Effects of Transparency in Procurement Practices on Government Expenditure: A Case Study of Municipal Public Works

This paper examines the effect of improved transparency in the bidder qualification process, using the experience gained from a case study of municipal public works auctions. A difference-in-differences analysis reveals that improved transparency reduces procurement cost by up to 8%. This finding is robust with regard to the concerns of both endogeneity and sample selectivity. The bidding-function estimates, combined with features of Japanese procurement system, imply that the introduction of transparent practices is insufficient to bring about efficiency in public procurement.      

科技金融政策能否降低环境污染？——基于“促进科技与金融结合试点”的准自然实验

在创新驱动城市发展的背景下,科技金融发展为生态环境治理提供了新动力和新方向。本文基于中国2003—2018年262个地级市数据,将“促进科技与金融结合试点”实施视为一次准自然实验,运用双重差分法考察了科技金融政策的环境治理效应及其影响机制。研究发现：首先,科技金融政策的实施对环境污染具有明显的抑制作用,并且与水污染相比,科技金融政策对于空气污染的治理效果更为明显;其次,从城市区位来看,科技金融政策对于东部和北部地区的环境治理效果要优于中部、西部和南部地区;从城市等级来看,科技金融政策对于高等级城市具有更为明显的治污排污效果;最后,中介效应分析表明,金融发展、技术创新和经济规模是科技金融政策改善环境的有效路径。此外,科技金融政策实施对于邻近地区的环境治理具有显著的空间溢出效果。上述分析首次尝试将环境污染纳入到科技金融政策的评估框架中,丰富和完善了环境治理的相关研究,有效地回应了学术界关于科技创新、金融发展和环境治理的争论,为推动经济高质量发展提供了经验证据。     

Impact of high-speed railway construction on spatial patterns of regional economic development along the route: A case study of the Shanghai–Kunming high-speed railway

The Shanghai–Kunming high-speed railway spans the eastern, central, and western regions of China and is an important \"horizontal\" in the \"eight vertical and eight horizontal\" railway network of China. This paper estimates the direct impact of opening a high-speed railway on the spatial patterns of regional economic development along the route by integrating GIS technology, spatial panel data models, and the entropy method. The results show that the high-speed railway can significantly increase the economic aggregate and urbanization rates along the route and promote the upgrading of industrial structures, but it has a limited effect on the economic growth rate, showing a weak trend. In terms of spatial patterns, the high-speed railway significantly improves regional accessibility, the strength of economic ties, and economic potential along the route. The regional economy is characterized by weak spatial agglomeration and presents a trend of balanced development. In general, although the economic effect of HSR for the economically lagged regions is smaller in the short term than that in the economically and less economically developed regions, the high-speed railway has the greatest impact on regional economic development and spatial patterns in economically backward areas, thus the economically backward regions have a greater posterior advantage, which is conducive to balancing regional economies and narrowing regional differences.     

Welfare effects of the euro cash changeover

Using merged data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper applies a parametric difference-in-differences approach to assess the real effects of the introduction of the euro on subjective well-being. A complementary nonparametric approach is also used to analyze the impact of difficulties with the new currency on well-being. The results indicate a loss in well-being associated with the introduction of the new currency, with the predicted probability that a person is contented with his/her household income diminishing by 9.7 percentage points. We calculate a compensating income variation of approximately one-third. That is, an increase in post-government household income of more than 30% is needed to compensate for the clear decline in well-being. The reasons for the negative impact are threefold. First, perceived inflation overestimates the real increase in prices resulting in suboptimal consumption decisions. Second, money illusion causes a false assessment of the budget constraint. Third, individuals have to bear the costs from the conversion and the adjustment to the new currency. Moreover, it is thought that losses are higher for persons who have difficulties with the new currency. However, the impact of difficulties in using and converting the new currency is rather small, and the initial problems were overcome within one year of the introduction of euro cash.     

After work shopping? Employment effects of a deregulation of shop opening hours in the German retail sector

This study investigates the impact of a deregulation of shop opening laws on employment in the German retail sector. Exploiting the gradual change in the opening times of shops across states and using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, difference-in-differences estimates indicate an average increase in the employment probability, driven by a rise in the likelihood of working marginal part-time hours. Workers in small firms are likely to experience a reduction of their propensity to work. For individuals facing high family-related, supply-side constraints, the change in shop opening hours has opposing effects on employment — positive on lower and negative on upper parts of the hours distribution. Overall, the deregulation is estimated to have raised the likelihood of working fewer hours than desired by the workers.     

Which firms benefit from robot adoption? Evidence from China

This paper investigates which firms benefit from robot adoption in a developing open economy such as China. First, we construct a unique comprehensive dataset to identify robot adoption in Chinese industrial firms. Second, we adopt difference-in-differences to provide empirical analysis after conducting the common trends tests. Third, we find that adopting robots significantly increases a series of firm performance indicators in robot adoption firms. Compared with adopting firms in the labor-intensive sector, firms in the capital-intensive sector significantly benefit from robot adoption in a series of firm performance indicators, e.g., employment, capital stock, output, total factor productivity, capital returns, and exports. Finally, we check the robustness, investigate the dynamic effects, and find persistent positive effects. Our findings shed some light on the impacts of robot adoption in developing and transition countries.     

Trade matters except to war neighbors: The international stock market reaction to 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

We investigate the role of international trade and proximity to war in international stock markets during the invasion of Ukraine by employing DiD designs and panel data comprising 70 stock markets. We find that differences in trade exposure to warring countries (trade effect) have a substantial and negative impact on non-European equity markets but are irrelevant for European markets. In contrast, differences in the distance to warring countries (proximity effect) have a significant and negative impact on European markets but have no bearing on non-European markets. We find that the relevance of rent from mineral, natural gas, and oil resources and the relevance of metals, ores, and fuels in exports operate as mitigators of the trade effect. Our paper provides valuable empirical evidence regarding the importance of mitigating the vulnerability of financial markets to international trade when a major war breaks out.