Evidence of Racial Discrimination in Different Dimensions of Owner-Occupied Housing Search

This paper examines the incidence and extent of racial discrimination in various dimensions of owner-occupied housing search. Audit data for sales units (1980-90) from the Fair Housing Center of metropolitan Detroit is used in an ordered probit framework. Agents' own prejudices and the prejudices of their customers are shown to be significant in explaining discrimination. Results also indicate that white home seekers are steered toward more white and affluent neighborhoods.     

An ordered probit model for estimating racial discrimination through fair housing audits

An ordered probit model is used to measure racial discrimination in the rental housing market for the Detroit metropolitan area during the 1980s. Racial differences persist in (1) rental units suggested to the homeseekers, (2) units actually inspected by them, (3) rental terms and conditions quoted, (4) information on the neighborhood amenities, and (5) qualifications of the homeseekers, but they appear to be declining over time. Agent prejudices and racial composition of neighborhoods in which rental units are located are significant in explaining discrimination.     

Estimating Health Demand for an Aging Population: A Flexible and Robust Bayesian Joint Model

We analyse two frequently used measures of the demand for health—hospital visits and out‐of‐pocket health care expenditure—which have been analysed separately in the existing literature. Given that these two measures of health demand are highly likely to be closely correlated, we propose a framework to jointly model hospital visits and out‐of‐pocket medical expenditure, which allows for the presence of nonlinear effects of covariates using splines to capture the effects of aging on health demand. The findings from our empirical analysis of the US Health and Retirement Survey indicate that the demand for health varies with age. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Applied Econometrics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Do travel visa requirements impede tourist travel?

Yes. Using a travel visa data set developed by Lawson and Lemke (2012) and travel flow data from the World Bank and the UN’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), we investigate the deterrent effect of travel visa requirements on travel flows. At the aggregate level, a one standard deviation more severe travel visa regime, as measured, is associated with a 30 % decrease in inbound travel. At the bilateral level, having a travel visa requirement on a particular country is associated with a 70 % reduction in inbound travel from that country. The gains associated with eliminating travel visas appear to be very large.