Tinbergen Institute

About: Tinbergen Institute is a education organization based out in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Volatility (finance) & Competition (economics). The organization has 565 authors who have published 3157 publications receiving 82800 citations.

A New Approach to Estimate the Wage Returns to Work-Related Training

Abstract: This paper proposes a new approach to identify the wage effects of training. The idea is to narrow down the comparison group by only taking into consideration the workers who wanted to participate in training but did not do so because of some random event. The point estimate of the return to training consistently drops when restricting the comparison group this way. While the OLS estimate of the return to training participation is significantly positive, this is no longer the case when we use the new comparison group. This outcome suggests that a large share of what is usually interpreted as returns to training is actually the return to some unobservable characteristic.

Non-Price Competitiveness of Exports from Emerging Countries

Abstract: Building on the methodology pioneered by Feenstra (1994) and Broda and Weinstein (2006), we construct an export price index that adjusts for changes in the set of competitors (variety) and changes in non-price factors (quality in a broad sense) for nine emerging economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey). The highly disaggregated dataset covers the period 1996-2011 and is based on the standardised 6-digit Harmonized System (HS). Our method highlights notable differences in non-price competitiveness across markets. China shows a huge gain in international competitiveness due to non-price factors. Similarly, Brazil, Chile, India and Turkey show discernible improvements in their competitive position when accounting for non-price factors. Oil exports account for strong improvement in Russia's non-price competitiveness, as well as the modest losses of competitiveness for Argentina and Indonesia. Mexico's competitiveness deteriorates prior to 2006 and improves afterwards.

Richard Florida's Creative Capital in a Trading Regional Economy: A Theoretical Investigation

Abstract: We first construct a theoretical model of a regional economy with two sectors. One sector uses physical and creative capital - in the sense of Richard Florida (2002) - to produce a knowledge good that is traded. The other sector uses physical and social capital to produce a good that is not traded. Second, we provide the first formal analysis of the creative capital accumulation decision faced by individuals in this regional economy and we compute the optimal length of time during which creative capital is accumulated. Next, we determine the relative return to creative capital and we use this return to conduct comparative statics exercises with our model's four parameters. Finally, we show that for a given interest rate, the relative price of the nontraded good is higher in regional economies where more creative capital is accumulated.