Elise S. Brezis

Technology and the Life Cycle of Cities

During times of major technological change, leadingcities are often overtaken by upstart metropolitan areas. Suchupheavals may be explained if the advantage of established urbancenters rests on localized learning by doing. When a new technologyis introduced, for which this accumulated experience is irrelevant,older centers prefer to stay with a technology in which theyare more efficient. New centers, however, turn to the new technologyand are competitive despite the raw state of that technologybecause of their lower land rents and wages. Over time, as thenew technology matures, the established cities are overtaken.

Immigration, investment, and real wages

When a country is the recipient of large-scale, politically motivated immigration — as has been the case for Israel in recent years — the initial impact is to reduce real wages. Over the longer term, however, the endogenous response of investment, together with increasing returns, may well actually increase real earnings. If immigration itself is not wholly exogenous, but respond to real wages, they may be multiple equilibria, that is, optimism or pessimism about the success of the economy at absorbing immigrants may constitute a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since World War II, a number of countries have experienced surges of politically motivated immigration. Examples include West Germany during the early postwar years, which was the destination of millions of refugees from the East; Portugal, faced during the mid-1970s with the return of several hundred thousand citizens from its newly independent African colonies; and Israel, which absorbed a massive wave of immigrants in the years following independence and has recently received a new surge of immigration from the former Soviet Union. Such waves of immigration often present considerable short-run economic difficulties, leading to some mix of upward pressure on unemployment and downward pressure on real wages. Nonetheless, over the longer run it is arguable that immigration not only brings considerable benefits, it may well tend to raise real wages. The problem is one of getting through the transition. The purpose of this paper is to offer a simple model that is suggestive of the mix of difficulties and opportunity presented by large-scale immigration. It shows why immigration may well have a negative effect on real wages in the short run but a positive effect in the long run. It also suggests the possibility that the outcome of waves of immigration is not predetermined: the question of whether the immigrants are successfully absorbed may depend crucially on both policy and expectations.

Conscientious regulation and post-regulatory employment restrictions

Abstract In this paper we address the issue of regulatory capture. Firms can seek to capture regulators by offering them ‘post-regulatory’ jobs at a higher wage than the regulator would otherwise receive. The firm is interested in such an arrangement if the profits from endogenous lax regulation exceed the cost incurred in higher wage payments. We show how the wage paid in the public-sector and a ‘cooling-off’ period for regulators can be used in tandem to preempt such ‘capture’ of regulators. The legislator can choose to make ongoing public-service employment more attractive than employment in the regulated industry, or can ‘convince’ the regulator to leave the public-sector but remain conscientious during the regulatory period. The choice depends on the legislators preferences between levying taxes to pay civil servants, and the curtailment of the civil liberties of the regulator. We apply the model to explaining the policies that are observed in different Western countries.

Focal randomisation: An optimal mechanism for the evaluation of R&D projects

In most countries, governments intervene in the process of R&D by financing a substantial part of it. The mechanism employed for choosing the projects to be financed is a committee composed of experts who evaluate projects in their field of specialisation, and decide which ones should be funded. This method is conservative. Proposals for new ideas are too often rejected, and inventions are commonly thrown out of the set of potential projects. In this paper, I propose a mechanism that will allow less conformity: focal randomisation. This states that projects that are unanimously ranked at the top by all reviewers will be adopted. Projects perceived as valueless by all are rejected, while projects that are ranked differently are randomised. I compare the average return under the present and proposed mechanisms. I examine under which conditions this new method is preferable, and its consequences on economic growth. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Economic growth, leadership and capital flows: the leapfrogging effect

The leapfrogging effect has been analysed in a model without capital. However, history has shown numerous cases in which countries lost economic leadership at the same time as they were exporting capital. This work focuses on the interaction between international capital flows, economic growth and the transmission of leadership. We show that capital mobility is at the heart of the adoption of new technologies. Malfunctioning international capital markets that prevent capital imports may delay adoption of the new technology by the lagging country and may postpone or even prevent leapfrogging that would have occurred in the case of free flows of capital. The model shows that capital mobility smooths passing the baton in the relay race for economic leadership.

The new views on demographic transition: a reassessment of Malthus's and Marx's approach to population

The purpose of this paper is to examine the divergence of views of Marx and Malthus regarding the family and the labour market. The paper analyses the divergences between them, as well as their common features. The main divergence is the way in which the two see the interaction between man and nature. We show that their divergence of views, and the specific difference in perception of the two thinkers regarding the place of children in the family over time, is related to the alternate ways of modelling demographic transition today. We analyse the debate between these two lines of reasoning by means of a formal model that differentiate between the two views.

Scientometrics of peer review

This article aims to introduce a special issue on “Scientometrics of peer review”, which collects papers originally presented at workshops and conferences organised by the COST ACTION TD1306 “New frontiers of peer review”. Peer review is the cornerstone of science and is one of the underlying processes that bring about publication traces that are at the heart of bibliometric studies. Unfortunately, despite its importance, quantitative studies on peer review are still poorly developed, often due to lack of data. The issue aims to promote the establishment of peer review as an interdisciplinary field of research and stimulate further quantitative research.

Why Are US Universities at the Top of the International Rankings

The purpose of this study is to isolate the factors influencing universities’ quality. An interesting fact is that of the ten top-rated US universities, nine are private. Therefore, previous studies have claimed that there is a correlation between universities being private and their quality. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether private universities are indeed of higher quality. The analysis presented herein is based on data collected on 508 universities in 40 countries. I show that flexibility in governance is the important element affecting quality, and not being private per se.The purpose of this study is to isolate the factors influencing universities’ quality. An interesting fact is that of the ten top‐rated US universities, nine are private. Therefore, previous studies have claimed that there is a correlation between universities being private and their quality. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether private universities are indeed of higher quality. The analysis presented herein is based on data collected on 508 universities in 40 countries. I show that flexibility in governance is the important element affecting quality, and not being private per se.

Endogenous fertility with a sibship size effect

Since the seminal work of Becker, the dynamics of endogenous fertility has been based on the trade-off faced by parents between the quantity and the quality of their children. However, in developing countries, when child labor is an indispensable source of household income, parents actually incur a negative cost for having an extra child, so that the trade-off disappears. The purpose of this paper is to restore the Beckerian quantity-quality trade-off in the case intergenerational transfers are upstream, so as to keep fertility endogenous. We do that by adding a negative “sibship size effect” on human capital formation to the standard Becker model. With a simple specification, we obtain multiplicity of steady states or, more fundamentally, the possibility of a jump from a state with high fertility and low income to a state with low fertility and high income, triggered by a continuous increase in the productivity of human capital formation.

Non-Linear Geographics and the Economics of Transition and Democratization

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of geography on the transition process in authoritarian political regimes, and to investigate the nature of the links between political change, economic reforms and geographic location. A simple model of transition and democratization is presented wherein we show that the effectiveness of repression by the incumbent elite is a negative function of the distance to the “free world”. In consequence, there are conflicting effects of geography on political power shifting. The paper provides a rationale for the counterintuitive fact that the first authoritarian country to start a transition process towards democratization is not necessarily the one nearest to the free world.