 vaccine evaluation studies, showcasing some of these challenges and opportunities in a specific field of pharmacoepidemiology. These methods provide feasible and valuable sources of evidence in various pharmacoepidemiologic settings and can be improved through research to identify and weigh the advantages and disadvantages in those settings. This article is part of a Special Collection on Pharmacoepidemiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how recreational marijuana legalization (RML) affects first‐time college enrollment in the US using a unique college‐level dataset and various estimation methods such as difference‐in‐differences and event study. I find that RML increases enrollments by approximately up to 9%, without compromising degree completion or graduation rate, and it boosts college competitiveness by offering a positive amenity, as evidenced by the rise in out‐of‐state enrollments relative to neighboring states. In addition, I find no evidence that RML affects college prices, quality, or in‐state enrollment. This effect is stronger for non‐selective public colleges in early‐adopting RML states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement of the big data industry is playing a pivotal role in urban land management refinement. Recently, China initiated a big data strategy, establishing national big data comprehensive pilot zones (NBDCPZs) across diverse regions. These initiatives present substantial opportunities for enhancing the urban land green use efficiency (ULGUE). Consequently, in this study, we utilized the super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model with undesirable outputs to assess the ULGUEs across 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2021. Subsequently, leveraging the NBDCPZ establishment as a quasi-natural experiment, we employed the difference-in-differences (DID) method to empirically explore the impact of the NBDCPZ policy on the ULGUE for the first time. The findings revealed the following: (1) The implementation of the NBDCPZ policy significantly enhances the ULGUE; (2) the effects are mediated through mechanisms such as fostering technological innovation, mitigating resource misallocation, and promoting industrial agglomeration; (3) the heterogeneity analysis emphasizes the increased policy effectiveness in cities characterized by fewer natural resources, lower economic growth pressures, stable development stages, and moderate digital infrastructure and human capital levels; and (4) further analysis demonstrates the significant positive spillover effects of the NBDCPZ policy on the ULGUEs of neighboring non-pilot cities, with a diminishing impact as the proximity between pilot and non-pilot cities decreases. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on the relationship between the digital economy and land utilization, offering valuable insights for achieving sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the effects of the Housing First model on the utilization of public health services and claims among chronically homeless individuals and in the process addresses the problem of attribution to natural stabilization on account of regression to the mean. The study uses Medicaid claims data from participants in a Massachusetts "Housing First" program (n = 1,342) and non-participants (n = 44,022) who included chronically homeless individuals. A control group design, propensity score matching techniques, and difference in differences were employed to estimate effects on utilization of and claims for emergency room visits, inpatient hospitalization, mental health encounters, and pharmacy and other claims. We find that both groups registered statistically significant pre–post improvements in utilization of health care services and claims, but these are greater among the Housing First cohort. The findings suggest that Housing First significantly reduces utilization of health care services beyond regression to the mean and that the resultant health care savings offset a significant portion of the cost of housing. Policy proponents and opponents of Housing First must recognize that the model has a significant portion of its costs offset by savings from lower Medicaid claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matching makes or breaks peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms. As the platform-based P2P markets shift from their grassroots nature toward elite offerings, will differentiating suppliers by quality increase matching performance? Can P2P markets differentiate certain suppliers without marginalizing others? We seek answers to these questions by leveraging an empirical opportunity on Airbnb, which differentiates listings that meet high quality standards from others through its Plus program in several U.S. cities. Our findings are threefold. First, we find a sizable increase in market-level matching performance after the program launch, that is, a 15.8%–16.2% increase in the number of booked nights. Second, the rise in matching performance is attributed to reduced search frictions, evident in markets with higher discovery and evaluation costs. Third, the Plus program benefits all listing tiers through reduced search frictions, yielding the most benefits to the Plus and non-Plus listings in terms of increased bookings and prices. Regular listings also receive increased bookings because of competitive prices. Our findings hold across multiple robustness checks and offer important insights for platform design and supply management in P2P markets. This paper was accepted by Hemant Bhargava, information systems. Supplemental Material: The web appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.03920. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of platform-issued "quick-seller" certificates (indicating sellers with faster dispatch than others) on buyers' postpurchase behavior. Drawing upon the theoretical lens of psychological contract violation (PCV), we hypothesize the effects of quick-seller certificates on order cancelations, as well as the subsequent impacts of cancelations associated with the quick-seller certificates on buyers' future purchase frequency and search behavior. Using a comprehensive transaction dataset, the study reveals that quick-seller certificates increase the likelihood of cancelation of an order. Furthermore, we also find that an order cancelation from a certified quick seller results in decreased purchase frequency and a higher incidence of product comparisons through search engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether financial derivatives usage impacts firm value in seven developed countries from 2007 to 2016. We rely on textual analysis to identify derivatives users and address the potential reverse causality problem through propensity score matching and the difference‐in‐differences approach. Empirical findings suggest that the use of derivatives has a negative effect on firm value. Interestingly, we observe asymmetric valuation effects for specific countries when comparing firms that adopt derivatives with those that abandon them. US, UK, and Australian firms adopting derivatives experience a significant decrease in their valuation. Contrary to expectations, this adverse effect diminishes and may become insignificant at best when firms choose to abandon derivatives. Furthermore, most of the significant value effects disappear when using the industry relative valuation measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's pilot free trade zones play an important role in promoting deep-level reform and high-standard opening up. Based on the panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2021, the article explores the impact of pilot free trade zones on urban innovation using the multi-period difference-in-differences model, mediation effect model, and spatial difference-in-differences model, treating the pilot free trade zone as a quasi-natural experiment. The study shows the following: the establishment of pilot free trade zones boosts sustained growth in urban innovation, and the results still hold after a series of robustness tests; the enabling effect of pilot free trade zones on urban innovation is most significant in eastern regions and large-scale cities; and the role of pilot free trade zones in promoting innovation varies by stage. The mediation impact study revealed that pilot free trade zones can influence urban innovation via talent concentration, foreign direct investment, market scale, and financial support. The pilot free trade zones enhance the innovation performance of its geographically adjacent cities with economic ties and the innovation level of the region. The analysis offers a policy basis for the sustainable growth of urban innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that importing stimulates firms' learning‐based R&D activities in the present and future periods. Our theory predicts that the strength of the learning effect depends on the type of imported materials, the industries, and the import destination. Using a dataset on Chinese manufacturing firms covering the episode of China's WTO accession, we employ the multiple‐treatment propensity matching difference‐in‐differences method and find evidence supporting our hypotheses: (1) importing capital goods stimulates more R&D expenditures than importing intermediates; (2) R&D intensity increases more for capital goods importers in capital‐intensive industries than those in labor‐intensive industries; and (3) importers increase R&D intensity more by importing from high‐income countries than low‐income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Transition to online teaching during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to various concerns about educational quality. The study investigates the consequences of this transition on student performance for a prominent university in Northern Italy. Comprehensive administrative data allows us to monitor students’ performance and to have detailed socioeconomic information about them. Using a difference-in-differences design with lecturer fixed effects, we exploit the unique timing of the lockdown that fell together with the start of the summer term in 2020. We find no marked effects on students’ average grades in higher education in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown.

We propose a nonlinear difference-in-differences (DiD) method to estimate multivariate counterfactual distributions in classical treatment and control study designs with observational data. Our approach sheds a new light on existing approaches like the changes-in-changes estimator and the classical semiparametric DiD estimator, and it also generalizes them to settings with multivariate heterogeneity in the outcomes. The main benefit of this extension is that it allows for arbitrary dependence between the coordinates of vector potential outcomes and includes higher-dimensional unobservables, something that existing methods cannot provide in general. We demonstrate its utility on both synthetic and real data. In particular, we revisit the classical Card & Krueger dataset, which reports fast food restaurant employment before and after a minimum wage increase. A reanalysis with our methodology suggests that these restaurants substitute full-time labor with part-time labor on aggregate in response to a minimum wage increase. This treatment effect requires estimation of the multivariate counterfactual distribution, an object beyond the scope of classical causal estimators previously applied to this data.

Summary Background Sustainable diets contribute to improving human health and reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). Here, we established the effects of a facility-based sustainable diet intervention on the adherence to the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet and GHGE of consumers. Methods In this quasi-experiment, vegan menus and educational material on sustainable diets were provided in the largest cafeteria of a German hospital for 3 months. Regular customers (> 1/week) in this cafeteria (intervention group) and in all other hospital cafeterias (control group) completed a questionnaire about their sociodemographic and dietary characteristics before and after the intervention period. We calculated difference-in-differences (DID), their 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and p-values for the adherence to the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI; 0–42 score points) and food-related GHGE. The protocol was registered at the German Clinical Trial Register (reference: DRKS00032620). Findings In this study population (N = 190; age range: 18–79 years; women: 67%; highest level of formal education: 63%), the mean baseline PHDI (25·1 ± 4·8 vs. 24·7 ± 5·8 points) and the mean baseline GHGE (3·3 ± 0·8 vs. 3·3 ± 0·7 kg CO2-eq./d) were similar between the intervention (n = 92) and the control group (n = 98). The PHDI increase was 0·6 points (95% CI: -0·4, + 1·6) higher in the intervention group than in the control group. This trend was stronger among frequent consumers of the vegan menu than among rare and never consumers. No between-group difference was seen for GHGE changes (DID: 0·0; 95% CI: -0·2, + 0·1 kg CO2-eq./d). Interpretation Pending verification in a longer-term project and a larger sample, this quasi-experiment in a big hospital in Germany suggests that offering vegan menus and information material in the cafeteria enhances the adherence to healthy and environmentally friendly diets among regular customers. These findings argue for making sustainable food choices the default option and for improving nutrition literacy. Funding Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), Else-Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS), Robert-Bosch Foundation (RBS).

Abstract Long-term mortality effects of particulate air pollution have been investigated in a causal analytic frame, while causal evidence for associations with gaseous air pollutants remains extensively lacking, especially for carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). In this study, we estimated the causal relationship of long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), CO, SO2, and ozone (O3) with mortality. Utilizing the data from National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study, we applied a variant of difference-in-differences (DID) method with conditional Poisson regression and generalized weighted quantile sum regression (gWQS) to investigate the independent and joint effects. Independent exposures to NO2, CO, and SO2 were causally associated with increased risks of total, nonaccidental, and cardiovascular mortality, while no evident associations with O3 were identified in the entire population. In gWQS analyses, an interquartile range-equivalent increase in mixture exposure was associated with a relative risk of 1.067 (95% confidence interval: 1.010–1.126) for total mortality, 1.067 (1.009–1.128) for nonaccidental mortality, and 1.125 (1.060–1.193) for cardiovascular mortality, where NO2 was identified as the most significant contributor to the overall effect. This nationwide DID analysis provided causal evidence for independent and combined effects of NO2, CO, SO2, and O3 on increased mortality risks among the US general population.

Environmental justice is an important part of the environmental governance system. We use the exogenous shock of the environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) pilot implemented by the Chinese government in 2015 to construct a quasi-natural experiment and employ the difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine the impact and its mechanisms of environmental judicial protection on urban green technology innovation (GTI) with the help of the panel data of 274 cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that the EPIL policy can significantly promote urban GTI. Mechanism tests reveal that the EPIL policy can induce urban GTI by raising public environmental attention (PEA) and strengthening the application of digital technology (DE). Heterogeneous analyses indicate that the promoting effect is more significant in eastern cities, southern cities, cities with higher administrative levels, larger cities, and cities with higher economic development levels. Our study not only enriches the relevant literature in the field of 'law and economics', but also provides a reference for policymakers to scientifically implement EPIL policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]