Portail HAL Paris School of Economics (PSE)
Not a member yet
5677 research outputs found
Sort by
You reap what (you think) you sow? Evidence on farmers’behavioral adjustments in the case of correct crop varietal identification
No full textAdoption of improved seed varieties has the potential to lead to substantial pro ductivity increases in agriculture. However, only 36 percent of the farmers that grow an improved maize variety report doing so in Ethiopia. This paper provides the first causal evidence of the impact of misperception in improved maize varieties on farm ers’ production decisions, productivity and profitability. We employ an Instrumental Variable approach that takes advantage of the roll-out of a governmental program that increases transparency in the seed sector. We find that farmers who correctly classify the improved maize variety grown experience large increases in inputs usage (urea, NPS, labor) and yields, but no statistically significant changes in other agricul tural practices or profits. Using machine learning techniques, we develop a model of interpolation to predict objectively measured varietal identification from farmers’ self reported data which provides proof-of-concept towards scalable approaches to obtain reliable measures of crop varieties and allows us to extend the analysis to the nationally representative sample
The Network Origin of Slow Labor Reallocation
No full textWhat explains slow worker reallocation after trade or technological shocks? In this paper, I explore the idea that imperfect skill transferability constrains the reallocation of workers between occupations. I model these frictions as forming a network (the “occupational network”), whose nodes are occupations and whose edges represent the possible occupational transitions. I show that the structure of the occupational network mattersfor the speed of worker reallocation and I make two contributions. First, I find that this network is very sparse, hinting at large frictions to occupational mobility, and that there exists central bottleneck occupations which can block the reallocation process. Second, I extend the search and matching model of the labor market with an occupational network.I find that asymmetric shocks can generate transition dynamics which are two orders of magnitude slower than in the standard model. Moreover, I show that the intensity of network bottlenecks is a key determinant of slow worker reallocation dynamics after asymmetric shocks. In other words, central occupations have a granular effect on worker reallocation speed
Export pricing and exchange rate expectations under uncertainty
No full textInternational audienceThis paper contributes to the literature on firms’ export pricing by assessing whether and to what extent firms take into account the expected future evolution of the exchange rates while setting their prices. Using French micro-level trade data, our empirical analysis reveals that by adjusting their export prices, firms partly absorb information about future exchange rate variations. The extent to which individual exporters absorb future exchange rate fluctuations is found to depend on their market power, in accordance with theoretical dynamic demand-side models encompassing mechanisms creating an inter-temporal relationship between current market shares and future profits. The analysis also shows that the strength of such expectation-related mechanism is considerably reduced with greater future exchange rate uncertainty, in line with an interpretation of pricing-to-market as an investment decision under uncertainty. In a comparative perspective our results are shown to drive asymmetric responses across destinations of aggregate bilateral export flows to expected exchange rate movements
Taxing capital and labor when both factors are imperfectly mobile internationally
No full textInternational audienceWe revisit the standard theoretical model of tax competition to consider imperfect mobility of both capital and labor. We show that the mobility of one factor affects the taxation of both factors and that the ”race-to-the-bottom” narrative (with burden shifting) applies essentially to capital-exporting countries. We validate our predictions using a panel of 29 OECD countries over the period of 1997–2017. The quantitative contribution of rising capital mobility to the decline of corporate income tax rates over our sample period is nonetheless less than that of population ageing
The effects of Uber diffusion on the mental health of drivers
No full textInternational audienceWhile the spread of digital technologies and the growth of associated atypical forms of work are attracting increasing attention, little is known about the impact of these new forms of work on psychological well-being. This paper examines the effect of Uber diffusion on the mental health of drivers, taking advantage of the rollout of Uber across UK regions. We match individual-level information on health and sociodemographic characteristics from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) between 2009 and 2019 with data on the diffusion of Uber across the country. We first show that Uber diffusion is positively associated with mental health, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire, in the population group of self-employed drivers. We argue that this positive correlation captures a selection effect (of comparatively healthier individuals into the category of self-employed drivers after Uber entry) and the omission of unobserved factors, rather than a causal effect. Indeed, we do not observe any improvement in mental health for workers who were already self-employed drivers before Uber entry. In parallel with this, among individuals who remained salaried drivers over time, our results suggest there may be a decline in mental health after Uber's introduction, probably because they feel the competition from Uber drivers
Leveraging the Honor Code: Public Goods Contributions under Oath
No full textInternational audiencePublic good games are at the core of many environmental challenges. In such social dilemmas, a large share of people endorse the norm of reciprocity. A growing literature complements this finding with the observation that many players exhibit a self-serving bias in reciprocation: "weak reciprocators" increase their contributions as a function of the effort level of the other players, but less than proportionally. In this paper, we build upon a growing literature on truth-telling to argue that weak reciprocity might be best conceived not as a preference, but rather as a symptom of an internal trade-off at the player level between (i) the truthful revelation of their private reciprocal preference, and (ii) the economic incentives they face (which foster free-riding). In truth-telling experiments, many players misrepresent private information when this is to their material benefit, but to a significantly lesser extent than what would be expected based on the profit-maximizing strategy. We apply this behavioral insight to strategic situations, and test whether the preference revelation properties of the classic voluntary contribution game can be improved by offering players the possibility to sign a classic truth-telling oath. Our results suggest that the honesty oath helps increase cooperation (by 33% in our experiment). Subjects under oath contribute in a way which is more consistent with (i) the contribution they expect from the other players and (ii) their normative views about the right contribution level. As a result, the distribution of social types elicited under oath differs from the one observed in the baseline: some free-riders, and many weak reciprocators, now behave as pure reciprocators
Real indeterminacy and dynamics of asset price bubbles in general equilibrium
No full textInternational audienceWe show that both real indeterminacy and asset price bubble may appear in an infinite-horizon exchange economy with infinitely lived agents and an imperfect financial market. We explain how the asset structure and heterogeneity (in terms of preferences and endowments) affect the existence and the dynamics of asset price bubbles as well as the equilibrium indeterminacy. Moreover, this paper bridges the literature on bubbles in models with infinitely lived agents and that in overlapping generations models
A new dataset on product-level trade elasticities
No full textInternational audienceThis data article describes a new dataset on product-level trade elasticity, here defined as the degree of substitutability between varieties, i.e. between products exported by different countries into a given destination. The dataset contains trade elasticities for a list of more than 5000 products of the HS 6-digit classification. Trade elasticities computed using alternative sector classifications are provided as well (TIVA, GTAP, WIOD classification), by pooling the product-level observations within each sector. Starting from the prior that the coefficient associated with tariffs – a variable trade cost – corresponds to the import-demand elasticity in a standard CES structural gravity model of bilateral trade, elasticities are recovered from country-pair specific information on applied tariffs and trade. For each HS 6-digit product category we observe the universe of bilateral trade flows between countries, in value, in a given year, and the tariff (preferential or not) applied to each exporter by each importer on the specific product for 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016. The tariff elasticity is (minus) the elasticity of substitution across products coming from different origins. Product-specific trade elasticity estimations are crucial for the evaluation of the welfare consequences of trade policies, and for the comparison of the welfare gains from trade for countries at different level of development
Ramsey Optimal Policy in theNew-Keynesian Model with Public Debt
No full textInternational audienceIn the discrete-time new-Keynesian model with public debt, Ramsey optimal policy eliminates the indeterminacy of simple-rules multiple equilibria between the fiscal theory of the price level versus new-Keynesian versus an unpleasant equilibrium. If public debt volatility is taken into account into the loss function, the interest rate responds to public debt besides inflation and output gap. Else, the Taylor rule is identical to Ramsey optimal policy when there is zero public debt. The optimal fiscal-rule parameter implies the local stability of public-debt dynamics (“passive” fiscal policy)
The impact of COVID-19 lockdown stringency on loneliness in five European countries
No full textInternational audienceRationaleThe coronavirus pandemic has forced governments to implement a variety of different dynamic lockdown-stringency strategies in the last two years. Extensive lockdown periods could have potential unintended consequences on mental health, at least for at-risk groups.ObjectiveWe present novel evidence on the heterogeneous direct and indirect effects of lockdown-stringency measures on individuals’ perception of social isolation (i.e. loneliness) using panel data from five European countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Sweden), which tracks changes in both in-person and remote social interactions between May 2020 and March 2021.MethodWe combine data from the COME-HERE panel survey (University of Luxembourg) and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT). We implement a dynamic mixture model in order to estimate the loneliness sub-population classes based on the severity of loneliness, as well as the evolution of social interactions.ResultsWhile loneliness is remarkably persistent over time, we find substantial heterogeneity across individuals, identifying four latent groups by loneliness severity. Group membership probability varies with age, gender, education and cohabitation status. Moreover, we note significant differences in the impact of social interactions on loneliness by degree of severity. Older people are less likely to feel lonely, but were more affected by lockdown measures, partly due to a reduction in face-to-face interactions. On the contrary, the younger, especially those living alone, report high levels of loneliness that are largely unaffected by changes in the pandemic after lockdown measures were initially implemented.ConclusionsUnderstanding the heterogeneity in loneliness is key for the identification of at-risk populations that can be severely affected by extended lockdown measures. As part of public-health crisis-response systems, it is critical to develop support measures for older individuals living alone, as well as promoting continuous remote communication for individuals more likely to experience high levels of loneliness