Showing papers by "Institute for the Study of Labor published in 2015"
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between financial development, CO2 emissions, trade and economic growth using simultaneous-equation panel data models for a panel of 12 MENA countries over the period 1990-2011.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between financial development, CO2 emissions, trade and economic growth using simultaneous-equation panel data models for a panel of 12 MENA countries over the period 1990-2011. Our results indicate that there is evidence of bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Economic growth and trade openness are interrelated i.e. bidirectional causality. Feedback hypothesis is validated between trade openness and financial development. Neutrality hypothesis is identified between CO2 emissions and financial development. Unidirectional causality running from financial development to economic growth and from trade openness to CO2 emissions is identified. Our empirical results also verified the existence of environmental Kuznets curve. These empirical insights are of particular interest to policymakers as they help build sound economic policies to sustain economic development and to improve the environmental quality.
451 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the 20th century US both for its own interest and to identify potentially useful adaptations for coming decades There are three primary findings First, the mortality impact of days with mean temperature exceeding 80° F declined by 75% Almost the entire decline occurred after 1960 Second, the diffusion of residential air conditioning (AC) explains essentially the entire drop in hot day related fatalities Third, using Dubin-McFadden's discrete-continuous model, the present value of US consumer surplus from the introduction of residential AC is estimated to be $85
Abstract: This paper examines the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the 20th century US both for its own interest and to identify potentially useful adaptations for coming decades There are three primary findings First, the mortality impact of days with mean temperature exceeding 80° F declined by 75% Almost the entire decline occurred after 1960 Second, the diffusion of residential air conditioning (AC) explains essentially the entire decline in hot day related fatalities Third, using Dubin-McFadden’s discrete-continuous model, the present value of US consumer surplus from the introduction of residential AC is estimated to be $85 to $188 billion ($2012)
409 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore several possible explanations for the skill complementarity of broadband internet and find that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing non-routine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks.
Abstract: Does adoption of broadband internet in firms enhance labor productivity and increase wages? Is this technological change skill biased or factor neutral? We combine several Norwegian data sets to answer these questions. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points and provides plausibly exogenous variation in the availability and adoption of broadband internet in firms. Our results suggest that broadband internet improves (worsens) the labor market outcomes and productivity of skilled (unskilled) workers. We explore several possible explanations for the skill complementarity of broadband internet. We find suggestive evidence that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks. Taken together, our findings have important implications for the ongoing policy debate over government investment in broadband infrastructure to encourage productivity and wage growth.
404 citations
TL;DR: In Norway, mothers giving birth before July 1, 1977, were eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave, while those giving birth after that date were entitled to 4 months of paid leave and 12 months of unsupervised leave.
Abstract: We study a change in maternity leave entitlements in Norway. Mothers giving birth before July 1, 1977, were eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave, while those giving birth after that date were entitled to 4 months of paid leave and 12 months of unpaid leave. The increased time spent with the child led to a 2 percentage point decline in high school dropout rates and a 5 percent increase in wages at age 30. These effects were larger for the children of mothers who, in the absence of the reform, would have taken very low levels of unpaid leave.
248 citations
TL;DR: The authors show that after monetary policy announcements, the conditional volatility of stock market returns rises more for firms with stickier prices than for firms having more flexible prices, and that this differential reaction is economically large and strikingly robust to a broad array of checks.
Abstract: We show that after monetary policy announcements, the conditional volatility of stock market returns rises more for firms with stickier prices than for firms with more flexible prices. This differential reaction is economically large and strikingly robust to a broad array of checks. These results suggest that menu costs - broadly defined to include physical costs of price adjustment, informational frictions, etc. - are an important factor for nominal price rigidity at the micro level. We also show that our empirical results are qualitatively and, under plausible calibrations, quantitatively consistent with New Keynesian macroeconomic models in which firms have heterogeneous price stickiness.
194 citations
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19 Jan 2015TL;DR: In depth, and in terms that someone with only one year of graduate econometrics can understand, basic to advanced nonparametric methods are discussed,basic to advancedNonparametric Methods of Econometricians.
Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Univariate density estimation 3. Multivariate density estimation 4. Inference about the density 5. Regression 6. Testing in regression 7. Smoothing discrete variables 8. Regression with discrete covariates 9. Semiparametric methods 10. Instrumental variables 11. Panel data 12. Constrained estimation and inference Bibliography Index.
192 citations
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TL;DR: This article reviewed the emerging literature on the behavioral economics of education and developed a general framework for thinking about why youth and their parents might not always take full advantage of education opportunities and discussed how these behavioral barriers may be preventing some students from improving their long-run welfare.
Abstract: Behavioral economics attempts to integrate insights from psychology, neuroscience, and sociology in order to better predict individual outcomes and develop more effective policy. While the field has been successfully applied to many areas, education has, so far, received less attention – a surprising oversight, given the field's key interest in long-run decision-making and the propensity of youth to make poor long-run decisions. In this chapter, we review the emerging literature on the behavioral economics of education. We first develop a general framework for thinking about why youth and their parents might not always take full advantage of education opportunities. We then discuss how these behavioral barriers may be preventing some students from improving their long-run welfare. We evaluate the recent but rapidly growing efforts to develop policies that mitigate these barriers, many of which have been examined in experimental settings. Finally, we discuss future prospects for research in this emerging field.
175 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that necessity entrepreneurs are more likely than other entrepreneurs to pursue a cost leadership strategy and less likely to pursue differentiation strategy and up to half of the difference in choice of strategy can be attributed to distinct endowments of human capital, socioeconomic attributes, and start-up project characteristics that correlate with necessity entrepreneurship.
Abstract: Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the start-up was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German start-ups, show that necessity entrepreneurs are more likely than other entrepreneurs to pursue a cost leadership strategy and less likely to pursue a differentiation strategy. Decomposition analyses further show that up to half of the difference in choice of strategy can be attributed to distinct endowments of human capital, socioeconomic attributes, and start-up project characteristics that correlate with necessity entrepreneurship.
164 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Monte Carlo simulations are used to demonstrate that regression-discontinuity designs arrive at biased estimates when attributes related to outcomes predict heaping in the running variable.
Abstract: This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that regression-discontinuity designs arrive at biased estimates when attributes related to outcomes predict heaping in the running variable. After showing that our usual diagnostics may not be well suited to identifying this type of problem, we provide alternatives, and then discuss the usefulness of different approaches to addressing the bias. We then consider these issues in multiple non-simulated environments. (JEL C21, C14, I12)
159 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study how growth of cities determines the growth of nations using a spatial equilibrium model and data on 220 US metropolitan areas from 1964 to 2009, and estimate the contribution of each U.S. city to national GDP growth.
Abstract: We study how growth of cities determines the growth of nations. Using a spatial equilibrium model and data on 220 US metropolitan areas from 1964 to 2009, we first estimate the contribution of each U.S. city to national GDP growth. We show that the contribution of a city to aggregate growth can differ significantly from what one might naively infer from the growth of the city's GDP. Despite some of the strongest rate of local growth, New York, San Francisco and San Jose were only responsible for a small fraction of U.S. growth in this period. By contrast, almost half of aggregate US growth was driven by growth of cities in the South. We then provide a normative analysis of potential growth. We show that the dispersion of the conditional average nominal wage across US cities doubled, indicating that worker productivity is increasingly different across cities. We calculate that this increased wage dispersion lowered aggregate U.S. GDP by 13.5%. Most of the loss was likely caused by increased constraints to housing supply in high productivity cities like New York, San Francisco and San Jose. Lowering regulatory constraints in these cities to the level of the median city would expand their work force and increase U.S. GDP by 9.5%. We conclude that the aggregate gains in output and welfare from spatial reallocation of labor are likely to be substantial in the U.S., and that a major impediment to a more efficient spatial allocation of labor are housing supply constraints. These constraints limit the number of US workers who have access to the most productive of American cities. In general equilibrium, this lowers income and welfare of all US workers.
152 citations
TL;DR: This paper studied whether and why taste for competition affects MBA salaries and whether this effect can explain the wage gender gap, finding that competitive MBAs with a low degree of overconfidence earn 26% more, while those who are highly overconfident earn 19% less.
Abstract: We study whether and why taste for competition (as measured by Niederle and Vesterlund, 2007) affects MBA salaries and whether this effect can explain the wage gender gap. At graduation, MBAs with higher taste for competition earn $15K (9.3%) more. Over time this effect is mitigated by overconfidence. Seven years after graduation, competitive MBAs with a low degree of overconfidence earn 26% more, while those who are highly overconfident earn 19% less. Taste for competition explains 10% of the gender gap at graduation and none seven years later.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider nonparametric identification and estimation in a nonseparable model where a continuous regressor of interest is a known, deterministic, but kinked function of an observed assignment variable.
Abstract: We consider nonparametric identification and estimation in a nonseparable model where a continuous regressor of interest is a known, deterministic, but kinked function of an observed assignment variable. We characterize a broad class of models in which a sharp “Regression Kink Design” (RKD or RK Design) identifies a readily interpretable treatment-on-the-treated parameter (Florens, Heckman, Meghir, and Vytlacil (2008)). We also introduce a “fuzzy regression kink design” generalization that allows for omitted variables in the assignment rule, noncompliance, and certain types of measurement errors in the observed values of the assignment variable and the policy variable. Our identifying assumptions give rise to testable restrictions on the distributions of the assignment variable and predetermined covariates around the kink point, similar to the restrictions delivered by Lee (2008) for the regression discontinuity design. Using a kink in the unemployment benefit formula, we apply a fuzzy RKD to empirically estimate the effect of benefit rates on unemployment durations in Austria.
TL;DR: The authors compared the impacts of strictly and less strictly protected areas in four countries using IUCN designations to measure de facto strictness, data on deforestation to measure outcomes, and a quasi-experimental design to estimate impacts.
Abstract: National parks and other protected areas are at the forefront of global efforts to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, not all protection is equal. Some areas are assigned strict legal protection that permits few extractive human uses. Other protected area designations permit a wider range of uses. Whether strictly protected areas are more effective in achieving environmental objectives is an empirical question: although strictly protected areas legally permit less anthropogenic disturbance, the social conflicts associated with assigning strict protection may lead politicians to assign strict protection to less-threatened areas and may lead citizens or enforcement agents to ignore the strict legal restrictions. We contrast the impacts of strictly and less strictly protected areas in four countries using IUCN designations to measure de jure strictness, data on deforestation to measure outcomes, and a quasi-experimental design to estimate impacts. On average, stricter protection reduced deforestation rates more than less strict protection, but the additional impact was not always large and sometimes arose because of where stricter protection was assigned rather than regulatory strictness per se. We also show that, in protected area studies contrasting y management regimes, there are y2 policy-relevant impacts, rather than only y (squared), as earlier studies have implied.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate how changes in the skill mix of local labor supply are absorbed by the economy, and distinguish between three adjustment mechanisms: through factor prices, through an expansion in the size of those production units that use the more abundant skill group more intensively, and through more intensive use within production units.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate how changes in the skill mix of local labor supply are absorbed by the economy. We distinguish between three adjustment mechanisms: through factor prices, through an expansion in the size of those production units that use the more abundant skill group more intensively, and through more intensive use of the more abundant skill group within production units. We investigate which of these channels is dominant. We contribute to the existing literature by analyzing these adjustments on the level of firms, rather than industries, and by assessing the role of new firms in the absorption process of labor supply shocks. Our analysis is based on administrative data, comprising the entirety of firms in Germany over a 10 years period. We find that, while factor price adjustments are important in the non-tradable sector, labor supply shocks do not induce factor price changes in the tradable sector. In this sector, most of the adjustment to changes in relative factor supplies takes place within firms by changing relative factor intensities. Given the nonresponse of factor prices, this finding points towards changes in production technology. Our results further show, that firms that enter and exit the market are an important additional channel of adjustment. Finally, we demonstrate that an industry level analysis is likely to over-emphasize technology-based adjustments.
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TL;DR: This paper found that children in schools with a high immigrant concentration score lower on reading and math test scores than those with a low immigrant concentration, and that the negative effects associated with attending a school with high immigration concentration are fairly robust across estimation methods.
Abstract: Using a unique and very rich PISA dataset from Denmark, we show that the immigrant concentration in the school influences reading and math skills for both immigrant children and native children. Overall, children in schools with a high immigrant concentration score lower on reading and math test scores. The negative effects associated with attending a school with a high immigrant concentration are fairly robust across estimation methods. IV estimates, taking into consideration that parental sorting across neighborhoods might bias the OLS estimates, indicate that immigrant concentration in schools is still important in determining children’s math test scores. The estimates are less precise regarding the effect of immigrant concentration on reading test scores. The immigrant concentration in the school has a stronger effect for native children than for immigrant children, but the differences are more pronounced for the math test.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the effect of relaxing the central government's fiscal rules on local governments in Italy and found that relaxing them increases the deficit and lowers taxes. But the effect is larger if the mayor can be reelected, the number of parties is higher, and voters are older.
Abstract: Fiscal rules are laws aimed at reducing the incentive to accumulate debt, and many countries adopt them to discipline local governments. Yet, their effectiveness is disputed because of commitment and enforcement problems. We study their impact applying a quasi-experimental design in Italy. In 1999 the central government imposed fiscal rules on municipal governments, and in 2001 relaxed them below 5,000 inhabitants. We exploit the before/after and discontinuous policy variation, and show that relaxing fiscal rules increases deficit and lowers taxes. The effect is larger if the mayor can be reelected, the number of parties is higher, and voters are older.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of field experiments that explore the personnel economics of the state and show that public sector employees enjoy a significant wage premium over their private sector counterparts in most countries throughout the world.
Abstract: Governments play a central role in facilitating economic development. Yet while economists have long emphasized the importance of government quality, historically they have paid less attention to the internal workings of the state and the individuals who provide the public services. This paper reviews a nascent but growing body of field experiments that explores the personnel economics of the state. To place the experimental findings in context, we begin by documenting some stylized facts about how public sector employment differs from that in the private sector. In particular, we show that in most countries throughout the world, public sector employees enjoy a significant wage premium over their private sector counterparts. Moreover, this wage gap is largest among low-income countries, which tends to be precisely where governance issues are most severe. These differences in pay, together with significant information asymmetries within government organizations in low-income countries, provide a prima facie rationale for the emphasis of the recent field experiments on three aspects of the state–employee relationship: selection, incentive structures, and monitoring. We review the findings on all three dimensions and then conclude this survey with directions for future research.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study an intensive math instruction policy that assigned low-skilled ninth graders to an algebra course that doubled instructional time, altered peer composition and emphasized problem solving skills.
Abstract: We study an intensive math instruction policy that assigned low-skilled ninth graders to an algebra course that doubled instructional time, altered peer composition and emphasized problem solving skills. A regression discontinuity design shows substantial positive impacts of double-dose algebra on credits earned, test scores, high school graduation, and college enrollment rates. Test score effects underpredict attainment effects, highlighting the importance of long-run evaluation of such a policy. Perhaps because the intervention focused on verbal exposition of mathematical concepts, the impact was largest for students with below-average reading skills, emphasizing the need to target interventions toward appropriately skilled students.
TL;DR: In this article, a practical guide for researchers and practitioners who want to understand spillover effects in program evaluation is presented. But, it does not discuss how to design a field experiment to measure the average effects of the treatment on eligible and ineligible subjects for the program in the presence of spillover effect.
Abstract: This paper is a practical guide for researchers and practitioners who want to understand spillover effects in program evaluation. The paper defines spillover effects and discusses why it is important to measure them. It explains how to design a field experiment to measure the average effects of the treatment on eligible and ineligible subjects for the program in the presence of spillover effects. In addition, the paper discusses the use of nonexperimental methods for estimating spillover effects when the experimental design is not a viable option. Evaluations that account for spillover effects should be designed such that they explain the cause of these effects and whom they affect. Such an evaluation design is necessary to avoid inappropriate policy recommendations and neglecting important mechanisms through which the program operates.
TL;DR: The Global Preference Survey (GPS) as mentioned in this paper is a dataset of risk and time preferences, positive and negative reciprocity, altruism, and trust across 76 countries around the world, representing 90 percent of the world's population and global income.
Abstract: This paper presents the Global Preference Survey, a globally representative dataset on risk and time preferences, positive and negative reciprocity, altruism, and trust. We collected these preference data as well as a rich set of covariates for 80,000 individuals, drawn as representative samples from 76 countries around the world, representing 90 percent of both the world's population and global income. The global distribution of preferences exhibits substantial variation across countries, which is partly systematic: certain preferences appear in combination, and follow distinct economic, institutional, and geographic patterns. The heterogeneity in preferences across individuals is even more pronounced and varies systematically with age, gender, and cognitive ability. Around the world, our preference measures are predictive of a wide range of individual-level behaviors including savings and schooling decisions, labor market and health choices, prosocial behaviors, and family structure. We also shed light on the cultural origins of preference variation around the globe using data on language structure.
TL;DR: This work leverages random variation in the allocation of rank among subjects who exerted the same effort to obtain a causal estimate of the rank response function that describes how effort provision responds to the content of rank-order feedback.
Abstract: Rank-order relative-performance evaluation, in which pay, promotion and symbolic awards depend on the rank of workers in the distribution of performance, is ubiquitous. Whenever firms use rank-order relative-performance evaluation, workers receive feedback about their rank. Using a real-effort experiment, we aim to discover whether workers respond to the specific rank that they achieve. In particular, we leverage random variation in the allocation of rank among subjects who exerted the same effort to obtain a causal estimate of the rank response function that describes how effort provision responds to the content of rank-order feedback. We find that the rank response function is U-shaped. Subjects exhibit 'first-place loving' and 'last-place loathing', that is subjects increase their effort the most after being ranked first or last. We discuss implications of our findings for the optimal design of firms' performance feedback policies, workplace organizational structures and incentives schemes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a difference-in-difference approach to find strong evidence for improvements in children's reading skills at age 15 (0.15 standard deviation) and weak evidence for a reduction in grade retentions during primary school (2.5 percentage points).
Abstract: What happens to children’s long-run cognitive development when introducing universal high-quality childcare for 3-year-olds mainly crowds out family care? To answer this question, we take advantage of a sizeable expansion of publicly subsidized full-time high-quality childcare for 3-year-olds in Spain in the early 1990s. Identification relies on variation in the initial speed of the expansion of childcare slots across states. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find strong evidence for sizeable improvements in children’s reading skills at age 15 (0.15 standard deviation) and weak evidence for a reduction in grade retentions during primary school (2.5 percentage points). The effects are driven by girls and disadvantaged children.
TL;DR: This paper measured the causal effect of time out of the labor force on subsequent employment of Social Security Disability Insurance applicants and distinguished it from the discouragement effect of receiving disability benefits, and showed that time spent out of labor force is correlated with subsequent employment.
Abstract: Measures the causal effect of time out of the labor force on subsequent employment of Social Security Disability Insurance applicants and distinguishes it from the discouragement effect of receiving disability benefits.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimate the causal effect of ambient air pollution on individuals' productivity by using panel data on the universe of professional soccer players in Germany over the period 1999-2011.
Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the causal effect of ambient air pollution on individuals' productivity by using panel data on the universe of professional soccer players in Germany over the period 1999-2011. Combining this data with hourly information on the concentration of particulate matter in spatial proximity to each stadium at the time of kickoff, we exploit exogenous variation in the players' exposure to air pollution due to match scheduling rules that are beyond the control of teams and players. Our analysis shows negative and non-linear effects of air pollution on short-run productivity. We further find that the effect increases with age and is stronger in case players face an additional physical burden.
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TL;DR: This article investigated the relationship between employees' subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain and found a clear, positive and statistically significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and performance.
Abstract: This paper uses linked employer-employee data to investigate the relationship between employees' subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically-significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. This finding is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors experimentally study how receiving information about tax compliance of others affects individuals' occupational choices and subsequent evading decisions and find evidence that examples of low compliance significantly increase tax evasion for certain audit probabilities.
Abstract: We experimentally study how receiving information about tax compliance of others affects individuals’ occupational choices and subsequent evading decisions. In one treatment individuals receive information about the highest tax evasion rates of others in past experimental sessions with no such social information; in another treatment they receive information about the lowest tax evasion rates observed in the past sessions with no such social information. We observe an asymmetric effect of social information on tax compliance. Whereas examples of high compliance do not have any disciplining effect, we find evidence that examples of low compliance significantly increase tax evasion for certain audit probabilities. No major differences are found across countries.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed how the Syrian refugee influx in Turkey has affected food and housing prices, employment rates and internal migration patterns in regions of Turkey where refugees are being accommodated.
Abstract: The civil war in Syria has culminated into major refugee crises in its neighboring countries. By the end of 2013 more than half a million people were seeking shelter in cities and refugee camps in Turkey. We analyze how the Syrian refugee influx in Turkey has affected food and housing prices, employment rates and internal migration patterns in regions of Turkey where refugees are being accommodated. Refugee camps are geographically concentrated near the Syrian border, which enables us to employ the rest of regional Turkey as control group with a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the impact on local economies. Our findings suggest that housing and to a lesser degree food prices increased, but employment rates of natives in various skill groups are largely unaffected. Incumbent natives appear to be staying put considering the limited migration out of the region, but there is a significant decline in internal migration into regions hosting refugees. Nevertheless, the decline in internal in-migration is less than a tenth of the refugee influx, implying that there is little evidence of refugees crowding out natives in local labor markets.
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TL;DR: This article examines the health trajectories of immigrants within the context of selection and migration policies in Israel and 16 European countries that have fundamentally different migration policies, finding evidence that immigrants who move to Israel have compromised health and are significantly less healthy than comparable natives.
Abstract: An extensive body of research related to immigrants in a variety of countries has documented a "healthy immigrant effect" (HIE). When immigrants arrive in the host country they are healthier than comparable native populations, but their health status may deteriorate with additional years in the country. HIE is explained through the positive self-selection of the health of immigrants and the positive selection, screening and discrimination applied by the host countries. In this paper we study the health assimilation of immigrants within the context of selection and migration policies. Using SHARE data we are able to compare Israel and Europe that have fundamentally different migration policies. Israel has virtually unrestricted open gates for Jewish people around the world, who in turn have ideological rather than economic considerations to move.European countries have selective policies with regards to the health, education and wealth of migrants, who self-select themselves. Our hypothesis is that the HIE, evidenced in many countries will not be found in Israel. Instead, immigrants to Israel may arrive with lower health than that of natives and improve their health with residence in the country, due to the universal health coverage and generous socio-economic support of the government. Our results provide evidence that a) immigrants to Israel have compromised health and suffer from many health ailments upon arrival, making them less healthy than comparable natives. Their health does not improve for up to twenty years of living in Israel, after which they become similar to natives; b) immigrants to Europe have better health than natives upon arrival and up to eleven years since arrival in the host country, after which they are not significantly different than natives. Our results are important for policy.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the evolution of the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the entire 20th century in the United States both for its own interest but also to identify potentially useful adaptations that may be useful in the coming decades.
Abstract: A critical part of adapting to the higher temperatures that climate change brings will be the deployment of existing technologies to new sectors and regions This paper examines the evolution of the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the entire 20th century in the United States both for its own interest but also to identify potentially useful adaptations that may be useful in the coming decades There are three primary findings First, the mortality impact of days with a mean temperature exceeding 80° F has declined by about 70% Almost the entire decline occurred after 1960 There are about 14,000 fewer fatalities annually than if the pre-1960 impacts of high temperature on mortality still prevailed Second, the diffusion of residential air conditioning can explain essentially the entire decline in hot day related fatalities Third, using Dubin-McFadden's discrete-continuous model, we estimate that the present value of US consumer surplus from the introduction of residential air conditioning (AC) in 1960 ranges from $83 to $186 billion ($2012) with a 5% discount rate The monetized value of the mortality reductions on high temperature days due to AC accounts for a substantial fraction of these welfare gains
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TL;DR: In this paper, the role of social connections in the publication process of articles, authors, and editors of the top general interest journals in economics is investigated, and the analysis of articles' citations suggests that connections ultimately improve the quality of published papers.
Abstract: This paper employs a unique dataset on articles, authors and editors of the top general interest journals in economics to investigate the role of social connections in the publication process. Ties between editors and authors are identified based on their academic histories. Results show that an editor's former PhD students and faculty colleagues experience an increase in their publication outcomes when this editor is in charge of a journal. The analysis of articles' citations suggests that connections ultimately improve the quality of published papers.