Desiree A. Desierto

2D:4D Asymmetry and Gender Differences in Academic Performance

Exposure to prenatal androgens affects both future behavior and life choices. However, there is still relatively limited evidence on its effects on academic performance. Moreover, the predicted effect of exposure to prenatal testosterone (T)–which is inversely correlated with the relative length of the second to fourth finger lengths (2D:4D)–would seem to have ambiguous effects on academic achievement since traits like aggressiveness or risk-taking are not uniformly positive for success in school. We provide the first evidence of a non-linear, quadratic, relationship between 2D:4D and academic achievement using samples from Moscow and Manila. We also find that there is a gender differentiated link between various measures of academic achievement and measured digit ratios. These effects are different depending on the field of study, choice of achievement measure, and use of the right hand or left digit ratios. The results seem to be asymmetric between Moscow and Manila where the right (left) hand generates inverted-U (U-shaped) curves in Moscow while the pattern for hands reverses in Manila. Drawing from unusually large and detailed samples of university students in two countries not studied in the digit literature, our work is the first to have a large cross country comparison that includes two groups with very different ethnic compositions.

Two Wrongs Make a Right: The Market for Illegal Goods in the Presence of Corruption

With corruption, prohibition is better at curtailing consumption than taxation. Prohibition enforcers are incentivized to enforce against illegal producers to extract bribes from them, while the latter willingly pay the bribes to keep supplying the market. In equilibrium, total quantity is lower. In contrast, tax collectors have less incentive to restrict quantity (by imposing higher taxes), even if they were to illegally appropriate tax revenues. Legal taxpayers have less reason to cooperate with corrupt tax collectors, and are more likely to report them. Because corruption is harder to sustain in a legalized market, taxation is less effective.

Why Do Weak States Prefer Prohibition to Taxation

Why do weak states prefer prohibition to taxation? Desierto and Nye show that keeping an undesirable good illegal is more efficient than legalizing and taxing it, even if producers of the prohibited goods pay out large bribes to prohibition enforcers. If the bribes are recognized as revenues to the enforcers, this additional benefit keeps welfare losses small. This chapter further supports this finding with preliminary empirical evidence and graphical analyses of the likely net welfare losses from prohibition and taxation. It provides a positive rationale for the preference for prohibition in states prone to corruption and imperfect enforcement.

Is It Worth Taxing Pirated Products? The Case of Optical Media Discs in the Philippines*

This paper questions the conventional argument that the existence of a black market provides negative externalities in the form of foregone tax revenues that could otherwise be used to increase social welfare. It is not enough to estimate the size of the black market, one should also show how much of this can be eradicated, and how much of what is eradicated can be replaced by legitimate (taxable) goods, and how much of what is replaced can generate actual tax revenue. When all these are taken into account, the actual tax loss from piracy may be trivial. We illustrate this point using time-series data on optical media disc piracy in the Philippines.

Prohibition versus Taxation in Corrupt Environments

If corruption is rife and tolerated by society, prohibiting the production of a good with negative social costs may be more efficient at limiting quantity than legalizing and taxing producers. It becomes incentive-compatible for a corrupt government to enforce prohibition and credibly limit supply in order to extract bribes from illegal producers. In equilibrium, total quantity is low. In contrast, when the good is legal and taxed, a corrupt government can extract rents only by expropriating the tax revenues. Thus, it prefers a larger market in order to generate more taxes, and quantity is higher.

2D:4D Asymmetry and Academic Perfomance: Evidence from Moscow and Manila

Exposure to prenatal androgens affects both future behavior and life choices. However, there is still relatively limited evidence on its effects on academic performance. Moreover, the predicted effect of exposure to prenatal testosterone (T) - which is inversely correlated with the relative length of the second to fourth finger lengths (2D:4D) - would seem to have ambiguous effects on academic achievement since traits like confidence, aggressiveness, or risk-taking are not uniformly positive for success in school. We provide the first evidence of a non-linear relationship between 2D:4D and academic achievement using samples from Moscow and Manila. We find that there is a quadratic relationship between high T exposure and markers of achievement such as grades or test scores and that the optimum digit ratio for women in our sample is lower (indicating higher prenatal T) than the average. The results for men are generally insignificant for Moscow but significant for Manila showing similar non-linear effects. Our work is thus unusual in that it draws from a large sample of nearly a thousand university students in Moscow and over a hundred from Manila for whom we also have extensive information on high school test scores, family background and other potential correlates of achievement. Our work is also the first to have a large cross country comparison that includes two groups with very different ethnic compositions.