There exists no unified measurement framework that encompasses and integrates schooling and learning deficits – arguably the two most important education challenges in most developing countries. This paper offers a methodology that fills this gap. Using the notions of age-appropriate grade,...

Students' out-of-school activities and time use can play a crucial role in facilitating school effectiveness. Using data from Seoul, South Korea, where the assignment of students into schools is random, we show that single-sex high schools affect the out-of-school activities of boys only, while...

The economic approach to determine optimal legal policies involves maximizing a social welfare function. We propose an alternative: a consent-approach that seeks to promote consensual interactions and deter non-consensual interactions. The consent-approach does not rest upon inter-personal...

Using data from one of Australia's largest thoroughbred auction houses, we investigate the price determinants of thoroughbred yearlings sold at auction. We include novel key variables to construct various hedonic pricing models, and test whether the models forecast sufficiently well...

Inefficiency is commonplace, yet exercises aimed at improving provider performance efforts to date to measure inefficiency and use it in benchmarking exercises have not been altogether satisfactory. This paper proposes a new approach that blends the themes of Data Envelopment Analysis and the...

This paper employs the synthetic control method to examine the impact of using a non-native language as the medium of instruction in schools on a student's learning. Exploiting an unanticipated policy change in Malaysia and using data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science...

Children and adolescents spend more than one-third of their time sleeping. Yet, we know little about the causal impact of sleeping on their development. This paper is the first to exploit variation in local daily daylight duration measured on pre-determined diary dates across the same...

We explore the effect of oil import price shocks on political outcomes using a worldwide dataset on elections of chief executives. Oil import price shocks cause a reduction in the odds of reelection of incumbents, an increase in media chatter about fuel prices, and an increase in non-violent...

This paper explores the effect of oil price fluctuations on the stock returns of U.S. oil firms using a strategy of identification through heteroskedasticity exploiting the 2020 oil crash. Results are twofold. First, we find that a decline in oil prices statistically significantly reduces stock...

We empirically examine how import competition affects sentiment toward China in local communities in the United States using a news-based index for sentiment. Results are threefold. First, U.S. sentiment toward China peaked in 2007 before turning negative. Second, communities more exposed to...