Suivez-nous :

Lundi 23 octobre 2017

Régulation | 12:00-14:00
Salle R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
WILLIAMS III Roberton (University of Maryland) : Unemployment and Environmental Regulation in General Equilibrium
Résumé

This presentation will cover two closely related papers. The first paper analyzes the effects of environmental policy on employment (and unemployment) using a new general-equilibrium two-sector search model. We find that imposing a pollution tax causes substantial reductions in employment in the regulated (polluting) industry, but this is offset by increased employment in the unregulated (nonpolluting) sector. Thus the policy causes a substantial shift in employment between industries, but the net effect on overall employment (and unemployment) is small, even in the short run. An environmental performance standard causes a substantially smaller sectoral shift in employment than the emissions tax, with roughly similar net effects. The effects on the unregulated industry suggest that empirical studies of environmental regulation that focus only on regulated firms can be misleading (and those that use nonregulated firms as controls for regulated firms will be even more misleading). This paper’s results also suggest that overall effects on employment are not a major issue for environmental policy, and that policymakers who want to minimize sectoral shifts in employment might prefer performance standards over environmental taxes.

Mardi 24 octobre 2017

Soutenance de thèse
COMBE Julien
Essays in matching theory and its application
Sous la direction de : TERCIEUX Olivier

Economie appliquée | 12:30-13:30
Salle R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
FERNANDEZ SANCHEZ Martin (PSE) : School Segregation and Long-term Happiness : Evidence from the 1981 Privatization Reform in Chile

Résumé

In 1981 the Chilean Military Government introduced a new system of school financing and choice that led to an exodus of middle-class students from public to subsidized private schools. Using contemporaneous household surveys and historical administrative data of enrollment before and after the reform, I examine the long-term impact of increasing subsidized private enrollment –and thereby segregation- on subjective well-being. The results show that children from poor families were negatively affected by the policy change. On average, being exposed to a 10 percentage point increase in subsidized private enrollment during childhood is associated with a drop in adult life satisfaction of 6% of a standard deviation, an effect equivalent to a fall in household income of 30%.

PSI PSE | 17:00-18:00
SOTURA Aurélie (PSE) : Geographical disparities in housing prices, rents and personal income in France - 1880-2015

Mercredi 25 octobre 2017

Soutenance de thèse
ANTONIN Célline
Les comportements d’épargne des ménages français et européens
Sous la direction de : BOURDIEU Jérôme ; ROGER Muriel

Histoire économique | 12:30-14:00
Salle R2-20, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
HANLON Walker (NYU Stern School of Business) : A Century of Pollution and Mortality : London, 1866-1965
Résumé

Abstract : Relatively little is known about how the effects of pollution evolve as countries develop, due in part to the scarcity of historical pollution measures. This study improves our understanding of this process by estimating the acute effects of pollution in London across the century spanning 1866-1965 using detailed new weekly mortality data. To identify pollution effects I reviewed daily weather reports for over 31,000 days to identify fog events. I show that these events substantially increased pollution concentrations and that, because they depended on a complex set of climatic conditions, their week-to-week timing was as good as random after appropriate controls are included. This allows me to explore a variety of questions related to (1) the overall impact of acute pollution effects in London across the century, (2) how this impact evolved over time, (3) how pollution effects varied across age groups, (4) how pollution interacted with infectious diseases and (5) how the reduction in infectious diseases influenced the effects of pollution overall and for different age groups.

Jeudi 26 octobre 2017

Soutenance de thèse
PETRONOVICH Anna
Dynamic Factor Models with Non-Linearities : Application to the Business Cycle Analysis
Sous la direction de : DOZ Catherine ; BILLIO Monica

Macroéconomie | 15:45-17:00
Salle R2-21, PSE - 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
GIAVAZZI Francesco (Bocconi) : The macroeconomic effects of fiscal adjustment plans
Texte intégral [pdf]

Travail et économie publique | 12:30-13:45
SEIM David (Stockholm University) : Evidence from a Young Workers Tax Cut in Sweden
Résumé

This paper uses administrative data to analyze a large and long-lasting employer payroll tax rate cut from 31% down to 15% for young workers (aged 26 or less) in Sweden. We find a zero effect on net-of-tax wages of young treated workers relative to slightly older untreated workers, even in the medium run (after six years). Simple graphical cohort analysis shows compelling positive effects on the employment rate of the treated young workers, of about 2—3 percentage points, which arise primarily from fewer separations (rather than more hiring). These employment effects are larger in places with initially higher youth unemployment rates. We also analyze the firm-level effects of the tax cut. We trace out graphically the time series of outcomes of firms by their persistent share of treated young workers just before the reform, to which the tax cut windfall is proportionate. First, heavily treated firms expand after the reform : employment, capital, sales, value added, and profits all increase. These effects appear stronger in credit-constrained firms, consistent with liquidity effects. Second, heavily treated firms increase the wages of all their workers — young as well as old — collectively, perhaps through rent sharing. Wages of low paid workers rise more in percentage terms. Rather than canonical market-level adjustment, we uncover a crucial role of firm-level mechanisms in the transmission of payroll tax cuts.

Vendredi 27 octobre 2017

Economie et psychologie | 11:00-12:30
Salle 17 MSE
Gary Charness (UC Santa Barbara)
Choices Over Biased Information Structures : Reinforcement, Confirmation And Contradiction Seeking Behavior In The Laboratory
Abstract

(with Ryan Oprea and Sevgi Yuksel)
We study choices among information structures that are characterized by different biases. Bias is introduced via either distortion, through possibility of false reports as in cheap talk games of Crawford and Sobel (1982), or via filtering, through possibility of strategic omission of information as in disclosure games of Milgrom and Roberts (1986). The experimental design exploits how the optimal information structure depends on one’s prior and the form of the bias- filtering or distortion. Typing subjects based on their choices in a series of questions spanning these cases, we find strong evidence for confirmation, contradiction and certainty seeking behavior. This is particularly surprising given that traditional explanations for confirmation or contradiction seeking behavior are shut down in our design. Finally, we do not observe bias in choices over information structures to be correlated with biases in how signals are later interpreted. We discuss implications of our results in the context of political information and the role of media bias.

EPCI | 11:00-12:30
Salle 116, MSE - PARIS 1
BECKER Bastian (Bard College Berlin) : Mind the Income Gaps ? The lasting effect of information on redistributive preferences
Résumé

Individuals reject economic inequality if they believe it to result from unequal opportunities. This paper argues income gaps between inborn groups, such as gender or race, serve people as an indication of unequal opportunities. Findings from a survey experiment show Americans underestimate these gaps. When confronted with accurate information participants correct their beliefs and adjust redistributive preferences. A follow-up survey finds these effects to last for over one year and to induce the same preference changes across the ideological divide. In sum, this paper contributes to political economy scholarship that links individual preferences to objective economic reality. Focusing on income gaps offers new ways to explore the political consequences of changes in the income distribution.

Texte intégral [pdf]

Casual Friday Development Seminar | 12:45-13:45
Salle R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
OLCKERS Matthew (PSE) : Friend-based targeting