Latent Demand for Urban Housing in the People's Republic of China

A new micro-data set demonstrates that, in urban China, own-built dwellings are 75% larger than state-owned dwellings. A switching regression with endogenous switching demonstrates that families with less privileged positions in the Chinese economy are more likely to inhabit own-built housing. The relationships between family characteristics and dwelling sizes in the own-built and state-owned sectors differ dramatically. However, unobserved characteristics, probably includingguanxi, play crucial roles in both. Depending on these characteristics, families in state-owned dwellings might have two-thirds more living space were they to choose own-built dwellings.     

Labor supply in urban China

Using labor supply responses from 10,560 urban Chinese workers, two-stage least squares estimations identify positive compensated wage effects and negative income effects that are, for the most part, statistically significant. The gross wage effects are mostly positive but they indicate relatively low uncompensated labor supply elasticities. The compensated wage effects are much larger; these may be important in assessing the labor market consequences of reform policies that monetize non-pecuniary benefits. The significance of labor supply responses depends on individual responsibilities within the family; the effects are largest for women and non-household heads. Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (4) (2003) 795–817.     

Human capital acquisition as a competitive response to the promotion distortion

Waldman shows that under the assumption that prospective employers observe whether a worker was promoted, but cannot observe his ability, the promotion policy is inefficient. In the current paper, we show that human capital acquisition made after the players (both worker and employer) observe the worker's ability reduces this inefficiency, even though such an investment is not optimal in some setups.     

Property Tax Rate Changes and Rates of Development

Theoretically, unanticipated and anticipated property tax rate increases should reduce and increase, respectively, residential development rates. A discrete-time event history analysis of 224 originally undeveloped parcels presents a first empirical test. Property tax rate changes one year in the future are anticipated; increases strongly increase the probability of development in the current year. Rate increases in the current year reduce the probability of development in the current year but with somewhat less certainty, probably because they are only partially unanticipated. Accordingly, pre-announced property tax increases might accelerate the underlying rate of development as effectively as would tax concessions.     

Experimental results on bargaining under alternatives property rights regimes

The effect of alternative property rights regimes on the choicebetween taking an object and acquiring it via a consensual exchangeis experimentally explored in a two-period screening game. Resultsare generally consistent with equilibrium predictions, suggestingthat property rights regimes have a significant impact on observedbehavior.     

Understanding the nature of the risks and the source of the rewards to momentum investing

Buying recent winners and shorting recent losers guaranteestime-varying factor exposures in accordance with the performanceof common risk factors during the ranking period. Adjusted forthis dynamic risk exposure, momentum profits are remarkablystable across subperiods of the entire post-1926 era. Factormodels can explain 95% of winner or loser return variability,but cannot explain their mean return components are more profitablethan those based on total returns. Neither industry effectsnor cross-sectional differences in expected returns are theprimary cause of the momentum phenomenon.     

HUMAN CAPITAL AND THE PROBABILITY OF DIVORCE

Concern about the high poverty rates experienced by children in female‐headed households has led to policies aimed at increasing these households' income. In this paper we present a model that analyses decisions made before and during marriage to invest in the human capital of parents and children. These decisions result from a variety of anticipated post‐divorce monetary transfers between spouses.     

Race and commutes

This paper analyzes the effects of segregation on commute distances for a sample of workers employed at a single company. With a CBD workplace, both black and white commutes increase with income. Both black and white workers increase their commutes if they move. However, commutes for all blacks are less than those for similar whites. Furthermore, black commutes increase much less quickly with income. Lastly, moves by black workers increase commutes by much less. With a suburban workplace, high-income whites and whites who move choose longer commutes from more distant suburbs. All blacks reverse commute from the ghetto. High-income blacks and those who move commute from the ghetto boundary.     

Effects of Expected Effort on Females in the Labor Market

We introduce expectations regarding the amount of exerted effort by males and females into the “standard” labor market equilibrium. Using a theoretical model, we show that the gender wage gap increases when the expected effect is incorporated into the model. Based on a survey, we find that there are inaccurate expectations regarding the amount effort exerted by males and females. We argue that biased expectations lead to paying females lower wages and a higher gender wage gap than should be expected on the basis of effort exerted. We suggest marketing females' efforts as a policy tool to counteract these biased expectations.     

THE RESEARCH ASSESSMENT EXERCISE AND THE REFORM OF ACADEMIC TENURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

In this article the reform of academic tenure is examined in the United Kingdom. We test the hypothesis that reforming tenure may have reduced performance in the universities. The years following the 1988 Education Reform Act provide an interesting natural experiment, as the broad effect of the legislation was to soften (though not to remove) tenure in universities in the United Kingdom. It is concluded that the act has not adversely affected efficiency as some writers have predicted it would.