I reconsider various methods for correcting for bias in estimates of the returns to schooling. I argue that the literature on ability bias has ignored complications implicit in theoretical formulations of the choice of human capital. In particular, such models imply that adding ability to the...

The effects of voluntary work on earnings have recently been studied for some developed countries such as Canada, France and Austria. This paper extends this line of research to Italy, using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset. A double...

The paper studies the effect of voluntary work on labour income for Italian employees. The Heckman and Instrumental Variables methods are used in order to control for self-selection bias of participation in labour market and endogeneity of volunteering. The results show that a wage premium of 3...

In this paper we analyze class size effects in the case of primary schools in Poland. We use two empirical strategies to avoid endogeneity bias. First, we use average class size in a grade as an instrumental variable for actual class size. This allows us to control for within school selection of...

In this paper, I present an empirical model of learning under ambiguity in the context of clinical trials. Patients are concern with learning the treatment effect of the experimental drug, but face the ambiguity of random group assignment. A two dimensional Bayesian model of learning is proposed...

This exploratory paper estimates the effects on well-being of two very important institutional symbols of 59 countries in 2007: national flags and constitutions. The results indicate that well-being responds positively to investment in material things as well as the existence of flags. However,...

A high degree of multicollinearity among the explanatory variables severely impairs estimation of regression coefficients by the Ordinary Least Squares. Several methods have been suggested to ameliorate the deleterious effects of multicollinearity. In this paper we aim at comparing the...

Recent empirical studies concerning the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic development have all been taking into account FDI as a whole. However, the theoretical literature on the topic argues that more attention should be devoted to distinguishing FDI by type, and suggests...

This paper investigates if differences in environmental regulations can influence FDI flows in a multi-country setting taking into account the so-called "third-country" effects. We examine bilateral FDI flows using a new extended OECD investment database which covers great number of host...

Sampling variations complicate the classical inference on the analogue bounds under the monotone instrumental variables assumption, since point estimators are biased and confidence intervals are difficult to construct. From the Bayesian perspective, a solution is offered in this paper. Using a...