The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy

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Language: English

First published: November 1, 2001

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Objective
The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (BEJEAP) welcomes submissions that employ microeconomics to analyze issues in organizational economics, consumer behavior, and public policy. Articles submitted to BEJEAP can come in two formats: research papers and letters. Authors should bring to their analysis whatever microeconomic theoretical, experimental or econometric tools are helpful. We publish both empirical work and applied theory (though n ot more abstract forms of applied theory), and our aim is to disseminate papers that have practical implicationsfor public policy, organizational or individual decision making.

Topics

Design of organizations and institutions
Industrial organization
Health economics
Public finance
Labour Economics
Economics of education, family, development, law, or the environment
Effects of domestic and international policy

Articlef ormats
Research Papers, Letters

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As of 2026, all De Gruyter journal subscriptions include access to every issue, from Volume 1, Issue 1 through to today, meaning subscribers can access even more research at no additional cost.

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Empirical work and applied theory
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History

Content available since 2001 (Volume 1, Issue 1)

Open Access
Compulsory Education and Fertility over the Life Cycle – Evidence from a Natural Experiment

April 7, 2026

Songtao Yang

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This paper examines the effect of compulsory education on women’s fertility over the reproductive life cycle, exploiting the 1972 compulsory schooling reform in Britain. Using data from the General Household Survey and a regression discontinuity design, the study finds that exposure to the reform is associated with a reduction of about 0.09 children for women observed at ages 20–30, but an increase of about 0.31 children for women observed at ages 40 and above. The pattern is consistent with a life-cycle interpretation in which compulsory education is associated with lower cumulative fertility at earlier stages but higher fertility accumulation at later stages of the reproductive life cycle. Overall, the findings indicate that education-induced reductions in early-life fertility need not translate into lower cumulative fertility observed at older ages.
Open Access
Earning Less than Your Peers: Relative Wage Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being in Chile

April 7, 2026

Mauricio Salgado, César Gamarra, Matías Díaz, Javier Núñez

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We study the relationship between relative deprivation and subjective well-being in a developing economy. Using nationally representative household surveys from Chile (2009–2017), we construct an age-occupation-based measure of relative wage deprivation. We find that earning less than comparable peers is significantly associated with lower self-rated health, even after controlling for absolute income, demographic characteristics, and a rich set of socioeconomic and contextual factors. We further document substantial heterogeneity and non-linearity: the effect is persistent across the life course for women, while for men it emerges only at older ages. These results underscore the role of within-group income comparisons in shaping subjective well-being in unequal labour markets.
Open Access
Cohesion Policy and Income Inequality: Evidence from Italian Municipalities (2000–2022)

March 18, 2026

Anna Laura Baraldi, Claudia Cantabene, Alessandro De Iudicibus, Giovanni Fosco

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This paper investigates the effects of EU Cohesion Policy on income growth and inequality across municipalities in Italian Objective 1 regions. Using a difference-in-differences approach and detailed panel data from 2000 to 2022, we assess how staggered disbursement of EU funds affects per-capita income growth and income distribution. Although we find a significant and persistent positive effect of EU funds on income growth starting from 5 years after the first payment, the inequality – measured by Gini and Atkinson indices – tends to increase. This suggests that EU cohesion funds, even if effective in promoting income growth, do not necessarily contribute to greater equity.
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Implications of the Social Security Opt-In: A Case Study from Public School Districts in Texas

March 10, 2026

Dongwoo Kim, Eugenia Gorina, James Harrington

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We study rare special cases of existing employers opting into Social Security. We use restricted teacher-level data from Texas to analyze how public school districts that opt into Social Security handle the increased tax burden. Using event study and synthetic control methods, we find suggestive evidence that districts gradually reduce salary growth over time and reach a long-run salary difference that matches or exceeds the Social Security tax. We do not find evidence of changes in teacher employment. These results reveal potential implications of the Social Security opt-in for currently uncovered public sector workers, as well as local and state governments.
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Seniority, Experience, and Wages in South Korea

March 9, 2026

Pyoungsik Kim

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Using 20 years of data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), this paper examines the wage returns to general experience, firm tenure, and industry- and occupation-specific tenure in South Korea. Employing the Altonji and Shakotko instrumental variable approach and the Topel two-step estimation method, I address biases from unobserved heterogeneity. The results reveal that 10 years of tenure have no significant effect on log wages, while 20 years of tenure increase wages by 11 %–30 %. Sector-specific skills play a critical role in wage growth, while the occupation-specific returns are minimal.
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Digitization and Product Quality: Evidence from India

March 9, 2026

Xiuxiu Lin

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This study explores the effects of digitization on product quality. Combining firm-product-level data on Indian manufacturing firms from 2001 to 2014 with a sectoral index that captures performance in Indian ICT service sectors used as inputs into manufacturing, I show that the development of ICT services, especially telecommunication service, has a positive and statistically significant effect on product quality. Mechanisms analysis indicates that the impacts of ICT development on product quality upgrading work through inducing manufacturing firms to use high-quality imported raw materials and outsource manufacturing jobs.
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Quality-Improving Relation-Specific Investments and Vertical Integration

March 2, 2026

Jeong-Yoo Kim

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This paper examines the effect of quality-improving specific investment rather than cost-reducing specific investment in a vertical relationship. We consider a multi-stage game among two upstream firms and two downstream firms in which firms first make decisions of vertical integration and then upstream firms/divisions choose their investment levels after their choices between general investment and specific investment, and then price decisions of the upstream firms and downstream firms follow sequentially. In the game, the unique equilibrium is for neither pair to integrate and then make specific investments. Making a specific investment is the dominant strategy of upstream firms/divisions under all integration regimes. When only one pair of an upstream firm and a downstream firm is integrated, foreclosure will emerge in equilibrium due to specific investments. Under this integration regime, upstream firms/divisions reduce R&D investments due to lower profits thereby reducing welfare as well, unless the counter-merge emerges. If a counter-merger follows a merger, the merger is likely to be pro-competitive because it restores the R&D incentives and social welfare, and lowers consumer prices, whereas a one-sided integration tends to be anti-competitive if no counter-merger ensues.
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New-Type Urbanization Policy and Regional Economic Inequality: Evidence from Satellite Data

February 26, 2026

Hujian Li, Yaqin Su, Xiahai Wei

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Urbanization often exacerbates regional inequality while promoting economic growth. How to effectively coordinate spatial expansion and inclusive growth has become a policy challenge for developing economies. To address institutional constraints inherent in traditional urbanization pathways, China launched a new-type urbanization reform in 2014, aiming to achieve inclusive development within the region through urban residency conversion and equalization of public services. Exploiting the staggered rollout of this reform as a quasi-natural experiment and combining it with township-level nighttime-light data, we estimate a staggered difference-in-differences model that isolates the policy’s effect on intra-county inequality. The results show that the reform significantly narrows economic disparities within counties. Mechanism analyses indicate that the policy raises factor mobility and spatial connectivity by expanding off-farm employment, attracting non-agricultural firms, and upgrading transport and communication infrastructure, thereby compressing within-county inequality. Spatially, the reform widens the gap between pilot and non-pilot counties while fostering convergence inside treated counties, with the largest gains accruing to the most disadvantaged townships. Heterogeneity analyses show that the policy has a more significant effect in counties with lower initial inequality, lighter fiscal pressure, higher population density, and stronger public-service provision. These findings provide new evidence on how institutional urbanization reforms can advance inclusive regional development.
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Demand for Home Pension and Reverse Mortgage: An Information Provision Survey Experiment

February 23, 2026

Duk Gyoo Kim, In Do Hwang

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Population aging and the sustainability of retirement financing are critical challenges facing many developed economies. In South Korea, elderly poverty remains a critical issue, despite widespread homeownership among older adults. Although the home pension program allows retirees to unlock housing wealth, uptake remains below 2 % as of 2024. Using a large-scale survey of adults aged 55–79, we conduct an information provision experiment to assess how policy reforms and belief corrections affect demand. We find that enrollment intention rises by 6 percentage points when monthly pension payments are adjusted with house price changes, and by 5 percentage points when bequest conditions are made more flexible. Notably, merely informing that the fixed monthly payments – often perceived as disadvantageous during housing price increases – do not result in a loss when house prices rise because the amount bequeathed to their children increases accordingly, led to a 7 %p increase in enrollment intention. Our results suggest that addressing informational barriers may be as effective as structural reforms in increasing program uptake.
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Crafting Lucky Prices in the Housing Market

February 2, 2026

Fang-Chang Kuo, Chia-Ming Hsieh

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While superstitious beliefs are known to influence property values through fixed attributes such as floor levels and address numbers, their role in price formation has received little attention. We provide novel evidence that housing prices bunch not only at round numbers but also at culturally “lucky” endings, particularly those ending in the digit 8. A hedonic price model reveals a 2.4 % premium for these “lucky-priced” homes. Our findings show that superstition functions as a behavioral heuristic in high-stakes bargaining, creating a new class of non-round focal points that systematically shape market outcomes.
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Endogenous Timing in a Mixed Duopoly with CSR and Network Effects

January 21, 2026

Domenico Buccella, Luciano Fanti, Luca Gori

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In a mixed duopoly (a public, welfare-maximizing firm competing with a private, profit-maximizing firm), as established by Amir, R., and G. De Feo. 2014. “Endogenous Timing in a Mixed Duopoly.” International Journal of Game Theory 43: 629–58, the sequential order of moves (Stackelberg) is the sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE), with indeterminacy of market leadership arising when the reaction functions are downward sloping (goods are strategic substitutes). The present study extends the framework of Amir, R., and G. De Feo. 2014. “Endogenous Timing in a Mixed Duopoly.” International Journal of Game Theory 43: 629–58 by considering (separately and jointly) network goods and corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives. The presence of network externalities or CSR alone enables a strict characterization of market leadership when goods are strategic substitutes. Remarkably, when both coexist, the simultaneous-move outcome (Cournot) can emerge as the SPNE, reversing the established result. This reversal is due to the interaction between the strength of the network effect and the degree of social concern of the private firm, rather than solely to its social focus. The paper also highlights the social welfare outcomes corresponding to the SPNEs.
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Urban Bias, Migration, and Unemployment

January 12, 2026

Jiancai Pi, Xinyi Liu

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We investigate how urban bias affects rural-urban migration and unemployment. The findings are as follows. When there is an increase in the degree of urban bias in the urban skilled sector, the number of rural-urban migrants will decline, and the urban unskilled unemployment rate will rise. However, when there is an increase in the degree of urban bias in the urban unskilled sector, if the initial allocation proportion of public infrastructure for the urban unskilled sector is large (resp. small) enough, the number of rural-urban migrants will fall (resp. rise), and the urban unskilled unemployment rate will rise (resp. fall).
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How Much is Fiscal Consolidation Offset by Increases in Social Safety Net Spending? Evidence from the 2011 Budget Control Act

January 5, 2026

Timothy Komarek, Vinicius Curti Cícero, Kendall Stephenson

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This paper investigates how much reductions in federal procurement spending due to the Budget Control Act of 2011 are offset or “crowded out” by increases in spending on social safety net programs. We use a shift-share instrumental variables approach and find that approximately 7 % of the cuts in federal spending are offset by social safety net transfers. Specifically, for every dollar reduction in federal procurement, there is an increase of $0.06 in unemployment insurance payments and less than $0.01 in SNAP benefits. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that these effects vary significantly with the type of spending that is cut. These findings underscore the broader implications of fiscal adjustments, highlighting the potential consequences for state policies and employer costs.
Open Access
Where Have All the (Boomer) Routine Workers Gone?

January 2, 2026

Carol A. Scotese

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This paper examines the employment outcomes of a cohort of non-college educated individuals who exit employment from occupations most exposed to automation risk. The analysis employs a novel set of granular task measures estimated from the detailed job attributes in the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). The granularity enables a rich characterization of non-routine work and task mobility choices for those without a college degree. The data yield multiple types of interpersonal, decision-making, cognitive, and technical tasks. Employing the granular tasks to analyze the employment outcomes for non-college educated workers who transition out of routine work, this study finds (1) the granular measures detect abstract tasks performed intensively in a range of skill contexts, (2) when exiting routine intensive work, non-college propensity to enter abstract work is just under 65 %, and (3) approximately one-quarter of those entries are into tasks yielding average wage gains for those making that transition.
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Does Leadership Status Matter to Educational Performance? Evidence from an Experimental Study

December 29, 2025

Tuyen Thanh Hoang, Cuong Viet Nguyen

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This study examines whether assigning students to leadership roles can enhance academic performance. We conducted an experiment at two universities in Vietnam, where students were randomly assigned to teams of two to four members, and one student in each team was randomly designated as the team leader. Team leaders were further randomized into four treatment arms: (i) receiving a motivational email expressing the teacher’s trust, (ii) receiving a “double-weight scheme” email indicating that their exam score would count twice toward the team average, (iii) receiving both emails, (iv) receiving neither. The three teams with the highest average scores in each class received compliments from the instructor. Midterm and final exam scores served as outcome measures. The results show that merely holding a leadership position increases midterm performance and course interest, while receiving motivational or “double-weight” emails significantly improves final exam scores, suggesting that recognition and responsibility reinforce academic effort.
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Microfinance and Vulnerability to Seasonal Famine in a Rural Economy: Evidence from Monga in Bangladesh

February 1, 2020

Claudia Berg, M. Shahe Emran

Article number: 20180359

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This paper uses a unique data set on 143,000 poor households from Northern Bangladesh to analyze the effects of microfinance membership on a household’s ability to cope with seasonal famine known as Monga. We develop an identification and estimation strategy that exploits a jump and a kink at the 10-decimal land ownership-threshold driven by the Microfinance Institution screening process to ensure repayment by excluding the ultra-poor. Evidence shows that microfinance membership improves food security during Monga, especially for the poorest households who survive at the margin of one and two meals a day. The positive effects on food security are, however, not driven by higher income, as microcredit does not improve the ability to migrate for work, nor does it reduce dependence on distress sale of labor. The evidence is consistent with consumption smoothing being the primary mechanism behind the gains in food security of MFI households during the season of starvation.

Journal Impact Factor	0.8	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
5-year Journal Impact Factor	0.8	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
Journal Citation Indicator	0.24	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
CiteScore	1.6	2024, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2025)
SCImago Journal Rank	0.384	2024, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2025; Data Source: Scopus)
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	0.562	2024, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2025; Data Source: Scopus)
European Reference Index for the Humanities	0

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy

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