Economics Commons^™

Hedonic Housing Prices In Paris: An Unbalanced Spatial Lag Pseudo-Panel Model With Nested Random Effects, Badi H. Baltagi, Georges Bresson, Jean-Michel Etienne

Center for Policy Research

This paper estimates a hedonic housing model based on flats sold in the city of Paris over the period 1990-2003. This is done using maximum likelihood estimation taking into account the nested structure of the data. Paris is historically divided into 20 arrondissements, each divided into four quartiers (quarters), which in turn contain between 15 and 169 blocks (îlot, in French) per quartier. This is an unbalanced pseudo-panel data containing 156,896 transactions. Despite the richness of the data, many neighborhood characteristics are not observed, and we attempt to capture these neighborhood spill-over effects using a spatial lag model. Using Likelihood …

Health Information And Social Security Entitlements, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines whether new health information, obtained through medical screening, affects entitlements to Social Security benefits. Random assignment of information is derived from a unique feature of the Continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. To examine the effect of information on entitlements, the survey data are matched to administrative data from the Social Security Administration. The results suggest that new health information leads to delayed entitlements, particularly among workers near the early retirement age.

Introduction: Education Finance In New York State, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

The Allocation Of Time In Sleep: A Social Network Model With Sampled Data, Xiaodong Liu, Eleonora Patacchini, Edoardo Rainone

Center for Policy Research

We analyze peer effects in sleeping behavior using a representative sample of U.S. teenagers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. The sampling design of the survey causes the conventional 2SLS estimator to be inconsistent. We extend the NLS estimator in Wang and Lee (2013a) to estimate network models with sampled observations on the dependent variable. When accounting for sampling, we find that the sleeping behavior of the friends is important to shape own sleeping behavior, besides the impact of individual, family and friend characteristics.

Health Promotions 2.0: The Future Of Wellness Programs In America, Rajiv Kumar

Center for Policy Research

In no small part because of technology, the way we live and work is being transformed. I believe that those of us who are interested in health policy can play an important role in guiding that transformation. I submit to you that unhealthy living is a social issue; that conditions such as obesity and diabetes are social diseases and that their prevalence is a social problem. If we have a social problem, then we need a social solution. I believe part of that solution can be found in the worksite health promotion and wellness programs that have taken root across …

Spatial Lag Models With Nested Random Effects: An Instrumental Variable Procedure With An Application To English House Prices, Badi H. Baltagi, Bernard Fingleton, Alain Pirotte

Center for Policy Research

This paper sets up a nested random effects spatial autoregressive panel data model to explain annual house price variation for 2000-2007 across 353 local authority districts in England. The estimation problem posed is how to allow for the endogeneity of the spatial lag variable producing the simultaneous spatial spillover of prices across districts together with the nested random effects in a panel data setting. To achieve this, the paper proposes new estimators based on the instrumental variable approaches of Kelejian and Prucha (1998) and Lee (2003) for the cross-sectional spatial autoregressive model. Monte Carlo results show that our estimators perform …

Model Selection In The Presence Of Incidental Parameters, Yoonseok Lee, Peter C.B. Phillips

Center for Policy Research

This paper considers model selection in nonlinear panel data models where incidental parameters or large-dimensional nuisance parameters are present. Primary interest typically centers on selecting a model that best approximates the underlying structure involving parameters that are common within the panel after concentrating out the incidental parameters. It is well known that conventional model selection procedures are often inconsistent in panel models and this can be so even without nuisance parameters (Han et al, 2012). Modifications are then needed to achieve consistency. New model selection information criteria are developed here that use either the Kullback-Leibler information criterion based on the …

Measuring Social Unrest Based On Income Distribution, Yoonseok Lee, Donggyun Shin

Center for Policy Research

This paper develops a social unrest measure by revising Esteban-Ray (1994, Econometrica) polarization index. For the purpose of measuring more effectively the level of social unrest that is generated by separation of income classes, the new index allows for asymmetry between the rich and the poor groups’ alienation feeling against the other, and it constructs a more effective group identification function. To facilitate statistical inferences, asymptotic distribution of the proposed measure is also derived using results from U-statistics, and an easy-to-implement jackknife-based variance estimation algorithm is obtained. Since the new index is general enough to include the Esteban-Ray index and …

Casinos Would Not Help New York’S Schools, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Peer Effects In The Demand For Housing Quality, Eleonora Patacchini, Giuseppe Venanzoni-Sapienza

Center for Policy Research

Using detailed data on friendship networks within neighborhoods, we investigate the importance of social interactions in one's own residential neighborhood in the demand for housing quality. We find evidence consistent with the presence of peer effects, especially for households living in urban areas. Our findings are in line with the prediction of a model where conformity preferences are the key element underlying economic outcomes that involve interactions with peers.

The Effects Of School Desegregation On Teenage Fertility, Robert Bifulco, Leonard M. Lopoo, Sun Jung Oh

Center for Policy Research

The school desegregation efforts following the historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) represent one of the most important social policy initiatives of the 20th century. Despite a large research literature on desegregation and educational outcomes, its effects on the lives of individuals are still not fully understood. In this paper we examine the effects of desegregation on the fertility of teenagers. Our findings suggest that desegregation increased the fertility of African American teens and is unrelated to the fertility of white teens.

Medicaid Expansion, Long-Term Care Financing In Retirement States And The Post World War Ii Birth Cohort, Toni P. Miles

Center for Policy Research

This policy brief contains a formal consideration of ideas discussed during a presentation to the 2012 Syracuse Seminar on Aging. Like most briefs, it will appeal to policy makers and academics craving detailed demographic, fiscal and policy data. Before diving into this brief, I would encourage readers to view the presentation video (available at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bsv8K7DdJFY). As you will see, the seminar was informal and the discussion was wide ranging. In contrast, this brief focuses on limitations faced by states as they finance longterm care. It is primarily concerned with the Medicaid expansion and growing need for care as the …

Redlining In California School Bond Ratings, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Essays On Agglomeration, Access To Medical Services, And The Real Estate Market, Jing Li

Economics - Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three papers that study how external economies of scale help to explain geographic variation in access to medical services as well as potential implications on the real estate market. Specifically, the first two papers examine whether an increased concentration of the hospital service industry promotes productivity in treating patients and if so, what are the specific channels through which agglomeration economies might take place in the health care industry. The third paper explores how the productivity variation is reflected in the real estate market.

Chapter 2 examines two factors that help to explain geographic variation in health …

The Effect Of Public Policy On Health Service Providers, Marier Allison

Economics - Dissertations

Chapter 1

Low-income, publicly insured admissions historically cost more to treat than the average patient. To ensure that hospitals are reimbursed an adequate amount for care of indigent populations, Medicare reimburses hospitals an additional percentage amount according to federally set financial schedule. The reimbursement cutoff is discrete: at fifteen percent of a disproportionate patient percentage, a hospital is reimbursed an extra 2.5 percent of the standard prospective payment rate. I extend a simple model of hospital quality as a function of insurance reimbursement increases to determine that under certain circumstances there exists a positive relationship between quality and reimbursement. I …

Financial Intermediation, Growth, And Microfinance In Turkey: A Quantitative Study, Selina Howe Carter

Economics - Theses

This paper uses pooled data from Turkey's largest microfinance organization to test if loans increase borrower income in the sample. Using savings deposits as a proxy for borrower income, the results show a statistically significant, positive correlation between loans and savings behavior, ceteris paribus. This suggests that microfinance is an effective tool for poverty reduction in Turkey. Since there is no prior quantitative study on microfinance in the country, this study is of interest to Turkish policymakers.

This paper first outlines existing literature on financial intermediation and growth. It then describes the development of Turkey's banking industry and its nascent …

Essays On Health And Medical Care, Yin-Fang Yen

Economics - Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays that explain health outcomes and medical care in the United States. Health care has been a major concern of economists and policy makers. Policy intervention is one of the key factors that affect health outcomes, especially among low-income families. Welfare programs such as Medicaid and cash assistance are conventionally implemented to assist low-income families. The effectiveness of these efforts to improve health outcomes and medical utilization among low-income families is not entirely clear. As to the supply side of health care, the results of previous studies on how hospitals provide the services are mixed. …

A Tribute To William D. Duncombe, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

The Economic Theory Of Deregulation, Samuel D. Gass

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

One of the consequences of the financial crisis of 2008 was a renewed focus on the issue of deregulation. The broadly recognized connection between the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression and the systematic deregulation of our financial markets dating back over three decades reinvigorated the economic and political debate around the appropriate balance between market freedom and government regulation. This paper explores this theme historically, analyzing several economic markets that were highly regulated prior to the late 20^th century. Through this analysis it establishes a foundational framework for the study of the widespread deregulation of the late …

Identifying The Effect Of Unemployment On Hate Crime, Alex Curthoys

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Hate crimes are those crimes that are motivated by bias against groups different from the perpetrator. They are especially contemptible offenses in that they, like terrorism, negatively impact an entire community as well as the victim targeted. While crime has been, and will continue to be, widely studied by economists, the specific area of hate crimes is relatively understudied. To contribute to the understanding of hate crimes, this paper examines whether hate crimes are economically motivated: in particular, whether there is a relationship between the incidence of hate crimes and the unemployment. Comprehending this link can help build the knowledge …

Labor Market Assimilation: Evidence From Hurricane Katrina Evacuees, Joseph Batista Andrade Iv

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The objective of this paper is to use the mass migration toHoustonafter Hurricane Katrina as a natural experiment to estimate the effect of migration on employment (i.e., the effects of being an outsider rather than a native to a certain area). The use of this natural experiment helps control for the usual endogeneity of studying effects of immigration; it is safe to assume away the possibility that the migration was mainly because of higher wages or better employment opportunities, a possibility present in most empirical studies on the subject, which makes it hard to say how the actual migration itself …

Essays On Academic Achievement And Student Behavior In Public Schools, Wael Soheil Moussa

Economics - Dissertations

This dissertation examines the student academic achievement through various mechanisms, put in place by the public school district, classroom student behavior, and negative external shocks to the students' living environment. I examine the impacts of various treatments on student short and long run academic outcomes such as math and English test scores, grade retention, special education diagnoses, as well as high school graduation. Each essay will be presented as a chapter of the dissertation.

The first essay uses student-level administrative data from New York City Public Schools to examine the impacts of school entry age on student academic outcomes (including …

Essays On Agglomeration, Homeownership, And Labor Market Outcomes, Jie Dai

Economics - Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on the labor market impact of agglomeration economies and that of homeownership. The empirical analyses use different U.S. data and econometric techniques to examine the impact on different labor market outcomes such as volatility of hours worked and men's employment.

The first essay is motivated by the labor market pooling model from Krugman (1991). The paper adds to a small but important literature that provides evidence on the microeconomic foundation of agglomeration economies. Using various years of data from the American Community Survey and the County Business Patterns survey, I show that the agglomeration …

Heteroskedasticity And Non-Normality Robust Lm Tests For Spatial Dependence, Badi H. Baltagi, Zhenlin Yang

Center for Policy Research

The standard LM tests for spatial dependence in linear and panel regressions are derived under the normality and homoskedasticity assumptions of the regression disturbances. Hence, they may not be robust against non-normality or heteroskedasticity of the disturbances. Following Born and Breitung (2011), we introduce general methods to modify the standard LM tests so that they become robust against heteroskedasticity and non-normality. The idea behind the robustification is to decompose the concentrated score function into a sum of uncorrelated terms so that the outer product of gradient (OPG) can be used to estimate its variance. We also provide methods for improving …

The Effects Of Sex Offenders On Housing Sales Prices, Benjamin Walter Hatch

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

I measure the impact of sex offenders on housing sales prices by combining data from the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry with data on housing sales from December 2004 through December 2008 in Mecklenburg County, NC. Using time-series and cross-sectional analysis, I estimate that the arrival of a sex offender into a neighborhood decreases housing sales prices within 0.1 of the miles of a sex offender by approximately 6%, while all other nearby housing sales prices are unaffected. I then apply this finding to examine sex offender residency restrictions passed in North Carolina in 2006. I find that houses located …

New York Camp Econometrics Viii Program, Center For Policy Research

Camp Econometrics-Programs

No abstract provided.

Palliative Care And The Health Care Crisis In The United States: A Candid Conversation With Dr. Diane Meier, Diane E. Meier

Center for Policy Research

This paper is a synthesis of the 2012 Lourie Lecture, framed as a series of questions and responses, and supported by images used in the lecture. I’m going to focus on the growth of this new field called palliative care and will make the connection that the crisis afflicting healthcare in the United States cannot be addressed without widespread scaling and implementation of palliative care across the system. My subject is not end-of-life care, but rather care during serious illness. A serious illness is something a person can live with for many years, such as emphysema, or end-stage renal disease …

Pathways To Tax Reform Revisited, Leonard E. Burman

Center for Policy Research

The U.S. income tax badly needs reform. It is complex, unfair, and inefficient. It doesn’t come close to raising enough revenue to finance government expenditures, and won’t any time in the foreseeable future unless it is revised. Raising tax rates could increase revenues, but it wouldn’t lessen the complexity and would magnify the unfairness and efficiency costs. Not surprisingly, proposals for reform abound. Income tax reform proposals would virtually all trim so-called tax expenditures, the 200 or so exclusions, deductions, and credits that are designed to provide subsidies for particular activities or groups. This would surely make the late Stanley …

Research Brief: "How Are Iraq/Afghanistan-Era Veterans Faring In The Labor Market?", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

In this study, researchers found significant differences in employment among recently returned veterans based on age, health, and service era. The Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans, ages 18-24, were more likely to have higher earnings if employed, while older veterans, ages 37-64, had higher odds of unemployment. In practice, veterans may be experiencing an employment divide in which those who can find work command high wages, while others are not able to find work at all. In policy, policymakers may wish to revisit these issues by increasing the availability of programs and services for older veterans and those from previous eras who are …

Expected Efficiency Ranks From Parametric Stochastic Frontier Models, William C. Horrace, Seth Richards-Shubik

Center for Policy Research

In the stochastic frontier model we extend the multivariate probability statements of Horrace (2005) to calculate the conditional probability that a firm is any particular efficiency rank in the sample. From this we construct the conditional expected efficiency rank for each firm. Compared to the traditional ranked efficiency point estimates, firm-level conditional expected ranks are more informative about the degree of uncertainty of the ranking. The conditional expect ranks may be useful for empiricists. A Monte Carlo study and an empirical example are provided.