APL (Ajiken Power Lunch)

APL (Ajiken Power Lunch) is a lunchtime workshop open to public, including IDE staffs, visiting research fellows, IDEAS students, outside researchers and graduate students. This workshop provides a platform for presentation of any work in progress where we can discuss in either English or Japanese.

Those who would attend a seminar are asked to announce yourself to receptionists on your arrival at the IDE and to obtain APL Organizers' signature on your admission card after the seminar.

March 17, 2017. (Friday) 10：30-12：00

Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization C23 Meeting Room 　

1) The Valuation of Changes in Commuting Distances: An Analysis using Georeferenced Data; 2) Reexamining Persistency of Population Shocks: Evidence from the Occupation of West Germany after WWII

As Peter stays at IDE for 3 weeks, this talk plays as the role of his introduction. The talk will be divided into two parts.

Abstract 1) We analyze the causal effect of commuting on wages, using a large sample of German job changers. Information on their home and workplace addresses in combination with road navigation software allows us to calculate exact door-to-door commuting distances with an unprecedented degree of precision. We use a theoretical model on spatial job search to motivate our empirical strategy. By focusing on job moves, we can use panel data techniques and control for unobserved individual heterogeneity. We find an asymmetric valuation of distance changes. Job changers value a reduction of their commuting distance higher than an increase. Apparently, individuals are not able to capitalize the full costs of commuting in their wages. A large part of this effect can be explained by sorting into certain firms at different distances and the rest by individual wage bargaining.

Abstract 2) We examine the persistency in population shock in West Germany after WWII at the occupation zonal border between US and France. While Schumann (2014: AER) found the persistent effects on population growth between 1939 and 1951 to 1970, we found no such effects for the population growth after 1951. We also find no such effects at the border in labour market outcomes such as wages, employments and skill compositions in late 1970s and characteristics of establishments. These results suggest that the shock was one time and the persistency was limited at most about twenty years.

Mr. Peter Haller (Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA))

Kenmei TSUBOTA

English