{"title":"Mineral Resources and the Salience of Ethnic Identities","authors":"Nicolas Berman, M. Couttenier, Victoire Girard","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper shows how ethnic identities may become more salient due to natural resources extraction. We combine individual data on the strength of ethnic – relative to national – identities with geo-localized information on the contours of ethnic homelands and on the timing and location of mineral resources exploitation in 25 African countries, from 2005 to 2015. Our strategy takes advantage of several dimensions of exposure to resources exploitation: time, spatial proximity, and ethnic proximity. We find that the strength of an ethnic group identity increases when mineral resource exploitation in that group’s historical homeland intensifies. We argue that this result is at least partly rooted in feelings of relative deprivation associated with the exploitation of the resources. We show that such exploitation has limited positive economic spillovers, especially for members of the indigenous ethnic group; and that the link between mineral resources and the salience of ethnic identities is reinforced among members of powerless ethnic groups, and groups with strong baseline identity feelings or living in poorer areas, or areas with a history of conflict. Put together, these finding suggest a new dimension of the natural resource curse: the fragmentation of identities, between ethnic groups and nations.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84235009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neighbourhood Gangs, Crime Spillovers and Teenage Motherhood","authors":"C. Dustmann, Mikkel Mertz, Anna Okatenko","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Using an identification strategy based on random assignment of refugees to different municipalities in Denmark between 1986 and 1998, we find strong evidence that gang crime rates in the neighbourhood at assignment increase the probability of boys to commit crimes before the age of 19, and that gang crime (but not other crime) increases the likelihood of teenage motherhood for girls. Higher levels of gang crime also have detrimental and long-lasting effects, with men experiencing significantly higher levels of inactivity and women experiencing lower earnings and higher levels of welfare benefit claims at ages 19 to 28.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"159 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75701822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optimal Contact Tracing and Social Distancing Policies to Suppress a New Infectious Disease","authors":"S. Pollinger","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper studies the suppression of an infectious disease in the canonical SIR model. It derives three results. First, if technically feasible, the optimal response to a sufficiently small outbreak is halting transmissions instead of building up immunity through infections. Second, the crucial tradeoff is not between health and economic costs but between the intensity and duration of control measures. A simple formula of observables characterizes the optimum. Third, the total cost depends critically on the efficiency of contact tracing since it allows relaxing costly social distancing without increasing transmissions. A calibration to the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the theoretical findings.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"152 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85390991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adrian Peralta-Alva, Xuan S. Tam, Xin Tang, Marina M. Tavares
{"title":"Tax Revenues in Low-Income Countries","authors":"Adrian Peralta-Alva, Xuan S. Tam, Xin Tang, Marina M. Tavares","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We quantitatively investigate the welfare costs of increasing tax revenues in low-income countries. We consider three tax instruments: consumption, labour income, and capital income taxes. The analysis is based on a general equilibrium model featuring heterogeneous agents, incomplete financial markets, and rural and urban areas. We calibrate the model to Ethiopia and decompose the welfare costs into their aggregate and distributional components. We find that changing taxes alter the composition of demand. This, together with limited labour mobility, causes the incidence of higher taxes to fall disproportionately on the rural population, regardless of the instrument. Consumption taxes are the instrument with the largest welfare loss.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88264638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Generic and Branded Pharmaceutical Pricing: Competition Under Switching Costs","authors":"Aljoscha Janssen","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article examines pricing in pharmaceutical markets where branded products face competition from generics. After providing evidence for brand premia and switching costs using prescription-level and matched socioeconomic data for the entire Swedish population, I estimate a dynamic oligopoly model and evaluate counterfactual policies that reduce the impact of frictions on pricing. Lengthening the procurement period reduces the impact of switching costs on prices. The policy increases prices on average but more so for individuals with infrequent consumption, high education, and income. In a counterfactual where brand choice decisions are moved from patients to medical experts, prices fall substantially.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73077858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Breda, Julien Grenet, Marion Monnet, Clémentine Van Effenterre
{"title":"How Effective are Female Role Models in Steering Girls Towards Stem? Evidence from French High Schools","authors":"T. Breda, Julien Grenet, Marion Monnet, Clémentine Van Effenterre","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We show in a large-scale field experiment that a brief exposure to female role models working in scientific fields affects high school students’ perceptions and choice of undergraduate major. The classroom interventions reduced the prevalence of stereotypical views on jobs in science and gender differences in abilities. They also made high-achieving girls in Grade 12 more likely to enrol in selective and male-dominated STEM programs in college. Comparing treatment effects across the 56 role model participants, we find that the most effective interventions are those that improved students’ perceptions of STEM careers without overemphasizing women’s under-representation in science.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81661648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Steering Fallible Consumers","authors":"Paul Heidhues, Mats Köster, B. Kőszegi","doi":"10.1093/ej/ueac093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueac093","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Online intermediaries with information about a consumer’s tendencies often “steer” her toward products she is more likely to purchase. We analyse the welfare implications of this practice for “fallible” consumers, who make statistical and strategic mistakes in evaluating offers. The welfare effects depend on the nature and quality of the intermediary’s information and on properties of the consumer’s mistakes. In particular, steering based on high-quality information about the consumer’s mistakes is typically harmful, sometimes extremely so. We argue that much real-life steering is of this type, raising the scope for a broader regulation of steering practices.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"108 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72932185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Income-Based Affirmative Action in College Admissions","authors":"Luiz Brotherhood, Bernard Herskovic, João Ramos","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We study whether college admissions should implement quotas for lower-income applicants. We develop an overlapping-generations model and calibrate it to data from Brazil, where such a policy is widely implemented. In our model, parents choose how much to invest in their child’s education, thereby increasing both human capital and likelihood of college admission. We find that, in the long run, the optimal income-based affirmative action increases welfare and aggregate output. It improves the pool of admitted students but distorts pre-college educational investments. The welfare-maximizing policy benefits lower- to middle-income applicants with income-based quotas, while higher-income applicants face fiercer competition in college admissions. The optimal policy reduces intergenerational persistence of earnings by 5.7% and makes nearly 80% of households better off.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87909092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. Greaves, Iftikhar Hussain, B. Rabe, Imran Rasul
{"title":"Parental Responses to Information About School Quality: Evidence from Linked Survey and Administrative Data","authors":"E. Greaves, Iftikhar Hussain, B. Rabe, Imran Rasul","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We study the interaction between family and school inputs by identifying the causal impact of information about school quality on parental time investment into children. Inspection ratings provide news that shifts parental beliefs about school quality, and hence investment into children. We study this using household panel data from England, linked to administrative records on school inspection ratings. We find that parents receiving good news over school quality significantly decrease time investment into their children. We provide insights on the distributional and test score impacts of the nationwide inspections regime, through multiple margins of endogenous response of parents and children.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84085023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Suspending Suspensions: The Education Production Consequences of School Suspension Policies","authors":"N. Pope, George W. Zuo","doi":"10.1093/ej/uead011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Managing student behaviour is integral to the education production process. We study the tradeoffs of school suspension policies by modelling and estimating how changes in school suspension policies causally impact student performance and teacher turnover. Our results indicate that the reduction in suspension rates in LAUSD decreased math and English test scores, decreased GPAs, and increased absences. Teacher turnover also increased, particularly for inexperienced teachers. We also document an efficiency-equity tradeoff: while achievement decreased for most students in the district, the highest-risk students experienced moderate gains in achievement.","PeriodicalId":85686,"journal":{"name":"The Economic journal of Nepal","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78439946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}