Francis Cheneval, Eigentum und Sachwaltung als Grundlagen einer unternehmerischen Kreislaufwirtschaft, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 20, 2023. (Working Paper)
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Reto Foellmi, Marco Schmid, Josef Zweimüller, Within-country inequality and the patterns of trade, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 17, 2023. (Working Paper)
We introduce a demand-side trade model to shed light on the interaction between countries’ income distributions, the patterns of international trade and parallel trade policy restrictions in general equilibrium. We provide a comprehensive theoretical foundation for the role of income inequality for trade that allows distinguishing within- and between-country inequality. To bring differences in the willingness to pay of differentially rich consumers to the forefront of the analysis, we deviate from the canonical model by replacing the standard CES preferences with non-homothetic 0-1 preferences. We characterize and numerically solve the trade equilibrium for a discrete labor endowment distribution with several consumer-income groups. Our model predicts trade intensity to be increasing in the income distribution overlap, which is our preferred proxy for demand similarity. Our model, therefore, provides a theoretical foundation for the Linder hypothesis, that bilateral trade volume is increasing in the similarity of demand structure between two countries. Furthermore, our model predicts a Manhattan effect, capturing that poor consumers are badly off if they are a small minority in a predominantly rich country due to the high price level for basic products. |
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Luca Moretti, Marco Schmid, The labor market effects of housing subsidies: evidence from Switzerland, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 19, 2023. (Working Paper)
There is an active debate about whether housing assistance policies distort labor market incentives. We investigate the so far neglected interaction between housing subsidy recipients’ residential mobility and their job mobility. The setting for this is a large-scale, object-targeting housing assistance program in Switzerland launched in 1975. The WEG program offered substantial rent subsidies to low-income households for a limited duration. Leveraging variation in the timing of subsidy expiration in an event study, we show that WEG tenants have reduced residential mobility as long as subsidies are paid out but increase mobility once subsidies expire. Recipients’ labor market response to subsidy expiration, however, is limited or even negative. Furthermore, we find that WEG out-movers, on average, experience an improvement in dwelling and neighborhood quality, but there is large variation in outcomes. |
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Marco Schmid, The housing market effects of public transport integration: evidence from Geneva`s Léman Express, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 18, 2023. (Working Paper)
I investigate how the housing market in a binational agglomeration responds to a large trans-border public transport connectivity improvement. For this, I exploit the recent introduction of the Léman Express, a suburban train service in the Greater Geneva area. The new line seamlessly connects the Swiss and the French side of the agglomeration, resulting in a substantial travel time reduction. I document locally concentrated construction booms and increasing prices at locations benefiting from the new service about two years in anticipation of the opening. I study the impact of the anticipated commuting cost decrease on residential mobility flows and discuss the resulting changes in neighborhood composition. Locations near soon well-connected stations experience a shift towards affluent, home-owning cross-border workers resulting in a gentrification push for these historically predominantly poor neighborhoods. This is largely driven by inflows from adjacent areas and internal relocations whereas trans-border relocation flows remain unimportant. |
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Friedemann Bieber, The importance contingently public goods, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 16, 2023. (Working Paper)
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Victor Araújo, Mobilization versus mitigation: how do cash transfers affect participation in elections?, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 13, 2023. (Working Paper)
It is commonly accepted that income deprivation suppresses civic engagement. Yet, it is still unclear how policies that seek to tackle deprivation, such as anti-poverty schemes, affect political participation in targeted constituencies: Do they mobilize new citizens (mobilization) or keep engaged those with the habit of voting (mitigation)? I theoretically distinguish between these two mechanisms by focusing on cash transfers, the most widely adopted anti-poverty scheme worldwide. Empirically, I evaluate the Renda Básica de Cidadania, the largest unconditional cash transfer in Latin America, which allows for isolating the effect of cash payments on voting behavior. Estimates from a difference-in-differences design reveal a three percentage points increase (a net growth of 4%) in voter turnout in posttreatment elections. Leveraging municipal-level data in a synthetic control method approach, I show that a mitigation mechanism induces this effect, i.e., the payment of monthly cash transfers reduced the incentives to abstain in elections. |
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Magdalena Breyer, Voter reactions to trajectories of women`s representations, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 14, 2023. (Working Paper)
Existing research on the effects of women’s descriptive representation on citizens’ attitudes has mainly investigated potential positive effects, namely on the political engagement of women themselves or the perceived legitimacy of outcomes. However, long-term shifts in representation have rarely been theorized as potential causes of resentment. It is crucial to consider discontent, as perceptions of relative decline among men and unfulfilled expectations of reaching equality among women have been shown to be powerful sources of resentment in other contexts. This article brings together research on women’s representation with a focus on discontent, social status and backlash. It asks about the consequences of perceived shifts in the gender composition of parliament for political behavior, including voting propensities. Using a survey experiment fielded in Germany, the results show that men do not lash back against women’s representation, even if they realize that this means a slightly lower standing for themselves. |
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Magdalena Breyer, Tabea Palmtag, Delia Zollinger, Narratives of backlash? Perceptions of changing status hierarchies in open-ended survey responses, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 15, 2023. (Working Paper)
It is widely accepted in political science – and remarkably established in public discourse – that status anxieties fuel a far right backlash against progressive politics. This narrative suggests that right-wing conservatives perceive the status of women, racial, or sexual minorities as threatening. Using open-ended survey questions fielded in Germany, we show that women and minorities do figure in people’s perceptions of status hierarchies, but in very specific ways: First, overall, people still perceive status as largely socioeconomically determined. Second, sociocultural groups figure in perceptions of who is gaining/losing status, less so in perceptions of the top/bottom of society. Third, more than authoritarian voters, it is social progressives who perceive women and minorities as “winners”. While on race/ethnicity, we find evidence for a backlash, on gender and sexuality we find more evidence for a progressive momentum. This matters for progressive politics today and for how we empirically study status concerns. |
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Paul Carrillo, Dave Donaldson, Dina Pomeranz, Monica Singhal, Ghosting the tax authority: fake firms and tax fraud in Ecuador, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 12, 2023. (Working Paper)
An important but poorly understood form of firm tax evasion arises from “ghost firms” - fake firms that issue fraudulent receipts so that their clients can claim false deductions. We provide a unique window into this global phenomenon using transaction-level tax data from Ecuador. 5% of firms use ghost invoices annually and, among these firms, ghost transactions comprise 14% of purchases. Ghost transactions are particularly prevalent among large firms and firms with high-income owners, and exhibit suspicious patterns, such as bunching below financial system thresholds. An innovative enforcement intervention targeting ghost clients rather than ghosts themselves led to substantial tax recovery. |
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David Autor, David Dorn, Gordon Hanson, Trading places: mobility responses of native and foreign-born adults to the China trade shock, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 10, 2023. (Working Paper)
Previous research finds that the greater geographic mobility of foreign than native-born workers following economic shocks helps to facilitate local labor market adjustment to shifting regional economic conditions. We examine the role that immigration may have played in enabling U.S. commuting zones to respond to manufacturing job loss caused by import competition from China. Although population headcounts of the foreign-born fell by more than those of the native-born in regions exposed to the China trade shock, the overall contribution of immigration to labor market adjustment in this episode was small. Because most U.S. immigrants arrived in the country after manufacturing regions were already mature, few took up jobs in industries that would later see increased import penetration from China. The foreign-born share of the working-age population in regions with high trade exposure was only three-fifths that in regions with low exposure. Immigration thus appears more likely to aid adjustment to cyclical shocks, in which job loss occurs in regions that had recent booms in hiring, rather than facilitating adjustment to secular regional decline, in which hiring booms occurred in the more distant past. |
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Friedemann Bieber, Labour justice in the platform economy, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 9, 2023. (Working Paper)
Recent years have witnessed the rise of digital platforms that allow economic agents to arrange ever more fine-grained contracts. This article zooms in on labour-based platforms that permit the hire of labour in a just-in-time fashion (and are part of the broader trend towards on-demand work). Its principal contributions correspond to its three sections. First, the article exposes the frequently overlooked diversity of labour-based platforms. While the debate typically focuses on powerful platform companies, which arguably constitute distinct economic entities, other platforms resemble mere marketplaces or ordinary employers. Second, it argues that staying alert to this diversity is vital because violations of labour justice take different forms across the three types of platforms. The underlying cause, however, is identical: their relative powerlessness renders workers vulnerable to domination and exploitation. Finally, the article examines three strategies for addressing this threat: turning platforms into worker-run co-ops, introducing stricter regulation, and improving outside job opportunities. While each strategy is most suitable in certain contexts, and all three are complementary, the article argues that the last strategy is most significant. This feeds into its overall conclusion: we should always discuss labour-based platforms with an eye towards the broader labour market. |
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Anne Ardila Brenøe, Serena Canaan, Nikolaj A Harmon, Heather N Royer, Is parental leave costly for firms and coworkers?, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 11, 2023. (Working Paper)
We estimate the effect of a female employee giving birth and taking parental leave on small firms and coworkers in Denmark using a dynamic difference-in-differences design. We find little evidence that parental leave take-up has negative effects on firms and coworkers overall. This is because most firms are very effective in compensating for the worker on leave by hiring temporary workers and by increasing other employees’ hours. In contrast, we do find evidence that parental leave has negative effects on a small subsample of firms which are less able to use their existing employees to compensate for absent workers. |
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Gérard Roland, Empires, nation-states and democracies, In: UBS Center Public Paper Series, No. 13, 2023. (Working Paper)
In this paper, the author analyzes different political regimes (empires, nation-states, and democracies) in a number of institutional and economic dimensions: tendency towards geographical expansionism or fragmentation, cultural heterogeneity, focus of public spending, and a number of other variables. He uses this setup to analyze the coexistence and interactions between empires, nation-states, and democracies. While these interactions are source of instability, he argues that modern economic development tends to doom empires that were once the dominant form of political regime in history. |
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Carmen Tanner, Nicole Witt, The Many Facets of Workplace Moral Courage: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Scale, In: SSRN, No. 4670864, 2023. (Working Paper)
In the battle against unethical behavior in organizations, fostering employees' moral courage proves vital beyond conventional regulation and compliance efforts. To propel this frontier and empower individuals to uphold moral values, a robust measure of workplace moral courage becomes imperative. Drawing upon a competency-based approach, this paper introduces the Workplace Moral Courage Scale (WMCS). Unlike previous measures, the WMCS stands out by acknowledging the diverse ways in which moral courage can manifest within workplace settings. Building on data of two diverse German employee samples (total N = 995), we unveil five distinct factors: challenging colleague and supervisor misconduct, opposing unethical orders, confessing mistakes, and initiating positive changes. The WMCS exhibits good psychometric properties and convergent and discriminant validity. Confirming its concurrent validity, the WMCS effectively predicts various forms of employee silence, even after controlling for organizational influences. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and implications of the WMCS. |
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Carmen Tanner, Ann-Sophie Groos, A Cybernetic Perspective on Escalation: Lessons from the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal, In: SSRN, No. 4191411, 2023. (Working Paper)
This paper examines how and why initially well-intentioned organizations can find themselves ethically adrift. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, we investigate what planted the seed of deception, why the company’s deceptive behavior changed from one stage to the next, and which factors catalyzed these shifts. Furthermore, we scrutinize the management’s response to the disclosure of their misconduct. We employ a cybernetic perspective, envisioning the dynamics of deception as a multi-stage, goal-directed process, in which shifts in behavior are driven by a need to resolve discrepancies between past and anticipated future states. Our analysis reveals two dominant dysfunctional feedback loops underlying the company’s ethical descent. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of this case study and derive propositions about the emergence of such dysfunctional feedback loops, as well as strategies that may help to de-escalate such situations by strengthening ethical feedback loops. |
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Johannes Katsarov, David Schmocker, Carmen Tanner, Markus Christen, Moral Sensitivity Training - A Systematic Review, In: SSRN, No. 4551778, 2023. (Working Paper)
Moral sensitivity is one of the most important educational goals in the ethical domain. This paper offers a first review of attempts to train moral sensitivity from 1979 to 2018, including 45 studies. The studies were reviewed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses. Our results show that longer courses are generally more successful in fostering moral sensitivity. However, this effect is relatively small. What ultimately appears to have mattered most, was whether learners received personal feedback on their awareness to ethical issues. Training methods that appeared to be of little value in promoting moral sensitivity including problem-based learning, the discussion of papers and texts (seminars) and a strong focus on critical thinking and challenging existing perspectives. A further major implication of our results is that reviews of ethics training ought to differentiate between learning outcomes (e.g., moral sensitivity vs. reasoning). |
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Michele Fenzl, Christine Stedtnitz, The news we choose: unfair inequality and the growing success of populist news, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 23, 2023. (Working Paper)
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Delia Zollinger, David Attewell, Social networks and the education cleavage, In: URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series, No. 24, 2023. (Working Paper)
Education is widely recognized as structuring emerging political divides between the new left and the far right (Stubager 2009; Häusermann and Kriesi 2015; Abou-Chadi and Hix 2021; Marks et al. 2022). However, there is ongoing uncertainty about the mechanism through which the education cleavage operates, particularly in the absence of mobilizing organizations. We fielded a survey in Germany in October 2022 (to be followed by Switzerland and the UK) to explore the hypothesis that patterns of social segregation by education create social networks which foster common identities, political attitudes, and voting behavior (consolidating key aspects of an emerging cleavage). We offer descriptive evidence that individuals tend to be embedded in educationally-distinct social networks. In turn, our preliminary findings show that network composition in terms of both level and field are associated with social identities, political attitudes, and vote choice, above and beyond individual educational characteristics. |
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Stefano Battiston, Irene Monasterolo, Maurizio Montone, Technological greenness and long-run performance, In: SSRN, No. 4639787, 2023. (Working Paper)
Firms’ investments in green technology are crucial for investors’ alignment to the Net Zero target. However, it is still unclear whether firms that invest in green technologies are rewarded by the market, particularly in the long run. Using a science-based technological measure of greenness, we find that the adoption of sustainable technologies is associated with better future financial and operating performance. Firms with greener technologies do not just appeal to investors’ pro-social preferences but also represent better firms. The results are especially strong in countries characterized by higher financial development, and for firms with better climate-related disclosure. |
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Lucia Alessi, Stefano Battiston, Taxonomy-alignment and transition risk: a country-level approach, In: JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance, No. JRC135889, 2023. (Working Paper)
When firm-level information is not available, the greenness of financial portfolios, in terms of alignment to the EU Taxonomy, and their exposure to climate-related transition risk need to be estimated with a top-down approach. We improve the accuracy of available estimates by providing country-specific coefficients for both dimensions, based on homogeneous definitions of greenness and transition risk across countries. An application on confidential data from the European Central Bank shows that the exposure to transition risk of less regulated financial institutions has more than tripled from 2014 to 2023. Moreover, we show that the levels of Taxonomy alignment and transition risk exposure are largely heterogeneous across countries and sectors. |
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