ICT use by households and firms in the EU: links and determinants from a multivariate perspective

The progress toward a digital economy in Europe involves boosting ICT use in various environments, such as households and firms. Studies available at the regional level in Europe focus on ICT use by households. This paper sheds light on the digital divide by exploring the differences in ICT use across European regions, investigating simultaneously not only ICT use by households but also by firms. Using canonical correlation analysis, we first explore the existence of regional patterns of ICT use in Europe. Second, we test the influence of regional characteristics to explain ICT use by households and firms. Our results identify a first pattern defined by the regions that combine high levels of both ICT uses. This pattern is explained primarily by the quality of the regional government, knowledge-intensive services and economic development variables. A divide between southern and northern, and western and eastern regions is detected. We also identify a second pattern that captures ICT use by firms (not related to the first), predominantly determined by educational variables and some economic factors. This pattern does not exhibit the geographical digital divide found in the first. The findings show that there are synergies and regional factors explaining the use of ICT both at home and at work at the regional level in Europe that should be considered when designing public policy geared toward encouraging ICT diffusion.     

European Integration and the Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle

We apply the differences‐in‐differences method to study the effect of the European single market in 1993 and the euro in 1999 on the Feldstein–Horioka equation where countries outside the single market serve as a control group and those within as a treatment group. We find structural breaks that coincide with both events, in addition to the financial crisis in 2008. The results suggest that the correlation between investment and savings depends on institutions, exchange rate risk and credit risk. Furthermore, the pattern of capital flows within the single market leaves a significant part of the flows unexplained by fundamentals.     

Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Psychiatric Disorders on Employment

Prior research on the disability burden of mental disorders has focused on the non-Latino white population, despite the growing size and importance of racial/ethnic minorities in the labor market and in the US population as a whole. This paper is one of the first to test for racial/ethnic differences in the effects of mental disorder on employment outcomes with data from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Studies (CPES). We find that recent psychiatric disorder is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of employment for men of all racial/ethnic groups relative to non-Latino whites with the possible exception of Caribbeans. These findings are driven by the effects of anxiety and affective disorders. For females, only affective disorders appear to detract from employment overall. Much larger negative effects are found for Latino women with anxiety disorders.     

Banks Increase Welfare

This paper examines the relative degrees of risk sharing provided by demand deposit contracts and equity contracts. It is shown that in a framework in which individuals have smooth preferences and there exists some type of aggregate uncertainty (interest rate risk), the allocations obtained with a financial intermediary allow in general for greater risk sharing than those achieved in an equity economy. However, the interest rate is essential in order to determine the superiority of demand deposit contracts over equity contracts. The results of the paper contradict the ones obtained by Jacklin [1987] and Hellwig [1994], where demand deposit and equity contracts are always equivalent risk sharing instruments.     

Disparities in ICT adoption: A multidimensional approach to study the cross-country digital divide

This paper presents a cross-country study on the determinants of information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion using multivariate analysis techniques to capture the relative and multidimensional character of digital divide. Using canonical correlation analysis, the differences detected between groups of countries both in terms of ICT patterns and in terms of the factors explaining each are compared. The results provide the ability to distinguish between different patterns of ICT adoption that can be explained primarily by variables associated with differences in development levels. In countries registering higher levels of ICT adoption, the digitalization pattern is explained by GDP, service sector, education, and governmental effectiveness. In contrast, in developing countries, population age and urban population are positively associated with the ICT adoption, while Internet costs impact negatively. The results might be useful in finding and implementing the most suitable telecommunication and development policies for each case.     

How Does Ranking Affect User Choice in Online Search?

This paper investigates whether a search engine’s ordering of algorithmic results has an important effect on website traffic. A website’s ranking on a search engine results page is positively correlated with the clicks that it receives. This could result from the search engine’s accurately predicting the websites relevance to users. Or it could result from users merely clicking on the highest ranked links, regardless of the website’s relevance. Using a unique dataset, we find that a website’s rank, not just its relevance, strongly and significantly affects the likelihood of a click. We also find evidence that rank influences CTRs partly by controlling access to the scarce attention of users, but primarily by substituting the reputational capital of the search engine for the reputation of individual websites.     

Inequality and the Relative Reliance on Tariffs

In this paper we uncover the existence of a U-shaped relationship between inequality and the relative reliance on tariff revenue, by estimating a cross-sectional regression relating the ratio of the tariff rate over the tax rate to inequality and a set of control variables such as GDP per capita, openness, the degree of democracy, and area dummies. We explain this U-shaped relationship by means of a Ricardian model of trade in vertically differentiated products between a developing country and the (developed) rest of the world. The model generates the U-shaped relationship because the preferences of the political majority (as captured by the median voter model) are shaped not only by the influence of inequality on the desire for redistribution, but also by the influence of inequality on the relative size of the tax base on which income taxes and tariffs are applied.     

Measuring Individual Preferences for Rural Multifunctionality: The Importance of Demographic and Residential Heterogeneity

We propose an approach to conceptualise ‘rural multifunctionality’ and further investigate peoples’ preferences for it. We use an opinion survey concerning individual preferences for several functions that rural spaces should provide. We use the analytical hierarchy process approach to assess the relative importance of each function. The results show how the social weightings of these functions are balanced, confirming that society demands truly multifunctional rural territories. Nonetheless, differences are found in individual preferences. We explore the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of these individual preferences, paying particular attention to the importance of heterogeneity using seemingly unrelated regressions. In short, results from this research could be employed as a useful informative element for the future development of public policies related to rural spaces.     

The Demand for Organic and Conventional Produce in London,UK: A System Approach

The majority of studies on consumer demand for organic products neglect the presence of non‐organic competitors, ignoring their effect on consumer demand for organics. This article uses a demand system which includes both organic and non‐organic fruits and vegetables, with actual (as opposed to stated) data for household purchases. Estimation of our model provides empirical evidence on the interrelationships between organic and non‐organic products, as the relevant cross‐price elasticities. Own‐price elasticities indicate that organic fruits and vegetables are more price elastic than their non‐organic counterparts, and that lower social class households with children have the most own‐price elastic demand. Cross‐price elasticities indicate relatively strong loyalty to organic products.     

On the Optimality of Bank Runs: Comment on Allen and Gale

This paper presents a model consistent with the business cycle view of the origins of banking panics. As in Allen and Gale (1998), bank runs arise endogenously as a consequence of the standard deposit contract in a world with aggregate uncertainty about asset returns. The purpose of the paper is to show that Allen and Gale's result about the optimality of bank runs depends on individuals's preferences. In a more general framework, considered in the present work, a laissez-faire policy can never be optimal, and therefore, regulation is always needed in order to achieve the first best. This result supports the traditional view that bank runs are costly and should be prevented with regulation.