查看更多>>摘要：We use an experiment to study whether market selection can reduce anomalous behaviour in games. In different treatments, we employ two alternative mechanisms, the random mechanism and the auction mechanism, to allocate the participation rights to the red hat puzzle game, a well-known logical reasoning problem. Compared to the random mechanism, the auction mechanism significantly reduces deviations from the equilibrium play in the red hat puzzle game. Our findings show that under carefully designed incentives, market competition can indeed reduce anomalous behaviour in games.
查看更多>>摘要：A means-tested pension system has a distinct feature that tailors the level of pension benefits according to individual economic status. In the context of population aging with widening gaps in life expectancies, we show that this feature generates an automatic mechanism that (i) mitigates the pressing fiscal cost of an old-age public pension program (fiscal stabilization device) and (ii) redistributes pension benefits to those in need with shorter life expectancies (redistributive device). To evaluate this automatic mechanism, we employ an overlapping generations model with population aging. Our results indicate that this novel mechanism plays an important role in containing the adverse effects of population aging on the fiscal costs and enhancing the progressivity of a pension system. More pronounced aging scenarios further strengthen the role of this mechanism. A well-designed means test rule can create a sufficiently strong automatic mechanism to keep public pensions sustainable and progressive under population aging.
查看更多>>摘要：We reassess the well-known "narrow-but-deep'' versus "broad-but-shallow'' trade-off in international environmental agreements (IEAs), taking into account the principal-agent relationship induced by the hierarchical structure of international policy. To this end, we expand the modest coalition formation game, in which countries first decide on whether to join an agreement and then decide on emissions by a strategic delegation stage. In the weak delegation game, principals first decide whether to join an IEA, then delegate the domestic emission choices to an agent. Finally, agents in all countries decide on emissions. In countries not joining the IEA, agents choose emissions to maximize their own payoff, while agents of countries joining the IEA set emissions to internalize some exogenously given fraction gamma of the externalities that own emissions cause on all members of the IEA. In the strong delegation game, principals first delegate to agents, who then decide on membership and emissions. We find that strategic delegation crowds out all efforts to increase coalition sizes by less ambitious agreements in the weak delegation game, while in the strong delegation game the first-best from the principals' point of view can be achieved.
查看更多>>摘要：This paper investigates how social interactions, as shaped by religious denomination, are related to COVID-19 incidence and associated mortality in Western Germany. We observe that the number of infections and deaths during the early pandemic phase were much higher in predominantly Catholic counties with arguably stronger family and social ties. The relationship was confirmed at the county level through numerous robustness checks, and after controlling for a series of characteristics and county fixed effects. At the individual level, we confirmed that Catholics, relative to non-Catholics, have tighter and more frequent interactions with their family and friends. Moreover, the intensity of social interaction was able to partially explain the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and share of Catholics at the county level. Our results highlight the number of dimensions that have to be taken into account when designing and implementing mitigation measures in the early stages of disease outbreaks.
van der Ploeg, FrederickRezai, ArmonReanos, Miguel Tovar
27页
查看更多>>摘要：Green tax reform is unpopular because, typically, the poor are hurt most by the higher prices of carbon-intensive commodities. If revenues from a carbon tax are recycled, it may be feasible to gain popular support for green tax reform. To investigate this, we estimate an EASI demand system from German household data and a labour supply schedule, using wage data, and the German income tax schedule and let emission intensities decline in the carbon tax. If the revenue from a carbon tax is recycled via a lump-sum transfer to all households, this gives more equitable albeit less efficient outcomes, yet 70% of households are worse off. If the revenue is recycled via lower income taxes, there is more efficiency at the expense of more inequality, and about half of households benefit. With a recycling mix of lump-sum transfers and lower income taxes, popular support can be mustered without hurting equity too much. We also investigate the effects of Germany meeting its legal target for curbing emissions by 55% in 2030 relative to 1990 levels. We find that most of emission reductions are due to producers responding by lowering emission intensities rather than by consumers to less carbon-intensive consumption categories.
查看更多>>摘要：The paper provides novel evidence on the heterogeneous response of exporting firms to exchange rate movements. Italian firm-level trade data by product and destination indeed unveil that adjustments to exchange rate variation substantially differ across export modes. The estimates show that, in the event of a domestic currency appreciation, export intermediaries react by decreasing more their price - and less their export volume - than direct manufacturing exporters; and that the different response of direct exporters and wholesale firms is not driven by firm heterogeneity in size or productivity. By examining the aggregate implications of such micro-level findings, the paper documents that, following an appreciation, aggregate bilateral exports routed through wholesale firms tend to decline by less than total direct exports. Overall, our results suggest that, in addition to facilitating trade, export intermediation may substantially contribute to stabilizing trade patterns across countries.
Ilori, Ayobami E.Paez-Farrell, JuanThoenissen, Christoph
26页
查看更多>>摘要：The domestic and international transmission mechanism of fiscal policy shocks are analysed in the United States and in Germany. Using a Bayesian VAR approach, we find that in both of these countries a fiscal expansion is associated with increases in output as well as in private consumption and investment. The terms of trade, which affect the international transmission of fiscal policy shocks, depreciate in response to a fiscal expansion, thus transferring some of the increased domestic purchasing power abroad. A US government spending shock is expansionary for all non-US G7 members. A German government spending shock is expansionary for most, but not all European economies, both within and outside the euro area. The dynamics of the BVAR can be rationalised using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model where heterogeneous households and firms face borrowing constraints.
查看更多>>摘要：We develop a statistical discrimination model where groups of workers differ in the observability of their productivity signals by the evaluation committee. We assume that the informativeness of the productivity signals depends on the match between the potential worker and the interviewer: when both parties have similar backgrounds, the signal is likely to be more informative. Under this "homo-accuracy'' bias, the group that is most represented in the evaluation committee generates more accurate signals, and, consequently, has a greater incentive to invest in human capital. This generates a discrimination trap. If one group is initially poorly evaluated (less represented into the evaluation committee), this translates into lower investment in human capital of individuals of such group, which leads to lower representation in the evaluation committee in the future, generating a persistent discrimination process. We explore this dynamic process and show that quotas may be effective to deal with this discrimination trap. We show that introducing a "temporary'' quota allows to reach a steady state equilibrium with a higher welfare when groups have similar size in the population. If instead the discriminated group is underrepresented in the workers' population (for example because of his race), restoring efficiency requires to implement a "permanent'' system of quotas.
查看更多>>摘要：Standard New Keynesian models predict that expansionary fiscal policy is inflationary. In contrast, this paper presents empirical evidence that prices do not increase in response to a positive government spending shock. Instead, the response of prices is flat or even negative. This finding is robust across a wide range of specifications of our Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model and across different price indices. The puzzling response of prices is accompanied by an increase in output and private consumption, as found in most of the existing literature, as well as an increase in Total Factor Productivity. We show that the introduction of variable technology utilization can enable an otherwise standard New Keynesian model to account for our empirical findings. The model implies that the government spending multiplier is substantially lower when the economy is in a fundamental liquidity trap, as compared to normal times, in contrast to the predictions of standard New Keynesian models.
查看更多>>摘要：We model entrepreneurial finance in a search-theoretic framework with endogenous firm entry and exit. Entrepreneurs fund risky investments using a combination of savings, credit cards, bank loans, and home equity loans. The banking sector is over-the-counter, where bargaining determines the pass-through from the nominal interest rate to the bank lending rate, relating the transmission channel of monetary policy to output risk, financial frictions, and the housing market. Firm entry and exit generate heterogeneity in two dimensions: firm age and firm size. At a given nominal interest rate, new (mature) entrepreneurs finance a smaller (larger) share of investments internally and are more (less) liquidity constrained. A calibration to the U.S. between 2000-2016 complements the theoretical results and identifies the entry margin as a key driver in the transmission of monetary policy to aggregate output.
NSTL
Elsevier