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Omicron Delta Epsilon Graduate Student Session

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 3, 2020 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PDT)

Manchester Grand Hyatt, America's Cup C
Hosted By: Omicron Delta Epsilon
  • Chair: Ali Zadeh, Susquehanna University

The Effects of Financial Deregulation on Wage Inequality

Hongcen Wei
,
University of Chicago

Abstract

This paper investigates how financial deregulation affects wage inequality and how the shift within the finance industry transmits into the labor market, both empirically and theoretically. I utilize staggered implementations of the interstate branching deregulation across US states from 1994 to 2005 as quasi-natural experiments. I find that this financial deregulation increases wage inequality. The increase effect is persistent over time and heterogeneous across dimensions of deregulation. I empirically show the transmission mechanism of the “finance facilitator”: financial deregulation facilitates (preexisting but financially constrained) skill-biased technical change in the labor market. First, within the finance industry, financial deregulation partially substitutes local community banks with national banks, which provide cheaper and more credit. Then, this positive credit supply shock loosens firms’ financial constraints, more for the firms that are young, small, or more profitable. Finally, these previously financially constrained firms scale up by hiring more skilled than unskilled workers. This further shifts skill composition and wage distribution of the labor market, resulting in higher wage inequality. To illustrate the mechanism theoretically, I endogenize financial constraints and capital-skill complementarity within a span-of-control model. I show that financial deregulation enables previously financially constrained firms to shift towards their optimal production scales and thus towards higher relative demand for skilled workers. Such a shift increases both relative wages and relative employment of skilled workers and consequently drives up inequality.

The Impact of Oil Rent, Currency Overvaluation, and Institution Quality, on Economic Growth of Oil-Rich Countries: A Heterogeneous Panel Data Study

Alireza Motameni
,
Howard University

Abstract

This paper investigates several key challenges faced by oil-rich countries regarding their economic growth and development. First, it discusses how to determine currency overvaluation for these countries (if any). To determine the overvaluation, the real exchange rate (RER) is calculated, and the Balassa–Samuelson effect is estimated via a regression model. Next, the study presents an empirical model for assessing the impact of oil rent on economic growth in the context of currency overvaluation and the institutional quality in every country. As a dynamic model, both endogeneity and heterogeneity are expected across cross-sections because countries are different in culture, customs, and political institutions. Consequently, heterogeneous panel data analysis is undertaken using the error correction model cointegration technique and the mean group estimation method in an autoregressive distributed lag model. Finally, the study concludes the findings and provides policy recommendations by offering a new perspective on an ongoing dilemma, discussing the challenges and limitations facing developing oil-rich countries and how their path to success may differ from other countries.

JEL classification: D72; E02; F43; O47; Q43
Keywords: Natural resources; Rent-Seeking; Institutions; Economic Growth; Energy Economic

The Effects of the Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credits on Household Labor Supply

Tiphanie Magne
,
University of Delaware  

Abstract

I study the effects of the Affordable Care Act advance premium tax credits, or subsidy, on labor supply for households that are not offered employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and health insurance premium data. Due to a sharp decrease to zero in the subsidy for households above 400 % of the federal poverty line (FPL), households near this cutoff may be better off reducing their income by decreasing their labor supply at the intensive and/or extensive margins. Thus, I calculate the "potential lost subsidy" (PLS) for households near the cutoff - the subsidy they would receive at exactly 400 % of the FPL but may lose if earning just above it. For the relevant households, I find that on average, the PLS equals $100 a month for younger workers but reaches $400 to $600 a month for older workers and I confirm that the PLS greatly varies by geographic location and family composition. Using OLS regressions, I find that income and hours of work do not statistically change from one year to another as the PLS increases. Moreover, the probability that one of the adults in the household stops working increases by 4% points as the PLS increases by $100 a month, but the estimated coefficient is not statistically significant. Therefore, I find no clear evidence that households near the cutoff and not offered ESI adjust their labor supply in response to a larger PLS.

Rules and Subdividing the Commons: Ejidos in Mexico

Julio Alberto Ramos-Pastrana
,
Indiana University

Abstract

The empirical analysis uses data from the Mexican ejidos, agricultural communities created after a land reform carried out in the early twentieth century. Theses agricultural communities were initially organized as common property, but later a second land reform i 1992 were allowed to choose their property regime, having the possibility to subdivide their land and transition toward private property. .... The results indicate that ejidos with better land privatized a smaller share of their land.
Discussant(s)
Hongcen Wei
,
University of Chicago
Alireza Motameni
,
Howard University
Tiphanie Magne
,
University of Delaware
Julio Alberto Ramos-Pastrana
,
Indiana University
JEL Classifications
  • A1 - General Economics