Arnaud Chevalier
Royal Holloway, University of London, Economics, Faculty Member
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Die ZBW räumt Ihnen als Nutzerin/Nutzer das unentgeltliche, räumlich unbeschränkte und zeitlich auf die Dauer des Schutzrechts beschränkte einfache Recht ein, das ausgewählte Werk im Rahmen der unter
This lecture is delivered under the auspices of the Barrington Trust (founded by
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This Discussion Paper is issued within the framework of IZA’s research area Evaluation of Labor Market Policies and Projects. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the institute. Research disseminated by... more
This Discussion Paper is issued within the framework of IZA’s research area Evaluation of Labor Market Policies and Projects. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the institute. Research disseminated by IZA may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent, nonprofit limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of...
This paper studies the impact of immigration on public policy setting. We exploit as a natural experiment the sudden arrival of eight million forced migrants in West Germany after World War II. These migrants were on average poorer than... more
This paper studies the impact of immigration on public policy setting. We exploit as a natural experiment the sudden arrival of eight million forced migrants in West Germany after World War II. These migrants were on average poorer than the West German population, but in contrast to most international migrants, they had full voting rights and were eligible for social welfare. Using panel data for West German cities and applying difference-in-differences and an instrumental variables approach, we show that local governments responded to this migration shock with selective and persistent raises in local taxes and welfare spending and reductions in spending on infrastructure and housing. Data on local elections suggest that immigrants used their voting rights to influence local policy setting. We further document that this episode of mass immigration had lasting effects on people’s preferences for redistribution. More than 50 years later, individual demand for redistributive policies i...
A rational criminal seeks to maximise the expected benefits from illegal activity. We investigate whether criminals reallocate efforts towards potential targets with higher expected payoffs following exogenous changes in goods prices. Our... more
A rational criminal seeks to maximise the expected benefits from illegal activity. We investigate whether criminals reallocate efforts towards potential targets with higher expected payoffs following exogenous changes in goods prices. Our identification strategy relies on the common perception in the UK that families of South Asian descent keep a substantial amount of gold in their houses. The expected gains from targeting these households for burglaries consequently change with the gold price. Using a differencein-difference approach we combine crime data from UK police forces with census information and official gold prices. Our analysis indicates that areas with a large share of South Asians face a disproportionate increase in property crime relative to other neighbourhoods in the same local authority when the price of gold increases. JEL classification: K42; J19
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. We investigate whether children born during this nativity slump were positively or negatively... more
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. We investigate whether children born during this nativity slump were positively or negatively selected. We first demonstrate that mothers who gave birth in that period where not randomly selected, and had worse observed personal characteristics. These children are also less likely to be growing up with both natural parents. Finally, we show using various educational measures that from an early age these children perform worse. Investigation of the underlying mechanisms reveals that parental educational input and emotional attachment play an important role. Finally, results for siblings support the negative parental selection rather than a time effect.
This paper studies the impact of an increase in the number of poor voters on local public policy setting. We exploit the sudden arrival of 8 million forced migrants in West Germany after WWII who were poorer than the local population,... more
This paper studies the impact of an increase in the number of poor voters on local public policy setting. We exploit the sudden arrival of 8 million forced migrants in West Germany after WWII who were poorer than the local population, eligible for social welfare and had full voting rights. We show that municipalities responded to this shock with selective tax raises and shifts in spending from infrastructure to social welfare. Voting data suggests that these changes were partly driven by the forced migrants’ political influence. We further document a strong persistence of the effects. The poverty shock altered municipal redistribution policies for decades and changed the redistribution preferences of the following generations.
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Mother’s Education and Birth Weight Low birth weight has considerable short and long-term consequences and leads to high costs to the individual and society even in a developed economy. Low birth weight is partially a consequence of... more
Mother’s Education and Birth Weight Low birth weight has considerable short and long-term consequences and leads to high costs to the individual and society even in a developed economy. Low birth weight is partially a consequence of choices made by the mother preand during pregnancy. Thus policies affecting these choices could have large returns. Using British data, maternal education is found to be positively correlated with birth weight. We identify a causal effect of education using the 1947 reform of the minimum school leaving age. Change in compulsory school leaving age has been previously used as an instrument, but has been criticised for mostly picking up time trends. Here, we demonstrate that the policy effects differ by social background and hence provide identification across cohorts but also within cohort. We find modest but heterogenous positive effects of maternal education on birth weight with an increase from the baseline weight ranging from 2% to 6%. JEL Classificati...
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... This wastage adds to the costs of providing teacher training but also negatively affects child'sperformance (Dolton and Newson, 2003). ... The effect of these factors on supply is ... approximated by various measures of... more
... This wastage adds to the costs of providing teacher training but also negatively affects child'sperformance (Dolton and Newson, 2003). ... The effect of these factors on supply is ... approximated by various measures of pupils' performance, or teacher's characteristics; these ...
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www.cepr.org Available online at: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP3993.asp www.ssrn.com/xxx/xxx/xxx ISSN 0265-8003