Economic Inquiry最新文献

Climate change, political turmoil, and economic instability worldwide suggest that managing migration surges will be a permanent challenge for many economies. In response to the record arrival of unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border, the Biden administration used surge facilities to expedite the processing of children. We assess the effectiveness of this strategy and document reductions in the time children spent under government custody. A counterfactual analysis reveals that, in their absence, the average time to reunification would have risen from 37 to 50 days. Migration surges involving unaccompanied children underscore the urgency of identifying efficient and humanitarian strategies.

Empirical researchers often consider a single determinant of labor productivity: speed. This paper asks whether they are neglecting spillovers on output quality. Using high-frequency data on the speed and quality of strawberry harvesters' work, we offer novel evidence that two distinct workplace policies associated with increases in worker speed lead to similar decreases in the quality of their work. We find that both peer speed and wage changes boost worker speed and lower output quality; 10 percent increases in speed are associated with reductions in quality on the order of 1.5–1.7 percent.

We study the impact of an information shock created by an outbreak of lung injuries apparently related to e-cigarettes. We use data from multiple sources: surveys of risk perceptions conducted before, during, and after the outbreak; an in-depth survey on risk perceptions and vaping and smoking behavior; and national aggregate time-series sales data. We find that after the outbreak, consumer perceptions of the riskiness of e-cigarettes sharply increased. From our estimated e-cigarette demand models, we conclude that the information shock reduced e-cigarette demand and the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation by about 30 percent.

This paper investigates the effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit disbursement on intramonthly household level purchases made from a supermarket retailer. We find that spending, the likelihood of shopping, the bulk expenditure share and the national brand expenditure share increase by $2, 1.5, 2, and 0.6% points, respectively, on the day that SNAP benefits are disbursed. We also compare and contrast estimates that use variation in the indicator for benefit receipt to estimates that utilize variation in the probability of SNAP benefit receipt. We find substantial differences between the two approaches for the outcome of spending.

Due to significant health concerns, governments across the world have taken measures to regulate dietary trans fat, for example, through bans and ad-valorem taxes. We assess the effectiveness of these two strategies and measure their ensuing welfare implications. We estimate a structural demand and supply model for the microwavable popcorn market using NielsenIQ Homescan data. Applying the recovered consumer preferences and marginal costs, we find a ban and a 35% tax result in similar levels of welfare loss and trans fat reduction. A 10% tax can still significantly reduce trans fat consumption (around 48%), while the associated consumer welfare loss is substantially smaller.

In many collective action problems individuals' contributions increase the probability of a collectively favorable event rather than affect the quantity of public goods provided. Such problems, that we refer to as collective prevention games, remain largely unexplored in the literature. We fill this gap by setting up an experiment where subjects' contributions increase the probability of a fixed collective benefit or reduce the probability of a fixed negative externality. Our main result is a substantial increase in cooperation in the probabilistic loss environment compared to the deterministic one. We explore some behavioral mechanisms that could drive this result.

Lockdown restrictions reduce the spread of COVID-19 but disrupt livelihoods and lifestyles that can induce harmful behavior changes, including problematic lockdown drinking fueled by cheap alcohol. Exploiting differences amongst the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, we use triple difference analysis on alcohol retail sales to examine the efficacy of minimum unit pricing as a price control device to help curb excessive consumption in a pandemic setting. We find the policy is remarkably effective and well-targeted in reducing demand for cheap alcohol, with minimal spillover effects, and consumers overall buying and spending less.

This paper examines how recreational marijuana legalization (RML) affects first-time college enrollment in the US using a unique college-level dataset and various estimation methods such as difference-in-differences and event study. I find that RML increases enrollments by approximately up to 9%, without compromising degree completion or graduation rate, and it boosts college competitiveness by offering a positive amenity, as evidenced by the rise in out-of-state enrollments relative to neighboring states. In addition, I find no evidence that RML affects college prices, quality, or in-state enrollment. This effect is stronger for non-selective public colleges in early-adopting RML states.