Economics - Research Publications
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ItemCannabis prices on the dark web(Elsevier, 2019-11-01)This paper examines prices of cannabis sold over the anonymous internet marketplace AlphaBay. We analyze cannabis prices of 500 listings from about 140 sellers, originating from 18 countries. We find that both listing characteristics and country characteristics matter. Cannabis prices are lower if sold in larger quantities, so there is a clear quantity discount. Cannabis prices increase with perceived quality. Cannabis prices are also higher when the seller is from a country with a higher GDP per capita or higher electricity prices. The internet based cannabis market seems to be characterized by monopolistic competition where many sellers offer differentiated products with quality variation causing a dispersion of cannabis prices and sellers have some control over the cannabis prices.
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ItemThe impact of tobacco control policies on smoking initiation in eleven European countries(Springer Verlag, 2019-12-01)We investigate the effect of tobacco control policies on smoking initiation in eleven European countries. Based on individual data about age of onset of smoking, we use hazard rate models to study smoking initiation. Thus, we are able to take into account observed and unobserved personal characteristics as well as the effect of the introduction of a variety of tobacco control policies including price and and non-price policies, i.e., bans on tobacco advertisements, smoke-free air regulation, health warnings on packages of cigarettes, and treatment programs to help smokers quit smoking. We find that higher tobacco prices have a negative effect on the initiation into smoking for males but not for females. We find no effect of non-price tobacco control policies on smoking initiation.
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ItemA Note on Artificial Pitches and Home Advantage in Dutch Professional Football(SpringerLink, 2019-03-15)In professional football there is an advantage of playing at home. In the Netherlands, in the Eredivisie, the top tier of professional football the majority of teams play their home matches on natural grass but there are also quite a few teams playing on an artificial pitch. Analyzing match data from the seasons 2014/15 to 2017/18, this paper finds that Eredivisie teams who play on an artificial pitch have an additional home advantage.
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ItemThe minimum wage in the Netherlands(Ifo institute for Economic Research e.V., 2019-01-01)In 2017, 47% of the employees had a 36 -hour working week, 9% had a 37-hour working week, 31% had a 38 -hour working week and 13% had a 40-hour working week (Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid 2018). Because of the specification of the minimum wage, the hourly rate varies substantially between workers depending on their usual working hours. Over half of employment among 15 to 23 years old consists of jobs that involve employment for less than twelve hours per week. Since 15-year- olds and 16-year- olds are still legally obliged to go to school, they often combine work and education. According to a recent study, about one-third of all collective agreements had a lowest pay scale of between 100% and 110% of the legal minimum wage in 2017. [...]minimum wages among youngsters are relatively low. Because the level of the youth minimum wage depends on the exact age, there are clear discontinuities from the day before one's birthday to the birthday.
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ItemDialect speech and wages(Elsevier, 2019-04-01)Our paper studies the causal effect of dialect speech on wages of native Dutch workers. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find evidence of a wage penalty of dialect speech for males but not for females.
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ItemDoes drug use lead to homelessness for young, disadvantaged people?(Royal Statistical Society, 2019-06-01)Drug use among homeless young people tends to be higher than drug use among those who are not homeless. Is that because drug use causes homelessness, as is often assumed? Duncan McVicar, Julie Moschion and Jan van Ours investigate.
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ItemHow outcome uncertainty, loss aversion and team quality affect stadium attendance in Dutch professional football(Elsevier, 2019-06-01)We investigate stadium attendance in the highest level of Dutch professional football for the seasons 2000/01–2015/16 focusing on outcome uncertainty, loss aversion and team quality. We find that for individual football matches, attendance is related to reference-dependent preferences with loss aversion dominating the preference for uncertain outcomes. Furthermore, team quality is an important determinant of stadium attendance. Towards the end of the season, outcome uncertainty regarding the final ranking becomes important. For this seasonal uncertainty, we find a positive and stable, but rather small impact of the introduction of a unique and large end-of-season play-off scheme for the qualification for European football.
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ItemDaily dialect-speaking and wages among native Dutch speakers(Springer Verlag, 2019)Our paper studies the effects of daily dialect-speaking on hourly wages of native Dutch workers. The unconditional difference in median hourly wage between Standard Dutch speakers and dialect speakers is about 10% for males and 8% for females. Taking into account differences in personal characteristics, family characteristics and geographical differences, wage differences are reduced with about 6%-points.
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ItemEarly illicit drug use and the age of onset of homelessness(Wiley, 2019-01)We investigate the effect of taking up daily use of cannabis on the onset of homelessness by using Australian data. We use a bivariate simultaneous mixed proportional hazard model to address potential biases due to common unobservable factors and reverse causality. We find that taking up daily use of cannabis substantially increases the probability of transitioning into homelessness for young men but not young women. In contrast, the onset of homelessness increases the probability of taking up daily use of cannabis for young women but not for young men. In a trivariate extension we find that the use of other illicit drugs at least weekly has no additional effect on transitions into homelessness for either gender but there is a large if imprecisely estimated effect of onset of homelessness on taking up weekly use of such drugs for young women.
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ItemDo Childhood Experiences of Parental Separation Lead to Homelessness?(Elsevier, 2019-01)This paper investigates whether parental separation increases the likelihood of becoming homeless for disadvantaged households. Previous studies have only provided descriptive evidence for the general population suggesting that parental separations relate to reductions in housing quality and stability. Using a unique dataset of disadvantaged Australians who provide retrospective information on parental separation and housing circumstances, we examine transitions into homelessness following parental separation. Accounting for observed as well as unobserved family and individual characteristics, and exploiting the timing of events, we show that parental separation significantly increases the likelihood of experiencing homelessness among children under the age of 12. For older children, parental separation increases the likelihood of boys becoming homeless, but not girls.