Event Categories: BICEPS/SSE Riga Pētnieciskais seminārs

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar, which will take place on Thursday, June 6 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“Counting on My Vote Not Counting: Expressive Voting in Committees” by Boris Ginzburg (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), co-authored with José-Alberto Guerra (Universidad de los Andes) and Warn Nuarpear Lekfuangfu (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok).

Abstract
How do voting institutions affect incentives of committees to vote expressively? We model the problem of a committee, whose members have different depths of reasoning, that decides whether to approve an ethical proposal. Members who vote for the proposal receive expressive utility, but all members pay a cost if the proposal is passed. The model suggests that institutional features that reduce the probability of a member being pivotal – such as larger committee size, or a more restrictive majority rule – increase the expected share of votes in favour of the ethical alternative. A laboratory experiment with a charitable donation framing demonstrates comparative statics that are in line with these results. We also structurally estimate the distribution of expressive preferences across individuals, and find that a high proportion of subjects are strategically naive.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, May 2 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“Trade and the Spatial Distribution of Transport Infrastructure” by Alexander Tarasov (Higher School of Economics).

Abstract

The distribution of transport infrastructure across space is the outcome of deliberate government planning that reflects a desire to unlock the welfare gains from regional economic integration. Yet, despite being one of the oldest government activities, the economic forces shaping the endogenous emergence of infrastructure have not been rigorously studied. This paper provides a stylized analytical framework of open economies in which planners decide non-cooperatively on transport infrastructure investments across continuous space. Allowing for intra- and international trade, the resulting equilibrium investment schedule features underinvestment that turns out particularly severe in border regions and that is amplified by the presence of discrete border costs. In European data, the mechanism explains about a fifth of the border effect identified in a conventionally specified gravity regression. The framework sheds light on the welfare costs of second best investment schedules or on the effects of intercontinental trade.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, April 18 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“Short-term rentals and the housing market: Quasi-experimental evidence from Airbnb in Los Angeles” by Johannes Van Ommeren (VU Amsterdam), co-authored with Hans R.A. Koster and Nicolas Volkhausen (VU Amsterdam).

Abstract

Online short-term rental (STR) platforms such as Airbnb have grown spectacularly. We study the effects of STR-platforms on the housing market using a quasi-experimental research design. 18 out of 88 cities in Los Angeles County have severely restricted short-term rentals by adopting Home Sharing Ordinances. We apply a panel regression-discontinuity design around the cities’ borders. Ordinances reduced listings by 50 percent and housing prices by 3 percent. Additional difference-in-differences estimates show that ordinances reduced rents also by 3 percent. These estimates imply large effects of Airbnb on property values in areas attractive to tourists (e.g. an increase of 10 percent within 2.5km of Downtown LA).

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, April 4 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“Diagnostic uncertainty and insurance in credence goods markets” by Maryna Tverdostup (University of Innsbruck), co-authored with Loukas Balafoutas, Helena Fornwagner, Rudolf Kerschbamer, and Matthias Sutter.

Abstract

A growing recent literature studies the determinants of fraud and inefficiencies in markets for credence goods, in which an expert who possesses superior information about a consumer’s needs may take actions that increase consumer expenditure. Prime examples of such markets include repair services, legal and financial services, and healthcare. While certain aspects of the institutional environment in credence goods markets – such as liability, verifiability, reputation, and competition between experts – have been studied in the literature, there exists hardly any evidence on the role of insurance protection. In addition, very little is known about the role of diagnostic uncertainty in credence goods markets. This paper offers an examination of these two factors, by comparing service provision by an expert in the absence and in the presence of insurance, as well as under perfect and imperfect diagnostic precision. We present a theoretical model, followed by evidence of the role of insurance and diagnostic uncertainty from a laboratory experiment. Experimental results show in line with the theoretical predictions that insurance and uncertainty about the consumer problem lead to more overtreatment. Moreover, if consumer is are insured, experts invest less in a higher diagnostic precision. We discuss implications of our findings for credence goods markets and in particular for healthcare services.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, March 21 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“Weather Shocks” by Gauthier Vermandel (Université Paris Dauphine), co-authored with Ewen Gallic (Université de Rennes I).

Abstract

How much do weather shocks matter? The literature addresses this question in two isolated ways: either by looking at long-term effects through the prism of theoretical models, or by focusing on short-term effects using empirical analysis. We propose a framework to bring together both the short and long-term effects through the lens of an estimated DSGE model with a weather-dependent agricultural sector. The model is estimated using Bayesian methods and quarterly data for New Zealand over the sample period 1994:Q2 to 2016:Q4. In the short-run, our analysis underlines the key role of weather as a driver of business cycles over the sample period. A weather shock – as measured by a drought index – acts as a negative supply shock that causes a recession, boosts the non-agricultural sector and entails current account deficits. Taking a long term perspective, a welfare analysis reveals that weather shocks are not a free lunch: the welfare cost of weather is currently estimated at 0.40% of permanent consumption. Climate change critically enlarges the welfare cost in a non-linear fashion, peaking to 0.58%.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, March 7 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“To Russia with Love? The Impact of Sanctions on Elections” by Michele Valsecchi (New Economic School, Moscow).

Abstract

Do economic sanctions weaken the support for incumbent governments? To answer this question, we focus on the sanctions imposed on Russia after 2014 and estimate their effect on voting behavior in both presidential and parliamentary elections. For identification, we use cross-regional variation in (pre-determined) trade exposure to sanctioning and non-sanctioning countries and before-after voting data at both regional and district level. The sanctions caused an increase in support for the incumbent. Around 39 percent of the increase in the vote shares of president Putin and his party can be explained by sanctions. This result is robust to alternative measures of sanction exposure, including a measure of trade loss, i.e., the difference between observed trade flows and counter-factual trade flows computed via a full-general-equilibrium gravity model. Absence of pre-trends, as well as several placebo estimations, supports the validity of the identification assumption. We then explore several potential mechanisms, including propaganda, electoral fraud as well as standard demand-supply effects. Overall, while it is hard to evaluate all the potential motives that sanctioning countries might have had, our results suggest that economic sanctions are not an effective tool for reaching one of their primary goals and can actually backfire.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, February 7 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“The Civic Consequences of Migration: Social and Political Participation of Latvians At Home and Abroad” by Inta Mieriņa (The Center for Diaspora and Migration Research, University of Latvia).

Abstract

Existing research indicates that group identity and group attachment are important sources of trust, cooperation, and commitment to one’s group, helping to overcome social dilemmas, facilitating collective action and contributing to public good (Tyler, 2001; Goette et al., 2006; Simpson, 2006; Yamagishi & Mifune, 2008; Dawes & Messick 2010). To what extent the fact that emigrants are potentially less embedded in their new community, and presumably less attached to their new place of residence than to one’s home country affects their civic and pro-social behavior in the receiving country? This paper looks at the consequences of migration on civil society, civic activism and contribution to public good. Using propensity score matching, young emigrants from Latvia – one of the sending countries within post-enlargement EU – are compared to young people within Latvia who have not emigrated, to test whether moving to another country is associated with reduced levels of trust and attachment to the local community and place. If this is the case, young emigrants could be less likely to engage in civic and social activities in the receiving country than their counterparts at home.  A rich set of controls allows distinguishing between emigration effect and selection effect. The analysis is based on data collected in ERC StG240830 project “Public Goods through Private Eyes: Exploring Citizens’ Attitudes towards Public Goods and the State in East-Central Europe” and ESF 2013/0055/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/13/APIA/VIAA/040 project “Emigrant communities of Latvia: national identity, transnational relations, and diaspora politics”.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.