We combine georeferenced data on mining extraction of 14 minerals with information on conflict events at spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° for all of Africa between 1997 and 2010. Exploiting ...exogenous variations in world prices, we find a positive impact of mining on conflict at the local level. Quantitatively, our estimates suggest that the historical rise in mineral prices (commodity super-cycle) might explain up to one-fourth of the average level of violence across African countries over the period. We then document how a fighting group's control of a mining area contributes to escalation from local to global violence. Finally, we analyze the impact of corporate practices and transparency initiatives in the mining industry.
Female corporate leadership has drawn increasing attention from academia and practitioners. We contribute to the literature by examining the impact of CEO succession with gender change—i.e., a male ...CEO succeeded by a female or vice versa. We propose that due to gender differences in executive leadership positions, CEO succession with gender change may amplify the disruption of the CEO succession process and thus adversely affect post-succession firm performance and increase the likelihood of successor early departure. Using data from 3,320 CEO successions in companies listed in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 1997 to 2010, we find evidence to support this argument. We also find that the negative (positive) impact of male-to-female succession on firm performance (the likelihood of successor early departure) may be weakened by positive organizational attitudes toward female leadership as indicated by the presence of other female leaders on the firm's board of directors and/or top management team, and the successor's inside origin.
Using comprehensive data on bank lending and establishment-level outcomes from 1997–2010, this paper finds that small business lending is an unimportant determinant of small business and overall ...economic activity. A shift-share style research design is implemented to predict county-level lending shocks using variation in preexisting bank market shares and bank supply shifts. Counties with negative predicted lending shocks experienced declines in small business loan originations, indicating that it is costly to switch lenders. However, small business loan originations have an economically insignificant and generally statistically insignificant impact on both small firm and overall employment during the Great Recession and normal times.
Conditional cash transfers Parker, Susan; Todd, Petra
Journal of economic literature,
09/2017, Letnik:
55, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs innovate by conditioning transfers to poor families on investments in the human capital of children and other family members. The Mexican CCT program ...Progresa/Oportunidades began in 1997 and has served as a model for many of the now over sixty countries with CCTs around the world, in large part due to its initial evaluation with an experimental design and numerous follow-up studies. This article reviews the literature on the development, evaluation, and findings of Progresa/Oportunidades, summarizing what is known about program effects, taking into account corrections for multiple-hypothesis testing.
Abstract
Several scholars argue that high agricultural productivity can retard industrial development because it draws resources toward the comparative advantage sector, agriculture. However, ...agricultural productivity growth can increase savings and the supply of capital, generating an expansion of the capital-intensive sector, manufacturing. We highlight this mechanism in a simple model and test its predictions in the context of a large and exogenous increase in agricultural productivity due to the adoption of genetically engineered soy in Brazil. We find that agricultural productivity growth generated an increase in savings, but these were not reinvested locally. Instead, there were capital outflows from rural areas. Capital reallocated toward urban regions, where it was invested in the industrial and service sectors. The degree of financial integration affected the speed of structural transformation. Regions that were more financially integrated with soy-producing areas through bank branch networks experienced faster growth in nonagricultural lending. Within these regions, firms with preexisting relationships with banks receiving funds from the soy area experienced faster growth in borrowing and employment.
Abstract
This article investigates the causal effect of import shocks on the wage distribution using individual-level data from the UK in the period 1997–2010. The analysis exploits regional ...variation in initial industrial structure and concentration for identification, and applies a group IV quantile approach to estimate the effect of import shocks on workers at different parts of the wage distribution. The study finds that the effect of import shocks generated by increased import competition is concentrated on the middle of the wage distribution: while the import shocks negatively and significantly affect workers at the bottom-middle of the wage distribution, its effect on the very bottom and upper parts of the wage groups is insignificant. Moreover, the study finds that this labour market adjustment takes place through a reduction in the hourly wage rather than a decline in total hours worked.
Journal of Political Economy (2019+) We analyze the empirical content of the Roy model, stripped down to its
essential features, namely sector specific unobserved heterogeneity and
self-selection on ...the basis of potential outcomes. We characterize sharp bounds
on the joint distribution of potential outcomes and testable implications of
the Roy self-selection model under an instrumental constraint on the joint
distribution of potential outcomes we call stochastically monotone instrumental
variable (SMIV). We show that testing the Roy model selection is equivalent to
testing stochastic monotonicity of observed outcomes relative to the
instrument. We apply our sharp bounds to the derivation of a measure of
departure from Roy self-selection to identify values of observable
characteristics that induce the most costly misallocation of talent and sector
and are therefore prime targets for intervention. Special emphasis is put on
the case of binary outcomes, which has received little attention in the
literature to date. For richer sets of outcomes, we emphasize the distinction
between pointwise sharp bounds and functional sharp bounds, and its importance,
when constructing sharp bounds on functional features, such as inequality
measures. We analyze a Roy model of college major choice in Canada and Germany
within this framework, and we take a new look at the under-representation of
women in~STEM.
We estimate the relationship between local labor market opportunities and child health using state unemployment rates and demand-induced changes in mothers' and fathers' employment opportunities. In ...contrast with studies of adult health, we find little evidence that aggregate economic conditions are correlated contemporaneously with children's health. However, we find important patterns by gender. In particular, improvements in women's employment opportunities are consistently associated with worse child health, while better labor market conditions for men have positive effects. These patterns suggest that both family income and maternal time are important inputs to child health.
Weak property rights are strongly associated with underdevelopment, low state capacity and civil conflict. In economic models of conflict, outbreaks of violence require a prize that is both valuable ...and contestable. This article exploits spatial and temporal variation in the availability of land with title that is contestable by private actors to explore the relationship between (in) secure property rights and civil conflict in the Brazilian Amazon. The results suggest that resolving this contestability of title at the local level could eliminate substantively all local land-related violence but might increase conflict in areas where title remained contestable.
In this paper we quantify the economic worth of celebrity endorsements by studying the sales of endorsed products. We do so with the use of two unique data sets consisting of monthly golf ball sales ...and professional golfer (celebrity) rankings. In particular, we examine the impact Tiger Woods had on sales of Nike golf balls. Our identification of the causal effect of a celebrity is grounded in the celebrity's random performance over time.
Using two different approaches, reduced form and structural, we find that there are substantial celebrity endorsement effects. From our structural model, we determine that endorsements not only induce consumers to switch brands, a business stealing effect, but also have a primary demand effect. We determine that from 2000 to 2010, the Nike golf ball division reaped an additional profit of $103 million through the acquisition of 9.9 million in sales from Tiger Woods' endorsement effect. Moreover, having Tiger Woods' endorsement led to a price premium of roughly 2.5%. As a result, approximately 57% of Nike's investment in Woods' $181 million endorsement deal was recovered
just
in U.S. golf ball sales alone.
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