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Micro Data (micro + data)
Selected AbstractsCREDIT CONSTRAINTS IN THE MARKET FOR CONSUMER DURABLES: EVIDENCE FROM MICRO DATA ON CAR LOANS,INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Orazio P. Attanasio We investigate the significance of borrowing constraints in the market for consumer loans. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey on auto loan contracts we estimate the elasticities of loan demand with respect to interest rate and maturity. We find that, with the exception of high income households, consumers are very responsive to maturity and less responsive to interest rate changes. Both elasticities vary with household income, with the maturity elasticity decreasing and the interest rate elasticity increasing with income. We argue that these results are consistent with the presence of binding credit constraints in the auto loan market. [source] The Causes and Consequences of Albanian Emigration during Transition: Evidence from Micro Data,INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2002Dhori Kule This note reports the results of a field survey of individuals and firms in Albania, carried out during 1998. The surveys were designed to analyze the size, causes and consequences of emigration from Albania during the 1990s. Our results show that emigrants are motivated mainly by the ease of access of neighboring countries and by the prospect of high financial returns. Although most emigrants worked illegally and had part-time, low-skilled jobs, the majority found the overall experience positive, and the skills and earnings abroad have contributed to setting up businesses on return. These results have important policy implications for both EU countries and other transition countries in the region. [source] Financial Innovation and the Transactions Demand for CashECONOMETRICA, Issue 2 2009Fernando Alvarez We document cash management patterns for households that are at odds with the predictions of deterministic inventory models that abstract from precautionary motives. We extend the Baumol,Tobin cash inventory model to a dynamic environment that allows for the possibility of withdrawing cash at random times at a low cost. This modification introduces a precautionary motive for holding cash and naturally captures developments in withdrawal technology, such as the increasing diffusion of bank branches and ATM terminals. We characterize the solution of the model, which qualitatively reproduces several empirical patterns. We estimate the structural parameters using micro data and show that quantitatively the model captures important economic patterns. The estimates are used to quantify the expenditure and interest rate elasticity of money demand, the impact of financial innovation on money demand, the welfare cost of inflation, and the benefit of ATM ownership. [source] Does Trade Credit Substitute Bank Credit?ECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 1 2005Evidence from Firm-level Data The paper examines micro data on Italian manufacturing firms' inventory behaviour to test the Meltzer (1960) hypothesis according to which firms substitute bank credit with trade credit (TC) during money tightening. We find that inventory investment of Italian manufacturing firms is constrained by their availability of TC and that this effect more than doubles during monetary restrictions. As for the magnitude of the substitution effect, however, we find that it is not sizeable. This is in line with the micro theories of TC and the evidence on actual firm practices, according to which credit terms display modest variations over time. [source] Funding a PAYG pension system: the case of ItalyFISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2001Lorenzo Forni Abstract Italy is characterised by a mature pay-as-you-go social security system and by particularly adverse population projections. Given these trends, the social security contribution rate is expected to increase above its current high level. This hinders the development of employer-provided pension funds and introduces a significant wedge between labour cost and earnings that discourages both labour demand and labour supply. Any proposal to reduce payroll taxes and to reform the system in the direction of partial funding has to cope with the state of Italian public finances. Italy has to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact that imposes constraints on budget deficit and debt trends. Using micro data from the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth and official population projections, we estimate future employment trends under different demographic and macroeconomic scenarios and compute the cost of the transition. We show that it would be substantially reduced if positive effects on employment were induced by the payroll tax reduction. [source] Moonlighting in a High Growth Economy: Evidence from U.S. State-Level DataGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2002Mark Partridge Despite the prevalence of multiple jobholding, there is relatively little research into its causes. Existing research has tested the predictions of standard labor models with micro data. Yet, there has been virtually no research into the relationship between moonlighting and structural differences in regional labor markets such as wages and employment growth. In this manner, this study examines the large differences in multiple jobholding rates across U.S. states. The findings indicate that multiple jobholding acts as a short-term shock absorber to cyclical changes. However, in the long-term, these effects dissipate, indicating that moonlighting plays a similar role as do changes in unemployment and labor-force participation to regional labor market shocks. Conversely, multiple jobholding rates are inversely related to average weekly earnings. Thus, job growth accompanied by real wage (and productivity) growth may result in a decline in multiple jobholding, further exacerbating potential labor shortages. Other key factors found to influence multiple jobholding include occupational structure and education. [source] Consumer morality in times of economic hardship: evidence from the European Social SurveyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 2 2010*Article first published online: 1 FEB 2010, Cláudia Abreu Lopes Abstract Crimes of everyday life, often referred to as unfair or unethical practices committed in the marketplace by those who see themselves and are seen as respectable citizens, have burgeoned as a result of the transformations in the European economy in the late 20th century, namely the transition to neo-liberal markets and the emergence of consumer society. A ,cornucopia of new criminal opportunities' has given rise to a new range of crimes such as ripping software, making false insurance claims or paying cash on hand to circumvent taxes. These shady behaviours (legal or not) are part of people's experience, albeit they are collectively regarded as morally dubious. Taken collectively, crimes of everyday life are indicators of the moral stage of a particular society and therefore a valuable instrument for social and political analysis. This paper addresses the question of whether and under which conditions feelings of economic hardship trigger crimes of everyday life. A multilevel theoretical and empirical perspective that integrates theories stemming from political science, sociology, and social psychology is adopted. I start by exploring the embeddedness of economic morality in social institutions, followed by an elaboration of the concept of market anomie to account for deviant behaviour in the marketplace, to finally step down to the examination of the correspondence between social attitudes and consumer behaviour, as postulated by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The empirical study relies on micro data from the European Social Survey (ESS) (Round 2) and attempts to model, for each country, a formative measure of crimes of everyday life based on socio-demographic variables and the current economic situation, as it is perceived by the individual (taken as a measure of relative deprivation). The resultant country-specific regression coefficients are mapped onto the broader economic and normative context of 23 European countries. The results reveal that crimes of everyday life are driven by feelings of economic hardship only in countries where normative factors dictate their deviance. In countries where fraudulent behaviour is more generalized, inner motivations to offend play a secondary role as the more privileged consumers are more likely to commit fraud as they interact more often with the market. In turn, normative aspects result from a dynamic interplay of cultural and economic factors. As the economy grows faster, the tendency to offend in the market becomes more visible, but only in countries whose gross domestic product (GDP) stands above the European average. In countries with low GDP, the normative landscape is shaped by cultural factors that seem to obfuscate the power of economic factors favourable to consumer fraud. [source] Physicians' Labour Supply: The Wage Impact on Hours and Practice CombinationsLABOUR, Issue 4 2005Erik Magnus Sæther Increased wages is one instrument for boosting the hours provided by the personnel to the prioritized sub-markets. This study applies an econometric framework that allows for non-convex budget sets, non-linear labour supply curves and imperfect markets with institutional constraints. The labour supply decision is viewed as a choice from a set of discrete alternatives (job packages) in a structural labour supply model estimated on Norwegian micro data. An out-of-sample prediction is also presented and evaluated by means of a natural experiment. [source] Unemployment and Earnings Assimilation of ImmigrantsLABOUR, Issue 3 2002Pål Longva The regional unemployment elasticity of annual earnings for non-OECD immigrants is found to be more than three times larger than for natives, using micro data covering all immigrants in Norway in 1990 and a random sample of natives. The decline in relative earnings of non-OECD immigrants from 1980 to 1990 can largely be explained by the stronger impact of rising unemployment on immigrant earnings. These results highlight the importance of controlling for different period effects caused by fluctuating unemployment in panel studies of earnings assimilation among immigrants. [source] Price adjustment in Italy: evidence from micro producer and consumer pricesMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 2-3 2010Silvia Fabiani This paper investigates the behaviour of consumer and producer prices in Italy using micro data. The frequency of price changes is computed in order to obtain a quantitative measure of the unconditional degree of price rigidity at both the consumption and the production stage. On average, producer prices tend to remain unchanged for around 6 months, whereas consumer prices exhibit a longer duration, of 10 months. A comparison of the price behaviour of similar items confirms that prices are more flexible at the production stage. Prices, however, are not adjusted uniformly across sectors. The duration of producer prices is less for food and non-energy intermediate products and greater for non-food consumer and investment goods. At the consumption stage, price spells are longer for non-energy industrial goods and services, much shorter for energy products. In exploring the possible reasons for the differences, we observe that a higher share of labour in total costs is associated with lower frequency of price adjustment. Moreover, the structure and functioning of the retail sector in Italy may slow price adjustment at the consumption stage, together with other specific economic factors that affect mainly consumer price behaviour, such as menu costs and attractive pricing policies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Trusting the Stock MarketTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 6 2008LUIGI GUISO ABSTRACT We study the effect that a general lack of trust can have on stock market participation. In deciding whether to buy stocks, investors factor in the risk of being cheated. The perception of this risk is a function of the objective characteristics of the stocks and the subjective characteristics of the investor. Less trusting individuals are less likely to buy stock and, conditional on buying stock, they will buy less. In Dutch and Italian micro data, as well as in cross-country data, we find evidence consistent with lack of trust being an important factor in explaining the limited participation puzzle. [source] International Patterns of Union MembershipBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2007David G. Blanchflower This paper examines changes in unionization that have occurred over the last decade or so using individual level micro data on many countries, with particular emphasis on the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. I document an empirical regularity not hitherto identified, namely the probability of being unionized follows an inverted U-shaped pattern in age, maximizing in the mid- to late 40s in 34 of the 38 countries I study. I consider the question of why union membership seems to follow a similar inverted U-shape pattern in age across countries with such diverse industrial relations systems. I find evidence that this arises in part because of cohort effects, but even when cohort effects are removed a U-shape remains. [source] Does the labour supply of wives respond to husbands' wages?CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2008Canadian evidence from micro data, grouped data Abstract., Using micro data and grouped data, we assess the extent to which Canadian wives adjusted their labour supply in response to changes in husbands' wages during the period 1980-2000. Grouped data parameters based on weighted least squares and the unbiased-error-in-variables estimator developed by Devereux (2004, 2007a,b) yield cross-wage elasticities that are substantially higher (in absolute value) than those derived from OLS regressions run on micro data. Both grouping estimators indicate that the labour supply of Canadian wives responded strongly to changes in husbands' wages during the 1980s. For the 1990s, our estimates of wives' cross-wage elasticity display greater dispersion. A l'aide de micro données et de données groupées, on établit jusqu'à quel point les épouses canadiennes ont ajusté leur offre de travail en réponse aux changements dans les salaires de leurs époux au cours de la période 1980,2000. Les paramètres (pour les données groupées) dérivés par la méthode des moindres carrés pondérés et de l'estimateur développé par Devereux (2004, 2007a,b) engendrent des élasticités croisées qui sont substantiellement plus grandes (en termes absolus) que ceux dérivés par la méthode des moindres carrés ordinaires en utilisant des micro données. Les deux estimations montrent que l'offre de travail des épouses canadiennes a répondu fortement aux changements dans les salaires des époux au cours des années 80. Pour les années 90, les évaluations des élasticités croisées des salaires montrent une plus grande dispersion. [source] | |||||||||||||