Please check this site regularly for updates

Social Interactions, Social Networks, and Inequality

Lawrence Blume

Presentation Slides

  • Forthcoming

Note: Items in bold should be read first, and items in italics second.

Background Reading

Introduction

Network Science

Labor Markets

Education

Social Capital

Diffusion

[Title]

Loren Brandt

Ethics and Inequality and Interdependences and Inequality

Steven N. Durlauf

Note: Please read items in bold first

Lecture 1: Ethics and Inequality

Abstract

This lecture will provide an overview of normative issues which arise in evaluating levels of inequality and disadvantage. Alternative philosophical approaches will be contrasted.

Reading List

​Lecture 2: Interdependences and Inequality

Abstract

This lecture will describe how complementarities and spillover effects constitute mechanisms for the generation of inequality. Interaction effects are shown to both produce correlated behaviors between members of various socioeconomic groups as well as to produce incentives for segregation of individual types into distinct groups.

Reading List

Internal Migration In China

Shuaizhang Feng

Abstract

This lecture aims to provide a general introduction of researches related to China’s contemporary internal migration. The lecture will consist five parts. In section 1, we will introduce some theoretic and institutional background. Section 2 presents existing data sources and identifies some key facts about China’s internal migration. Section 3 reports research related to the determinants of migration. The next section summarizes findings with respect to consequences of migration, especially its effects on Children from migrant families. Finally, the last section discusses some important future research questions and possible data collection initiatives.

Structural Models for Labor Force Participation

Chao Fu

Background Knowledge

  • properties of normal distribution, truncated normal, sum of two normally distributed random variables
  • dynamic programming, backward induction (fine if not familiar with those, but better if students know this)

Readings

Labor Market Agglomeration Economies

Shihe Fu

Abstract

This lecture will cover the following topics:

  1. Concepts of business agglomeration economies and labor market agglomeration economies;
  2. Channels that generate labor market agglomeration economies;
  3. Empirical evidence for labor market agglomeration economies;
  4. Causal identification strategies for empirical studies of labor market agglomeration economies;
  5. New research topics on labor market agglomeration economies.

Reading List

  • Henderson, J.V., 2003, Marshall’s Scale Economies, Journal of Urban Economics 53, 1–28. (1, 2)
  • Glaeser, E., Kallal, K., Scheinkman, J., Shleifer, A., 1992, Growth in Cities, Journal of Political Economy 100, 1126–1152. (1, 2)
  • Duranton, G., Puga, D., 2004, Micro-foundations of Urban Agglomeration economies. In: Henderson V and Thisse JF (eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics IV. Amsterdam: North Holland, pp. 2063–2118. (1, 2)
  • Rosenthal, S., Strange, W., 2004, Evidence on the Nature and Sources of Agglomeration Economies. In: Henderson V and Thisse JF(eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics IV. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 2119–2171. (1, 2, 3)
  • Combes, P.P., Gobillon, L., 2014, The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies, In: Duranton G, Henderson V and Strange W (eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics V. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 248–348. (1, 2, 3, 4)
  • Rosenthal, S., Strange, W., 2001, The Determinants of Agglomeration, Journal of Urban Economics 50, 191-229. (1, 2)
  • Wheaton, W., Lewis, M., 2002, Urban Wages and Labor Market Agglomeration, Journal of Urban Economics 51, 542-562. (2, 3)
  • Fu, S., 2007, Smart Café Cities: Testing Human Capital Externalities in the Boston Metropolitan Area. Journal of Urban Economics 61, 86–111. (1, 2, 3, 4)
  • Yanknow, J., 2006, Why Do Cities Pay More? An Empirical Examination of Some Competing Theories of the Urban Wage Premium, Journal of Urban Economics 60, 139–161. (2, 3, 4)
  • Moretti, E., 2004a, Human Capital Externalities in Cities, In: Henderson VJ and Thisse JF(eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics IV. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 2243–2291. (2, 3)
  • Moretti, E., 2004b, Workers’ Education, Spillovers, and Productivity: Evidence from Plant-Level Production Functions, American Economic Review 94, 656-690. (2, 3)
  • Andini, M., Blasio, G., Duranton, G., Strange, W., 2013, Marshallian Labour Market Pooling: Evidence from Italy, Regional Science and Urban Economics 43, 1008-1022. (2, 3)
  • Andersson, F., Burgess, S., Lane, J., 2004, Cities, Matching and the Productivity Gains of Agglomeration, Working Paper. (2, 3)
  • Gabe, T., Abel, J., 2012, Specialized Knowledge and the Geographic Concentration of Occupations, Journal of Economic Geography 12, 435-453. (2, 3)
  • Eeckhout, J., Pinheiro, R., Schmidheiny, K., 2014, Spatial Sorting, Journal of Political Economy 122, 554-620. (2, 3)
  • Baum-Snow, N., Ferreira, F., 2014, Causal Inference in Urban and Regional Economics, In: Duranton G, Henderson V and Strange W (eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics V. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 4–68. (4)
  • Glaeser, E., Maré, D., 2001, Cities and skills, Journal of Labor Economics 19, 316–42. (3, 4)
  • Combes, P., Duranton, G., Gobillon, L., 2008, Spatial Wage Disparities: Sorting Matters! Journal of Urban Economics 63, 723–742. (3, 4)
  • Rosenthal, S., Strange, W., 2006, The Attenuation of Human Capital Spillovers: A Manhattan Skyline Approach, Journal of Urban Economics 64, 373–89. (3, 4)
  • Bayer, P., Ross, S., Topa, G., 2008, Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes, Journal of Political Economy 116, 1150-1196. (2, 4)
  • Liu, S., 2015, Spillovers from Universities: Evidence from the Land-Grant Program, Journal of Urban Economics 87, 25-41. (4)
  • Fu, S., Ross, S., 2013, Wage Premia in Employment Clusters: How Important is Worker Heterogeneity? Journal of Labor Economics 31, 271-304. (3, 4)
  • Charlot, S., Duranton, G., 2004, Communication Externalities in Cities, Journal of Urban Economics 56, 581–613. (2, 5)
  • Hirsch, B., Jahn, E., Oberfichtner, M., 2015, The Urban Wage Premium in Imperfect Labour Markets, Working Paper. (5)
  • Bacolod, M., Blume, B., Strange, W., 2009, Skills in the city. Journal of Urban Economics 65, 136-153. (5)
  • Breschi, S., Lenzi, C., 2016, Co-invention Networks and inventive Productivity in US Cities, Journal of Urban Economics 92, 66–75. (5)
  • Francis, B., Hasan, I., John, K., Waisman, M., 2012, Urban Agglomeration and CEO Compensation, Working Paper. (3, 5)
  • Ananat, E., Fu, S., Ross, S., 2013, Race-Specific Agglomeration Economies: Social Distance and the Black-White Wage Gap, NBER Working Paper 18933. (5)

Microeconomic Models with Latent Variables: Applications of Measurement Error Models in Empirical Industrial Organization and Labor Economics

Yingyao Hu

Abstract

This lecture reviews recent developments in nonparametric identification of measurement error models and their applications in applied microeconomics. Measurement error models describe mappings from a latent distribution to an observed distribution. The identification and estimation of measurement error models focus on how to obtain the latent distribution and the measurement error distribution from the observed distribution. Such a framework is suitable for many microeconomic models with latent variables, such as models with unobserved heterogeneity or unobserved state variables and panel data models with fixed effects. In particular, we show how these techniques can be used to identify and estimate income dynamics models, where the permanent or persistent incomes are unobserved from the sample.

Reading List

Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Imperial Examination System

James Kung

Abstract

Much research has now shown that, by shaping people’s beliefs and preferences, historical institutions can breed and foster a culture over time. Through the culture channel, some historical institutions are found to have produced a long-lasting impact on the behavior of individuals and economic development more generally. For example, Alesina, Giuliano, and Nunn (2013) show that societies that practiced plough agriculture historically have much less equal gender norms today.

Premised on this "persistence" literature, this lecture examines the possible legacies of one of China’s most important institutions—the imperial examination system or keju (circa 607- 1905)—on human capital outcome today. Based on a data set uniquely constructed on 248 Chinese prefectures spanning the Ming-Qing dynasties (1368-1912), I will first document a close association between historical exam success—measured by the percentage of people who had attained a jinshi degree—the highest attainable qualification back then, and average years of schooling today. As befits an empirical paper, the lecture will also deal with estimation issues caused by omitted variable bias and measurement error, and discuss the possible channels, viz., human capital and culture, through which keju may have impacted years of schooling today. To further verify the role of culture, I will also discuss the results of a quasi-experiment conducted on a group of college students who came from all over China to study in Beijing, including the effect of keju culture on the students’ cognitive skills and non-cognitive performance. Last, but not least, given that keju culture has persisted unevenly across China, the lecture also examines the conditions under which keju culture has persisted strongly, or, conversely, weakened over time.

Reading List

Note: *denotes optional reading
  • Alesina, Alberto, Paola Giuliano, and Nathan Nunn. 2013. “On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128 (2): 469-530.
  • Ting Chen, James Kai-sing Kung, and Chicheng Ma. 2016. “Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Imperial Examination System.” Working Paper, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
  • Ho, Ping-ti. 1962. The Ladder of Success in Imperial China. New York: Columbia University Press, chapters 1-2.
  • * Nunn, Nathan and Leonard Wantchekon. 2011. “The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa.” American Economic Review, 101(7): 3221-3252.
  • * Voigtländer, Nico, and Hans-Joachim Voth, 2012. “Persecution Perpetuated: the Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(2):1339-1392.

 

Program Evaluation

Jeffrey Smith

Note: If you have time to read only one paper, read Djebbari and Smith (2008).

Background

  • Smith, Jeffrey. 2004. “Evaluating Local Economic Development Policies: Theory and Practice” in Alistair Nolan and Ging Wong (eds.), Evaluating Local Economic and Employment Development: How to Assess What Works Among Programmes and Policies. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 287-332.
    [Available on my web page at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~econjeff/ under “Papers”]

Heterogeneous treatment effects

Estimation of Policy Counterfactuals

Christopher Taber