cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.3886/e113902v1
title: Replication data for: Wells, Water, and Welfare: The Impact of Access to Groundwater on Rural Poverty and Conflict

description: This paper evaluates the impact of access to groundwater on poverty using data from rural India. The estimation exploits the fact that the technology required to access groundwater changes exogenously due to constraints imposed by laws of physics at a depth of eight meters. I find that rural poverty in areas where depth from surface is below the cutoff is 9 to 10 percent higher. Using survey data for a subsample of villages, I also show that disputes over irrigation water increase by 25 percent around the cutoff. Historical endowments of groundwater facilitate adoption of yield enhancing technologies over the long-run.
DOI: 10.3886/e114097
title: Replication data for: Optimal Monetary and Prudential Policies

description: The recent financial crisis has highlighted the interconnectedness between macroeconomic and financial stability, raising questions about how to combine monetary and prudential policies. This paper characterizes the jointly optimal monetary and prudential policies, setting the interest rate and bank-capital requirements. The source of financial fragility is the socially excessive risk taking by banks due to limited liability and deposit insurance. We provide conditions under which locally (Ramsey) optimal policy dedicates the prudential instrument to preventing inefficient risk taking by banks, and the monetary instrument to dealing with the business cycle, with the two instruments covarying either negatively, or positively and countercyclically.
DOI: 10.3886/e113133
title: Replication data for: The Persistence of Local Joblessness

description: Differences in employment-population ratios across US commuting zones have persisted for many decades. We claim these disparities represent real gaps in economic opportunity for individuals of fixed characteristics. These gaps persist despite a strong migratory response, and we attribute this to high persistence in labor demand shocks. These trends generate a "race" between local employment and population: population always lags behind employment, yielding persistent deviations in employment rates. Methodologically, we argue the employment rate can serve as a sufficient statistic for local well-being; and we model population and employment dynamics using an error correction mechanism, which explicitly allows for disequilibrium.
DOI: 10.3886/e113134
title: Replication data for: Walk on the Wild Side: Temporarily Unstable Paths and Multiplicative Sunspots

description: We propose a generalization of the rational expectations framework to allow for temporarily unstable paths. Our approach introduces multiplicative sunspot shocks and it yields drifting parameters and stochastic volatility. Then, we provide an econometric strategy to estimate this generalized model on the data. The methodology allows the data to choose between different possible alternatives: determinacy, indeterminacy, and temporary instability. We apply our methodology to US inflation dynamics in the 1970s through the lens of a simple New Keynesian model. When temporarily unstable paths are allowed, the data unambiguously select them to explain the stagflation period in the 1970s.
DOI: 10.3886/e113134v1
title: Replication data for: Walk on the Wild Side: Temporarily Unstable Paths and Multiplicative Sunspots

description: We propose a generalization of the rational expectations framework to allow for temporarily unstable paths. Our approach introduces multiplicative sunspot shocks and it yields drifting parameters and stochastic volatility. Then, we provide an econometric strategy to estimate this generalized model on the data. The methodology allows the data to choose between different possible alternatives: determinacy, indeterminacy, and temporary instability. We apply our methodology to US inflation dynamics in the 1970s through the lens of a simple New Keynesian model. When temporarily unstable paths are allowed, the data unambiguously select them to explain the stagflation period in the 1970s.
DOI: 10.3886/e113135
title: Replication data for: The Taxing Deed of Globalization

description: This paper examines the effects of globalization on the distribution of worker-specific labor taxes using a unique set of tax calculators. We find a differential effect of higher trade and factor mobility on relative tax burdens in 1980–1993 versus 1994–2007 in the OECD. Prior to 1994, greater openness meant that higher income earners were taxed progressively more. However, after 1994, we document a globalization-induced rise in the labor income tax burden of the middle class, while the top 1 percent of workers and employees faced a reduction in their tax burden of 0.59–1.45 percentage points.
DOI: 10.3886/e113135v1
title: Replication data for: The Taxing Deed of Globalization

description: This paper examines the effects of globalization on the distribution of worker-specific labor taxes using a unique set of tax calculators. We find a differential effect of higher trade and factor mobility on relative tax burdens in 1980–1993 versus 1994–2007 in the OECD. Prior to 1994, greater openness meant that higher income earners were taxed progressively more. However, after 1994, we document a globalization-induced rise in the labor income tax burden of the middle class, while the top 1 percent of workers and employees faced a reduction in their tax burden of 0.59–1.45 percentage points.
DOI: 10.3886/e113136v1
title: Replication data for: Equal but Inequitable: Who Benefits from Gender-Neutral Tenure Clock Stopping Policies?

description: Many skilled professional occupations are characterized by an early period of intensive skill accumulation and career establishment. Examples include law firm associates, surgical residents, and untenured faculty at research-intensive universities. High female exit rates are sometimes blamed on the inability of new mothers to survive the sustained negative productivity shock associated with childbearing and early childrearing in these environments. Gender-neutral family policies have been adopted in some professions in an attempt to "level the playing field." The gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies adopted by the majority of research-intensive universities in the United States in recent decades are an excellent example. But to date, there is no empirical evidence showing that these policies help women. Using a unique data set on the universe of assistant professor hires at top-50 economics departments from 1980-2005, we show that the adoption of gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies substantially reduced female tenure rates while substantially increasing male tenure rates. However, these policies do not reduce the probability that either men or women eventually earn tenure in the profession.
DOI: 10.3886/e113137
title: Replication data for: Bid Shading and Bidder Surplus in the US Treasury Auction System

description: We analyze bidding data from uniform price auctions of US Treasury bills and notes between July 2009 and October 2013. Primary dealers consistently bid higher yields compared to direct and indirect bidders. We estimate a structural model of bidding that takes into account informational asymmetries introduced by the bidding system employed by the US Treasury. While primary dealers' estimated willingness-to-pay is higher than direct and indirect bidders', their ability to bid-shade is even higher, leading to higher yield/lower price bids. Total bidder surplus averaged to about three basis points across the sample period along with efficiency losses around two basis points.
DOI: 10.3886/e113137v1
title: Replication data for: Bid Shading and Bidder Surplus in the US Treasury Auction System

description: We analyze bidding data from uniform price auctions of US Treasury bills and notes between July 2009 and October 2013. Primary dealers consistently bid higher yields compared to direct and indirect bidders. We estimate a structural model of bidding that takes into account informational asymmetries introduced by the bidding system employed by the US Treasury. While primary dealers' estimated willingness-to-pay is higher than direct and indirect bidders', their ability to bid-shade is even higher, leading to higher yield/lower price bids. Total bidder surplus averaged to about three basis points across the sample period along with efficiency losses around two basis points.
DOI: 10.3886/e113640
title: Replication data for: Ready for Boarding? The Effects of a Boarding School for Disadvantaged Students

description: Boarding schools substitute school to home, but little is known on the effects this substitution produces on students. We present results of an experiment in which seats in a boarding school for disadvantaged students were randomly allocated. Boarders enjoy better studying conditions than control students. However, they start outperforming control students in mathematics only two years after admission, and this effect mostly comes from strong students. Boarders initially experience lower levels of well-being but then adjust. This suggests that substituting school to home is disruptive: only strong students benefit from the school, once they have adapted to their new environment.
DOI: 10.3886/e113641
title: Replication data for: Buy the Book? Evidence on the Effect of Textbook Funding on School-Level Achievement

description: This paper considers the effect of textbook funding on school-level test performance by using a quasi-experimental setting in the United States. I consider a lawsuit in California that provided a one-time payment of $96.90 per student for textbooks if schools fell below a threshold of academic performance. Exploiting this variation with a regression discontinuity (RD) design, I find that textbook funding has significant positive effects on school-level achievement in elementary schools and has a high benefit-per-dollar. In contrast to elementary schools, I find no effect in middle and high schools though these estimates are very imprecise.
DOI: 10.3886/e113641v1
title: Replication data for: Buy the Book? Evidence on the Effect of Textbook Funding on School-Level Achievement

description: This paper considers the effect of textbook funding on school-level test performance by using a quasi-experimental setting in the United States. I consider a lawsuit in California that provided a one-time payment of $96.90 per student for textbooks if schools fell below a threshold of academic performance. Exploiting this variation with a regression discontinuity (RD) design, I find that textbook funding has significant positive effects on school-level achievement in elementary schools and has a high benefit-per-dollar. In contrast to elementary schools, I find no effect in middle and high schools though these estimates are very imprecise.
DOI: 10.3886/e113642
title: Replication data for: Immigrants' Effect on Native Workers: New Analysis on Longitudinal Data

description: Using longitudinal data on the universe of workers in Denmark during the period 1991-2008, we track the labor market outcomes of low-skilled natives in response to an exogenous inflow of low- skilled immigrants. We innovate on previous identification strategies by considering immigrants distributed across municipalities by a refugee dispersal policy in place between 1986 and 1998. We find that an increase in the supply of refugee-country immigrants pushed less educated native workers (especially the young and low-tenured ones) to pursue less manual-intensive occupations. As a result immigration had positive effects on native unskilled wages, employment, and occupational mobility. (JEL J15, J24, J31, J61, J62)
DOI: 10.3886/e113642v1
title: Replication data for: Immigrants' Effect on Native Workers: New Analysis on Longitudinal Data

description: Using longitudinal data on the universe of workers in Denmark during the period 1991-2008, we track the labor market outcomes of low-skilled natives in response to an exogenous inflow of low- skilled immigrants. We innovate on previous identification strategies by considering immigrants distributed across municipalities by a refugee dispersal policy in place between 1986 and 1998. We find that an increase in the supply of refugee-country immigrants pushed less educated native workers (especially the young and low-tenured ones) to pursue less manual-intensive occupations. As a result immigration had positive effects on native unskilled wages, employment, and occupational mobility. (JEL J15, J24, J31, J61, J62)
DOI: 10.3886/e113903
title: Replication data for: Moral Hazard and Claims Deterrence in Private Disability Insurance

description: Exploiting within-firm, over-time variation in plan parameters for nearly 10,000 Long Term Disability (LTD) policies held by US employers, we present the first empirical analysis of the determinants of private LTD spells. We find that a shorter waiting period and a higher replacement rate increase the incidence of LTD spells. Sixty percent of the latter effect is due to the mechanical censoring of shorter spells, with the remainder due to the deterrence of spells that would have continued beyond the waiting period. Deterrence is driven primarily by a reduction in the incidence of shorter duration spells and less severe disabilities.
DOI: 10.3886/e113903v1
title: Replication data for: Moral Hazard and Claims Deterrence in Private Disability Insurance

description: Exploiting within-firm, over-time variation in plan parameters for nearly 10,000 Long Term Disability (LTD) policies held by US employers, we present the first empirical analysis of the determinants of private LTD spells. We find that a shorter waiting period and a higher replacement rate increase the incidence of LTD spells. Sixty percent of the latter effect is due to the mechanical censoring of shorter spells, with the remainder due to the deterrence of spells that would have continued beyond the waiting period. Deterrence is driven primarily by a reduction in the incidence of shorter duration spells and less severe disabilities.
DOI: 10.3886/e113904
title: Replication data for: Private and Public Provision of Counseling to Job Seekers: Evidence from a Large Controlled Experiment

description: This paper reports the results of a large-scaled randomized controlled experiment comparing the public and private provision of counseling to job seekers. The intention-to-treat estimates of both programs are not statistically different, but more workers were enrolled in the private program, implying an effect per beneficiary that is twice as large under the public as under the private program. We find suggestive evidence that the private firms may have insufficiently mastered the counseling technology, and exercised less effort on those who had the best chance to find a job. This highlights the incentive problems in designing contracts for these services.
DOI: 10.3886/e113904v1
title: Replication data for: Private and Public Provision of Counseling to Job Seekers: Evidence from a Large Controlled Experiment

description: This paper reports the results of a large-scaled randomized controlled experiment comparing the public and private provision of counseling to job seekers. The intention-to-treat estimates of both programs are not statistically different, but more workers were enrolled in the private program, implying an effect per beneficiary that is twice as large under the public as under the private program. We find suggestive evidence that the private firms may have insufficiently mastered the counseling technology, and exercised less effort on those who had the best chance to find a job. This highlights the incentive problems in designing contracts for these services.
DOI: 10.3886/e113905v1
title: Replication data for: Soil Endowments, Female Labor Force Participation, and the Demographic Deficit of Women in India

description: Differences in relative female employment by soil texture are used to explain the heterogeneous deficit of female children across districts within India. Soil texture varies exogenously and determines the depth of land tillage. Deep tillage, possible in loamy but not in clayey soil textures, reduces the demand for labor in agricultural tasks traditionally performed by women. Girls have a lower economic value where female labor opportunities are fewer. Consistently, higher relative female employment in agriculture improves the ratio of female to male children in districts that have a smaller fraction of loamy relative to clayey soils.
DOI: 10.3886/e113906v1
title: Replication data for: Should Aid Reward Performance? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia

description: We report an experiment in 3,000 villages that tested whether incentives improve aid efficacy. Villages received block grants for maternal and child health and education that incorporated relative performance incentives. Subdistricts were randomized into incentives, an otherwise identical program without incentives, or control. Incentives initially improved preventative health indicators, particularly in underdeveloped areas, and spending efficiency increased. While school enrollments improved overall, incentives had no differential impact on education, and incentive health effects diminished over time. Reductions in neonatal mortality in nonincentivized areas did not persist with incentives. We find no systematic scoring manipulation nor funding reallocation toward richer areas.
DOI: 10.3886/e114098
title: Replication data for: Excessive Financing Costs in a Representative Agent Framework

description: This paper highlights a pecuniary externality that results in excessive financing costs. Firms borrow to finance purchases of an inelastically supplied input, bidding up its price. Since higher input prices necessitate more debt obligations, this leads to an increase in intermediation costs. A quantitative interpretation of the model suggests that it is optimal to tax financial intermediation by increasing the borrowing rate by 3 percentage points. (JEL E13, E44, G21, G32, H21, H25)
DOI: 10.3886/e114098v1
title: Replication data for: Excessive Financing Costs in a Representative Agent Framework

description: This paper highlights a pecuniary externality that results in excessive financing costs. Firms borrow to finance purchases of an inelastically supplied input, bidding up its price. Since higher input prices necessitate more debt obligations, this leads to an increase in intermediation costs. A quantitative interpretation of the model suggests that it is optimal to tax financial intermediation by increasing the borrowing rate by 3 percentage points. (JEL E13, E44, G21, G32, H21, H25)
DOI: 10.3886/e114158
title: Replication data for: Monetary Policy, Real Activity, and Credit Spreads: Evidence from Bayesian Proxy SVARs

description: In this paper we develop a Bayesian framework to estimate a proxy structural vector autoregression to identify monetary policy shocks. We find that during the Great Moderation period, monetary policy shocks induce a persistent decline in real activity and tightening in financial conditions. Central to this result is a systematic component of monetary policy characterized by a direct and economically significant reaction to changes in corporate credit spreads. The failure to account for this endogenous reaction induces an attenuation in the response of all variables to monetary shocks, a result that also applies to the narrative identification of Romer and Romer (2004).
DOI: 10.3886/e114158v1
title: Replication data for: Monetary Policy, Real Activity, and Credit Spreads: Evidence from Bayesian Proxy SVARs

description: In this paper we develop a Bayesian framework to estimate a proxy structural vector autoregression to identify monetary policy shocks. We find that during the Great Moderation period, monetary policy shocks induce a persistent decline in real activity and tightening in financial conditions. Central to this result is a systematic component of monetary policy characterized by a direct and economically significant reaction to changes in corporate credit spreads. The failure to account for this endogenous reaction induces an attenuation in the response of all variables to monetary shocks, a result that also applies to the narrative identification of Romer and Romer (2004).
DOI: 10.3886/e113138
title: Replication data for: The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment

description: We examine the concerns that new technologies will render labor redundant in a framework in which tasks previously performed by labor can be automated and new versions of existing tasks, in which labor has a comparative advantage, can be created. In a static version where capital is fixed and technology is exogenous, automation reduces employment and the labor share, and may even reduce wages, while the creation of new tasks has the opposite effects. Our full model endogenizes capital accumulation and the direction of research toward automation and the creation of new tasks. If the long-run rental rate of capital relative to the wage is sufficiently low, the long-run equilibrium involves automation of all tasks. Otherwise, there exists a stable balanced growth path in which the two types of innovations go hand-in-hand. Stability is a consequence of the fact that automation reduces the cost of producing using labor, and thus discourages further automation and encourages the creation of new tasks. In an extension with heterogeneous skills, we show that inequality increases during transitions driven both by faster automation and the introduction of new tasks, and characterize the conditions under which inequality stabilizes in the long run.
DOI: 10.3886/e113138v1
title: Replication data for: The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment

description: We examine the concerns that new technologies will render labor redundant in a framework in which tasks previously performed by labor can be automated and new versions of existing tasks, in which labor has a comparative advantage, can be created. In a static version where capital is fixed and technology is exogenous, automation reduces employment and the labor share, and may even reduce wages, while the creation of new tasks has the opposite effects. Our full model endogenizes capital accumulation and the direction of research toward automation and the creation of new tasks. If the long-run rental rate of capital relative to the wage is sufficiently low, the long-run equilibrium involves automation of all tasks. Otherwise, there exists a stable balanced growth path in which the two types of innovations go hand-in-hand. Stability is a consequence of the fact that automation reduces the cost of producing using labor, and thus discourages further automation and encourages the creation of new tasks. In an extension with heterogeneous skills, we show that inequality increases during transitions driven both by faster automation and the introduction of new tasks, and characterize the conditions under which inequality stabilizes in the long run.
DOI: 10.3886/e113139
title: Replication data for: On the Timing and Pricing of Dividends: Reply

description: Schulz (2016) replicates the findings of van Binsbergen, Brandt, and Koijen (2012)--henceforth, BBK--and agrees that the average pretax returns on short-term dividend strips are higher than those of the index, but argues that the after-tax returns are not. He thus provides a possible economic interpretation of the results in BBK: taxes. Schulz (2016) estimates the differential tax rates of dividends versus capital gains from ex-dividend day returns. We show that these estimated tax rates are suspect and imprecisely measured, peaking at over 100 percent in some periods. The results in BBK are robust to using tax rates from the literature (Sialm 2009). The arguments in Schulz (2016) thus crucially depend on implausibly large tax estimates. We further discuss two other financial market imperfections discussed in the literature and show that they are also unlikely to explain the results in BBK.