Showing papers by "Joshua C. Hall published in 2017"
TL;DR: In this paper, border congruence between school districts and municipalities in Ohio is measured using GIS data and matched with a data set of 56,717 home sales, and the hedonic results indicate that non-congruence is associated with lower housing prices, while the degree of non-congruence is positively related.
Abstract: Research on zoning typically assumes that city planners aim to maximise housing prices with their land use decisions, either explicitly for public choice reasons or implicitly through the approval of land uses that create local net benefits. Noncongruence of school district and municipality borders severs the link between costs and benefits in the eyes of the median voter, however, which could result in excessive residential development and fiscal externalities that lower property values. This paper uses a hedonic approach to indirectly observe the presence of these externalities. Border congruency between school districts and municipalities in Ohio is measured using GIS data and matched with a data set of 56,717 home sales. The hedonic results indicate that noncongruence is associated with lower housing prices, while the degree of noncongruence is positively related. For most school districts, the negative effect of noncongruency dominates. My results are robust and consistent across different model spec...
11 citations
TL;DR: This article used a recent change in West Virginia's craft beer distribution laws as a case study to show that although employment might not experience a statistically significant change due to additional legalized marketing channels, wages did experience a significant increase.
Abstract: Over the past decade, local food systems have been identified as having a significant influence on regional economies. Using a recent change in West Virginia’s craft beer distribution laws as a case study, we show that although employment might not experience a statistically significant change due to additional legalized marketing channels, wages did experience a significant increase. Our findings suggest that state economies might benefit from reducing restrictions on small, local producers.
10 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors empirically tested the relationship between marketization and measures of entrepreneurship across Chinese provinces, and found that higher levels of marketization are positively related to higher level of entrepreneurship, and that these positive effects are largely driven by three areas: government and market, legal frameworks, and ownership structure.
Abstract: While marketization has been linked to provincial-level economic growth in China, how marketization leads to growth has not been explored. We hypothesize that marketization creates an environment that encourages entrepreneurship, which manifests itself in economic growth. While this argument is not new, it has not been explored in the Chinese context. We fill this gap by empirically testing the relationship between marketization and measures of entrepreneurship across Chinese provinces. Our primary measures of entrepreneurship are level changes in the number of "private enterprises" and "self-employed individuals". We find that higher levels of marketization are positively related to higher levels of entrepreneurship. These positive effects are largely driven by three areas of marketization. "Government and market" drives both measures of entrepreneurship, while "Legal frameworks" in uences only private enterprises and "ownership structure" in uences self-employment.
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate whether non-public school enrolment affects the performance of public school districts and find that a one standard deviation increase in relative nonpublic enrolment in a county is associated with statistically significant improvements in public school district test scores.
Abstract: In this study, we investigate whether non-public school enrolment affects the performance of public school districts. If homeschooling and private schools act as competition, public school districts test scores should be positively associated with non-public enrolment. Using data on West Virginia county school districts, and controlling for endogeneity with an instrumental variables approach, we find that a one standard deviation increase in relative non-public enrolment in a county is associated with statistically significant improvements in public school district test scores. Our findings thus confirm that non-public enrolment and the competition it provides act to improve, rather than impede, public school performance.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate whether members of Congress are informed traders even before they get elected to Congress, and thus help assess whether the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was a necessary piece of legislation.
Abstract: Purpose
Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, vesting the Securities and Exchange Commission with the clear legal authority to prosecute members of Congress (politicians) if they engage in insider trading. This paper aims to investigate whether members of Congress are informed traders even before they get elected to Congress, and thus helps assess whether the STOCK Act was a necessary piece of legislation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study compares the performance of politicians’ portfolios before and after they are elected to Congress using data from the 2004-2010 period. The authors use an event-study method to construct transactions-based calendar-time portfolios and use standard asset pricing models including capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to determine whether these portfolios earn abnormal returns (i.e. outperform the market).
Findings
The authors find weak and inconsistent evidence of abnormal returns in politicians’ portfolios that precede their election. They also find that it takes two consecutive terms in Congress for members to start making informed trades that earn themselves abnormal returns. However, these abnormal returns only accrue to those who serve on powerful committees.
Research limitations/implications
The results in this paper provide support for the STOCK Act of 2012 by showing that members of Congress become informed traders while they serve in Congress. However, these results do not imply any wrongdoing for members of Congress, because the paper uses the pre-STOCK Act data (2004-2010 period).
Originality/value
This study is the first academic work that compares politicians’ portfolios before and after they get elected.
5 citations
TL;DR: The Miller Upton Program as discussed by the authors aims to advance student understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being by cultivating skills required to engage the great questions of human flourishing, by fostering development of students' economic imagination and by enhancing students' ability to engage in genuine intellectual discovery.
Abstract: In this article, the authors describe the Miller Upton Programs launched by the Beloit College Department of Economics in 2008. The programs aim to advance student understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being. After describing the programs’ core elements, the authors discuss ways in which they leverage economic discourse as a means to advance liberal learning. They argue that programs of this kind advance liberal learning by cultivating skills required to engage the great questions of human flourishing, by fostering development of students’ economic imagination and by enhancing students’ ability to engage in genuine intellectual discovery. Details on the history and resource commitments for various program aspects are provided, allowing readers to identify program elements appropriate for replication at their home institutions.
5 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors estimate the relationship between globalization and cross-country income convergence using a panel of up to 184 countries covering 1970 to 2009 and employ the KOF index of globalization and control for measures of political and economic institutional quality.
Abstract: The income convergence literature suggests that poor countries or regions can catch-up to rich ones conditional on sharing certain characteristics with rich countries or regions. Good institutions such as strong property rights and rule-of-law are key among those characteristics. Globalization provides opportunities for agents in poor economies to learn about and experiment with institutional innovations across regions. We estimate the relationship between globalization and cross-country income convergence using a panel of up to 184 countries covering 1970 to 2009. We employ the KOF index of globalization and control for measures of political and economic institutional quality. A standard deviation increase in the KOF index is associated with a country closing the gap between its income per capita level and that of the richest country by an additional 13.6% annually.
4 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the degree to which special interests or the median voter determine state highway expenditures and found that special interests that were important in 1984 were no longer significant nearly 20-years later.
Abstract: Using cross-sectional data from 50 states of the United States and the District of Columbia for two different time periods, this paper examines the degree to which special interests or the median voter determine state highway expenditures. In addition to finding that previous estimates of the determinants of state highway expenditures are robust, we find that that special interests that were important in 1984 were no longer significant nearly 20 years later. Like the previous literature, we conclude that the reduced form median voter model performs well in explaining state highway expenditures.
4 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the changes in economic freedom in China and discuss the prospects for future improvement, and discuss future economic development in China with a series of pro-market policies and reforms.
Abstract: With sinuous reforms and economic openness over the last four decades, China has enjoyed substantial economic development. Though still a developing country, its GDP per capita has grown over 10% annually, from $183(US) in 1977 to $7,590 (US) in 2014. This miracle in economic growth is attributed by some to a series of pro-market policies and reforms. Although the general trend is greater economic freedom, China has experienced brief periods of decreasing or stagnant economic freedom that correspond with slowdowns in the growth rate. In this paper we trace these changes in economic freedom in China and discuss prospects for future improvement.
4 citations
TL;DR: The authors revisited the relationship between collective bargaining by teachers unions and school performance and found that collective bargaining directly lowers scores on high school math scores, but that the total effect is zero.
Abstract: We revisit the relationship between collective bargaining by teachers unions and school performance. The empirical literature in this area has found mixed results at both the state and district levels. We contribute to this literature in two ways. First, rather than simply dummy union status, we proxy for the restrictiveness of collective bargaining agreements with the number of pages per agreement. Second, we employ Bayesian spatial methods to deal with spatial dependence in school district activities. Our reduced-form results indicate that collective bargaining directly lowers scores on high school math scores, but that the total effect is zero.
3 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the citation counts of CEE AER P&P papers are compared to other papers included in the issue, using the Social Science Citation Index (SCI).
Abstract: The CEE had been allocated one session in the AER Papers and Proceedings (P&P) since 1964. In 2008, the American Economic Association evaluated the allocation of AER Papers and Proceedings sessions to various AEA Committees. In response, the CEE was asked to prepare a one-page rationale for keeping that session. Their response (Committee on Economic Education, 2008) made several important defenses of the session, including that the quality of the papers published in these sessions must speak for itself. In this paper, we propose to evaluate the relative quality of AER P&P papers through citation analysis. Using the Social Science Citation Index, the citation counts of CEE AER P&P papers are compared to other papers included in the issue.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimate the relationship between globalization and cross-country income convergence using a panel of up to 184 countries covering 1970 to 2009, and employ the KOF index of globalization and control for measures of political and economic institutional quality.
Abstract: The income convergence literature suggests that poor countries or regions can catch up to rich ones conditional on sharing certain characteristics with rich countries or regions. Good institutions such as strong property rights and rule of law are key among those characteristics. Globalization provides opportunities for agents in poor economies to learn about and experi-ment with institutional innovations across regions. We estimate the relationship between glob-alization and cross-country income convergence using a panel of up to 184 countries covering 1970 to 2009. We employ the KOF index of globalization and control for measures of political and economic institutional quality. A standard deviation increase in the KOF index is associ-ated with a country closing the gap between its income per capita level and that of the richest country by an additional 13.6% annually.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the long-term impact of city-county consolidations on per capita income, population, and employment, and found that consolidation does not guarantee development and can actually have negative effects.
Abstract: Although more rapid development is a primary motivation behind city-county consolidations, relatively few empirical papers explore the actual impact of consolidation on development. This study uses the synthetic control method (SCM) to examine the long-term impact of city-county consolidations on per capita income, population, and employment. The results from the three cases explored indicate that consolidation does not guarantee development and can actually have negative effects. Additionally, the effects vary based upon the county, time horizon, and development measure.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the ability of people to freely trade, enter into contracts, and start businesses in a system of private property and the rule of law is crucial for productive entrepreneurship.
Abstract: In this paper we argue that the ability of people to freely trade, enter into contracts, and start businesses in a system of private property and the rule of law is crucial for productive entrepreneurship. One measure of how freely individuals can engage in economic activity is the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index. After examining the economic policies that harm economic freedom and possibly entrepreneurship, we highlight the correspondence between economic freedom and a number of measures of entrepreneurship. We conclude with some thoughts regarding future research involving economic freedom and entrepreneurship.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The hypothesis that the opening of an Urgent Care Center (UCC) has positive impacts on the local community is tested and it is suggested that MedExpress has a positive impact on different health outcome variables.
Abstract: We test the hypothesis that the opening of an Urgent Care Center (UCC) has positive impacts on the local community. There are several mechanisms through which a UCC can impact the community, for instance, lower costs of health care, decongestion of emergency rooms, and improved access to health care. We examine the entry of MedExpress inot Appalachian counties between 2001 and 2013 using data from the Area Health Resources Files and propensity score matching to create a control group similar to the counties whicch received a MedExpress UCC. We then employ a difference-in-difference model on an unbalanced panel between 2001 and 2013. Our results suggest MedExpress entry has a positive impact on different health outcome variables.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used DEA to estimate the technical efficiency of West Virginia school districts and found that technical efficiency in West Virginia schools is below the national average on the NAEP.
Abstract: West Virginia schools are consistently below the national average on the NAEP. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we estimate the technical efficiency of West Virginia school districts. We find less variation in technical efficiency in West Virginia than in similar studies conducted in other states. This appears to be because of state policy imposing homogeneity of input usage. Due to the limited variation in technical efficiency across districts, we cannot analyze how non-school inputs such as socioeconomic factors affect technical efficiency across districts. Summary statistics organized by county economic status, however, suggest that socioeconomic status plays a role. Our results highlight an important limitation of DEA analysis on schools.