cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.3886/e114293v1
title: Replication data for: Missing Import Price Changes and Low Exchange Rate Pass-Through

description: A large body of empirical work has found that exchange rate movements have only modest effects on U.S. inflation. However, exchange rate pass-through may be underestimated because some price changes are missed when constructing price indexes. We investigate downward biases that arise when items exit or enter the U.S. import price index. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics microdata we find that, although potentially large in theory, the empirical biases are modest over typical forecast horizons. As such, the empirical evidence continues to support the conclusion that pass-through to U.S. import prices is low.
DOI: 10.3886/e114294
title: Replication data for: Resolving Debt Overhang: Political Constraints in the Aftermath of Financial Crises

description: Countries become more politically polarized and fractionalized following financial crises, reducing the likelihood of major financial reforms precisely when they might have especially large benefits. The evidence from a large sample of countries provides strong support for the hypotheses that following a financial crisis, voters become more ideologically extreme and ruling coalitions become weaker, independently of whether they were initially in power. The evidence that increased polarization and weaker governments reduce the chances of financial reform and that financial crises lead to legislative gridlock and anemic reform is less clear-cut. The US debt overhang resolution is discussed as an illustration.
DOI: 10.3886/e114294v1
title: Replication data for: Resolving Debt Overhang: Political Constraints in the Aftermath of Financial Crises

description: Countries become more politically polarized and fractionalized following financial crises, reducing the likelihood of major financial reforms precisely when they might have especially large benefits. The evidence from a large sample of countries provides strong support for the hypotheses that following a financial crisis, voters become more ideologically extreme and ruling coalitions become weaker, independently of whether they were initially in power. The evidence that increased polarization and weaker governments reduce the chances of financial reform and that financial crises lead to legislative gridlock and anemic reform is less clear-cut. The US debt overhang resolution is discussed as an illustration.
DOI: 10.3886/e114295v1
title: Replication data for: The Effects of Global Shocks on Small Commodity-Exporting Economies: Lessons from Canada

description: We propose a structural dynamic factor model of a small commodity-exporting economy, using Canada as a representative case study. Combining large panel data sets of the global and do- mestic economies, sign restrictions are used to identify relevant demand and supply shocks that explain volatility in real commod- ity prices. We quantify their dynamic effects on a wide variety of Canadian macro variables. We are able to reproduce all the main stylized features at business-cycle frequencies documented in the literature on this type of economies. These include a Dutch disease effect which has proven hard to find in empirical studies.
DOI: 10.3886/e114549
title: Replication data for: New Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life Using Air Bag Regulations as a Quasi-experiment

description: Due to federal regulations, automobile air bag availability was a model-specific discontinuous function of model year for used vehicles in the 1990s and early 2000s. We use the discontinuities and the gradual increase in the supply of air bags to trace out the demand curve for air bags and the implied distribution of the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) across consumers. Although imprecise, our preferred point estimates indicate that the median VSL is between $9 million and $11 million and that a sizable portion of consumers placed negative values on air bags, probably due to distrust of the technology. (JEL D12, J17, L51, L62)
DOI: 10.3886/e114549v1
title: Replication data for: New Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life Using Air Bag Regulations as a Quasi-experiment

description: Due to federal regulations, automobile air bag availability was a model-specific discontinuous function of model year for used vehicles in the 1990s and early 2000s. We use the discontinuities and the gradual increase in the supply of air bags to trace out the demand curve for air bags and the implied distribution of the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) across consumers. Although imprecise, our preferred point estimates indicate that the median VSL is between $9 million and $11 million and that a sizable portion of consumers placed negative values on air bags, probably due to distrust of the technology. (JEL D12, J17, L51, L62)
DOI: 10.3886/e114550
title: Replication data for: Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Connection between Property Taxes and Residential Capital Investment

description: Do low property taxes attract new home construction? This question is answered using a large shock to property tax burdens caused by an unusual school finance reform in the state of New Hampshire. The estimates suggest that, in most of the state, communities with a reduced tax burden experience a substantial increase in residential construction. In the area of the state near the region's primary urban center (Boston), however, the shock clears through a price adjustment—i.e., by capitalizing into property values. The differing responses are attributed to differing housing supply elasticities. (JEL H71, H73, R31)
DOI: 10.3886/e114550v1
title: Replication data for: Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Connection between Property Taxes and Residential Capital Investment

description: Do low property taxes attract new home construction? This question is answered using a large shock to property tax burdens caused by an unusual school finance reform in the state of New Hampshire. The estimates suggest that, in most of the state, communities with a reduced tax burden experience a substantial increase in residential construction. In the area of the state near the region's primary urban center (Boston), however, the shock clears through a price adjustment—i.e., by capitalizing into property values. The differing responses are attributed to differing housing supply elasticities. (JEL H71, H73, R31)
DOI: 10.3886/e114551
title: Replication data for: Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence from a Field Experiment

description: This paper presents the results of a randomized field experiment that provided information about key Social Security features to older workers. The experiment was designed to examine whether it is possible to affect individual behavior using a relatively inexpensive informational intervention about the provisions of a public program and to explore the mechanisms underlying the behavior change. We find that our relatively mild intervention (sending an informational brochure and an invitation to a web-tutorial) increased labor force participation one year later by 4 percentage points relative to the control group mean of 74 percent. (JEL C93, D12, H55)
DOI: 10.3886/e114551v1
title: Replication data for: Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence from a Field Experiment

description: This paper presents the results of a randomized field experiment that provided information about key Social Security features to older workers. The experiment was designed to examine whether it is possible to affect individual behavior using a relatively inexpensive informational intervention about the provisions of a public program and to explore the mechanisms underlying the behavior change. We find that our relatively mild intervention (sending an informational brochure and an invitation to a web-tutorial) increased labor force participation one year later by 4 percentage points relative to the control group mean of 74 percent. (JEL C93, D12, H55)
DOI: 10.3886/e114755
title: Replication data for: Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants

description: We study the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers' purchase decisions using detailed data from Starbucks. We find that average calories per transaction fall by 6 percent. The effect is almost entirely related to changes in consumers' food choices—there is almost no change in purchases of beverage calories. There is no impact on Starbucks profit on average, and for the subset of stores located close to their competitor Dunkin Donuts, the effect of calorie posting is actually to increase Starbucks revenue. Survey evidence and analysis of commuters suggests the mechanism for the effect is a combination of learning and salience. (JEL D12, D18, D83, L83)
DOI: 10.3886/e114756
title: Replication data for: The End of Court-Ordered Desegregation

description: In response to three Supreme Court rulings in the early 1990s, numerous court-ordered desegregation plans have been terminated. Using a unique dataset and an event study research design, this paper explores the impact of these terminations. The results suggest that termination produces a moderate increase in racial segregation. Outside of the south, dismissal also increases the rate at which black students drop out of school and attend private school. In the south, in contrast, there is no change in the school attendance patterns of blacks. Finally, evidence is presented that whites re-enter dismissed districts in large numbers in the south. (JEL H75, I21, I28, J15, K10)
DOI: 10.3886/e114756v1
title: Replication data for: The End of Court-Ordered Desegregation

description: In response to three Supreme Court rulings in the early 1990s, numerous court-ordered desegregation plans have been terminated. Using a unique dataset and an event study research design, this paper explores the impact of these terminations. The results suggest that termination produces a moderate increase in racial segregation. Outside of the south, dismissal also increases the rate at which black students drop out of school and attend private school. In the south, in contrast, there is no change in the school attendance patterns of blacks. Finally, evidence is presented that whites re-enter dismissed districts in large numbers in the south. (JEL H75, I21, I28, J15, K10)
DOI: 10.3886/e114757
title: Replication data for: Immigration and the Neighborhood

description: Within metropolitan areas, neighborhoods of growing immigrant settlement are becoming relatively less desirable to natives. We deploy a geographic diffusion model to instrument for the growth of immigrant density in a neighborhood. Our approach deals explicitly with potential unobservable shocks that may be correlated with proximity to immigrant enclaves. The evidence is consistent with a causal interpretation of an impact from growing immigrant density to native flight and relatively slower housing value appreciation. Further evidence indicates that these results are driven more by the demand for residential segregation based on ethnicity and education than by foreignness per se. (JEL I20, J11, J15, R23, Z13)
DOI: 10.3886/e114757v1
title: Replication data for: Immigration and the Neighborhood

description: Within metropolitan areas, neighborhoods of growing immigrant settlement are becoming relatively less desirable to natives. We deploy a geographic diffusion model to instrument for the growth of immigrant density in a neighborhood. Our approach deals explicitly with potential unobservable shocks that may be correlated with proximity to immigrant enclaves. The evidence is consistent with a causal interpretation of an impact from growing immigrant density to native flight and relatively slower housing value appreciation. Further evidence indicates that these results are driven more by the demand for residential segregation based on ethnicity and education than by foreignness per se. (JEL I20, J11, J15, R23, Z13)
DOI: 10.3886/e114758
title: Replication data for: The Surprising Incidence of Tax Credits for the Toyota Prius

description: This paper estimates the incidence of tax incentives for the Toyota Prius. Transaction microdata indicate that both federal and state incentives were fully captured by consumers. This is surprising because Toyota faced a binding production constraint, which suggests that they could have appropriated the gains. The paper proffers an explanation based on an intertemporal link in pricing that stems from search frictions, which has the unconventional implication that statutory burden influenced economic burden. The paper develops a bounding estimator to account for endogenous selection into preferential tax regimes that may be useful in other contexts. (JEL H22, H24, L11, L62)
DOI: 10.3886/e114758v1
title: Replication data for: The Surprising Incidence of Tax Credits for the Toyota Prius

description: This paper estimates the incidence of tax incentives for the Toyota Prius. Transaction microdata indicate that both federal and state incentives were fully captured by consumers. This is surprising because Toyota faced a binding production constraint, which suggests that they could have appropriated the gains. The paper proffers an explanation based on an intertemporal link in pricing that stems from search frictions, which has the unconventional implication that statutory burden influenced economic burden. The paper develops a bounding estimator to account for endogenous selection into preferential tax regimes that may be useful in other contexts. (JEL H22, H24, L11, L62)
DOI: 10.3886/e114128v1
title: Replication data for: Cyclical Job Ladders by Firm Size and Firm Wage

description: We study whether workers progress up firm wage and size job ladders, and the cyclicality of this movement. Search theory predicts that workers should flow toward larger, higher paying firms. However, we see little evidence of a firm size ladder, partly because small, young firms poach workers from all other businesses. In contrast, we find strong evidence of a firm wage ladder that is highly procyclical. During the Great Recession, this firm wage ladder collapsed, with net worker reallocation to higher wage firms falling to zero. The earnings consequences from this lack of upward progression are sizable.
DOI: 10.3886/e114130v1
title: Replication data for: Free to Leave? A Welfare Analysis of Divorce Regimes

description: During the 1970s, the United States switched from mutual consent to a unilateral divorce regime. Who benefited/lost from this change? We develop a dynamic life cycle model in which agents make consumption, saving, work, and marital-status decisions under a given divorce regime. Calibrating the model to match key moments for the 1940 cohort and conditioning solely on gender, our ex ante welfare analysis finds that women fare better under mutual consent whereas men prefer a unilateral system. Conditioning as well on initial productivity (expected income), we find that the top three quintiles of men and the top two quintiles of women prefer unilateral divorce.
DOI: 10.3886/e114131
title: Replication data for: When Is Foreign Exchange Intervention Effective? Evidence from 33 Countries

description: This paper examines foreign exchange intervention based on novel daily data covering 33 countries from 1995 to 2011. We find that intervention is widely used and an effective policy tool, with a success rate in excess of 80 percent under some criteria. The policy works well in terms of smoothing the path of exchange rates, and in stabilizing the exchange rate in countries with narrow band regimes. Moving the level of the exchange rate in flexible regimes requires that some conditions are met, including the use of large volumes and that intervention is made public and supported via communication.
DOI: 10.3886/e114134v1
title: Replication data for: Capital Flows and Foreign Exchange Intervention

description: I consider a small open economy model where international financial markets are imperfect and the exchange rate is determined by capital flows. I use this framework to study the effects of portfolio flow shocks, derive the optimal foreign exchange intervention policy, and characterize its interaction with monetary policy. I derive the optimal intervention rule in closed form as a function of three implicit targets. Finally, using Swiss data, I estimate the model to quantify the inefficiencies generated by capital flow shocks and the optimal size of the intervention.
DOI: 10.3886/e114295
title: Replication data for: The Effects of Global Shocks on Small Commodity-Exporting Economies: Lessons from Canada

description: We propose a structural dynamic factor model of a small commodity-exporting economy, using Canada as a representative case study. Combining large panel data sets of the global and do- mestic economies, sign restrictions are used to identify relevant demand and supply shocks that explain volatility in real commod- ity prices. We quantify their dynamic effects on a wide variety of Canadian macro variables. We are able to reproduce all the main stylized features at business-cycle frequencies documented in the literature on this type of economies. These include a Dutch disease effect which has proven hard to find in empirical studies.
DOI: 10.3886/e114296
title: Replication data for: Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy

description: We study the relationship between participation in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the sustainability of democracy. Our model shows that FTAs can critically reduce the incentive of authoritarian groups to seek power by destroying protectionist rents, thus making democracies last longer. This gives governments in unstable democracies an extra motive to form FTAs. Hence, greater democratic instability induces governments to boost their FTA commitments. In a dataset with 116 countries over 1960-2007, we find robust support for these predictions. They help to rationalize the rapid simultaneous growth of regionalism and of worldwide democratization since the late 1980s.
DOI: 10.3886/e114296v1
title: Replication data for: Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy

description: We study the relationship between participation in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the sustainability of democracy. Our model shows that FTAs can critically reduce the incentive of authoritarian groups to seek power by destroying protectionist rents, thus making democracies last longer. This gives governments in unstable democracies an extra motive to form FTAs. Hence, greater democratic instability induces governments to boost their FTA commitments. In a dataset with 116 countries over 1960-2007, we find robust support for these predictions. They help to rationalize the rapid simultaneous growth of regionalism and of worldwide democratization since the late 1980s.
DOI: 10.3886/e114297
title: Replication data for: Persistent Liquidity Effects and Long-Run Money Demand

description: We present a monetary model with segmented asset markets that implies a persistent fall in interest rates after a once and for all increase in liquidity. The gradual propagation mechanism produced by our model is novel in the literature. We provide an analytical characterization of this mechanism, showing that the magnitude of the liquidity effect on impact, and its persistence, depend on the ratio of two parameters: the long-run interest rate elasticity of money demand and the intertemporal substitution elasticity. The model simultaneously explains the short-run "instability" of money demand estimates as-well-as the stability of long-run interest-elastic money demand.
DOI: 10.3886/e114297v1
title: Replication data for: Persistent Liquidity Effects and Long-Run Money Demand

description: We present a monetary model with segmented asset markets that implies a persistent fall in interest rates after a once and for all increase in liquidity. The gradual propagation mechanism produced by our model is novel in the literature. We provide an analytical characterization of this mechanism, showing that the magnitude of the liquidity effect on impact, and its persistence, depend on the ratio of two parameters: the long-run interest rate elasticity of money demand and the intertemporal substitution elasticity. The model simultaneously explains the short-run "instability" of money demand estimates as-well-as the stability of long-run interest-elastic money demand.
DOI: 10.3886/e114298v1
title: Replication data for: Growth and Capital Flows with Risky Entrepreneurship

description: We show that the behavior of entrepreneurs facing incomplete financial markets and risky investment can explain why accelerations of productivity growth in developing countries tend to be associated with current account improvements. Under uninsurable investment risk, entrepreneurs have to largely rely on self-financing so that, when productivity growth rises, entrepreneurs increase saving to finance new investment. The key insight is that saving has to increase more than investment to also allow for the accumulation of precautionary assets that entrepreneurs hold for self-insurance against investment risk. Numerical simulations show that this net saving increase can generate a current account improvement in line with the empirical evidence.
DOI: 10.3886/e114299v1
title: Replication data for: Competition as a Discovery Procedure: Schumpeter Meets Hayek in a Model of Innovation

description: I incorporate an insight of Friedrich Hayek—that competition allows a thousand flowers to bloom, and discovers the best among them—into a model of Schumpeterian innovation. Firms face uncertainty about the optimal direction of innovation, so more innovations implies a higher expected value of the "best" innovation. The model accounts for two seemingly contradictory relationships reported in recent empirical studies—a positive relationship between competition and industry-level productivity growth, and an inverted-U relationship between competition and firm-level innovation. Notwithstanding the positive relationship between competition and growth, I find antitrust policy reduces industry-level growth.
DOI: 10.3886/e114552
title: Replication data for: Can Tax Breaks Beat Geography? Lessons from the French Enterprise Zone Experience

description: This paper shows that urban geography matters to the effectiveness of place-based policies, using the French enterprise zone program as a case study. Whereas this program created more jobs in spatially integrated neighborhoods, its impact on local wages was only visible in the more isolated ones. In addition, a focus on the average impact of the program would lead to the conclusion that it mostly succeeded in displacing preexisting firms, but a lower level of spatial isolation was a clear determinant of the decision to create new firms from scratch. (JEL H25, H32, L52, R32, R38)
DOI: 10.3886/e114552v1
title: Replication data for: Can Tax Breaks Beat Geography? Lessons from the French Enterprise Zone Experience

description: This paper shows that urban geography matters to the effectiveness of place-based policies, using the French enterprise zone program as a case study. Whereas this program created more jobs in spatially integrated neighborhoods, its impact on local wages was only visible in the more isolated ones. In addition, a focus on the average impact of the program would lead to the conclusion that it mostly succeeded in displacing preexisting firms, but a lower level of spatial isolation was a clear determinant of the decision to create new firms from scratch. (JEL H25, H32, L52, R32, R38)