The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy

Published by De Gruyter

Ahead of Print / Just Accepted

Issue of The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy

Contents
Journal Overview

January 16, 2023

Exploring the Existence of a Short-Run Kuznets Curve: Does the Fourth Industrial Revolution Affect Income distribution?

Angelo Castaldo, Valeria De Bonis

Abstract

The link between technological change and income inequality is central to the Kuznets hypothesis. In a time of technological transition towards the digitization and intelligentization of manufacturing processes (the fourth industrial revolution), this paper investigates the relationship between economic development and income distribution through the implementation of both a system generalized method of moments (system-GMM) and a semiparametric fixed effects model approach. Based on a panel of 31 European-area countries over a period of 12 years (2007–2018), accounting for the endogeneity bias arising from the transitional dynamics of income inequality and per capita income, our main results confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between income inequality and economic development. Moreover, our analysis shows that the change in the share of labour employed in high-tech sectors is the main driver of this evolutionary pattern.

January 6, 2023

MRS Functions and the Pareto Interval in Public Good Provision

Norman L. Kleinberg, Barry K. Ma

Abstract

The Lindahl-Samuelson condition is adapted to derive the range, or interval, of the efficient/Pareto levels of a public good. The size and bounds of the interval are shown to be dependent on the curvature of the marginal rate of substitution functions and the degree of heterogeneity of preferences. A policy implication is that unlike Nash or private provision, the relationship between the efficient level of a public good and income inequality can be ambiguous.

December 16, 2022

Overconfidence and Public Intoxication Arrest: Evidence from a University Town Police Log

Elizabeth Hoffman, Younjun Kim

Abstract

We show that overconfident individuals are likely to be arrested for public intoxication by using arrest records from a university town police log. This relationship is robust to various control variables such as risk aversion, time discounting, present bias, self-control, selfishness, loss aversion, and socializing with peers arrested for public intoxication. However, this relationship is no longer significant using only self-reported arrest data. We hypothesize that overconfident individuals are likely to underreport their arrests. This result has important implications for the use of self-reported data on public intoxication arrests rather than actual arrest records.

February 1, 2020

Microfinance and Vulnerability to Seasonal Famine in a Rural Economy: Evidence from Monga in Bangladesh

Claudia Berg, M. Shahe Emran

Article number: 20180359

Abstract

This paper uses a unique data set on 143,000 poor households from Northern Bangladesh to analyze the effects of microfinance membership on a household’s ability to cope with seasonal famine known as Monga. We develop an identification and estimation strategy that exploits a jump and a kink at the 10-decimal land ownership-threshold driven by the Microfinance Institution screening process to ensure repayment by excluding the ultra-poor. Evidence shows that microfinance membership improves food security during Monga, especially for the poorest households who survive at the margin of one and two meals a day. The positive effects on food security are, however, not driven by higher income, as microcredit does not improve the ability to migrate for work, nor does it reduce dependence on distress sale of labor. The evidence is consistent with consumption smoothing being the primary mechanism behind the gains in food security of MFI households during the season of starvation.

About this journal

Objective
The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (BEJEAP) welcomes submissions that employ microeconomics to analyze issues in organizational economics, consumer behavior, and public policy. Articles submitted to BEJEAP can come in two formats: research papers and letters. Authors should bring to their analysis whatever microeconomic theoretical, experimental or econometric tools are helpful. We publish both empirical work and applied theory (though not more abstract forms of applied theory), and our aim is to disseminate papers that have practical implications for public policy, organizational or individual decision making.

Topics

Design of organizations and institutions
Industrial organization
Health economics
Public finance
Labour Economics
Economics of education, family, development, law, or the environment
Effects of domestic and international policy

Article formats
Research Papers, Letters

> Information on submission process