The nutrition transition model examines the impact of industrialization and economic development on standards of living through dietary changes. The changes in dietary structure over the last two centuries have been determined. These changes consist of an overall increase in calorie and protein intake and a shift from a diet of predominantly cereals to one with animal-based products. The literature considers that the growth in income is the principal factor explaining dietary change. Although it has also highlighted the importance of other environmental, social, institutional, and cultural factors. Therefore, a quantitative exercise has been made to verify the role of economic factors such as income and prices in the nutrition transition process.

We present novel evidence on the motherhood penalty in female employment, investigating its evolution over time and the role of family policy in mitigating this negative effect. Using a dynamic framework, we analyze seven European countries from 2003 to 2020, taking into account the potential endogeneity of fertility decisions. We find that childbirth affects female employment with different intensities across countries. Such an effect strengthens over time and persists as children grow up in most countries. Higher spending on family policies is associated with higher employment rates among new mothers. Disentangling cash and in-kind transfers, we find that the cash benefits have a slightly negative effect, while in-kind support is positive. However, the mere distinction may be insufficient for designing effective family policies, as the impact of spending interacts with multiple social and institutional factors, including gender equality in caring activities and inclusive labor markets.

This paper revisits the relationship between population growth and economic performance by extending the Solow framework to include land as a fixed factor in a two-sector economy and migration as an endogenous adjustment. Because only agriculture uses land, effective land intensity becomes endogenous to structural transformation, declining as economies diversify. The impact of population growth therefore depends on land scarcity but is mitigated by sectoral reallocation and migration. Using a panel of 152 countries over 1960–2023 and both fixed-effects and system- Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimators, we show that the effect of natural population growth on per-capita income growth is highly conditional. Population growth becomes growth-reducing in agriculture-dependent and land-scarce economies, but this effect is attenuated by lower agricultural shares and land-saving technological progress. Migration further alleviates demographic pressure by reallocating labor away from land-intensive production.

Changes in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic included emergency benefit allotments and operation waivers. Using five expenditure-based measures of the nutritional quality of food purchases, we tested whether changes in SNAP during the first year of the pandemic were associated with better nutritional quality of food purchases by participating households with children relative to income-eligible nonparticipating households. Most nutritional quality measures declined from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020 (pandemic) with larger decreases for SNAP households. SNAP participation was associated with small negative differences for nutritional quality of food purchases from stores.

When analyzing decision-level data from more than one economic experiment, the pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator is a weighted sum of (i) within-experiment treatment effects, and (ii) an estimate of between-experiment treatment effects. The latter is plausibly biased and receives substantial weight in typical studies. I discuss some implications of this weighting and some remedies to the problem.

This paper aims at reexamining external sustainability in a dynamic framework for nine European Monetary Union (EMU) countries during the period 1970–2021. We extend the approach of Bohn (1998) to a time-varying external reaction function. The main advantage of our empirical strategy is that it captures the dynamics of the external reaction function, by accounting for the main sources of heterogeneity among EMU countries and by including common factors like financial globalization and global risk aversion. To estimate the model, we employ a fully fledged state-space framework, which extends the simple model generally used in this literature to a panel-data time-varying parameter framework, combining fixed (common and country-specific) and varying components. Our results show an evident interplay between real and financial variables, the latter progressively increasing their importance. Although heterogeneous, the adjustment to external imbalances in most EU countries is jointly driven by the level reached in the stock of net foreign assets together with the degree of risk aversion and financial openness.

This paper investigates both conditional and unconditional convergence in labor productivity within the manufacturing industries of the Eurozone over the period 1963 – 2018. We employ two innovative models: constant and varying-coefficient hierarchical panel data convergence regression models, each equipped with two sets of latent factor structures—one comprising global factors and the other industry-specific factors. These models offer distinct advantages, allowing for both global and industry-specific cross-sectional dependencies and permitting parameter heterogeneity across individual industries. Our findings reveal both conditional and unconditional convergence across the manufacturing industry as a whole, as well as among the majority of the 23 sub-manufacturing industries at the ISIC two-digit level. Moreover, we observe significant variation in convergence dynamics among these sub-manufacturing industries. Robustness checks, performed across different subperiods, confirm the reliability of our results. Furthermore, a comparison of our model’s outcomes with those of two alternative models provides additional support for our conclusions.

Wine is the most differentiated of all farm products, with much of the differentiation based on the location of production. In this paper, we estimate the effects of climate and vintage weather on California's varietal wine quality and prices. Our analysis is based on a sample of premium wines rated by Wine Spectator magazine between 1994 and 2022 and a comparable sample of secondary market auction prices from K&L Wine Merchants, each matched to spatially detailed weather data from PRISM. We find that extreme temperatures, particularly extremely hot temperatures, caused prices to decline. Absent additional adaptation, climate change will harm wine quality and disrupt quality signals from geographical indications in California's premier wine regions.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of climate change on state fragility in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To do this, we estimate a country-time fixed effects panel data model using the two-way fixed effects estimator over the period 1995 to 2020 for 45 SSA countries. Our results show that climate change increases fragility in SSA; specifically, rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall increase the social, economic, political and security fragility of SSA countries. The study also reveals that gross domestic product, population growth, migrant remittances, foreign direct investment, natural resources, inflation and agricultural price volatility are mechanisms through which climate change exacerbates state fragility. Based on these results, we recommend climate change adaptation measures such as increasing water storage to cope with periods of extreme drought, growing climate-smart crops, and the introduction of environmental public policies.

Data from a risky choice experiment are used to estimate a fully parametric stochastic model of risky choice. As is usual with such analyses, Expected Utility Theory is rejected in favour of a form of Rank Dependent Theory. Then an estimate of the risk aversion parameter is deduced for each subject, and this is used to construct a measure of the “closeness to indifference” of each subject in each choice problem. This measure is then used as an explanatory variable in a random effects model of decision time, with other explanatory variables being the complexity of the problem, the financial incentives, and the amount of experience accumulated at the time of performing the task. The most interesting finding is that significantly more effort is allocated to problems in which subjects are close to indifference. This presents us with another reason (in addition to statistical information considerations) why such tasks should play a prominent role in experiments.

The classical trinity of tests is used to check for the presence of a tremble in economic experiments in which the response variable is binary. A tremble is said to occur when an agent makes a decision completely at random, without regard to the values taken by the explanatory variables. The properties of the tests are discussed, and an extension of the methodology is used to test for the presence of a tremble in binary panel data from a well-known economic experiment.

We provide the first, in experimental economics, consistent estimates of a dynamic learning model with a continuous outcome. The econometric approach we propose can be used in many experimental studies including auctions, bargaining with transfers, and gift exchange experiments. We focus on affiliated private value auctions, where subjects are generally assumed to converge to the rule-of-thumb bidding, but our general approach is applicable to many other settings. Our IV estimates suggest that subjects become significantly less aggressive over time; specifically, they decrease their bids in proportion to the previous period’s signal minus bid. However, the inconsistent OLS and FE estimators imply that subjects become significantly more aggressive over time—they raise their bids in proportion to the previous period’s signal minus bid. Our instruments are randomly generated by the experiment, and pass popular weak instrument tests.

This paper specifies the panel data experimental design condition under which ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and random effects estimators yield identical estimates of treatment effects. This condition is relevant to the large body of laboratory experimental research that generates panel data. Although the point estimates and the true standard errors of the estimated average treatment effects are identical across the three estimators, the estimated standard errors differ. A standard F test as well as asymptotic reasoning guide the choice of which estimated standard errors are the appropriate ones to use for statistical inference.

Relying upon an original (country-sector-year) measure of robotic capital ($RK$), we investigate the degree of complementarity/substitutability between robots and workers at different skill levels. We employ nonparametric methods to estimate elasticity of substitution patterns between $RK$ and skilled/unskilled labor over the period 1995–2009. We show that: i) on average, $RK$ exhibits less substitutability with skilled workers compared to unskilled workers, indicating a phenomenon of “RK-Skill complementarity”. This pattern holds in a global context characterized by significant heterogeneity; ii) the dynamic of “RK-Skill complementarity” has increased since the early 2000s; iii) the observed strengthening is more prominent in OECD countries, as opposed to non-OECD countries, and in the Manufacturing sector, compared to non-Manufacturing industries.

Our paper sheds light on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) cooperation among trading countries. We contribute to the existing literature a data-driven analysis on the effectiveness of various forms (in monetary value, duration, and diversification) of SPS related technical assistance received by 33 countries from 1993 to 2015. The World Trade Organization's (WTO's) SPS Agreement encourages biosecurity for countries through technical assistance, to safeguard human health and productivity from contamination by biological hazards (pests, pathogens, or invasive species). Our panel model finds that WTO's SPS program encourages simultaneously agricultural trade and biosecurity. We implement a Multiple Indicator Solution (MIS) to correct bias from the endogenous technical assistance. The effectiveness of technical assistance depends on geography and the level of development among the heterogeneous countries referred to in our data. This investment in biosecurity benefits both donors and recipients of technical assistance. Based on our results donors should be encouraged to invest in countries with below average resources and abilities.

Much historical yield-monitor data is from fields where a uniform rate of nitrogen was applied. A new approach is proposed using this data to get site-specific nitrogen recommendations. Bayesian methods are used to estimate a linear plateau model where only the plateau is spatially varying. The model is then illustrated by using it to make site-specific nitrogen recommendations for corn production in Mississippi. The in-sample recommendations generated by this approach return an estimated $9/acre on the example field. The long-term goal is to combine this information with other information such as remote sensing measurements.

This article combines cross-national statistical analysis and in-depth historical case studies of Argentina and Chile to explore the relationship between two crucial dimensions of state capacity. We show that information capacity contributes to the development of fiscal capacity. When states have accurate information about their subject populations, territories, and economies, they are more effective at mobilizing revenues. In developing this argument this article makes three broader contributions. First, while existing scholarship either treats distinct dimensions of state capacity as separate entities, or simply assumes that they complement each other, our findings urge scholars to treat state development as sequential and to further investigate how multiple dimensions of state capacity are interrelated. Second, the paper suggests a broader underlying set of mechanisms – economies of scope – which connect these dimensions, and explores them in the specific context of how information capacity facilitates fiscal capacity. Third, we join the scholarship on the importance of societal compliance in the creation of the fiscal state, but with a focus on elite cooperation with the state's information collection efforts, which we show to be crucial to tax state development.

We examine the effect of corruption control on efficiency and its implications for efficiency spillovers by a stochastic frontier model. Our dataset covers 102 countries from 1996 to 2014. We find a positive relationship between corruption control and efficiency. If neighboring countries have difficulty in handling corruption, the country would be negatively affected by its neighbors' corruption through efficiency spillovers. We then compare the efficiency differences across countries for three time periods: 1996–2002, 2002–2008, and 2008–2014. On average, technical efficiencies slightly increased in the second period compared to the first period. In the third period, the efficiencies declined, particularly in China.

This study analyses firms’ labour demand when employers have at least some monopsony power. It is argued that without taking into account (quasi-)monopsonistic structures of the labour market, wrong predictions are made about the effects of minimum wages. Using switching fractional panel probit regressions with German establishment data, I find that slightly more than 80% of establishments exercise some degree of monopsony power in their demand for low-skilled workers. The outcome suggests that a 1% increase in payments for low-skilled workers would, in these firms, increase employment for this group by 1.12%, while firms without monopsony power reduce the number of low-skilled, by about 1.63% for the same increase in remuneration. The study can probably also be used to explain the limited employment effects of the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany and thus leads to a better understanding of the labour market for low-skilled workers.