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We study the reasons for differences in welfare benefit receipt between immigrants and natives in 16 EU countries using Oaxaca‐Blinder decompositions of a Heckman model. Differences in welfare benefit receipt diminish or disappear altogether after controlling for differences in characteristics of the two groups. The largest part of this is explained by differences in benefit take‐up rather than benefit...
This paper investigates whether financial cooperatives are crowded out by commercial banks in the process of financial sector development. We use a self‐constructed database based on World Council of Credit Unions data for the years 1990‐2011 of cooperatives in 55 developing countries. Our empirical results are threefold. First, financial cooperatives tend to reach more members in countries where...
Models of political competition portray political candidates as seeking the support of the median voter to win elections by majority voting. In practice, political candidates seek supermajorities, rather than majorities based on support of the median voter. We study the political benefits of supermajorities using data from Bavaria, the largest German state. Members of the Bavarian parliament had been...
Both Spanish and French colonial education included several features that restricted education. Many of them persisted long after independence. Against this background, this paper econometrically studies whether in the recent past the colonial legacy still affected schooling in the ex‐colonies of these two former colonial powers – and, for comparison, in the ex‐colonies of Britain, the third of the...
Anecdotal evidence suggests that people migrate to avoid air pollution. In this paper, we empirically examine the extent to which air pollution is a push factor for international migration. We allow air pollution to affect migrants differently according to their educational attainment as well as their gender. We also instrument for the level of pollution. Results generally show that air pollution...
We present results from a unique combination of survey and register data regarding access to financial capital conducted among immigrants who are self‐employed in private firms in Sweden's retail, trade, and service sectors. This study is the first to examine discrimination against self‐employed immigrants in the credit market of a developed economy outside the US. The results demonstrate that non‐European...
Using a framework that distinguishes short‐term consumer preferences, individual reflective preferences and political preferences, we discuss from a constitutional economics perspective whether individuals find it in their common constitutional interest to endow representatives and bureaucrats with the competence to impose soft paternalist policies. The focus is specifically on soft paternalist policies,...
This paper investigates the impact of Chinese activities in sub‐Saharan African countries with respect to the growth performance of economies in that region. Using a Solow‐type growth model and panel data for the period 1991 to 2010, we find that African economies that export natural resources have benefited from positive terms‐of‐trade effects. In addition, there is evidence for displacement effects...
We investigate national culture's influence on preferences for and attitudes to environmental quality. We use the cultural diversity of immigrants in European countries to isolate the effect of culture from the confounding effect of the economic and institutional environment. Results suggest that culture is a significant determinant of migrants' individual environmental preferences and attitudes....
Is corrupt behavior transmitted internationally? Using panel data for 123 countries from 1995 to 2012, our results suggest a positive and statistically meaningful relationship between neighboring countries’ corruption levels and domestic graft. This result is robust to including two‐way fixed effects, country‐specific time trends, and the standard set of control variables. The effect becomes stronger...
Direct democracy may impose significant information demands on voters, especially when individual propositions are highly complex. Yet, it remains theoretically ambiguous how proposition complexity affects referendum outcomes. To explore this question, I use a novel dataset on 153 Swiss federal referendums that took place between 1978 and 2010. The dataset includes hand‐collected data on the number...
I extend current understanding of non‐monetary punishments by introducing one‐way unrestricted feedback (vulgar language) from responders in laboratory and online ultimatum games. Feedback changes in the expected direction. Negative feedback is returned in the event of low offers while higher offers receive positive feedback. Additionally, the possibility of unrestricted feedback significantly increases...
We use a novel data set within an instrumental variables framework to test whether the presence and language of constitutional environmental rights influence environmental outcomes. The outcome variables include Yale's Environmental Performance Index and its components. We employ two‐stage least squares to account for reverse causality, that is, the possibility that a country which takes steps to...
The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it tests whether an effect of over‐indebtedness on self‐assessed health exists. Fixed‐effects panel regression models based on panel data for 25 European countries show that being in arrears increases the likelihood of reporting bad/very bad health. However, effects are weak in terms of economic significance. The second research question focuses on the effect...
We consider the impact of breaking news on market prices. We measure activity on the micro‐blogging platform Twitter surrounding a unique, newsworthy and identifiable event and investigate subsequent movements of betting prices on the prominent betting exchange, Betfair. The event we use is the Bigotgate scandal, which occurred during the 2010 UK General Election campaign. We use recent developments...
We investigate the impact of student work experience on later hiring chances. To completely rule out potential endogeneity, we present a field experiment in which various forms of student work experience are randomly disclosed by more than 1000 fictitious graduates applying for jobs in Belgium. Theoretical mechanisms are investigated by estimating heterogeneous treatment effects by the relevance and...
Public administrators often go about their business blind to how their actions both affect, and are affected by, the activities and processes of agents operating outside their own organizations. In truth, no single agency or department operates in a vacuum or in isolation of other organizational entities. According to world‐renowned leadership and management expert, W. Edwards Deming, a given agency's...
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