Micro-level Dataset Research Articles

Competition, Collusion and Spatial Sales Patterns - Theory and Evidence

We study competition in markets with significant transport costs and capacity constraints. We compare the cases of price competition and coordination in a theoretical model and find that when firms compete, they more often serve more distant customers that are closer to plants of competitors. By means of a rich micro-level data set of the cement industry in Germany, we provide empirical evidence in support of this result. Controlling for other potentially confounding factors, such as the number of production plants and demand, we find that the transport distances between suppliers and customers were on average significantly lower in cartel years than in non-cartel years.

What is Driving Women's Financial Inclusion Across Countries?

Using a broad set of macroeconomic country characteristics to supplement a new and comprehensive micro-level dataset for 140 countries, we identify structural factors, policies, and individual characteristics that are associated with financial inclusion-in general, and for women in particular. We find that structural country characteristics, such as resource-richness and level of development, and policies, such as stronger institutions, and financial development are significantly related to financial inclusion. We find a robust negative relationship between being female and financial inclusion as in previous studies, and our analysis points to legal discrimination, lack of protection from harassment, including at the work place, and more diffuse gender norms as possible explanatory factors.

What is Driving Women's Financial Inclusion Across Countries?

Using a broad set of macroeconomic country characteristics to supplement a new and comprehensive micro-level dataset for 140 countries, we identify structural factors, policies, and individual characteristics that are associated with financial inclusion—in general, and for women in particular. We find that structural country characteristics, such as resource-richness and level of development, and policies, such as stronger institutions, and financial development are significantly related to financial inclusion. We find a robust negative relationship between being female and financial inclusion as in previous studies, and our analysis points to legal discrimination, lack of protection from harassment, including at the work place, and more diffuse gender norms as possible explanatory factors.

The Effect of the Credit Crunch on Output Price Dynamics: The Corporate Inventory and Liquidity Management Channel

I study how a credit crunch affects output price dynamics. I build a unique micro-level dataset that combines scanner-level prices and quantities with producer information, including the producer's banking relationships, inventory, and cash holdings. I exploit the Lehman Brothers' failure as a quasi-experiment and find that firms facing a negative credit supply shock decrease their output prices approximately 15% relative to their unaffected counterparts. I hypothesize that such firms reduce prices to liquidate inventory and to generate additional cash flow from the product market. I find strong empirical support for this hypothesis: (i) firms facing a negative bank shock temporarily decrease their prices and inventory and increase their market share and cash holdings relative to their counterparts, and (ii) this effect is stronger for firms and sectors with high initial inventory or small initial cash holdings. To discuss the aggregate implications of these findings, I integrate this micro-level study into a business cycle model by explicitly allowing for two identical groups of producers facing different degrees of credit supply shock. The model predicts that a negative credit supply shock leads to a large temporary drop in aggregate inflation - as a result of the aggressive liquidation of inventory - followed by an increase in inflation as producers eventually run out of inventory. This prediction for inflation and inventory dynamics is fully consistent with observations for the 2007-09 recession.

Substitute or Complement?: How Social Capital, Age and Socioeconomic Status Interacted to Impact Mortality in Japan’s 3/11 Tsunami

Much research has underscored the critical nature of social capital during crises. Yet we have less information on how social ties interact with vulnerability factors such as age and socioeconomic status to influence mortality of the most vulnerable. Using a new, micro-level dataset of all 550 inundated neighborhoods from nearly 40 cities, towns, and villages across Japan’s Tohoku region, we analyze the factors that influenced mortality during the 11 March 2011 tsunami at the community level. Controlling for factors thought important in past studies - including geographic administrative, and demographic conditions - we find that social capital interacts with age and socioeconomic status to strongly correlate with mortality. For the elderly and those with lower socioeconomic status, ceteris paribus, deeper reservoirs of social capital are linked with lower levels of mortality. These findings bring with them important policy implications for disaster managers, communities, and decision makers facing the crisis.

Do internal migrants suffer from housing extreme overcrowding in urban China?

Housing deprivation is central to economic deprivation. Identifying disadvantaged group(s) suffering from housing deprivation is a necessary step before the government can design effective housing assistance programmes. Using a nationwide micro-level data-set from the Chinese Family Panel Studies, we evidence the disadvantage that internal migrants face related to extreme overcrowding. We find that renters, whether natives or internal migrants, are more likely to suffer extreme overcrowding than homeowners, nationally and in most Chinese regions. However, both rural and urban migrants are less likely to be owner-occupiers than native residents. By comparing homeowners vs. renters, we further discover that migrant homeowners are less likely to suffer extreme overcrowding than the native residents of China’s cities. Conversely internal migrant renters face the highest odds to live in extremely overcrowded dwellings. Overall, findings suggest that the Chinese government needs pay special attention to improve internal migrant tenants’ living condition, particularly so for those renting.

The roles of community assets in mitigating the impact of drought on grain yields in Northwest China

As an arid and semiarid region in that is frequently hit by drought, Northwest China is ecologically vulnerable. Faced with drought and other extreme events, policy makers have given top priority to the formulation and implementation of adaptation policies. This paper investigates the roles of community assets, including community social capital and access to public services, in mitigating the impact of drought in Northwest China. Based on a micro-level dataset of individual households and villages from two provinces, we find a major effect of community assets on grain yields, after controlling for other influences. Our econometric analyses show that the severity of drought in the study areas significantly reduces grain yields. The negative impact of drought, however, can be significantly mitigated in villages with better community assets. Several policies, including enhancing investments in communities’ infrastructure and providing public services related to drought, are recommended to both improve local adaptive capacity to drought and reduce poverty in the drought-prone areas.

Estimating Effect of Change in Policy Preference on Change in Voting Intention over Time: Micro-Foundation for Theories of Parties' Move

Macro-level research on dynamic policy representation has been involved with political parties’ move assuming some kind of issue voting, which in turn has been tested using real micro-level datasets. If we are to theorize parties’ move, naturally we should make an assumption about how change in proximity causes change in voting behavior. However, most empirical tests at the micro-level have been made by inter-personal comparisons using cross-sectional datasets. In the present study, instead of examining inter-personal difference in voting, we are to examine change in voting behavior, so that dynamic policy representation theories have micro-foundations for predicting parties’ move over time. Our hypothesis is as follows: When a voter’s policy preference (the position in a policy space) is changed, then distance between the voter and each party is changed, and because of it the voter tends to change the party for which they vote. To test the hypothesis, we conduct statistical analyses, utilizing a Japanese micro-level panel dataset which includes annual responses from 2011 to 2014, taking voting intention as a proxy of voting choice. The results support the hypothesis for some issues but do not for the others. We find that decrease in distance between a voter and a party causes increase in the voter’s tendency to vote for the party, for the issues which are relatively concrete and related to well-defined measures. We can interpret that our micro-level findings reveal part of micro-mechanisms of macro-level electoral dynamics.

Why Do Firms Default on Their Foreign Currency Loans? The Case of Hungary

I isolate the effect of the foreign currency on the loan performance of firms borrowing in different currencies in crisis time. I use a novel micro-level dataset from Hungary to decompose the factors contributing to the higher loan deterioration of foreign currency borrowers compared to local currency debtors. My results suggest that foreign currency denomination can increase the default probability considerably (even by 7 percentage points). Hence regulators should pay more attention to loans denominated in safe haven currencies, since they harm particularly in bad times.

The political and economic causes of satisfaction with democracy in Spain – a twofold panel study

This study tests the links between political and economic performance and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) in Spain. Contrary to the dominant theoretical paradigm that explains the aggregate evolution of and the individual-level differences in SWD mainly by means of economic factors, the article presents evidence that evaluations of the political process are equally relevant to account for both changes in individuals’ SWD over time and the evolution of SWD at the national level. Unlike most existing literature, this study supports its argument by combining analyses of a micro-level panel dataset (CIUPANEL) and of a pooled aggregate-level panel dataset based on the Spanish samples in the Eurobarometer and the Latinobarómetro between 1986 and 2014.

The Regional Heterogeneity of Productivity Determinants: Evidence from Ukrainian Firms

Abstract This paper studies the determinants of the total factor productivity (TFP) for Ukrainian firms in the manufacturing sector across macro-regions using recent micro-level datasets for 2013. Our empirical results show some degree of heterogeneity across Ukrainian macro-regions; in particular, the link between the total factor productivity, firm size, imports and the level of competition seems to be valid for all macro regions. However, the effects of private ownership status, capital intensity and exports seems to be region specific. In addition, we found no relationship between firm productivity and foreign ownership for any of the regions.

Changing Prices ... Changing Times: Evidence for Italy

This paper examines the process of adjustment of prices in Italy to determine whether nominal flexibility, measured by the frequency of price changes, has increased in the recent years of protracted stagnation and double-dip recession. The analysis is based on a large micro-level dataset of individual prices collected monthly by Istat from 2006 to 2013 for the Consumer Price Index. We find that both the percentage of prices adjusted monthly and the average size of the adjustment have risen significantly since the 1996-2001 period, in particular for downward changes. This greater flexibility is related in part to the spread of modern distribution structures. Our estimates further indicate that the recession has affected the price adjustment mechanism: for manufactures, price cuts have become larger and more frequent, while increases are more moderate; for services, both the frequency and the size of price increases have diminished.

Quantile house price indices in Beijing

Using a comprehensive micro-level dataset of newly-built residential housing units in Beijing, we examine the determinants of house prices from 2013 to 2015, and construct a regular house price index using Ordinary Least Squares estimation and quantile house price indices using quantile regression. Our findings suggest a high appreciation rate of house prices from 2013 to 2015. Moreover, we find that most housing attributes are valued differently across the complete distribution of house prices, and the distribution of house prices changes according to the different value of housing attributes. The result shows that even though the trend of house price indices is similar, the magnitude of appreciation rates vary across different quantiles.

Bowling Together: Mobilization of Collective Action by Environmental NGOs

AbstractSocial capital generated by frequent, face-to-face interactions provides the foundation for collective action. Does this also hold for a community action in post-communist, Central European countries where modern NGOs are perceived to be ineffective? This article examines this question in the context of the cleanup of illegal dumpsites organized by a Slovenian NGO, Ecologists without Borders, in 2010. This community cleanup effort sought to produce local public goods such as improved aesthetics, sanitation, and ground water quality. Local participation levels (percentage of adults contributing to the cleanup effort) varied across 192 districts of Slovenia. Analyzing an original, micro-level dataset, this article finds that, all else equal, social capitals rooted in frequent face-to-face interactions (the common Catholic religion and membership in Hunters clubs) are associated with increased participation levels. However, social capital generated via common native language does not show statistical association with participation levels.

Competition, Collusion and Spatial Sales Patterns - Theory and Evidence

We study competition in markets with transport costs and capacity constraints. We compare the outcomes of price competition and coordination in a theoretical model and find that when firms compete, they more often serve more distant customers who are closer to the competitor’s plant. If firms compete, the transport distance varies in the degree of overcapacity, but not if they coordinate their sales. Using a rich micro-level data set of the cement industry in Germany, we study a cartel breakdown to identify the effect of competition on transport distances. Our econometric analyses confirm the theoretical predictions.

Evidence on Finance and Economic Growth

This paper reviews and appraises the body of empirical research on the association between financial markets and economic growth that has accumulated over the past quarter-century. The bulk of the historical evidence suggests that financial development affects economic growth in a positive, monotonic way, yet recent research endeavors have provided useful and important qualifications of this conventional wisdom. Moreover, the proliferation of micro-level datasets has enabled researchers to study more precise links between theory and measurement. The paper highlights the mechanisms through which financial markets benefit society, as well as the channels through which finance can slow down long-term growth. JEL Classification: O4, G1

BRIDES FOR SALE: CROSS‐BORDER MARRIAGES AND FEMALE IMMIGRATION

Developed East Asian countries import a large number of women from abroad as brides every year, although such cross‐border marriages virtually did not exist 20 years ago. With a theoretical framework and empirical evidence, we argue that developed Asian countries' demand for foreign brides is the consequence of improvement in women's economic status and gender‐discriminative household arrangements that insufficiently incorporate women's improved status in marriage. We offer sets of empirical evidence in line with our argument, using various macro‐ and microlevel datasets. (JEL A12, J12, J61)

Noncognitive skills and job match: evidence from military applicants

The study examines the effect of noncognitive skills on early career choices among young job seekers. Specifically, we analyze the influence of personality traits on the decision by military applicants either to choose the military or a civilian career option. We use a unique micro-level data-set of applicants to the US Navy and exploit the fact that many individuals who initially apply for military jobs eventually choose civilian careers instead. In this institutional setting, job candidates use new information to update their beliefs about the military job match. Personality traits are viewed as productive abilities that influence applicants’ expectations about the economic return to the job and occupational training offered by the Navy. The study finds that many of the 15 lower order personality facets associated with the Big Five traits are predictive of applicants’ job choices and provides suggestive evidence of a link between personality traits, job match expectations, and career choice.

How collateral laws shape lending and sectoral activity

We demonstrate the central importance of creditors’ ability to use movable assets as collateral (as distinct from immovable real estate) when borrowing from banks. Using a unique cross-country micro-level loan data set containing loan-to-value ratios for different assets, we find that loan-to-values of loans collateralized with movable assets are lower in countries with weak collateral laws, relative to immovable assets, and that lending is biased toward the use of immovable assets. Using sector-level data, we find that weak movable collateral laws create distortions in the allocation of resources that favor immovable-based production and investment. An analysis of Slovakia's collateral law reform confirms our findings.

Import competition, dynamic resource allocation and productivity dispersion: micro-level evidence from China

Can trade liberalization shape sector dynamics by inducing reallocation of resources towards more efficient use? This paper explores whether and how import competition affects productivity dispersion within 425 4-digit manufacturing industries in China. Using a number of comprehensive micro-level datasets over the period of 2000-06, we find that import penetration reduces the productivity dispersion in general and the main channel is through the competition-induced dynamic resource allocation within industries by driving the least efficient firms out of the market. The trade-induced productivity truncation is more evident for imports under the ordinary trade regime and for final imported goods and intermediate goods imported by the same industries. The results are robust to various model specifications and estimation methods.