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• Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Dean Search

  September 19, 2019, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

  Location: Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, Room 152

  Provost Rafael L. Bras has convened a search committee tasked with selecting the new dean for the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, following the departure of Dean Jacqueline Royster. The search will be supported by a external search firm and chaired by Bonnie Ferri, vice provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development.

• SOE Seminar Series: James Ziliak, University of Kentucky

  September 20, 2019, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

  Location: Old Civil Engineering G-10

  James Ziliak, University of Kentucky, Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics; Director of the Center for Poverty Research; Executive Director of the Kentucky Federal Statistical Research Data Center.

  Seminar Title: The Antipoverty Impact of the EITC: New Estimates from Survey and Administrative Tax Records

  Abstract: 

  Evaluations of the EITC, including its antipoverty effectiveness, are based on simulated EITC benefits using either the Census Bureau’s tax module or from external tax simulators such as the National Bureau of Economic Research’s TAXSIM or Jon Bakija’s model. Each simulator utilizes model-based assumptions on who is and who is not eligible for the EITC, and conditional on eligibility, assumes that participation is 100 percent. However, recent evidence suggests that take-up of the EITC is considerably less than 100 percent, and thus claims regarding the impact of the program on measures of poverty may be overstated. We use data from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) linked to IRS tax data on the EITC to compare the distribution of EITC benefits from three tax simulation modules to administrative tax records. We find that significantly more actual EITC payments flow to childless tax units than predicted by the tax simulators, and to those whose family income places them well above official poverty thresholds. However, actual EITC payments appear to be target efficient at the individual tax unit level, whether correctly paid or not. We then compare the antipoverty impact of the EITC across the survey and administrative tax measures of EITC benefits. We find that in the full CPS ASEC the tax simulators overestimate the antipoverty effects of the EITC by about 1.8 million persons in a typical year. Restricting to a harmonized sample of filers, we find that the antipoverty estimates derived from the TAXSIM and Bakija models align more closely to actual EITC payments compared to the CPS, suggesting a discrepancy in assignment of tax filers between the tax simulators. 

• SOE Seminar Series: Rodney Ludema, Georgetown University

  September 27, 2019, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

  Location: Old Civil Engineering G-10

  Rodney Ludema, Georgetown University, Department of Economics and School of Foreign Service. 

  Seminar Title: The political economy of protection in GVCs: Evidence from Chinese micro data 

  Abstract: 

  This paper explores the political economy of import protection in a setting where imports may contain a country’s own domestic value added (DVA) via domesticallyproduced inputs that get exported and used in foreign downstream production. We show that domestic upstream and downstream producers are generally allies in favor of protection, but this alliance may weaken as DVA increases, because a home tariff on finished goods decreases foreign demand for home inputs. Empirically, we examine detailed discriminatory trade policies of 27 countries plus the EU toward China and use Chinese transaction-level processing trade data to construct a measure of DVA. We also measure input customization. We find that both upstream and downstream political organization increase downstream protection, but the effect of the former is smaller when inputs are customized and DVA as a share of final imports from China is larger. Tariffs on products containing inputs that are neither customized nor politically organized appear to be unaffected by the DVA share.

• SOE Seminar Series: Olena Ivus, Queens University

  October 18, 2019, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

  Location: Old Civil Engineering G-10

  Olena Ivus, Queens University, Associate Professor & E. Marie Shantz Fellow for Business Economics. 

  Seminar Paper: “Migration and the Composition of Imitation,” co-authored with Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna) and Larry D. Qiu (University of Hong Kong).

  Abstract:

  This paper develops a North-South trade model with heterogeneous labour and horizontally-differentiated products. It compares the implications of two policies: intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the South and Northern migration policy which aims to attract Southern talent as means of preempting imitation. Northern individuals can become entrepreneurs whereas Southern individuals can become imitators. The likelihood of imitation depends on the quality of varieties, ability of imitators, and the IPR regime. The analysis identifies several interrelated channels of competition. An open immigration policy under weak IPRs shifts imitation from high to low-quality products and increases the average quality of invented varieties. The outcome is in stark contrast to the impact of directly imposing stronger IPRs, which instead limits the imitation of andencourages the introduction of low-quality varieties.

• SOE Seminar Series: Kenneth Gillingham, Yale University

  November 1, 2019, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

  Location: Old Civil Engineering G-10

  Kenneth Gillingham, Yale University, Associate Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. 

  Seminar Paper: “Experimental  Evidence on the Effect of Information and Pricing on Residential Electricity Consumption”

  Abstract: 

  This study examines a field experiment in Texas that includes pricing and informational interventions to encourage energy conservation during summer peak load days when the social cost of generation is the highest. We estimate that our critical peak pricing intervention reduces electricity consumption by 14%. Using unique high frequency appliance-level data, we can attribute 74% of this response to air conditioning. In contrast, we find minimal response to active information provision and conservation appeals. A complementary experimental program also lowers nighttime prices during the off-peak season, providing the first evidence of electric vehicle loadshifting in response to price. Keywords: critical peak pricing, informational interventions, electric vehicles, loadshifting, habituation, spillovers.