Dustin Chambers

A Non‐Parametric Measure Of Poverty Elasticity

We estimate the growth elasticity of poverty (GEP) using recently developed non‐parametric panel methods and the most up‐to‐date and extensive poverty data from the World Bank, which exceeds 500 observations in size and represents more than 96 percent of the developing worlds population. Unlike previous studies which rely on parametric models, we employ a non‐parametric approach which captures the non‐linearity in the relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty. We find that the growth elasticity of poverty is higher for countries with fairly equal income distributions, and declines in nations with greater income disparities. Moreover, when controlling for differences in estimation technique, we find that the reported values of the GEP in the literature (based on the World Banks now‐defunct 1993‐PPP based poverty data) are systematically larger in magnitude than estimates based on the latest 2005‐PPP based data.

Does a rising tide raise all ships? The impact of growth on inequality

Using semiparametric methods and an up-to-date panel dataset on income inequality, the impact of past economic growth on current inequality is examined in a group of nations with widely differing initial incomes. Regardless of a nations initial development, past economic growth stimulates inequality over short and medium-run periods. However, in the long-run, inequality in developed and developing nations reacts differently to comparable rates of economic growth. Specifically, inequality declines with growth in developing nations, while rising with growth in developed nations.

Foreign Aid, Illegal Immigration, and Host Country Welfare

This paper analyzes the effect of foreign aid on illegal immigration and host country welfare using a general equilibrium model. It shows that foreign aid may worsen the recipient nations terms of trade. Furthermore, it may also raise illegal immigration, if the terms of trade effect on immigration flows dominates the other effects identified in our analysis. Empirical analysis of the effect of foreign aid on illegal immigration to the USA broadly supports the predictions of our theoretical model. Foreign aid worsens the recipients terms of trade. While the terms of trade effect tends to reduce illegal immigration, countervailing effects are found to dominate. The paper contributes to the related literature by establishing that there are unintended consequences of foreign aid and, while some of them are reminiscent of the classical transfer problem, others are new and arise as a result of endogenous illegal immigration flows.

Regulation and Poverty: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship between the Incidence of Federal Regulation and the Occurrence of Poverty Across the States

We estimate the impact of federal regulations on poverty rates in the 50 US states using the recently created Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index, which is an industry-weighted measure of the burden of federal regulations at the state level. Controlling for many other factors known to influence poverty rates, we find a robust, positive, and statistically significant relationship between the FRASE index and poverty rates across states. Specifically, we find that a 10 percent increase in the effective federal regulatory burden on a state is associated with an approximate 2.5 percent increase in the poverty rate. This paper fills an important gap in both the poverty and the regulation literature because it is the first paper to estimate the relationship between these variables. Moreover, our results have practical implications for federal policymakers and regulators, because the increased poverty that results from additional regulations should be considered when weighing the costs and benefits of additional regulations.

A moving target: The geographic evolution of Silicon Valley, 1953–1990

Abstract This article provides an empirical examination of high-tech firm location data from 1953 to 1990 to show a dramatic shift in geographic centre of what is now called Silicon Valley. Universities (most notably Stanford), venture capital and law firms acted as magnets for divisions of established firms and local start-ups. These institutions combined with the Santa Clara County’s available land to pull the high-tech region’s epicentre south-eastwards from San Francisco, an early source of investment capital and legal expertise. These findings add another element (spatial change) for consideration in explaining the evolution of industry clusters.

The Impact of Regulations and Institutional Quality on Entrepreneurship

This paper examines the impact of start-up regulations and institutional quality on the level of new business activity in a panel of 119 countries between 2001 and 2012. We find robust evidence that new business creation is significantly lower in countries with excessive barriers to entry, a lack of high-quality governmental institutions, or both. Specifically, increasing the number of steps required to start a new business by one step reduces entrepreneurial activity by approximately 9.7 percent. Furthermore, three measures of institutional quality (i.e., political stability, regulatory quality, and voice and accountability) are shown to promote entrepreneurship, whereby an increase of one standard deviation in these measures increases new business activity by 30 percent to 52 percent.