Natural Inequality

Inequality in an Equal Society

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics We provide new evidence on the extent to which changes in inequality reflect changes in demographics. Recent increases have been in spite of favourable demographic conditions.

May 2024 · Laura Harvey, Jochen Mierau, James Rockey
Ratchet Effect

Dynamic Electoral Competition with Voter Loss Aversion and Imperfect Recall

Journal of Public Economics Many countries have witnessed periods of political de-polarization as well as periods of polarization. This paper shows that this can be rationalised in a dynamic model of political competition with voter loss-aversion and imperfect recall.

April 2024 · Ben Lockwood, Minh Le, James Rockey
Comparison with other casues of death

Estimating Excess Mortality due to female genital mutilation

Nature Scientific Reports FGM, affecting 200 million women, remains a substantial factor in child mortality. Data from 1990-2020 reveals a 50% FGM increase elevates the 5-year mortality by 0.075pp, leading to an extra 44,320 deaths yearly. FGM is thus a leading cause of deaths where practiced.

August 2023 · Arpita Ghosh, Heather Flowe, James Rockey
Case Progression Pathway

Evaluating Case Attrition along the Medico-Legal Case Referral Pathway for Sexual and Domestic Violence Survivors in Kenya: A Secondary Data Analysis

Victims & Offenders Analysis of Kenya’s medico-legal referral pathway for sexual/domestic violence shows survivor age and forensic evidence as key predictors for case progression. The results reflect cultural perceptions and can guide policies to strengthen the referral pathway.

May 2023 · Sarah Rockowitz, James Rockey, Laura M. Stevens, Melissa F. Colloff, Wangu Kanja, Heather D. Flowe
Tax loss plot

The Effectiveness of Industrial Policy in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ethiopian Manufacturing Firms

Journal of Development Effectiveness In Ethiopia, industrial policy showed limited benefits. Using manufacturing data, we found subsidies didn’t enhance productivity and only raised fungible assets. Tax breaks improved productivity but decreased capital, underscoring the importance of stability and bankruptcy protection.

October 2022 · Tewodros M Gebrewolde, James Rockey
Treelet Dendrogram

Dirty Looks: Politicians’ facial appearance and unethical behaviour

The Leadership Quarterly In the 2009 expenses scandal, an analysis on 636 MPs’ facial appearance found that those perceived as more attractive or with criminal traits overclaimed less. However, MPs appearing competent overclaimed more. The findings link to theories of moral licensing and consistency.

October 2022 · James Rockey,  Harriet Smith, Heather Flowe
Face matching accuracy for different conditions

Performance of typical and superior face recognisers on a novel interactive face matching procedure.

British Journal of Psychology Face matching with static images is error-prone. Interactive 3D viewing significantly enhances accuracy across ’typical’ and ‘superior’ recognizers. By providing structural facial details, this method supports better performance and is promising for forensic and security applications.

October 2021 · Harriet M. J. Smith, Sally Andrews, Thom S. Baguley, Melissa F. Colloff, Josh P. Davis, David White, James C. Rockey, Heather D. Flowe
Earning loss plot

The wounds that do not heal: Long-term effects of youth-unemployment

Economica Using UK data, the study reveals unemployment between ages 18-20 results in a 1.2% yearly permanent income drop. This “scar effect” lessens at ages 21-23 and vanishes thereafter. The impact is harshest for those at the lower end of the ability spectrum.

October 2021 · Gianni De Fraja, Sara Lemos, James C Rockey
BMJ Cover Page

Patterns of sexual violence against adults and children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya: a prospective cross-sectional study

BMJ Open In Kenya during COVID-19, children were more likely than adults to face sexual violence in daytime, by a single familiar perpetrator, often neighbors. Study emphasizes age-specific measures for tackling such violence during emergencies.

September 2021 · Sarah Rockowitz, Laura M Stevens, James C Rockey, Lisa L Smith, Jessica Ritchie, Melissa F Colloff, Wangu Kanja, Jessica Cotton, Dorothy Njoroge, Catherine Kamau, Heather D Flowe
Efficient unemployment rate in the United States, 1930–2022

Perpetrator pose reinstatement during a lineup test increases discrimination accuracy

Nature Scientific Reports In a study on eyewitness identification, matching the angle of perpetrator’s viewing during encoding and testing improved recall. The results underscore the encoding specificity principle and show individuals seek to match study and test environments to aid memory.

July 2021 · Melissa F. Colloff, Travis M. Seale-Carlisle, Nilda Karoğlu, James C. Rockey, Harriet M. J. Smith, Lisa Smith, John Maltby, Sergii Yaremenko, Heather D. Flowe
ROC plots for Interactive and Static Lineups

Active exploration of faces in police lineups increases discrimination accuracy for own-and other-race faces.

American Psychologist Eyewitness IDs can be flawed. We introduced an interactive lineup, allowing witnesses to view faces from multiple angles. Testing with 8,700+ participants, this method outperformed traditional static photo lineups in accuracy, irrespective of racial/ethnic differences.

May 2021 · Melissa F. Colloff, Heather D. Flowe, Harriet M. J. Smith, Travis M. Seale-Carlisle, Christian A. Meissner, James C. Rockey, Babita Pande, Pratibha Kujur, Noorshama Parveen, Priyanka Chandel, Margaret M. Singh, Sraddha Pradhan, Arti Parganiha
UK Party Vote Shares 1920--2020

Expressive voting with booing and cheering: Evidence from Britain

European Journal of Political Economys Expressive Voting research typically emphasizes what voters support. This paper expands the scope to account for voter opposition or ‘booing.’ Analyzing UK election data, we observe a rising trend in this behavior, discussing its role in recent political polarization shifts.

March 2021 · Javier Rivas, James Rockey
Hand shaped word cloud from https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/migration/mu/undp-mru-stop-gender-based-violence.jpg

Children’s Vulnerability to Sexual Violence during COVID-19 in Kenya: Recommendations for the Future

Frontiers in Global Womens Health During COVID-19 in Kenya, child sexual violence has shifted: victims are younger and more often targeted by neighbors during the day. Given lockdowns and school closures, providing safe alternatives is crucial to reduce risk during such crises.

February 2021 · Laura M. Stevens, James C. Rockey, Sarah R. Rockowitz, Wangu Kanja, Melissa F. Colloff, Heather D. Flowe
Map of London showing employment changes due to the zoomshock

Zoomshock: The geography and local labour market consequences of working from home

Covid Economics The ‘Zoomshock’, a result of Covid-19, pushed work into homes, reshaping local service demand. Examining UK data, we find: substantial worker mobility, declining activity in city centres, and a move to suburbs with fewer local services. We discuss post-Covid employment and economic recovery.

January 2021 · Gianni De Fraja, Jesse Matheson, James Rockey
Platform Rigidity

Negative Voters: Electoral Competition With Loss Aversion

Economic Journal Examining voter loss aversion’s effect on electoral dynamics, this paper finds that platform loss-aversion leads to rigidity, while valence loss-aversion increases polarization. Using US House elections data, we observe incumbents adjust less than challengers to voter shifts

November 2020 · Ben Lockwood, James Rockey
Impulse responses to an expansionary monetary shock in the standard New Keynesian model and New Keynesian model with fairness concerns

When Two Tribes Go To Work: Board Political Diversity and Firm Performance

European Journal of Political Economy Analysing the effects of ideological diversity in boardrooms, we find a positive correlation with firm performance. However, the causal effect is instead negative, even excluding top management. The implications are discussed in light of growing polarization.

June 2020 · James Rockey, Nadia Zakir
Optimal stimulus spending during the Great Recession in the United States

Losing Money on the Margin

Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization Margin calls limit the losses of margin-traders. This study shows these induce lower returns with lottery-like skewness. Analyzing Chinese brokerage data, we observe significant losses for margin traders, suggesting a reevaluation of regulation.

May 2019 · Daniel Ladley, Guanqing Liu, James Rockey
Distributions of Posterior Inclusion Probabilities across data sets

Growth Econometrics for Agnostics and True Believers

European Economic Review Bayesian Model Averaging has been widely used to address model uncertainty in empirical studies of economic growth. Ciccone and Jarociński (2010) highlighted its sensitivity to the data used. Using updated PWT data, this study meticulously revisits their critique and introduces a constrained agnosticism approach.

January 2016 · James Rockey, Jonathan Temple
Effect of unemployment insurance on labor market tightness across matching models

Ideology and the Size of US State Government

Public Choice Paper posits ideology’s effect on US state government size intensifies with state income. Ideology-income interaction drives government size; left-leaning ideologies expand government as income increases. Income elasticities vary by state and time, supporting the theory.

October 2012 · Andrew Pickering, James Rockey
Matching structure and solution of the model of aggregate demand and idle time

Reconsidering the Fiscal Effects of Constitutions

European Journal of Political Economy This paper reevaluates Persson and Tabellini’s analysis of the impact of constitution type on government size, improving methodological refinements. The age of a democracy is crucial, leading to the introduction of two new democracy age measures.

September 2012 · James Rockey