Does religious beliefs affect economic growth? Evidence from provincial-level panel data in China

More and more literature on economic growth and development has increasingly focused on long-run effects of geographic, historical, and cultural factors on productivity and income per capita. This paper investigates the effect of religious beliefs on economic growth using provincial panel data from 2001 to 2011 in China. It's very meaningful to study the role of religion playing in economic development since religion has influence on political preference, human capital and work ethic, especially in current China which is faced with income disparity, environmental pollution, and official corruption. Our results reveal that, among the different religions, Christianity has the most significant effect on economic growth. This conclusion is consistent among different estimators and robust with stability over time. However, no consistent or robust conclusions can be drawn for other religions. Different estimation methods give different signs or significance. Given the very few studies and limited data resources about China in this field, the paper as a tentative study provides a brand new viewpoint.     

Do the self-employed underreport their income? Evidence from Japanese panel data

This paper examines to what extent self-employed households underreport their income to tax authorities in Japan. To this end, we employ the so-called expenditure-based approach, which essentially compares the current expenditure of self-employed and wage earner households while controlling for their income, net worth, and household characteristics. Using Japanese household-level panel data for the period 2009−2019, we find that the self-employed possibly underreport their income by 33.0–36.4%. Our findings are also robust to the different preferences (degree of risk-loving, time discount rates, etc.), planned retirement age, and degree of measurement error in expenditure between the self-employed and wage earners.     

Smoking and wage rates – Evidence from Japanese panel data

This paper analyzes smoking behavior and its effects on wage rate. It is widely known that smoking has negative health effects and to discourage the practice, governments frequently implement policies such as tax increases and restrictions on public smoking. To evaluate these policies, it is necessary to understand the economic benefits and costs of reducing the number of smokers. We conduct a panel data analysis while controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and show that smoking is not the main factor causing observed wage differentials between smokers and non-smokers in Japan.As for the relationship between smoking and wages, we find that male smokers receive lower hourly wages than male nonsmokers. Smoking behavior generally depends on environmental, congenital, or social factors. These factors, however, do not only affect smoking behavior but also the wages of these individuals. To isolate the effect of smoking on wages, we control for individual heterogeneity using panel data to verify the existence of such an effect.Using tax change as an instrumental variable in the fixed effects model and several robustness checks, the results show that smoking has no statistically significant effect on wage rate. This suggests that smoking does not directly affect wages; rather, unobserved individual heterogeneity (other factors influencing both smoking and wages) leads to wage differences between smokers and nonsmokers. Nevertheless, smoking can affect wages in the long run through health problems. The nine-year panel data used in this research, however, is insufficient to capture the long-term indirect health effects. Thus, future research should consider analyzing indirect health effects using panel data spread across a wider time frame.     

Who adopts crypto assets in Japan? Evidence from the 2019 financial literacy survey

The adoption of crypto assets has been of great concern to policymakers ever since Facebook announced its proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, in mid-2019. Behind this concern lies the possibility of widespread Libra adoption for day-to-day transactions, bringing with it a set of serious risks related to money laundering, illicit financing, and consumer and investor protection. This study first investigates the variables that distinguish Japanese crypto-asset owners from nonowners, then investigates the variables that distinguish the owners belonging to each group from the rest of the owners. The second investigation focuses on four groups: owners’ level of understanding of crypto assets, the profitability of their investment in crypto assets, their holdings of conventional risky financial assets, and their adoption of noncash payment methods. In addition to the usual demographic variables, financial literacy, financial behavior, conventional risky financial asset holdings, and use of noncash payment methods are also investigated. Both probit models and multinomial logit models are estimated and two results are obtained. First, 35 variables distinguish average Japanese crypto-asset owners from nonowners. Owners are more likely to be male, aged below 30 years, have higher pretax income, work in private or public companies, or be self-employed, and be graduate-school graduates compared with nonowners. Owners tend to have higher financial literacy from two perspectives: a measure of objective financial literacy and the experience of financial education at school, and lower financial literacy from three perspectives: the experience of financial education about money management by parents at home, experience of financial troubles, and knowledge about credit cards, than average nonowners. Regarding financial behavior, owners tend to be overconfident about their financial literacy, impatient, judge based on reputation in selecting financial products, lack self-control, and less risk-averse than nonowners. Owners tend to have experience investing in conventional risky financial assets and to use noncash payment methods. Second, 40–60% of variables that statistically significantly distinguish between the average owners and nonowners also differentiate the owners belonging to three of the four groups (excluded is the group that uses noncash payment methods) from the owners not belonging to the groups. These results suggest that policies for crypto-asset owners, if ever implemented, should not only consider the average owner's characteristics, but also owners’ heterogeneity.     

Do domestic and foreign exporters differ in learning by exporting? Evidence from China

In view of the importance of intra-firm trade and export-platform FDI conducted by multinationals, we investigate how domestic firms and foreign affiliates exhibited differential impacts of export entry and exit on productivity changes. Using a comprehensive dataset from China's manufacturing industries, we employ the Olley–Pakes method to estimate firm-level TFP and the matching techniques to isolate the impacts of export participation on firm productivity. Robust evidence is obtained that domestic firms displayed significant productivity gains (losses) upon export entry (exit), whereas foreign affiliates showed no evident TFP changes. Moreover, the productivity gains for domestic export starters were more pronounced in high- and medium-technology industries than in low-technology ones. We explain our findings from the perspective of the technology gap theory after considering processing trade and the fragmentation of production stages in the era of globalization.     

Who Participates in Labor-Intensive Public Works in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Rural Botswana and Kenya

Provision of low-wage menial employment through public works schemes promises to provide low cost targeting of the poor, especially in rural areas where instruments for income transfer are scarce. Findings from survey-based studies in rural Botswana and Kenya show that the working poor are more willing to participate in public works schemes, especially those with few assets and limited access to private income transfers. Access to short-term employment through these schemes appears to improve the net income of the very poor and decrease poverty among the rural poor. The significant number of nonpoor in the schemes, indicates however a need for improving poverty targeting through setting wage rates that closely reflect the labor supply characteristics of the poor in rural labor markets. In addition, these schemes have to be complemented with other income-transfer interventions to ensure that the poor who fail to meet work requirements are not excluded from public assistance.     

What drives spatial clusters of entrepreneurship in China? Evidence from economic census data

Since Chinese government initiated economic reform in the late 1970s, entrepreneurship and private sectors have emerged gradually and played an increasingly important role in promoting economic growth. However, entrepreneurship is distributed unevenly in China. Using micro data from 2008 economic census and 2005 population census, this paper explains spatial clusters of entrepreneurship for both manufacturing and services. For both sectors, entrepreneurship (measured by new private firms) tends to emerge in places with more relevant upstream and downstream firms. Moreover, Chinitz's (1961) theories are also supported for manufacturing: small upstream and downstream firms seem to be more important for manufacturing entrepreneurship. For both sectors, entrepreneurship is positively related to city size, the share of young adults and the elderly population, and foreign direct investment. More migrants are also found to promote service entrepreneurship. Our paper is the first to consider both manufacturing and service entrepreneurship in China and should be of interest to both local and national policymakers who plan to encourage entrepreneurship.     

Who bears the burden of employer compliance with social security contributions? Evidence from Chinese firm level data

This article utilizes firm level audited data from Shanghai in 2002 and 2003 to examine the extent to which employers shift the burden of compliance with social security obligations back to employees in the form of lower wages. Results from a fixed effects panel model using data on a subset of the firms audited in both years found that 18.9% of the compliance cost was shifted back to employees in the form of lower wages. Separate two-stage least squares estimates with controls for firm size, ownership and industry type for 2002 and 2003 found that the incidence of social insurance contributions on employees increased across the two years. In 2002 the incidence of social insurance contributions on employees was 9.1% and in 2003 this increased to 33.8%. An explanation for the increase in the incidence on employees over the two years is that employer compliance improved in 2003 compared with 2002.     

Good institutions,more FDI? Evidence from Indian firm-level data

International Economics and Economic Policy - The study examines the effect of institutional quality on the FDI of Indian firms at the intensive country margin. In the present study, the state...     

Why do people oppose foreign acquisitions? Evidence from Japanese individual-level data

This study empirically examines the determinants of individuals’ attitudes about inward foreign direct investment (FDI) using responses from questionnaire surveys that were originally designed. Individuals’ preferences for inward FDI differ between greenfield investments and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and people are more likely to have a negative attitude toward M&A than greenfield investments. People with a negative image of the so-called “vulture fund” for foreign capital tend to oppose inward FDI, and this is more pronounced for M&A than greenfield investments. Moreover, loss aversion and high time preference rates are strongly related to opposition to inward FDI, and people with such behavioral biases tend to refuse indigenous firms to be acquired by foreign capital, even if they agree to accept greenfield investment. These results indicate that people’s preferences for inward FDI depend more on non-economic attributes than economic attributes. Our results also suggest that a lack of economic literacy is associated with unconscious biases against accepting inward FDI.     

On the microstructure of the german export boom: Evidence from establishment panel data, 1995–2002

This paper uses an unbalanced panel data set for exporting firms from manufacturing industries in one German federal state, Lower Saxony, to investigate the microstructure of the recent export boom. Looking at data for 1995/96–2001/02 it is demonstrated that a considerable number of plants start and stop exporting in each year, but that most of the export dynamics is due to positive and negative changes of exports in plants that continue exporting. A small fraction made of 4–5 percent of all exporting plants is responsible for around 70 to 80 percent of the gross increase in exports. Firms with expanding and contracting exports are found simultaneously in all broad sectors, technology classes and firm size classes. Patterns of export behavior differ widely between the plants over the periods investigated. JEL no. F14, E32     

Who benefits from household energy transition? A cost-benefit analysis based on household survey data in China

Aiming to alleviate air pollution and carbon emissions from heating, Northern China mandatorily converted household heating energy from coal to electricity (Coal to Electricity), natural gas (Coal to Gas), and clean coal (Clean Coal Replacement). Based on large-scale household survey data in Beijing, this study provides a cost-benefit analysis of the transition program and distinguishes between social and private benefits. The results show that all three programs improve the welfare of society and households. Compared to the Clean Coal Replacement program, Coal to Electricity and Coal to Gas programs provide higher environmental benefits while bringing about larger costs, and thus the benefit-to-cost ratios are lower. We also find that private net benefits are lower than social net benefits, and household satisfaction with the programs is positively determined by private net benefits rather than social net benefits. Furthermore, households with lower income and larger housing areas are more likely to be harmed by the programs by a larger burden from the heating energy transition. These findings call attention to inequity issues during the household energy transition.     

Who Bears the Burden of Social Security Contributions in the Netherlands? Evidence from Dutch Administrative Data

This paper sheds light on the incidence of social security contributions (SSC) in the Netherlands. Our unique dataset on earnings inclusive and exclusive of these SSC enables us to apply the methodology by Alvaredo et al. (De Econ. doi: 10.1007/s10645-017-9294-7, 2017) and draw clear conclusions on local incidence. First, our finding of a smooth distribution of gross earnings indicates that both employer and employee do not shift their contributions. This contradicts the standard incidence prediction of full shifting of SSC to employees but corroborates recent findings. Moreover, it is hard to reconcile with the standard static model of labour supply and demand where gross earnings are irrelevant. Second, our finding of a discontinuity in labour costs supports our conclusion of non-shifting and renders out measurement error as an alternative explanation. Overall, these findings suggest that the statutory split matters and that the burden of SSC close to thresholds is borne by employers.     

Who Bears the Burden of Social Security Contributions in Germany? Evidence from 35 Years of Administrative Data

This paper provides evidence on the question of who bears the burden of social security contributions (SSC) in Germany over a long-term horizon. Following Alvaredo et al. (De Econ, 2017) we exploit kinks in the budget set generated by a drop in the marginal SSC rate at earnings caps for health and long-term care insurance. These concave kinks lead to discontinuities in the distributions of gross earnings, net earnings, or labor costs which—in the absence of labor supply responses—are informative about economic incidence. Administrative data for West Germany from 1975 to 2010 facilitate a comprehensive incidence analysis. Finding no evidence for labor supply responses and no significant discontinuities in gross earnings distributions, we conclude that neither employers nor employees shift a substantial part of their SSC burden. These results are consistent over the whole time period and hold for several robustness checks corroborating previous findings for Germany. A small trend towards a slight increase in the SSC burden for employees is not statistically significant.     

Do China's high-speed-rail projects promote local economy?—New evidence from a panel data approach

This paper evaluates the effect of High Speed Rail (HSR) projects on the economic growth of targeted city nodes (HSR cities) in China using prefectural-level city data from 1990 to 2013. Employing a panel data program evaluation method devised by Hsiao, Ching, and Wan (2012), we construct hypothetical counterfactuals for per capita real GDP of HSR cities in the absence of their respective HSR projects using the outcomes in selected non-HSR cities. We find that the responses to HSR treatment are heterogeneous with regard to location, route, and region. The location-level impact ranges between 5% and 59% and is not temporary. HSR cities with positive effects concentrate along the Hu-Ning Segment, the Yong-Tai-Wen-Fu-Xia Segment, and within the Hunan province along the Wu-Guang HSR. These cities are mainly located in the eastern coastal regions of China, in core urban agglomeration regions that allow them to be transportation hubs. In general, the gain for local economies is greater for cities that are more industrialized, with more ability of the service sector to absorb enough labor, and with better supporting infrastructure. On the other hand, local protectionism hampers the development of HSR cities. We also show that at different project stages, HSR cities experience different gains.     

Who responds to changes to the federal adoption tax credit? Evidence from Florida

The federal adoption tax credit (ATC) can help offset the cost of adoption, yet it is unclear whether it has a positive impact on the number of adoptions or if it merely transfers resources to households who would have adopted anyway. The ATC has primarily been a nonrefundable tax credit, but in 2010 and 2011 the full amount (over $13,000) was available as a refundable tax credit, representing a substantial increase in the benefit to lower- and middle-income families—those with typically low tax liability. Using county-level data from Florida, we estimate an increase of 265 additional public adoptions over what would be expected at the end of 2011. Relative decreases in adoptions in the first months of 2012 suggest that much of this increase is due to retiming rather than new adoptions. The response appears to be concentrated in lower- and middle-income households living in higher-income, more populated areas.     

Firms’ demand for work hours: Evidence from matched firm-worker data in Japan

Using information on Japanese males’ work hours and the matched firms’ characteristics, this paper investigates whether the number of hours worked is determined by demand-side factors and tries to offer a possible explanation of why Japanese males tend to work longer on average, than their counterparts in other countries. Based on an empirical framework in which each firm sets a minimum boundary of work hours and where workers hired by the firm are required to put in at least the minimum hours, we found that the minimum requirement depends on each firm’s fixed costs of labor. Specifically, firms that tend to hoard labor during recessions, presumably because of higher fixed costs, require incumbent workers to work longer hours during normal times. Since Japanese firms have long been considered as incurring high fixed costs to train workers, we interpret the long work hour requirement as a rational strategy for Japanese firms in protecting high-skill-accumulated workers from dismissal. In other words, the long work hours of Japanese males reflect firms’ long-term employment practices, a typical feature of the Japanese labor market.