Abstract: Each successfully completed M&A transaction generates lucrative income opportunities to specific parties involved in deal-making due to compensation mechanisms linked to the transaction value. In theory, this transactional channel of M&A activity might relate to income inequality. The main objective of this study is to provide the first empirical analysis on the relationship between M&A and income shares at the very top of the income distribution. Using an unbalanced panel design with country-year observations from 46 countries allows exploiting cross-sectional along with the temporal variation. Methodologically, the Driscoll and Kraay estimator is applied as it is heteroskedasticity consistent and robust to general forms of serial or cross-sectional dependence. This study finds statistical evidence for a positive and non-linear association pattern between changes in M&A activity and changes in top income shares, indicating pro-rich effects. Additionally, periods of systematic banking crises significantly intensify the relationship between M&A activity and increasing income concentration.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：釜賀浩平/Kohei Kamaga

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: The paper shows that multi-product aspect of firms or establishments and heterogeneous dynamic across products over the business cycles with under-explored Japanese data. To account for these stylized facts, we built a general equilibrium model based on heterogeneous firms or establishments that endogenously choose their product mix given different income elasticities across products in consumer preference. With estimated shock processes, the theoretical model is calibrated and simulated. We find that (de)regulation policy at entry, incumbent firms or establishments and each product level provide substantially different outcomes providing a caveat for policy debate.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: This paper shows the impact of climate change directly on the yield and quality of rice production and indirectly on the risk of pests with Japanese prefecture data. Many studies have been conducted to identify the impact of temperature on agricultural production and evaluate adaptation measures to mitigate adverse effects.However, these previous studies have not explicitly clarified the effects of temperature on crops through pest damage. This study aims to divide the impact of temperature on yield and quality into two pathways, through pests and diseases and other pathways, for rice, and to clarify the relative magnitude of the former pathway to determine its effectiveness as an adaptation measure. We find that an increase in the number of days in the high temperature zone directly reduces yield and quality. Furthermore, higher temperatures reduced yield and quality by increasing the number of pests and increased yield through the reduction of blast diseases due to fewer cold summers.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：釜賀浩平/Kohei Kamaga

言語/Language：日本語/Japanese

Abstract: Modern industrialisation typically coincides with gradual democratisation through enfranchisement and intra-elite competition between traditional landlords and emerging capitalists. Does the redistribution of the de jure political power through suffrage extension provoke the transition in intra-elite power structures reflected in political representation? This study exploits suffrage extension, induced by the wartime tax increase during the mid-1900s Japan, and its regional heterogeneity to estimate its impact on the occupational composition of the House of Representatives. Using a difference-in-differences framework, I show that the expansion of electorate representation resulted in a significant decline in the seat share of farmers and landlords, originally a dominant occupational group in the House. By contrast, no other major occupational groups exhibit systematic compensational increases in their shares. In the historical context, the results suggest that suffrage expansion likely contributed to the diversification of House politics from the landlord-centred system.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: Constraints arise for researchers when collecting data. Such constraints may result in a sample differing from the target population. This study examines data collection and tests for the external validity of constrained data. A large-scale community census covering 919 communities in the Peruvian Amazon and a systematic review of previous research were performed. It was found that past research focused on systematically different communities instead of unresearched communities in the same basins. The generalizability of empirical findings using a unique representative household survey (nearly 4000 households) was assessed. Based on estimates in previously researched communities, the average treatment effects of idiosyncratic and covariate shocks on poverty were assessed using a traditional extrapolation method. Predictions were tested against the current data gathered on unresearched communities. The results show that the predictions mostly fail, both systematically and meaningfully. To explore the mechanisms involved, researcher constraints and a simple model of site selection bias were combined, characterizing the potential concerns for consistent estimates in a target population, given the constraints. In this context, NGOs and phone coverage are relevant for the impreciseness of the predictions, though there are various associated factors. Overall, more effort is needed from various stakeholders in the data generation process.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: This paper evaluates both short-term and long-term impacts of temperature rise considering non-linear impacts of extremely hightemperature events and extremely cold temperature events by using panel data. Long run adaptations seem to alleviate the cold damage impact on rice. Evidence shows that the responsiveness of rice yield to warming is likely to be improved in northern Japan but reduced in southern Japan, implying that the adaptation toward extreme heat in relatively warm region is of considerable importance in Japan.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：釜賀浩平/Kohei Kamaga

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: Whether international development assistance to developing countries is an effective tool for poverty reduction has traditionally been a major topic in development economics. However, few studies shed light on human rights abuse involved by international development projects. We examine whether development assistance projects increase child labor in local project sites. To do so, we geographically combine child-level data of seven African countries from the Demographic and Health Survey Program with a project-level data of Chinese financial aid. We adopt a difference-in-differences strategy: the first variation comes from a comparison between areas where development projects are underway and areas that will be involved in the future; the second variation comes from a comparison of whether or not the development project is implemented within 5 km of a residential area. The estimation results show that Chinese financial aid significantly increases child labor in project sites and this effect lasts at least for several years. Combining additional results confirming no impacts of World Bank projects on child labor, the results suggest that it is necessary to ensure that each donor follows international rules to prevent human rights violations in local development projects.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: Household dependence on firewood is ubiquitous in developing countries, undermining the carbon services that forests provide. In addition, kerosene is widely used for lighting that emits black carbon (among others). This study examines the effect of grid electricity on firewood consumption and kerosene by using an instrumental variable (IV) estimation strategy, and it evaluates the mechanisms underlying the causal effect. I use three waves of large sample household surveys from Bhutan and other administrative data to complement the main results. The results show that grid electricity reduces firewood consumption by approximately 0.83 – 2.09 cubic meters per month and that electrified households are approximately 61 – 71% less likely to use kerosene as lighting fuel. Households respond to electricity provision by adopting basic electrical appliances and adopting electricity for lighting. Results also suggests that the effect of electricity on firewood consumption is driven by road accessibility and reduction in firewood consumption is larger for richer households. However, I do not find such evidence for kerosene. Further, one electrified household saves emission of about 5.9 tCO2 of carbon dioxide and 5.2 tCO2e of black carbon annually from displaced firewood consumption. Similarly kerosene displaced due to electricity is associated with about 2.45 tCO2e black carbon annually.

場所：ZOOM (Online)

Venue: ZOOM (Online)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: Using an original dataset of job ads for sales jobs from a Japanese online mid-career job ad side, this study examines the use of explicit and implied age limits on applicants and the characteristics of companies setting them. Japanese law prohibits age discrimination in employment, yet several exemptions are allowed, such as in case of hiring young workers without prior work experience on regular contracts. Companies face a choice of setting an age limit, requiring job-related experience, or searching broadly, while they are free to show their preference regarding age in other ways. Of the sample collected, 24% of ads included explicit age limits, 25% experience requirements and nearly all ads contained some form of inferred age preference. Theoretical model explaining company search behavior is proposed and tested. Companies with higher capital, companies with fewer quits, older companies and subsidiaries of listed companies tend to search narrowly. Japanese companies and companies based in Tokyo or Osaka are more likely to set age limits. The role of company market power is also considered as a factor allowing companies to voluntarily restrict pool of applicants in a labor market with more open positions than jobseekers available.

場所：2号館11階経済学部会議室B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

Venue: 11th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Meeting Room B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: Accepting reference-set welfarism is one possible approach to evaluating resource allocations from both efficiency and equity perspectives on the basis of agents’ preferences. Referenceset welfarism postulates that the evaluation of resource allocations is done by using a single evaluation relation defined for agents’ reference-set utilities, which are specific numerical representations of their preferences derived from a given list of reference sets of resource bundles. This paper provides an axiomatic characterization of reference-set welfarism. We introduce the axiom of reference-set independence, which requires that the social ranking of any two allocations depend solely on agents’ reference-set utilities of these allocations. We first show that the conjunction of Pareto indifference and reference-set independence is equivalent to the neutrality axiom that we call reference-set neutrality. Then, our main result establishes that reference-set welfarism is axiomatized by Pareto indifference and reference-set independence.

場所：2号館11階経済学部会議室B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

Venue: 11th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Meeting Room B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

幹事/Organizer：釜賀浩平/Kohei Kamaga

言語/Language：日本語/Japanese

Abstract: In 1991, Vietnam introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE) mandating that all children aged six years old must enroll in primary school and imposing five compulsory years of schooling. The UPE provides a natural experiment to estimate the impact of increased maternal schooling on child mortality. Exploiting birth-month specific exposure to the 1991 UPE, we found that the 1991 UPE increased the average of female schooling by about 0.7 years. We found strong and robust evidence that maternal education induced by the 1991 UPE had positive and significant effects on child mortality reduction: an additional year of maternal schooling causally reduced the probability of child mortality by 4.5 percentage points, and on average, increasing the number of maternal schoolings by one year decreased the expected rate of the number of child mortality by 0.072. As for potential mechanisms through which increased maternal education might affect child mortality, we found that increased maternal schooling led to increase the likelihood of their higher school completion, to better prenatal care and health-seeking behaviors during and after pregnancy. We also found that increased maternal education decreased the probability of having unwanted births. Findings of this paper highlight the important of education investment on girls to reduce child mortality in developing countries.

場所：2号館11階経済学部会議室B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

Venue: 11th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Meeting Room B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：英語/English

Abstract: This paper provides an inclusive framework that considers principal-agent relationships in the modern law enforcement process in which delegated law enforcers are agents of local/state governments that concern voter satisfaction. Then, we investigate how an enforcer with an intrinsic (non-monetary) motivation in the performances makes an effort to reduce legal error, e.g., wrongful conviction, reacts to the enforcement liability rule that citizens and governments propose in the political process. This paper shows that enforcers' efforts to reduce legal errors may change in accordance to the enforcement liability rule depending on the strength of intrinsic motivation. Then, if this liability rule is determined in the political process that represents citizens' interest, this distorts the use of enforcement liability rule and the deterrence effects.

場所：2号館11階経済学部会議室B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

Venue: 11th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Meeting Room B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

幹事/Organizer：釜賀浩平/Kohei Kamaga

言語/Language：日本語/Japanese

場所：2号館11階経済学部会議室B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

Venue: 11th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Meeting Room B & ZOOM (HyFlex)

幹事/Organizer：長谷部拓也/Takuya Hasebe

言語/Language：日本語/Japanese

Abstract

場所：2号館4階2-410 & ZOOM (HyFlex)

Venue: 4th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Room 2-410 & ZOOM (HyFlex)

言語/Language：英語/English