2,204 research outputs found
Replication Data for "The Intergenerational Mortality Tradeoff of COVID-19 Lockdown Policies"
No full textThis is the replication data for the paper "The Intergenerational Mortality Tradeoff of COVID-19 Lockdown Policies" by Lin Ma, Gil Shapira, Damien de Walque, Quy-Toan Do, Jed Friedman, and Andrei Levchenko.
For steps to replicate the results, please refer to the readme file included alongside the data files. </p
Engendering trade
No full textThe authors analyze the interaction between a country's world market integration and its attitude towards gender roles. They discuss both theoretically and empirically how female empowerment is a source of comparative advantage that shapes a country's response to trade opening. Reciprocally, the authors show that as countries integrate into the world economy, the costs and benefits of gender discrimination shift. Their theory goes beyond a potential aggregate wealth effect associated with trade opening, and emphasizes the heterogeneity of impacts. On the one hand, countries in which women are empowered -- measured by fertility rates, female labor force participation or female schooling -- experience an expansion of industries that use female labor relatively more intensively. On the other hand, the gender gap is smaller in countries that export more in relatively female-labor intensive sectors. In an increasingly globalized economy, the road to gender equality is paradoxically very specific to each country’s productive structure and exposure to world markets.Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Gender and Development,Economic Theory&Research,Political Economy
Comparative Advantage, International Trade, and Fertility
No full textWe analyze theoretically and empirically the impact of comparative advantage in international trade on fertility. We build a model in which industries differ in the extent to which they use female relative to male labor, and countries are characterized by Ricardian comparative advantage in either female- or male-intensive goods. The main prediction of the model is that countries with comparative advantage in female-intensive goods are characterized by lower fertility. This is because female wages, and therefore the opportunity cost of child-rearing are higher in those countries. We demonstrate empirically that countries with comparative advantage in industries employing primarily women exhibit lower fertility. We use a geography-based instrument for trade patterns to isolate the causal effect of comparative advantage on fertility.Fertility, trade integration, comparative advantage, factor endowments
Essays on institutions and economic development
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2002.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis is the collection of three independent studies that analyze the interplay between institutions and economic development. In Chapter 1, I examine the relationship between wealth inequality and institutions. I present a model of regulated entry where entrepreneurs form coalitions of potentially varying size to bribe the regulator. The prevalence of capture is thus determined by the distribution of wealth. In a dynamic framework and depending on initial conditions, the economy may be either on a path towards institutional change where inequality eventually vanishes; or, it may be on a path towards institutional sclerosis, which exhibits a polarization of society into two classes with a wealthy elite dominating the increasingly impoverished masses. Chapter 2 investigates the relationship between trade and financial development. I thus present a simple model of trade in the presence of factor market imperfections. I consider an economy in which entrepreneurs undertake projects, and in doing so, contribute to the development of financial institutions. Such spillover fails to be internalized so that trade potentially induces externality losses that outweigh allocative gains. Financial markets in poorer countries deteriorate as a consequence of specialization. Static inefficiencies are exacerbated in a dynamic framework, leading poorer countries to fall into a liquidity trap. The predictions of the model suggest that trade and financial liberalization should be undertaken simultaneously and that temporary protectionist policies can be welfare improving.(cont.) Finally, Chapter 3 consists of a study I jointly did with Lakshmi Iyer, in which we look at the impact of land rights on economic outcomes. We examine the impact of a land reform in Viet Nam which gave households the power to exchange, transfer, lease, inherit and mortgage their land-use rights. We expect this change to increase incentives as well as ability to undertake long-term investments on the part of households. Our differences-in-differences estimation strategy takes advantage of the variation across provinces in the issuance of land-use certificates needed to enforce these rights. We find that the additional land rights led to significant increases in the share of total area devoted to multi-year crops, as well as some increase in irrigation investment.by Do Quy Toan.Ph.D
Institutional trap
No full textThe author studies the persistence of inequality and inefficient governance in a physical capital accumulation model with perfect information, missing credit markets, and endogenous barriers to entry. When access to investment opportunities is regulated, rent-seeking entrepreneurs form coalitions of potentially varying size to bribe a regulator to restrict entry. Small coalitions run short of resources, while large coalitions suffer more severe free-rider problems. The distribution of wealth thus determines the equilibrium coalition structure of the economy and consequently the level of regulatory capture. A dynamic analysis supports the persistence of inefficiencies in the long run. Initial conditions determine whether the economy converges to a steady state characterized by efficient governance and low levels of inequality, or a path toward an institutional trap where regulatory capture and wealth inequality reinforce each other.Roads&Highways,Information Technology,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Health,Early Child and Children's Health
Institutional Trap
No full textThe author studies the persistence of
inequality and inefficient governance in a physical capital
accumulation model with perfect information, missing credit
markets, and endogenous barriers to entry. When access to
investment opportunities is regulated, rent-seeking
entrepreneurs form coalitions of potentially varying size to
bribe a regulator to restrict entry. Small coalitions run
short of resources, while large coalitions suffer more
severe free-rider problems. The distribution of wealth thus
determines the equilibrium coalition structure of the
economy and consequently the level of regulatory capture. A
dynamic analysis supports the persistence of inefficiencies
in the long run. Initial conditions determine whether the
economy converges to a steady state characterized by
efficient governance and low levels of inequality, or a path
toward an institutional trap where regulatory capture and
wealth inequality reinforce each other
Mental health patterns and consequences : results from survey data in five developing countries
No full textThe social and economic consequences of poor mental health in the developing world are presumed to be significant, yet are largely under-researched. The authors argue that mental health modules can be meaningfully added to multi-purpose household surveys in developing countries, and used to investigate this relationship. Data from nationally representative surveys in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, and Mexico, along with special surveys from India and Tonga, show similar patterns of association between mental health and socioeconomic characteristics across countries. Individuals who are older, female, widowed, and report poor physical health are more likely to report worse mental health outcomes. Individuals living with others with poor mental health are also significantly more likely to report worse mental health themselves. In contrast, there is little observed relationship between mental health and poverty or education, common measures of socio-economic status. The results instead suggest that economic and multi-dimensional shocks such as illness or crisis can have a greater impact on mental healththan overall levels of poverty. This may have important implications for social protection policy. The authors also find significant associations between poor mental health and lowered labor force participation (especially for women) and higher frequency visits to health centers, suggesting that poor mental health can have significant economic consequences for households and the health system. Finally, the paper discusses how measures of mental health are distinct from general subjective welfare measures such as happiness and indicate useful directions of future research.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Disease Control&Prevention,Gender and Health,Health Systems Development&Reform,Mental Health
Taxation, Accountability, and Cash Transfers: Breaking the Resource Curse
No full textWhy is governance in resource-rich
countries so poor This paper argues that it is because
governments in these countries do not rely on taxation,
which is an important instrument for citizens to hold their
governments accountable. Using a game-theoretic model, the
authors show that the combination of low taxes and weak
governance can be an equilibrium in an economy with sizeable
mineral revenues. As income from natural resources
ultimately declines, replacing it with tax revenues may
require governments to give control of these proceeds to
citizens, in the form of cash transfers say, as a credible
commitment to accountability, thereby breaking the country
out of its resource curse
Financial Dollarization and Central Bank Credibility
No full textWhy do firms and banks hold foreign
currency denominated liabilities? The authors argue that
foreign currency debt, by altering the effect of a
devaluation on output, has a disciplining effect when the
Central Bank's objectives differ from the social
optimum. However, under imperfect information, bad priors
about the Central Bank induce excess dollarization of
liabilities, which in turn limits the ability of the Central
Bank to conduct an optimal monetary policy. In addition the
economy may become stuck in a "dollarization trap"
in which dollarized liabilities limit the ability of agents
to learn the true type of the monetary authority. The model
has clear-cut policy implications regarding the taxation of
foreign currency liabilities as a way to encourage perfect
information and avoid dollarization traps. Moreover, it
reinforces the existing argument for Central Bank
independence. Finally, the authors believe this model to be
consistent with a growing empirical literature on the
determinants of foreign currency liabilities and their
relationships to Central Bank credibility
Financial dollarization and central bank credibility
No full textWhy do firms and banks hold foreign currency denominated liabilities? The authors argue that foreign currency debt, by altering the effect of a devaluation on output, has a disciplining effect when the Central Bank's objectives differ from the social optimum. However, under imperfect information, bad priors about the Central Bank induce excess dollarization of liabilities, which in turn limits the ability of the Central Bank to conduct an optimal monetary policy. In addition the economy may become stuck in a"dollarization trap"in which dollarized liabilities limit the ability of agents to learn the true type of the monetary authority. The model has clear-cut policy implications regarding the taxation of foreign currency liabilities as a way to encourage perfect information and avoid dollarization traps. Moreover, it reinforces the existing argument for Central Bank independence. Finally, the authors believe this model to be consistent with a growing empirical literature on the determinants of foreign currency liabilities and their relationships to Central Bank credibility.Financial Intermediation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Economic Theory&Research,Economic Stabilization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Macroeconomic Management,Financial Intermediation
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