Regional mobility of economists: An extension

We extend Davis and Patterson’s analysis of the incidence and determinants of regional mobility of Ph.D. economists. By exploiting previously collected data, we identify the patterns of regional mobility not only at the point of entry into the labor market for economists who received their doctoral degree in 1968 but also the net mobility of these economists over a 25-year period. The net effects of regional mobility decisions made between graduation in 1968 and year-25 employment in 1993, and between initial professional employment in 1969 and year-25 employment in 1993, are analyzed. Our results suggest that many economists demonstrate a propensity to“nest“ in their degree and first-job regions of employment and that those employed in government service and those with a greater diversity of work experience are more likely to migrate across regions during their careers.     

Regional mobility of economists

We find that nearly two- thirds of economists move to a different region of the U.S. or to a foreign country to accept their first job after receiving the Ph.D., that the South is the only net importer of economists among regions of the U.S., that the Midwest is the major net exporter, and that the proportion of graduates accepting foreign employment doubled during the 1980s. Gender and field of specialization do not affect mobility; however, doctorates from the top graduate schools and those accepting academic and government jobs are more likely to change regions than are graduates of lower ranked schools or those who are employed in the private sector.     

YOUR RIGHT ARM FOR A PUBLICATION IN AER?

The time tradeoff (TTO) method is popular in medical decision making for valuing health states. We use it to elicit economists' preferences for publishing in top economic journals and for living without limbs. The economists value journal publications highly and have a clear preference among them, with the American Economic Review (AER) the most preferred. Their responses imply they would sacrifice more than half a thumb for an AER publication. These TTO results are consistent with ranking and willingness to pay results, and indicate that journal preferences are not entirely determined by impact factors or by expectations of a salary increase following a publication in a prestigious journal. (JEL A10, B41, I10)     

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIVITY OF HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE ECONOMISTS

This paper studies the evolution of research productivity of a sample of economists working in the best 81 departments in the world in 2007. The main novelty is that, in so far as a productivity distribution can be identified with an income distribution, we measure productivity mobility in a dynamic context using an indicator inspired in an income mobility index suggested by Fields (2010) for a two‐period world. Productivity is measured in terms of publications, weighted by the citation impact of the journals where each article is published in the periodical literature. We study the evolution of average productivity, productivity inequality, the extent of rank reversals, and productivity mobility for seven cohorts, as well as the population as a whole. We offer new evidence confirming previous results about the heterogeneity of the evolution of productivity for top and other researchers. However, the major result is that—contrary to what was expected—for our sample of very highly productive scholars the effect of rank reversals between the two periods on overall productivity mobility offsets the effect of an increase in productivity inequality from the first to the second period in the youngest five out of seven cohorts. (JEL A11, A12, B41, D63, I32)     

The interurban mobility of the foreign born in Canada, 1976-81

This study concerns itself with the relationship between nativity, language affiliation, and interurban mobility in Canada during the period 1976-1981. 3 hypotheses are evaluated: 1) the urban/ethnic affinity thesis predicts that international immigrants share strong preferences for settling in and relocating toward large urban centers where established ethnic communities exist; 2) the sociocultural explanation of mobility posits that variations in the propensity to relocate are a function of nativity and language; and 3) the heterogeneity explanation predicts that interurban mobility flows ultimately serve to increase rather than decrease linguistic heterogeneity in large urban areas. Using data from the 1981 census of Canada, a series of cross-tabular and logistic regression analyses provide support for all 3 hypotheses. Theoretical and policy oriented implications are discussed in the context of ethnic community survival in urban Canada.     

Monopsony power in the market for teachers: Why teachers should support market-based education reform

Employers can exploit individuals with high moving costs when local labor markets are not competitive. Along with nurses and university faculty, teachers are sometimes in such a disadvantageous situation. Teachers’ price elasticity of supply may be quite low in many regions, and their geographic mobility may be low when they are their household's second wage earner. Their occupational mobility is often low because of the scarcity of alternate employers within commuting distance. Nearly 96 percent of Texas' teachers work in tax-financed school districts, and many regions have only one district. An econometric model developed from school district data from 48 South Texas and 48 North Texas counties supports the hypothesis that teachers are paid less in less competitive labor markets. In Texas, teachers’ salaries are not determined by collective bargaining between district officials and teacher unions. That relatively unique feature of Texas makes it especially well-suited to the task of disentangling monopsony effects from other labor market forces.     

Social mobility and constitutional and political preferences in Northern Ireland

During the past thirty years Catholics in Northern Ireland have experienced unprecedented upward social mobility. Some commentators have suggested that this has led Catholics not merely to adopt the lifestyles of the middle class but also to modify their constitutional preferences, leading to a decline in nationalism. In this paper I examine the relationship between social mobility, on the one hand, and, on the other, both constitutional preferences and political (left or right wing) preferences among Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, using survey data collected in 1996. There is no evidence that Catholics' constitutional preferences are related to their mobility experiences.     

DOES RAIDING EXPLAIN THE NEGATIVE RETURNS TO FACULTY SENIORITY?

We track faculty for 30 yr at five PhD‐granting departments of economics. Two‐thirds of faculty who take alternative employment move downward; less than one‐quarter moves upward. We find a substantial penalty for seniority, even after richly controlling for faculty productivity, and the penalty is little changed when we allow wages and returns to seniority to differ by mobility status. Faculty who end up moving to better or comparable positions were penalized as severely for seniority while they were in our sample as faculty who stay. These results are incompatible with the raiding hypothesis. Faculty from top 10 programs are also punished for seniority but to a lesser degree than other faculty, which could reflect reduced monopsony power against such faculty if they are more marketable. All results persist when we control for prospective publications and allow lower returns for older publications. Match‐quality bias has dissipated in the post‐internet period, which may be the consequence of greater availability of information. (JEL J62, J44, J42)     

Preferences for redistribution: an empirical analysis over 33 countries

People’s preferences for state intervention in social policies vary. A cross-section analysis on individual-level survey data is conducted here over 33 democracies to highlight the link between the economic position of agents and their specific demand for redistribution. Controlling for a number of factors usually found to affect individual preferences in the literature, this article focuses on the role played by the occupational status of individuals in shaping their preferences. Individual labour market position, as well as family income, is shown to outweigh all other factors shaping preferences for redistribution. The odds of a manager to oppose redistributive policies are increased by 40%, as compared to those of an office clerk, for instance. Moreover, individuals’ perception of personal mobility plays an important role: the odds of holding more positive attitudes towards redistribution are up by 32% for people who think they experienced a downward mobility within the last ten years. Evidence is also found for the fact that the political regime may have a long lasting effect on collective preferences: living in former-East Germany doubles the odds of holding positive attitudes towards redistribution, as compared to living in West Germany. Finally, the research presented here identifies which socio-political groups may be formed on the basis of their preferences for redistribution.     

Has social mobility in Britain decreased? Reconciling divergent findings on income and class mobility

Social mobility has become a topic of central political concern. In political and also media circles it is widely believed that in Britain today mobility is in decline. However, this belief appears to be based on a single piece of research by economists that is in fact concerned with intergenerational income mobility: specifically, with the relation between family income and children's later earnings. Research by sociologists using the same data sources – the British birth cohort studies of 1958 and 1970 – but focusing on intergenerational class mobility does not reveal a decline either in total mobility rates or in underlying relative rates. The paper investigates these divergent findings. We show that they do not result from the use of different subsets of the data or of different analytical techniques. Instead, given the more stable and generally less fluid class mobility regime, it is the high level of income mobility of the 1958 cohort, rather than the lower level of the 1970 cohort, that is chiefly in need of explanation. Further analyses – including ones of the relative influence of parental class and of family income on children's educational attainment – suggest that the economists' finding of declining mobility between the two cohorts may stem, in part at least, from the fact that the family income variable for the 1958 cohort provides a less adequate measure of ‘permanent income’ than does that for the 1970 cohort. But, in any event, it would appear that the class mobility regime more fully captures the continuity in economic advantage and disadvantage that persists across generations.     

Some Trends in the Prestige of U.S. Ph.D. Programs in Sociology, 1976–2011

The prestige ranks of 110 U.S. Ph.D. programs in Sociology are examined at seven times between 1976 and 2011. Linear latent growth curve models are fitted to test differences between public and private institutions, institutions located in the four major census regions, and between three historically strong communities (the Ivy League, Big-10, and Pac-10) and others. The relative prestige ranks display considerable stability, totaling 90 % of the variance between, and 10 % of the variance within programs. Differences between the three historically high-prestige communities and others are more important than geographic or public/private distinctions. The Big-10 institutions have declined markedly in relative prestige, as has the mean prestige rank of institutions in the Midwest generally. Ivy and other Eastern schools have gained modestly; Western, but not Pac-10, schools have also gained, while schools in the South are little changed. Overall, public institutions have shown gains relative to private during the period.     

Consumption and geographic mobility in pandemic times. Evidence from Mexico

We analyze the universe of point-of-sale (POS) transactions before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in Mexico. We find three key results. First, consumption in Mexico fell by 23 percent in the April-June quarter of 2020 and by 16 percent from April to September of 2020 as compared to expected levels. Second, reductions in consumption were highly heterogeneous across sectors and states, with states and activities related to tourism the most affected. Third, using variation over time and states, we estimate the elasticity of POS expenditures with respect to geographic mobility (measured using cellphone location data) to be slightly less than 1. This estimate suggests that spending in developing countries may be more responsive to mobility than in developed countries, and that mobility indicators could be used as a real-time proxy for consumption in some economies.

     

Exploring the Emergence of Side Biases and Familiarity–Novelty Preferences from the Real‐Time Dynamics of Infant Looking

This study examined how look dynamics contribute to infants’ emerging novelty preferences. Time‐series analyses were used to study the temporal nature of looking displayed by 3‐ to 5‐month‐old infants during a serial paired‐comparison task. Evidence was found only for short‐term stability: Novelty preferences and side biases were not stable from one visit to the next, but looking was consistent from one moment to the next producing stability within trials and temporarily across trials leading to the formation of behavioral runs. Persistence in looking left or right across multiple trials did not change from one visit to the next, but persistence in looking at familiar stimuli declined with age. By Visit 3, familiarity runs occurred less often than did novelty runs. Frequent but highly variable runs, including surprisingly late familiarity preferences, suggest that overall side biases and novelty preferences found during visual preference tasks are emergent phenomena affected by moment‐to‐moment changes in looking.     

WHICH JOURNAL RANKINGS BEST EXPLAIN ACADEMIC SALARIES? EVIDENCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

The ranking of an academic journal is important to authors, universities, journal publishers, and research funders. Rankings are gaining prominence as countries adopt regular research assessment exercises that especially reward publication in high‐impact journals. Yet even within a rankings‐oriented discipline like economics there is no agreement on how aggressively lower‐ranked journals are down‐weighted and in how wide is the universe of journals considered. Moreover, since it is typically less costly for authors to cite superfluous references, whether of their own volition or prompted by editors, than it is to ignore relevant ones, rankings based on citations may be easily manipulated. In contrast, when the merits of publication in one journal or another are debated during hiring, promotion, and salary decisions, the evaluators are choosing over actions with costly consequences. We therefore look to the academic labor market, using data on economists in the University of California system to relate their lifetime publications in 700 different academic journals to salary. We test amongst various sets of journal rankings, and publication discount rates, to see which are most congruent with the returns implied by the academic labor market. (JEL A14, I23, J44)     

Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the preferences of the Italian society towards equity in order to verify whether preferences (i) have changed across the years, and (ii) can be related to specific socio-demographic characteristics. Introducing equity concerns in the implementation of economic policies is a fundamental problem faced by both economists and policy makers. This paper uses a social welfare function à la Jorgenson and Slesnick to estimate society’s aversion towards inequality by implementing a voting scheme for compiling individuals’ equity preferences into a social choice by majority rule. The results show that preferences are highly polarized toward a low and a high concern for equity aversion and that this concern is significantly related with several sociodemographic characteristics. Among them, income plays an important role with richer people tending to favor less equity. Results also show that preferences towards equity have changed across the years.     

Real earnings and human migration in the United States

"The present article offers an alternative [to Rabianski's] empirical analysis of the migration impact of living cost differentials and deals with net (as opposed to gross) [U.S.] migration to some 25 (as opposed to just 11) SMSAs over the 1960-70 rather than the 1955-60 time period. The results...indicate that...living cost differentials do significantly affect geographic mobility, i.e., improve the regression results."     

The socioculturalist agenda in economics: Critical remarks of Thorstein Veblen's legacy

The article identifies a cluster of heterodox economists, especially followers of Thorstein Veblen, who are critical of the neoclassical axiom of well-defined preferences. They generally have a problem with the reductionist reasoning that preferences of agents are constituted prior to social interaction. Some of them are proposing somewhat well-defined preferences deduced instead from the tastes of the reference groups with whom the agent identifies. The article does not question the relevance, with respect to economics, of the preferences of groups. Rather, it challenges a muscular view of such preferences which is being uncritically borrowed, inter alia, from functionalist sociology and substantivist economic anthropology. Sociologists and anthropologists in general have recently become, from diverse perspectives, critical of the conception of sociocultural tastes as hegemonic. The basic thrust of the article is that the socioculturalist agenda broadly subscribes to a biological/social dichotomy which neglects that tastes also arise from psychobiological developmental processes.     

Embeddedness in Voluntary Associations and the Timing of Geographic Moves

I develop and test a theory of the relationship between geographic mobility and the geographic scope of voluntary associations (VAs). Geographic scope is linked theoretically to overlap in the membership sets of VAs. Local VAs are theorized to have a high degree of overlap in membership, while cosmopolitan VAs have a low degree of membership overlap. While membership in local VAs suppresses geographic mobility, membership in cosmopolitan VAs does not. In addition, the effect of geographic mobility on VA membership is found to vary by geographic scope.     

The socioculturalist agenda in economics: Critical remarks of Thorstein Veblen's legacy

The article identifies a cluster of heterodox economists, especially followers of Thorstein Veblen, who are critical of the neoclassical axiom of well-defined preferences. They generally have a problem with the reductionist reasoning that preferences of agents are constituted prior to social interaction. Some of them are proposing somewhat well-defined preferences deduced instead from the tastes of the reference groups with whom the agent identifies. The article does not question the relevance, with respect to economics, of the preferences of groups. Rather, it challenges a muscular view of such preferences which is being uncritically borrowed, inter alia, from functionalist sociology and substantivist economic anthropology. Sociologists and anthropologists in general have recently become, from diverse perspectives, critical of the conception of sociocultural tastes as hegemonic. The basic thrust of the article is that the socioculturalist agenda broadly subscribes to a biological/social dichotomy which neglects that tastes also arise from psychobiological developmental processes.     

Changes in Americans' Policy Preferences, 1935-1979

Using responses to 3,315 survey questions asked of nationalsamples, we examine how policy preferences of Americans havechanged over the last 45 years. The data indicate that therehas been considerable stability in public opinion: responsesto half the 613 repeated policy items show no significant changeat all; approximately half the detectable changes were lessthan 10 percentage points; and rarely did preferences fluctuatesignificantly back and forth within a short time period. Foreignpolicy changes were no larger or more frequent than domestic,but they did tend to occur more abruptly. When opinion shiftsoccurred, they were not random or capricious; they were usuallyrelated to important changes in citizens' social and economicenvironments. Rapid shifts generally coincided with major eventsin international affairs or the economy.