Research Outputs
Publications
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Journal articles (alphabetical order)
LATEST:
Abramovaite, J., Bandyopadhyay, S., and Dixon, L. (2015), The Dynamics of Intergenerational family Abuse: A focus on violence and abuse in intimate relationships, forthcoming in the Special Issue on Violence and Discrimination against Women, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics
This paper reviews some channels by which the so-called intergenerational cycle of abuse can be perpetuated. It also critically analyses the empirical literature and the implications of incorrectly identifying an intergenerational transmission mechanism. It discusses evidence on effectiveness of policies and concludes by pointing out the need for careful design to correctly capture the underlying relationship between experiencing childhood abuse and neglect and perpetrating child abuse in adulthood.
Amaral, S., Bandyopadhyay, S., and Sensarma, R. (2015), The impact of guaranteed employment on crimes against women, forthcoming in the Special Issue on Violence and Discrimination against Women, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics
The introduction of the NREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) in India increased employment opportunities for the poor and even more so for poorer women. In this paper we analyse the relationship between female labour participation and violence against women. Using district-time variation in the implementation of this anti-poverty program we estimate the effect of improved participation and access to employment of women on gender-based violence. We find evidence that increased female labour participation following the NREGS increased total gender-based violence. There are increases in kidnappings, sexual harassment and domestic violence, while dowry deaths decreased.
Bandyopadhyay, S., Bhattacharya, S., and Sensarma, R. (2015) Crime in England and Wales: A Quantile Regression Analysis, Economics Bulletin 35 (1), A 71
We analyze the impact of policing and socio-economic variables on crime in England and Wales during 1992-2007 using the quantile regression model which enables us to analyze different points of the crime distribution. The quantile regression model allows us to analyze whether or not the factors that affect crime do so in the same way for high and low crime areas. By using data from 43 police force areas, we examine how the effect of real earnings, unemployment, crime detection rate, income inequality and proportion of young people varies across high and low crime areas. Six crime categories are examined – burglary, theft and handling, fraud and forgery, violence against the person, robbery, and sexual assault. We find statistically significant differences in the impact of explanatory variables on various types of crime for low and high crime areas. For example, higher detection rate reduces crime but the effect is stronger in low crime areas. Further, we find opposing effects of earnings and unemployment across high and low crime areas which may explain why recessions may have no impact on crime or even lower it.
Siebert, W. S., Anagnostopoulos, A. (2015). The impact of Greek labour market regulation on temporary employment - Evidence from a survey in Thessaly, Greece. International Journal of Human Resource Management, DOI:10.1080/09585192.2015.1011190
This paper uses an original dataset for 186 workplaces in Thessaly (central Greece), to study consequences of Greece’s strict employment protection law (EPL) and national minimum wage for temporary employment. We find higher temporary work contract rates among workplaces that pay low wages close to the minimum. We also find that EPL “matters”, in particular, managers who prefer temporary contracts because temporary workers are less protected definitely employ more. Our findings thus support the view that a firm’s HRM decisions regarding internal versus external allocation of tasks are influenced by labour regulation.
Xu, F. Y., Zhang, T., Lai, L.L., Zhou, H. (2015) Shifting Boundary for price-based residential demand response and applications. Applied Energy, Vol 146, pp 353-370. Doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.02.001
Demand Response (DR) is one of the typical methods for optimizing load characteristics in power systems. Utilities offer DR schemes to generate incentives toward consumers’ power consumption behavior for load optimization. In tariff planning, power consumption variation is an important issue which is difficult to be analyzed quantifiably. This paper develops a boundary model for analyzing consumers’ power consumption behaviors, with a particular focus on residential home appliances. Candidate tariffs are analyzed in this model for their load variation potentials. Using three case studies, this paper reflects the potential for practical applications of the model on pricing and smart meter deployment.
Book chapters
LATEST:
Siebert, W. S. Sieber (2015), “The Simple Economics of Minimum Wages” in Chris Coyne and Rachel Coyne (eds.) Flaws and Ceilings - the Economics of Price Controls, London : Institute of Economic Affairs, Hobart Paperback, 2015: 45-71 (downloadable free from the IEA website from 15 April)
The paper surveys minimum wages setting and finds adverse employment effects broadly in line with conventional economic models. UK studies generally report small effects, but the UK is poorly suited for measurement given confounding changes in welfare benefits and no regional variation. Clarity is found in better empirical settings such as Canada, with good minimum wage variations and provincial differences, and in the OECD country panels. Case studies are also reviewed including South Africa (minimum wages as a white supremacy weapon), Portugal (extended collective agreements being analogous to minimum wages, and reducing employment), and Greece (the minimum encouraging temporary work). Alternative ways of helping the poor via encouragement of stable families, more competitive school systems, and subsidies for low paid work are advanced.