We study Brazil's recent use of satellite technology to overcome law enforcement shortcomings resulting from weak institutional environments. DETER is a system that processes satellite imagery and issues near-real-time deforestation alerts to target environmental enforcement in the Amazon. We propose a novel instrumental variable approach for estimating enforcement's impact on deforestation. Clouds limiting DETER's capacity to detect clearings serve as a source of exogenous variation for the presence of environmental authorities. Findings indicate that monitoring and enforcement effectively curb deforestation. Results hold across several robustness checks. (JEL K32, K42, O13, Q23, Q28, Q54, Q58)
{"title":"DETER-ing Deforestation in the Amazon: Environmental Monitoring and Law Enforcement","authors":"J. Assunção, Clarissa Gandour, Romero Rocha","doi":"10.1257/app.20200196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20200196","url":null,"abstract":"We study Brazil's recent use of satellite technology to overcome law enforcement shortcomings resulting from weak institutional environments. DETER is a system that processes satellite imagery and issues near-real-time deforestation alerts to target environmental enforcement in the Amazon. We propose a novel instrumental variable approach for estimating enforcement's impact on deforestation. Clouds limiting DETER's capacity to detect clearings serve as a source of exogenous variation for the presence of environmental authorities. Findings indicate that monitoring and enforcement effectively curb deforestation. Results hold across several robustness checks. (JEL K32, K42, O13, Q23, Q28, Q54, Q58)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77619064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.14711/thesis-991012986101803412
Takanao Tanaka
Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan gradually shut down all its nuclear power plants, causing a countrywide power shortage. In response the government launched large-scale energy-saving campaigns to reduce electricity consumption. Exploiting the electricity-saving targets across regions and over time, we show that the campaigns significantly increased mortality, particularly during extremely hot days. The impact is primarily driven by people using less air conditioning, as encouraged by the government. Nonpecuniary incentives can explain most of the reduction in electricity consumption. Our findings suggest there exists a trade-off between climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. (JEL I12, L94, L98, Q48, Q54, Q58)
{"title":"Energy saving may kill : evidence from the fukushima nuclear accident","authors":"Takanao Tanaka","doi":"10.14711/thesis-991012986101803412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14711/thesis-991012986101803412","url":null,"abstract":"Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan gradually shut down all its nuclear power plants, causing a countrywide power shortage. In response the government launched large-scale energy-saving campaigns to reduce electricity consumption. Exploiting the electricity-saving targets across regions and over time, we show that the campaigns significantly increased mortality, particularly during extremely hot days. The impact is primarily driven by people using less air conditioning, as encouraged by the government. Nonpecuniary incentives can explain most of the reduction in electricity consumption. Our findings suggest there exists a trade-off between climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. (JEL I12, L94, L98, Q48, Q54, Q58)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86145201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sydnee Caldwell, Scott Nelson, Daniel C. Waldinger
Transfers paid through annual tax refunds are a large but uncertain source of income for poor households. We document that low-income tax filers have substantial subjective uncertainty about these refunds. We investigate the determinants and consequences of refund uncertainty by linking survey, tax, and credit bureau data. On average, filers' expectations track realized refunds. More uncertain filers have larger differences between expected and realized refunds. Filers borrow in anticipation of their refunds, but more uncertain filers borrow less, consistent with precautionary behavior. A simple consumption-savings model suggests that refund uncertainty reduces the welfare benefits of the EITC by about 10 percent. (JEL D81, D83, D84, G51, H24)
{"title":"Tax Refund Uncertainty: Evidence and Welfare Implications","authors":"Sydnee Caldwell, Scott Nelson, Daniel C. Waldinger","doi":"10.1257/app.20210383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20210383","url":null,"abstract":"Transfers paid through annual tax refunds are a large but uncertain source of income for poor households. We document that low-income tax filers have substantial subjective uncertainty about these refunds. We investigate the determinants and consequences of refund uncertainty by linking survey, tax, and credit bureau data. On average, filers' expectations track realized refunds. More uncertain filers have larger differences between expected and realized refunds. Filers borrow in anticipation of their refunds, but more uncertain filers borrow less, consistent with precautionary behavior. A simple consumption-savings model suggests that refund uncertainty reduces the welfare benefits of the EITC by about 10 percent. (JEL D81, D83, D84, G51, H24)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136041434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We implement a lab-in-the-field experiment with 334 Turkish loan officers to document gender discrimination in small business lending and unpack mechanisms. Officers review multiple real-life loan applications in which we randomize applicant gender. While unconditional approval rates are the same, officers are 26 percent more likely to require a guarantor when we present the same application as coming from a female instead of a male entrepreneur. A causal forest algorithm to estimate heterogeneous treatment effects reveals that discrimination is concentrated among young, inexperienced, and gender-biased officers. Discrimination mainly affects female loan applicants in male-dominated industries, indicating how financial frictions can perpetuate entrepreneurial gender segregation across sectors. (JEL C93, G21, G32, J16, L25, L26, O16)
{"title":"Discriminatory Lending: Evidence from Bankers in the Lab","authors":"J. Michelle Brock, Ralph de Haas","doi":"10.1257/app.20210180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20210180","url":null,"abstract":"We implement a lab-in-the-field experiment with 334 Turkish loan officers to document gender discrimination in small business lending and unpack mechanisms. Officers review multiple real-life loan applications in which we randomize applicant gender. While unconditional approval rates are the same, officers are 26 percent more likely to require a guarantor when we present the same application as coming from a female instead of a male entrepreneur. A causal forest algorithm to estimate heterogeneous treatment effects reveals that discrimination is concentrated among young, inexperienced, and gender-biased officers. Discrimination mainly affects female loan applicants in male-dominated industries, indicating how financial frictions can perpetuate entrepreneurial gender segregation across sectors. (JEL C93, G21, G32, J16, L25, L26, O16)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135945994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan gradually shut down all its nuclear power plants, causing a countrywide power shortage. In response the government launched large-scale energy-saving campaigns to reduce electricity consumption. Exploiting the electricity-saving targets across regions and over time, we show that the campaigns significantly increased mortality, particularly during extremely hot days. The impact is primarily driven by people using less air conditioning, as encouraged by the government. Nonpecuniary incentives can explain most of the reduction in electricity consumption. Our findings suggest there exists a trade-off between climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. (JEL I12, L94, L98, Q48, Q54, Q58)
{"title":"Energy Saving May Kill: Evidence from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident","authors":"Guojun He, Takanao Tanaka","doi":"10.1257/app.20200505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20200505","url":null,"abstract":"Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan gradually shut down all its nuclear power plants, causing a countrywide power shortage. In response the government launched large-scale energy-saving campaigns to reduce electricity consumption. Exploiting the electricity-saving targets across regions and over time, we show that the campaigns significantly increased mortality, particularly during extremely hot days. The impact is primarily driven by people using less air conditioning, as encouraged by the government. Nonpecuniary incentives can explain most of the reduction in electricity consumption. Our findings suggest there exists a trade-off between climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. (JEL I12, L94, L98, Q48, Q54, Q58)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135169995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper studies the impacts of work from home (WFH) in the housing market from both intercity and intracity perspectives. Our results confirm the theoretical prediction that WFH puts downward pressure on housing prices and rents in high-productivity counties, a result of workers starting to relocate to cheaper metro areas during the pandemic without forsaking their desirable jobs. We also show that WFH tends to flatten intracity house-price gradients, weakening the price premium associated with good job access. (JEL J24, J31, J61, R21, R23, R31)
{"title":"A New Spatial Hedonic Equilibrium in the Emerging Work-from-Home Economy?","authors":"Jan Brueckner, Matthew E. Kahn, Gary C. Lin","doi":"10.1257/app.20210190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20210190","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies the impacts of work from home (WFH) in the housing market from both intercity and intracity perspectives. Our results confirm the theoretical prediction that WFH puts downward pressure on housing prices and rents in high-productivity counties, a result of workers starting to relocate to cheaper metro areas during the pandemic without forsaking their desirable jobs. We also show that WFH tends to flatten intracity house-price gradients, weakening the price premium associated with good job access. (JEL J24, J31, J61, R21, R23, R31)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135822417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Calling to thank donors is considered a key fundraising strategy in the charitable giving industry. Yet the effectiveness of thank-you calls remains untested. We conduct field experiments with public television stations and a national nonprofit in which 500,000 new donors were randomized to receive a thank-you call or not. Fundraising professionals predicted that the calls—which followed standard practices in the industry—would increase donor retention by 80 percent. In stark contrast, we found a precisely estimated null effect of calls on donor retention. (JEL C83, C93, D64, D91, L31, L82)
{"title":"Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence","authors":"Anya Samek, Chuck Longfield","doi":"10.1257/app.20210068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20210068","url":null,"abstract":"Calling to thank donors is considered a key fundraising strategy in the charitable giving industry. Yet the effectiveness of thank-you calls remains untested. We conduct field experiments with public television stations and a national nonprofit in which 500,000 new donors were randomized to receive a thank-you call or not. Fundraising professionals predicted that the calls—which followed standard practices in the industry—would increase donor retention by 80 percent. In stark contrast, we found a precisely estimated null effect of calls on donor retention. (JEL C83, C93, D64, D91, L31, L82)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135169987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We report the results of a field experiment that randomly placed unemployed young people as apprentices with small firms in Ghana and included no cash subsidy to firms (or workers) beyond in-kind recruitment services. Treated firms experienced increases in firm size of approximately half a worker and firm profits of approximately 10 percent for each apprentice placement offered, documenting frictions to novice hiring. We interpret the program as providing a novel worker screening technology to firms, as (voluntary) worker participation included nonmonetary application costs, echoing the widespread use of an entrance fee mechanism for hiring apprentices in the existing labor market. (JEL D22, J13, J23, L25, M51, M53, O14)
{"title":"Are Small Firms Labor Constrained? Experimental Evidence from Ghana","authors":"Morgan Hardy, Jamie McCasland","doi":"10.1257/app.20200503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20200503","url":null,"abstract":"We report the results of a field experiment that randomly placed unemployed young people as apprentices with small firms in Ghana and included no cash subsidy to firms (or workers) beyond in-kind recruitment services. Treated firms experienced increases in firm size of approximately half a worker and firm profits of approximately 10 percent for each apprentice placement offered, documenting frictions to novice hiring. We interpret the program as providing a novel worker screening technology to firms, as (voluntary) worker participation included nonmonetary application costs, echoing the widespread use of an entrance fee mechanism for hiring apprentices in the existing labor market. (JEL D22, J13, J23, L25, M51, M53, O14)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135169988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael Baker, Yosh Halberstam, Kory Kroft, Alexandre Mas, Derek Messacar
We examine the impact of public sector salary disclosure laws on university faculty salaries in Canada. The laws, which enable public access to the salaries of individual faculty if they exceed specified thresholds, were introduced in different provinces at different times. Using detailed administrative data covering the majority of faculty in Canada, and an event-study research design that exploits within-province variation in exposure to the policy across institutions and academic departments, we find robust evidence that the laws reduced the gender pay gap between men and women by approximately 20–40 percent. (JEL I23, J16, J31, J44, K31)
{"title":"Pay Transparency and the Gender Gap","authors":"Michael Baker, Yosh Halberstam, Kory Kroft, Alexandre Mas, Derek Messacar","doi":"10.1257/app.20210141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20210141","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the impact of public sector salary disclosure laws on university faculty salaries in Canada. The laws, which enable public access to the salaries of individual faculty if they exceed specified thresholds, were introduced in different provinces at different times. Using detailed administrative data covering the majority of faculty in Canada, and an event-study research design that exploits within-province variation in exposure to the policy across institutions and academic departments, we find robust evidence that the laws reduced the gender pay gap between men and women by approximately 20–40 percent. (JEL I23, J16, J31, J44, K31)","PeriodicalId":48212,"journal":{"name":"American Economic Journal-Applied Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135945993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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