Alexa Prettyman
When: Monday, 12/02/24 Time: 11:45-1pm
Where: In Person
Title of the Presentation: “Evaluating the Impact of Supplemental Instruction in Introductory Economics Courses on Grades”
Abstract: At Towson University, students struggle in introductory economics courses. To assist students with the rigorous coursework, we implemented Supplemental Instruction (SI), a proven approach in STEM courses. The program began in academic year (AY) 2021-22 and has grown from impacting 16 to 75 percent of the 1,600 students who take introductory microeconomics and statistics courses each year. We use administrative data to evaluate the impact of SI on student achievement. Students who attend SI review sessions do just under half a letter grade better than students who do not attend SI review sessions; however, the causal evidence is inconclusive. Less than 30 percent of students with SI attended at least one review session, and on average, students attended 4 to 5 SI sessions. Black students are more likely to utilize SI sessions compared to their White peers. Female students attend more SI sessions than their male peers. Future work will investigate potential explanations for these results.
More Info: https://www.alexaprettyman.com/
Gaia Dossi
When: Tuesday, 11/19/24 Time: 11:45-1pm
Where: WebEx
Title of the Presentation: “Race and Science”
Abstract: What are the consequences of the racial gap in science and innovation? I study this question by combining data on US patents, medical research articles, clinical trials, and research grants with the racial distribution of last names in the US population. Using last names as a proxy for race, I find that the racial composition of scientists affects the direction, as well as the rate, of medical research and innovation. First, scientists with a Black-sounding name are three times as likely to design clinical trials with Black or African American participants and twice as likely to publish articles focused on Black or African Americans. Second, scientists with a Black-sounding name are more likely to research diseases frequent among Black or African Americans, and scientists with a white-sounding name among white Americans. Third, I draw a link between race and the direction of research by focusing on diseases more common in Black (e.g., sickle cell anemia) or white (e.g., melanoma) individuals due to evolutionary advantages in their ancestors’ countries of origin. Fourth, I document the impact of relative disease incidence on the direction of research by studying an exogenous change in HIV-related mortality among Black or African Americans compared to whites. I estimate a general equilibrium Roy model with racial frictions and endogenous choice of occupation. Using the data, I quantify the parameters and estimate that removing barriers would increase the overall number of inventors by 1 p.p., a 10% increase from the baseline.
More Info: https://sites.google.com/view/gaiadossi/home
Catherine van der List
When: Monday,11/04/24 Time: 11:45-1pm
Where: PUP 367
Title of the Presentation: “How do Establishments Choose Their Location? Taxes, Monopsony, and Productivity”
Abstract: To study the distribution of economic activity across space and the effects of place-based policies, I develop a model of the location choice of new establishments incorporating taxes, monopsonistic labor markets, and spillovers. Estimates using administrative data from Germany indicate that establishments generally have a preference for lower taxes, as well a preference for lower worker outside options which enable establishments to pay lower wages. The degree to which various types of productivity spillovers matter in the location decision of establishments varies greatly between industrial sectors. I also quantify the effects of a counterfactual place-based tax policy and find that commuting zones display heterogeneous wage and economic activity responses to the same policy due to differing degrees of labor market power across space.
More Info: https://cvanderlist.github.io/Papers/vanderlist_JMP.pdf
David Alonzo
When: Tuesday,10/15/24 Time: 11:45-1pm
Where: WebEx
Title of the Presentation: “Marrying Your Job: Matching and Mobility with Geographic Heterogeneity”
Abstract: This paper examines the effects of geographic heterogeneity in occupational returns on marriage market outcomes and the impact of family formation on the geographic distribution of labor. I document that workers living in cities that pay relatively lower wages to their occupation (i.e., workers who have higher potential pecuniary returns from migration) are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce. Using a structural model of migration and family formation, I assess individual and aggregate effects of marriage and location choices through counterfactual experiments. I find that, overall, the marriage-market amenity enhances productivity by drawing workers to high-return locations.
More Info: https://davidealonzo.github.io/index.html
Bernard Ganglmair
When: Monday, 9/30/24 Time: 11:45-1pm
Where: In-Person
Title of the Presentation: “Regulatory Compliance with Limited Enforceability: Evidence from Privacy Policies”
Abstract: We study how asymmetric enforceability of regulatory rules affects firms’ compliance using a simple inspection model and a large sample of German privacy policies. We exploit the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation, compelling firms to disclose, in accessible language, details of their data use. The specifics of disclosure are objective, whereas readability is subjective and difficult to enforce. We show that firms increased disclosure, but the policy readability did not improve. In line with theory, firms anticipating regulatory scrutiny and those facing higher-budget data protection authorities demonstrated a stronger response in readability compliance without sizeable effects on disclosure.
More Info: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4600876
Marco Errico
When: Tuesday, 9/17/24 Time: 11:45-1pm
Where: WebEx
Title of the Presentation: “Oligopolies in Trade and Transportation: Implications for the Gains from Trade”
Abstract: Transportation services are crucial for goods to move globally; however, given the concentration in the industry, and its interaction with granular importers, the realized gains from trade differ from standard theories. We study the interplay between oligopoly in the transportation industry and oligopsony power retained by non-atomistic importers. We leverage transaction-level data from Chilean customs to document several empirical facts: (i) market concentration in the transportation sector and among importers, and (ii) that transportation prices are highly dispersed and are the outcome of bilateral negotiations. We then develop a trade model that departs from the usual iceberg cost assumption and allows for bargaining with two-sided market power in the transportation industry. We find that transport carriers charge large markups (on average 2), but importers benefit from substantial bargaining power (markdown of 0.85 and Nash bargaining 2.5 times larger). Finally, we embed the bilateral bargaining framework into a quantitative trade model of importing. We show that market concentration reduces the pass-through of tariff shocks to gains from trade, and that the welfare implications of trade liberalization are different when accounting for the strategic interaction between the transportation sector and importers.
More Info: https://www.marcoerrico.net/
