The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil... more The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil and there is little doubt that a very dark color is a handicap to social advancement. Nevertheless, very few empirical economic studies have attempted to quantify the impact of ethnic discrimination in Brazil. Using data culled from the Pesquisa National por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD), this
This paper examines the relative magnitudes of "sheepskin effects" in the returns to ed... more This paper examines the relative magnitudes of "sheepskin effects" in the returns to education for the three main ethnic groups in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador (MRS), Bahia state, in Northeastern Brazil, and ascertains whether their pattern is consistent with a simple signalling model. We show that failure to account for the strong signal furnished by admission to university, which is subject to a rigorous entrance exam in Bahia state, artificially inflates the estimated rate of return to an additional year of university education and results in downward bias in the estimated sheepskin effect of completing a four-year university degree. This is especially true for blacks. Moreover, our empirical results suggest that sheepskin effects take the traditional form of an additional return to the completion of a diploma for whites, whereas for blacks the additional return stems entirely from the sheepskin-like effect associated with admission to university.
When market structure is complete, factor demands by households will be independent of their char... more When market structure is complete, factor demands by households will be independent of their characteristics, and households will take their production decisions as if they were profit-maximizing firms. This observation constitutes the basis for one of the most popular empirical tests for complete markets, commonly known as the “separation” hypothesis. In this paper, we show that all existing tests for separation using panel data are potentially biased towards rejecting the null-hypothesis of complete markets, because of the failure to adequately control for unobservable individual effects. Since the variable on which the test for separation is based cannot be identifed in most panel datasets following the usual covariance transformations, and is likely to be correlated with the household-specific effect, neither the within nor the variance-components procedures are able to solve the problem. We show that the Hausman-Taylor (1981) estimator, in which the impact of covariates that ar...
... Béatrice d'Hombres Address: Béatrice d'Hombres, JRC, TP 361, Via Fermi, 21020, Ispr... more ... Béatrice d'Hombres Address: Béatrice d'Hombres, JRC, TP 361, Via Fermi, 21020, Ispra (VA), Italy E-mail: Beatrice.dhombres@jrc.it ... Only 10 countries & Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Estonie, Roma& nia, Hungary, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovine & out of the ...
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on instrument choice while consistently estimating the returns to edu... more ABSTRACT This paper focuses on instrument choice while consistently estimating the returns to education in Vietnam. Using VLSS data, we explore different sets of exogenous instruments that rely on demand and supply side sources of variation in schooling as well as the matrix of instruments proposed by Hausman and Taylor [1981]. As in several studies, we find that IV estimates of the returns to education are substantially higher than the corresponding ols estimate. We show how the Hausman-Taylor matrix of instruments, when combined with other instruments, may be a useful way of consistently estimating an average return to education rather than a local average treatment effect (Angrist [1994]).
In this paper we consider di¤erent explanations,for why the coe¢ cient associated with human,capi... more In this paper we consider di¤erent explanations,for why the coe¢ cient associated with human,capital is often negative,in growth,regressions once country-speci…c e¤ects are controlled for, whereas the coe¢ cient in question is strongly positive in cross-sectional or panel results based on the pooling estimator. In turn, we explore: (i) additional sources of unobserved,heterogeneity,stemming,from country- speci…c rates of labor-augmenting technological change, (ii) measurement error in the human capital series being used, and (iii) the lack of variability in the human capital series once the usual covariance transformations,are implemented.,Remaining unobserved,country-speci…c heterogeneity,and measurement,error alone are shown to be inadequate,explanations. The lack of variability in the human,capital series is tackled using a modi…ed,version of the Hausman-Taylor (1981) approach,whose identifying assumptions,are found to be reasonable in the context of the Solow model. JEL: E13, C2...
This article examines the impact of education on political participation in 15 European countries... more This article examines the impact of education on political participation in 15 European countries. We use data from the European Social Survey and find that education is positively associated with voter turnout and information acquisition about politics and currents affairs. However, when we use exogeneous changes in compulsory schooling to instrument education, we observe a statistically significant causal relationship in the case of information acquisition but not voter turnout.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2009
Previous research has identified the role of social capital in explaining variations in health in... more Previous research has identified the role of social capital in explaining variations in health in the countries of the former Soviet Union. This study explores whether the benefits of social capital vary among these countries and why. The impact of micro social capital (trust, membership and social isolation) on individual health was estimated in each of eight former Soviet republics using instrumental variables to overcome methodological hazards such as endogeneity and reverse causality. Interactions with institutional variables (voice and accountability, effectiveness of the legal system, informal economy) and social protection variables (employment protection, old age and disability benefits, sickness and health benefits) were examined. Most social capital indicators, in most countries, are associated with better health but the magnitude and significance of the impact differ between countries. Some of this variation can be explained by interacting social capital indicators with m...
The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil... more The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil and there is little doubt that a very dark color is a handicap to social advancement. Nevertheless, very few empirical economic studies have attempted to quantify the impact of ethnic discrimination in Brazil. Using data culled from the Pesquisa National por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD), this
This paper examines the relative magnitudes of "sheepskin effects" in the returns to ed... more This paper examines the relative magnitudes of "sheepskin effects" in the returns to education for the three main ethnic groups in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador (MRS), Bahia state, in Northeastern Brazil, and ascertains whether their pattern is consistent with a simple signalling model. We show that failure to account for the strong signal furnished by admission to university, which is subject to a rigorous entrance exam in Bahia state, artificially inflates the estimated rate of return to an additional year of university education and results in downward bias in the estimated sheepskin effect of completing a four-year university degree. This is especially true for blacks. Moreover, our empirical results suggest that sheepskin effects take the traditional form of an additional return to the completion of a diploma for whites, whereas for blacks the additional return stems entirely from the sheepskin-like effect associated with admission to university.
When market structure is complete, factor demands by households will be independent of their char... more When market structure is complete, factor demands by households will be independent of their characteristics, and households will take their production decisions as if they were profit-maximizing firms. This observation constitutes the basis for one of the most popular empirical tests for complete markets, commonly known as the “separation” hypothesis. In this paper, we show that all existing tests for separation using panel data are potentially biased towards rejecting the null-hypothesis of complete markets, because of the failure to adequately control for unobservable individual effects. Since the variable on which the test for separation is based cannot be identifed in most panel datasets following the usual covariance transformations, and is likely to be correlated with the household-specific effect, neither the within nor the variance-components procedures are able to solve the problem. We show that the Hausman-Taylor (1981) estimator, in which the impact of covariates that ar...
... Béatrice d'Hombres Address: Béatrice d'Hombres, JRC, TP 361, Via Fermi, 21020, Ispr... more ... Béatrice d'Hombres Address: Béatrice d'Hombres, JRC, TP 361, Via Fermi, 21020, Ispra (VA), Italy E-mail: Beatrice.dhombres@jrc.it ... Only 10 countries & Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Estonie, Roma& nia, Hungary, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovine & out of the ...
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on instrument choice while consistently estimating the returns to edu... more ABSTRACT This paper focuses on instrument choice while consistently estimating the returns to education in Vietnam. Using VLSS data, we explore different sets of exogenous instruments that rely on demand and supply side sources of variation in schooling as well as the matrix of instruments proposed by Hausman and Taylor [1981]. As in several studies, we find that IV estimates of the returns to education are substantially higher than the corresponding ols estimate. We show how the Hausman-Taylor matrix of instruments, when combined with other instruments, may be a useful way of consistently estimating an average return to education rather than a local average treatment effect (Angrist [1994]).
In this paper we consider di¤erent explanations,for why the coe¢ cient associated with human,capi... more In this paper we consider di¤erent explanations,for why the coe¢ cient associated with human,capital is often negative,in growth,regressions once country-speci…c e¤ects are controlled for, whereas the coe¢ cient in question is strongly positive in cross-sectional or panel results based on the pooling estimator. In turn, we explore: (i) additional sources of unobserved,heterogeneity,stemming,from country- speci…c rates of labor-augmenting technological change, (ii) measurement error in the human capital series being used, and (iii) the lack of variability in the human capital series once the usual covariance transformations,are implemented.,Remaining unobserved,country-speci…c heterogeneity,and measurement,error alone are shown to be inadequate,explanations. The lack of variability in the human,capital series is tackled using a modi…ed,version of the Hausman-Taylor (1981) approach,whose identifying assumptions,are found to be reasonable in the context of the Solow model. JEL: E13, C2...
This article examines the impact of education on political participation in 15 European countries... more This article examines the impact of education on political participation in 15 European countries. We use data from the European Social Survey and find that education is positively associated with voter turnout and information acquisition about politics and currents affairs. However, when we use exogeneous changes in compulsory schooling to instrument education, we observe a statistically significant causal relationship in the case of information acquisition but not voter turnout.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2009
Previous research has identified the role of social capital in explaining variations in health in... more Previous research has identified the role of social capital in explaining variations in health in the countries of the former Soviet Union. This study explores whether the benefits of social capital vary among these countries and why. The impact of micro social capital (trust, membership and social isolation) on individual health was estimated in each of eight former Soviet republics using instrumental variables to overcome methodological hazards such as endogeneity and reverse causality. Interactions with institutional variables (voice and accountability, effectiveness of the legal system, informal economy) and social protection variables (employment protection, old age and disability benefits, sickness and health benefits) were examined. Most social capital indicators, in most countries, are associated with better health but the magnitude and significance of the impact differ between countries. Some of this variation can be explained by interacting social capital indicators with m...
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Papers by Beatrice Dhombres