Australian Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar 

University of Melbourne - University of New South Wales - University of Sydney - University of Technology Sydney -  University of Queensland 

Semester 1 - 2023

Welcome back to the Virtual Australian Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar Series! We are now entering our third season. This event is organised by A/Professor Victoria Baranov (UMelb), Dr Sarah Walker (UNSW), Professor Stefanie Schurer (USyd), Professor Adeline Delavande (UTS), and Professor Brenda Gannon (UQ). 

The seminar series is open to the public. Sign up HERE for mailing list.

When, How  Long & How to Access? We meet every second Wednesday for 60 minutes.  The start time  depends on the speaker (but no later than 4 pm Sydney/Melbourne time). Reminder emails will be sent out via email. Questions? Please email Stefanie Schurer University of Sydney who is this semesters overall coordinator of the series for questions.

29 March 3 PM A/Prof Nikki Shure (UCL) Zoom Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/88543603518

Title: Overconfident boys: The gender gap in mathematics self-assessment. 

Abstract: It is well established that boys perceive themselves to be better in mathematics than girls, even when their ability may be the same. We examine the drivers of this male overconfidence in self-assessed mathematics ability using a longitudinal study of twins. This allows us to control for family fixed effects, i.e. shared genetic and environmental factors, and exploit the random assignment of the sex of one’s co-twin. Using measures of individual self-assessment in mathematics from childhood and adolescence, along with mathematics levels and test scores, cognitive skills, parent and teacher mathematics assessments, and characteristics of their families and siblings, we examine potential channels of the gender gap. Our results show that objective math abilities only explain a small share of the gender gap in self-assessed math abilities, and the gap is even larger within opposite-sex twin pairs. We find that having a confident male co-twin increases the confidence of boys but de- creases the confidence of girls, not just in math, but in their self-assessment of English and physical abilities as well. This phenomenon might offer an explanation for why the gender gap is still high in areas traditionally filled by confident men, like top jobs or STEM courses. We also find that parents are more likely to overestimate boys’ and underestimate girls’ mathematics abilities. Gender-biased parental assessments explain a large part of the gender gap in math self-assessment, highlighting the importance of the intergenerational transmission of gender stereotypes. 

12 April 9 AM Dr Sara Lowes (UCSD, visiting MIT)  Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/83200819915 

Title: Fallow Lengths and the Structure of Property Rights. 

Abstract: Across societies, communal land rights have been relatively more common than private land rights, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia. We test the hypothesis that longer fallowing requirements – the time needed to leave land uncultivated to restore fertility – led to a higher prevalence of communal property rights. Longer fallowing requirements may lead to communal property rights because land that must remain fallow for longer periods is more costly to privatize and benefits more from communal insurance and protection. We construct an ecological measure of the fallow length for the most suitable staple crop across grid cells based on soil type, temperature, and climate. We find that places where land needs to be fallowed for longer periods are more likely to have communal property rights both historically and presently. We then examine the implications for efforts to title land. We find that World Bank land titling interventions are less effective in places with longer fallowing requirements, suggesting a mismatch between development policy and underlying institutions. Finally, we examine implications for income inequality and conflict. We find that longer fallowing requirements are associated with less inequality and less conflict -- especially in settings with weak states. Our results highlight the origins of property rights structures and how property rights interact with development policies.

26 April 9 AM Prof Ana Aizer (Brown University) Zoom Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/88255726417 

Title: What happens when an industry runs dry? Long term evidence from prohibition. 

Abstract:  When prohibition outlawed the consumption of alcohol in 1919, this resulted in the immediate demise of an entire industry. We trace the short, medium, and intergenerational impact of prohibition in 1919 on workers in the alcohol industry using linked census and mortality records. Immediately after prohibition, men previously working in alcohol and alcohol-related industries witnessed a decline in employment and occupational score of 8.3% relative to nearly identical men employed in comparable industries.  By 1940, 21 years after prohibition, employment had returned to pre-Prohibition levels, but occupational score was still 4.2% lower.  We trace intergenerational effects as well: sons of workers in the alcohol industry complete 0.4 fewer years of schooling and also have lower occupational status, though the difference in the second generation is smaller than the difference in the first generation, suggesting moderate catch-up.  Intervention may be needed to counter the negative long term impact of industry demise on displaced workers.

3 May 9 AM Dr Joshua Dean (Booth, Chicago University). Zoom: https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/87608568056?pwd=b2tWUzF5elFGZ29xWGlVZ3BpMzVCUT09  Password: 525224 

Title: Pollution exposure and health: The role of private actions and environmental externalities in Nairobi

Abstract: How do improvements in cooking technologies affect outcomes in contexts with persistently high levels of ambient air pollution? The impacts of household-generated and ambient air pollution (HAP and AAP) are almost exclusively studied independently of one another, even though many of the world's urban poor suffer from high levels of both HAP and AAP. We conduct a field experiment with low-income residents of Nairobi,  randomizing subsidies and credit to causally estimate the impacts of adopting an improved charcoal cookstove. We collect high-frequency personal PM1.0, PM2.5, and CO exposure data as well as self-reported and quantitative health and socio-economic measurements. The analysis shows three key patterns. First, adoption is persistent: even more than three years later, improved cookstove owners save USD 1.34 per week in charcoal expenditures (driven by urban residents). Second, the point estimates suggest that cooking increases PM2.5 levels by around 9 micrograms per meter cubed among the control group, but that Jikokoa ownership causes PM2.5 to increase by only 2 micrograms per meter cubed during cooking hours, mitigating the impact of cooking by around 80%. However, since households cook on average only 2.1 hours per day, these reductions are overshadowed by high levels of AAP, which average 35 micrograms per meter cubed. As a result, we see no meaningful difference in aggregate pollution exposure. Third, the lack of aggregate air pollution impacts explains why we can rule out meaningful improvements in hypo- or hypertension, blood oxygen, cognition, or an array of self-reported health symptoms, despite more than three years of daily usage of an improved stove. Private fuel switching can reduce HAP, but it will not generate large improvements in aggregate air pollution exposure---or, as a result, meaningful health improvements---in the presence of high ambient pollution. Instead, government intervention is needed to address the negative pollution externalities of economic activity.

17 May 9 AM Prof Eliana La Ferrara (Harvard University).  Zoom Link: https://utsmeet.zoom.us/j/81587599208

Title: Informing Risky Migration: Evidence from a field experiment in Guinea. 

Abstract: Can information provision to potential migrants influence risky and irregular migration? We address this question conducting a large-scale randomized experiment with about 7,000 secondary school students in Guinea. Combining aggregate statistics and video testimonies by migrants who settled in Europe, we study the effect of three information treatments: (i) about risks and costs of the migration journey; (ii) about economic outcomes in the destination country; and (iii) a treatment pooling (i) and (ii). We find that, one month after the intervention, all the treatments affect beliefs about the risks and the economic outcomes of migration. Moreover, one year after the intervention, the first treatment has a significant effect on actual migration outcomes: migration outside Guinea decreases by 51%. The effect is driven by a decrease in irregular migration and concentrated among poorer students and those without contacts in Europe. These findings are consistent with the predictions of a theoretical model where students can choose to migrate and to do so regularly or irregularly, and where migrants forego part of the consumption in the home country deriving from family wealth and remittances from contacts abroad.