cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.3886/e112799
title: Replication data for: Race and Marriage in the Labor Market: A Discrimination Correspondence Study in a Developing Country

description: In Mexico, as in most Latin American countries with indigenous populations, it is commonly believed that European phenotypes are preferred to mestizo or indigenous phenotypes. However, it is hard to test for such racial biases in the labor market using official statistics since race can only be inferred from native language. The experiment consisted on sending fictitious curriculums responding to job advertisements with randomized information of the applicants. The resumes included photographs representing three distinct phenotypes: Caucasian, mestizo, and indigenous. We find that indigenous looking females are discriminated against, but the effect is not present for males.
DOI: 10.3886/e112799v1
title: Replication data for: Race and Marriage in the Labor Market: A Discrimination Correspondence Study in a Developing Country

description: In Mexico, as in most Latin American countries with indigenous populations, it is commonly believed that European phenotypes are preferred to mestizo or indigenous phenotypes. However, it is hard to test for such racial biases in the labor market using official statistics since race can only be inferred from native language. The experiment consisted on sending fictitious curriculums responding to job advertisements with randomized information of the applicants. The resumes included photographs representing three distinct phenotypes: Caucasian, mestizo, and indigenous. We find that indigenous looking females are discriminated against, but the effect is not present for males.
DOI: 10.3886/e112800
title: Replication data for: The Natural Rate of Interest and Its Usefulness for Monetary Policy

description: We estimate a state-of-the-art DSGE model to study the natural rate of interest in the United States over the last 20 years. The natural rate is highly procyclical, and fell substantially below zero in each of the last three recessions. Although the drop was of comparable magnitude across the three recessions, the decline was considerably more persistent in the Great Recession. We discuss the usefulness and limitations, particularly due to the zero lower bound, of the natural rate for the conduct of monetary policy.
DOI: 10.3886/e112800v1
title: Replication data for: The Natural Rate of Interest and Its Usefulness for Monetary Policy

description: We estimate a state-of-the-art DSGE model to study the natural rate of interest in the United States over the last 20 years. The natural rate is highly procyclical, and fell substantially below zero in each of the last three recessions. Although the drop was of comparable magnitude across the three recessions, the decline was considerably more persistent in the Great Recession. We discuss the usefulness and limitations, particularly due to the zero lower bound, of the natural rate for the conduct of monetary policy.
DOI: 10.3886/e112801v1
title: Replication data for: The Declining Fortunes of the Young since 2000

description: We document that successive cohorts of college and post-college degree graduates experienced an increase in the probability of obtaining cognitive jobs both at the start of their careers and with time in the labor market in the 1990s. However, this pattern reversed for cohorts entering after 2000; profiles of the proportion of a cohort in cognitive occupations since school completion fall and become flatter with successive cohorts. Since cohort-wage profiles display a similar pattern, these findings appear to fit with a strong increase in demand for cognitive tasks in the 1990s followed by a decline in the 2000s.
DOI: 10.3886/e112985
title: Replication data for: International Reserves and Rollover Risk

description: We study the optimal accumulation of international reserves in a quantitative model of sovereign default with long-term debt and a risk-free asset. Keeping higher levels of reserves provides a hedge against rollover risk, but this is costly because using reserves to pay down debt allows the government to reduce sovereign spreads. Our model, parameterized to mimic salient features of a typical emerging economy, can account for significant holdings of international reserves, and the larger accumulation of both debt and reserves in periods of low spreads and high income. We also show that income windfalls, improved policy frameworks, and an increase in the importance of rollover risk imply increases in the optimal holdings of reserves that are consistent with the upward trend in reserves in emerging economies. It is essential for our results that debt maturity exceeds one period.
DOI: 10.3886/e112986
title: Replication data for: Technical Change, Wage Inequality, and Taxes

description: This paper considers the normative implications of technical change for tax policy design. A task-to-talent assignment model of the labor market is embedded into an optimal tax problem. Technical change modifies equilibrium wage growth across talents and the substitutability of talents across tasks. The overall optimal policy response is to reduce marginal income taxes on low to middle incomes, while raising those on middle to high incomes. The reform favors those in the middle of the income distribution, reducing their average taxes while lowering transfers to those at the bottom. (JEL D31, H21, H23, H24, J31, O33)
DOI: 10.3886/e112986v1
title: Replication data for: Technical Change, Wage Inequality, and Taxes

description: This paper considers the normative implications of technical change for tax policy design. A task-to-talent assignment model of the labor market is embedded into an optimal tax problem. Technical change modifies equilibrium wage growth across talents and the substitutability of talents across tasks. The overall optimal policy response is to reduce marginal income taxes on low to middle incomes, while raising those on middle to high incomes. The reform favors those in the middle of the income distribution, reducing their average taxes while lowering transfers to those at the bottom. (JEL D31, H21, H23, H24, J31, O33)
DOI: 10.3886/e112987
title: Replication data for: The Real Effects of Monetary Shocks in Sticky Price Models: A Sufficient Statistic Approach

description: We prove that the ratio of kurtosis to the frequency of price changes is a sufficient statistic for the real effects of monetary shocks, measured by the cumulated output response following the shock. The sufficient statistic result holds in a large class of models which includes Taylor (1980); Calvo (1983); Reis (2006); Golosov and Lucas (2007); Nakamura and Steinsson (2010); Midrigan (2011); and Alvarez and Lippi (2014). Several models in this class are able to account for the positive excess kurtosis of the size distribution of price changes that appears in the data. We review empirical measures of kurtosis and frequency and conclude that a model that successfully matches the microevidence on kurtosis and frequency produces real effects that are about four times larger than in the Golosov-Lucas model, and about 30 percent below those of the Calvo model. We discuss the robustness of our results to changes in the setup, including small inflation and leptokurtic cost shocks.
DOI: 10.3886/e112987v1
title: Replication data for: The Real Effects of Monetary Shocks in Sticky Price Models: A Sufficient Statistic Approach

description: We prove that the ratio of kurtosis to the frequency of price changes is a sufficient statistic for the real effects of monetary shocks, measured by the cumulated output response following the shock. The sufficient statistic result holds in a large class of models which includes Taylor (1980); Calvo (1983); Reis (2006); Golosov and Lucas (2007); Nakamura and Steinsson (2010); Midrigan (2011); and Alvarez and Lippi (2014). Several models in this class are able to account for the positive excess kurtosis of the size distribution of price changes that appears in the data. We review empirical measures of kurtosis and frequency and conclude that a model that successfully matches the microevidence on kurtosis and frequency produces real effects that are about four times larger than in the Golosov-Lucas model, and about 30 percent below those of the Calvo model. We discuss the robustness of our results to changes in the setup, including small inflation and leptokurtic cost shocks.
DOI: 10.3886/e112988v1
title: Replication data for: The Long-Run Impact of Cash Transfers to Poor Families

description: We estimate the long-run impact of cash transfers to poor families on children's longevity, educational attainment, nutritional status, and income in adulthood. To do so, we collected individual- level administrative records of applicants to the Mothers' Pension program -- the first government-sponsored welfare program in the United States (1911-1935) -- and matched them to census, WWII, and death records. Male children of accepted applicants lived one year longer than those of rejected mothers. They also obtained one-third more years of schooling, were less likely to be underweight, and had higher income in adulthood than children of rejected mothers. (JEL I12, I14, I18, I32, I38, J16, N32)
DOI: 10.3886/e112989v1
title: Replication data for: Attention Discrimination: Theory and Field Experiments with Monitoring Information Acquisition

description: We integrate tools to monitor information acquisition in field experiments on discrimination and examine whether gaps arise already when decision makers choose the effort level for reading an application. In both countries we study, negatively stereotyped minority names reduce employers' effort to inspect resumes. In contrast, minority names increase information acquisition in the rental housing market. Both results are consistent with a model of endogenous allocation of costly attention, which magnifies the role of prior beliefs and preferences beyond the one considered in standard models of discrimination. The findings have implications for magnitude of discrimination, returns to human capital and policy.
DOI: 10.3886/e113490
title: Replication data for: Earnings Inequality and Other Determinants of Wealth Inequality

description: We study the relation between the distribution of labor earnings and the distribution of wealth. We show, theoretically as well as empirically, that while labor earnings and precautionary savings are important determinants of wealth inequality factors, they cannot by themselves account for the thick tail of (the large top shares in) the observed distribution of wealth. Other determinants, like stochastic returns to wealth, as well as savings rates and rates of returns increasing in wealth, need to be accounted for.
DOI: 10.3886/e113491
title: Replication data for: Big Banks, Idiosyncratic Volatility, and Systemic Risk

description: Starting in the 1990s, US bank assets grew more concentrated among a few large institutions. We explore the changing role of idiosyncratic volatility as a shaping force of the bank asset power law distribution. Our results reveal that idiosyncratic asset volatilities for bank-holding companies declined since the 1990s. To the extent that firm-specific shocks can have significant macroeconomic consequences, this result implies that even as one obvious source of aggregate risk and contagion--bank asset concentration--has increased, another important source--idiosyncratic volatility--has diminished.
DOI: 10.3886/e113491v1
title: Replication data for: Big Banks, Idiosyncratic Volatility, and Systemic Risk

description: Starting in the 1990s, US bank assets grew more concentrated among a few large institutions. We explore the changing role of idiosyncratic volatility as a shaping force of the bank asset power law distribution. Our results reveal that idiosyncratic asset volatilities for bank-holding companies declined since the 1990s. To the extent that firm-specific shocks can have significant macroeconomic consequences, this result implies that even as one obvious source of aggregate risk and contagion--bank asset concentration--has increased, another important source--idiosyncratic volatility--has diminished.
DOI: 10.3886/e113492
title: Replication data for: The Impact of Entrepreneurship Programs on Minorities

description: We document the impact of an entrepreneurship training program on startup activity of minorities (females and non-Caucasians). We compare entrepreneurial activity between applicants who are accepted into the program with applicants who are program finalists but not accepted. We find that the effect of the program is small for minorities in the short run. However, the effect of the program is more pronounced for minorities' likelihood of longer run startup activity, whereas the effect on non-minorities is small and statistically insignificant. We suggest that such programs are most effective for individuals that may otherwise have limited access to entrepreneurial opportunities.
DOI: 10.3886/e113492v1
title: Replication data for: The Impact of Entrepreneurship Programs on Minorities

description: We document the impact of an entrepreneurship training program on startup activity of minorities (females and non-Caucasians). We compare entrepreneurial activity between applicants who are accepted into the program with applicants who are program finalists but not accepted. We find that the effect of the program is small for minorities in the short run. However, the effect of the program is more pronounced for minorities' likelihood of longer run startup activity, whereas the effect on non-minorities is small and statistically insignificant. We suggest that such programs are most effective for individuals that may otherwise have limited access to entrepreneurial opportunities.
DOI: 10.3886/e113493
title: Replication data for: Gender Gap in High-Growth Ventures: Evidence from a University Venture Mentoring Program

description: We track high-growth ventures from the idea stage to commercialization and investigate the nature of the gender gap early in the venture lifecycle. Using data on 651 venture ideas that collectively attracted over $700 million in venture financing, we find a significant gender gap among ventures without documented intellectual assets at the earliest stage of founding but not among ventures that already possess intellectual assets. We also find a gender gap in entrepreneurs' readiness to commit to their venture ideas full-time. Conditional on such commitment, there are no significant differences in ventures' access to venture financing or rate of commercialization.
DOI: 10.3886/e113493v1
title: Replication data for: Gender Gap in High-Growth Ventures: Evidence from a University Venture Mentoring Program

description: We track high-growth ventures from the idea stage to commercialization and investigate the nature of the gender gap early in the venture lifecycle. Using data on 651 venture ideas that collectively attracted over $700 million in venture financing, we find a significant gender gap among ventures without documented intellectual assets at the earliest stage of founding but not among ventures that already possess intellectual assets. We also find a gender gap in entrepreneurs' readiness to commit to their venture ideas full-time. Conditional on such commitment, there are no significant differences in ventures' access to venture financing or rate of commercialization.
DOI: 10.3886/e112801
title: Replication data for: The Declining Fortunes of the Young since 2000

description: We document that successive cohorts of college and post-college degree graduates experienced an increase in the probability of obtaining cognitive jobs both at the start of their careers and with time in the labor market in the 1990s. However, this pattern reversed for cohorts entering after 2000; profiles of the proportion of a cohort in cognitive occupations since school completion fall and become flatter with successive cohorts. Since cohort-wage profiles display a similar pattern, these findings appear to fit with a strong increase in demand for cognitive tasks in the 1990s followed by a decline in the 2000s.
DOI: 10.3886/e112802
title: Replication data for: Trends in Earnings Differentials across College Majors and the Changing Task Composition of Jobs

description: We show that, among college graduates, earnings differentials across field of study have increased substantially since the early 1990s. We study the degree to which this increase can be accounted for by changes in the labor market return to skills associated with a major. To do so, we define major-specific measures of the relative importance of abstract, routine, and manual tasks on the job, by linking majors to the occupations they typically lead to. Changes in the relationship between earnings and these measures can account for about two-thirds of the rise in inequality.
DOI: 10.3886/e112802v1
title: Replication data for: Trends in Earnings Differentials across College Majors and the Changing Task Composition of Jobs

description: We show that, among college graduates, earnings differentials across field of study have increased substantially since the early 1990s. We study the degree to which this increase can be accounted for by changes in the labor market return to skills associated with a major. To do so, we define major-specific measures of the relative importance of abstract, routine, and manual tasks on the job, by linking majors to the occupations they typically lead to. Changes in the relationship between earnings and these measures can account for about two-thirds of the rise in inequality.
DOI: 10.3886/e112989
title: Replication data for: Attention Discrimination: Theory and Field Experiments with Monitoring Information Acquisition

description: We integrate tools to monitor information acquisition in field experiments on discrimination and examine whether gaps arise already when decision makers choose the effort level for reading an application. In both countries we study, negatively stereotyped minority names reduce employers' effort to inspect resumes. In contrast, minority names increase information acquisition in the rental housing market. Both results are consistent with a model of endogenous allocation of costly attention, which magnifies the role of prior beliefs and preferences beyond the one considered in standard models of discrimination. The findings have implications for magnitude of discrimination, returns to human capital and policy.
DOI: 10.3886/e112990
title: Replication data for: Export Destinations and Input Prices

description: This paper examines the relationship between the destination of exports and the input prices paid by firms, using detailed customs and firm-product-level data from Portugal. Both ordinary least squares regressions and an instrumental-variable strategy using exchange-rate movements (interacted with indicators for initial exports) as a source of variation in destinations indicate that exporting to richer countries leads firms to pay higher prices for inputs, other things equal. The results are supportive of what we call the income-based quality-choice channel: selling to richer destinations leads firms to raise the average quality of goods they produce and to purchase higher-quality inputs.
DOI: 10.3886/e112990v1
title: Replication data for: Export Destinations and Input Prices

description: This paper examines the relationship between the destination of exports and the input prices paid by firms, using detailed customs and firm-product-level data from Portugal. Both ordinary least squares regressions and an instrumental-variable strategy using exchange-rate movements (interacted with indicators for initial exports) as a source of variation in destinations indicate that exporting to richer countries leads firms to pay higher prices for inputs, other things equal. The results are supportive of what we call the income-based quality-choice channel: selling to richer destinations leads firms to raise the average quality of goods they produce and to purchase higher-quality inputs.
DOI: 10.3886/e112991
title: Replication data for: Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Educational Markets

description: We study the impact of providing school report cards with test scores on subsequent test scores, prices, and enrollment in markets with multiple public and private providers. A randomly selected half of our sample villages (markets) received report cards. This increased test scores by 0.11 standard deviations, decreased private school fees by 17 percent, and increased primary enrollment by 4.5 percent. Heterogeneity in the treatment impact by initial school test scores is consistent with canonical models of asymmetric information. Information provision facilitates better comparisons across providers, and improves market efficiency and child welfare through higher test scores, higher enrollment, and lower fees.
DOI: 10.3886/e112991v1
title: Replication data for: Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Educational Markets

description: We study the impact of providing school report cards with test scores on subsequent test scores, prices, and enrollment in markets with multiple public and private providers. A randomly selected half of our sample villages (markets) received report cards. This increased test scores by 0.11 standard deviations, decreased private school fees by 17 percent, and increased primary enrollment by 4.5 percent. Heterogeneity in the treatment impact by initial school test scores is consistent with canonical models of asymmetric information. Information provision facilitates better comparisons across providers, and improves market efficiency and child welfare through higher test scores, higher enrollment, and lower fees.
DOI: 10.3886/e112992
title: Replication data for: Does Affirmative Action Work? Caste, Gender, College Quality, and Academic Success in India

description: Public policy in modern India features affirmative action programs intended to reduce inequality that stems from a centuries-old caste structure and history of disparate treatment by gender. We study the effects of one such affirmative action program: an admissions policy that fixes percentage quotas, common across more than 200 engineering colleges, for disadvantaged castes and for women. We show that the program increases college attendance of targeted students, particularly at relatively higher-quality institutions. An important concern is that affirmative action might harm intended beneficiaries by placing them in academic programs for which they are ill-prepared. We find no evidence of such adverse impacts.
DOI: 10.3886/e112992v1
title: Replication data for: Does Affirmative Action Work? Caste, Gender, College Quality, and Academic Success in India

description: Public policy in modern India features affirmative action programs intended to reduce inequality that stems from a centuries-old caste structure and history of disparate treatment by gender. We study the effects of one such affirmative action program: an admissions policy that fixes percentage quotas, common across more than 200 engineering colleges, for disadvantaged castes and for women. We show that the program increases college attendance of targeted students, particularly at relatively higher-quality institutions. An important concern is that affirmative action might harm intended beneficiaries by placing them in academic programs for which they are ill-prepared. We find no evidence of such adverse impacts.