List of Papers – Microeconometrics (René Böheim und Rudolf Winter-Ebmer)
WS 2007
Terra G. McKinnish. (2007) Sexually Intetrated Workplaces and Divorce, Journal of Human
Resources
As women have entered the work force and occupational sex segregation has declined, workers
experience increased contact with the opposite sex on the job. The sex mix a worker encounters on
the job should affect the cost of search for alternative mates and therefore the probability of divorce.
This paper uses 1990 Census data to calculate the sex mix by industry-occupation cell. These
results are then used to predict divorce among ever-married respondents in the 1990 Census and the
NLSY79. The results indicate that those who work with a larger fraction of workers of the opposite
sex are more likely to be divorced.
Elizabeth u. Cascio, Ethan G. Lewis. Schooling and the Armed Forces Qualifying Test, Journal of
Human Resources
As women have entered the work force and occupational sex segregation has declined, workers
experience increased contact with the opposite sex on the job. The sex mix a worker encounters on
the job should affect the cost of search for alternative mates and therefore the probability of divorce.
This paper uses 1990 Census data to calculate the sex mix by industry-occupation cell. These
results are then used to predict divorce among ever-married respondents in the 1990 Census and the
NLSY79. The results indicate that those who work with a larger fraction of workers of the opposite
sex are more likely to be divorced.
Marco Francesconi, Wilbert van der Klaauw. The Socioeconomic Consequences of “In-Work”
Benefit Reform for British Lone Mothers, Journal of Human Resources
In October 1999, the British government enacted the Working Families’ Tax Credit, which aimed at
encouraging work among low-income families with children. This paper uses panel data collected
between 1991 and 2001 to evaluate the effect of this reform on single mothers. We find that the
reform led to a substantial increase in their employment rate of about five percentage points, which
was driven by both a higher rate at which lone mothers remained in the labor force and a higher rate
at which they entered it. Women’s responses were highly heterogeneous, with effects double this
size for mothers with one preschool-aged child, and virtually no effect for mothers with multiple
older children. The employment increase was accompanied by significant increases in paid
childcare utilization and our analysis in fact suggests that the generous childcare credit component
of the reform played a key role in explaining the estimated employment and childcare usage
responses. We also find that the increase in labor market participation was accompanied by
reductions in single mothers’ subsequent fertility and in the rate at which they married, behavioral
responses, which in turn are likely to influence the reform’s overall impact on child poverty and
welfare.
Mikael Lindahl (2005). Estimating the Effect of Income on Health and Mortality Using Lottery
Prizes as an Exogenous Cource of Variation in Income, Journal of Human Resources
A vast literature has established a strong positive relation between income and health status and a
negative relation with mortality. This paper studies the effects of income on health and mortality,
using only the part of income variation due to a truly exogenous factor: monetary lottery prizes of
individuals. The findings are that higher income causally generates good health and that this effect
is of a similar magnitude as when traditional estimation techniques are used. A 10 percent income
increase improves health by about 4–5 percent of a standard deviation.
Behrman, J. R. ; M. R. Rosenzweig (2002). Does Increasing Women's Schooling Raise the
Schooling of the Next Generation? The American Economic Review, Vol. 92, No. 1 (Mar., 2002),
pp. 323-334.
Abstract: (of a comment)
"Does increasing women's schooling raise the schooling of the next generation?" is the question
posed by Jere R. Behrman and Mark R. Rosenzweig (2002). Their answer to the question is no. In
fact, they conclude that raising women's schooling may lower the schooling of the next generation.
We show that Behrman and Rosenzweig's results are not robust to alternative coding schemes and
sample selection rules, and argue that their policy inference may be misguided.
DellaVigna S.; U. Malmendier; (2006). Paying Not to Go to the Gym. American Economic
Review Vol. 96 (June)
Abstract:
How do consumers choose from a menu of contracts? We analyze a novel dataset from three U.S.
health clubs with information on both the contractual choice and the day-to-day attendance
decisions of 7,752 members over three years. The observed consumer behavior is difficult to
reconcile with standard preferences and beliefs. First, members who choose a contract with a flat
monthly fee of over $70 attend on average 4.3 times per month. They pay a price per expected visit
of more than $17, even though they could pay $10 per visit using a 10-visit pass. On average, these
users forgo savings of $600 during their membership. Second, consumers who choose a monthly
contract are 17 percent more likely to stay enrolled beyond one year than users committing for a
year. This is surprising because monthly members pay higher fees for the option to cancel each
month. We also document cancellation delays and attendance expectations, among other findings.
Leading explanations for our findings are overconfidence about future self-control or about future
efficiency. Overconfident agents overestimate attendance as well as the cancellation probability of
automatically renewed contracts. Our results suggest that making inferences from observed contract
choice under the rational expectation hypothesis can lead to biases in the estimation of consumer
preferences.
DellaVigna S.; (2007). The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting. Quarterly Journal of
Economics, August 2007, Vol. 122, pp. 1187-1234.
Abstract:
Does media bias affect voting? We analyze the entry of Fox News in cable markets and its impact
on voting. Between October 1996 and November 2000, the conservative Fox News Channel was
introduced in the cable programming of 20 percent of US towns. Fox News availability in 2000
appears to be largely idiosyncratic, conditional on a set of controls. Using a data set of voting data
for 9,256 towns, we investigate if republicans gained vote share in towns where Fox News entered
the cable market by the year 2000. We find a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on
the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000. Republicans gained 0.4 to 0.7
percentage points in the towns which broadcast Fox News. Fox News also a?ected the Republican
vote share in the Senate and voter turnout. Our estimates imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 28
percent of its viewers to vote Republican, depending on the audience measure. The Fox News effect
could be a temporary learning effect for rational voters, or a permanent effect for non-rational
voters subject to persuasion.
D. L. Costa, M. E. Kahn; (2007). Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in
POW Camps. The American Economic Review, Vol. 97 Issue: 4 September 2007
Abstract:
Twenty-seven percent of the Union Army prisoners captured July 1863 or later died in captivity. At
Andersonville, the death rate may have been as high as 40 percent. How did men survive such
horrific conditions? Using two independent datasets, we find that friends had a statistically
significant positive effect on survival probabilities and that the closer the ties between friends as
measured by such identifiers as ethnicity, kinship, and the same hometown, the bigger was the
impact of friends on survival probabilities.