Browsing by Author "Cuffe, Harold E"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Restricted
Do Struggling Students Benefit From Continued Student Loan Access? Evidence From University and Beyond
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2020) Chu, Yu-Wei Luke; Cuffe, Harold E
We estimate the effects of access to student loans on university students’ educational attainment and labor market returns in New Zealand. We exploit the introduction of a policy mandating a minimum pass rate of 50% for student loan renewals using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and linked administrative records. For students around the threshold, retaining access to student loans increases their likelihood of re-enrollment and bachelor’s degree completion rate. The effects are observed primarily among female students due to a substantial gender difference in compliance with the pass rate criterion. We find that retaining student loan access leads to large labor market returns for struggling female students. The additional student loan debt from further borrowing declines quickly due to faster repayment.
Open Access
The effect of payday lending restrictions on liquor sales
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2015) Cuffe, Harold E; Gibbs, Christopher G
We exploit a change in lending laws to estimate the causal effect of restricting access to payday loans on liquor sales. Leveraging lender- and liquor store-level data, we find that the changes reduce sales, with the largest decreases at stores located nearest to lenders. By focusing on states with state-run liquor monopolies, we account for supply side variables that are typically unobserved. Our results are the first to quantify how credit constraints affect spending on liquor, and suggest mechanisms underlying some loan usage. These results illustrate that the benefits of lending restrictions extend beyond personal finance and may be large.
Open Access
Motherhood Employment Penalty and Gender Wage Gap Across Countries: 1990–2010
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2021) Chu, Yu-Wei Luke; Cuffe, Harold E; Doan, Nguyen
In this paper, we employ twin birth as an instrument to estimate the effects of fertility on female employment using 72 censuses from 37 countries in 1990–2010. Next, we document a strong linear association between gender wage gap and the estimated motherhood employment penalty both across countries and within countries. Reductions in the gender wage gap are associated with decreases in motherhood employment penalty. Our estimates suggest that a reduction of one percentage-point in the gender wage gap is associated with a decrease of 0.4 percentage-points in the estimated motherhood employment penalty. Our finding supports the notion that job prospects and gender equality in the labor market play a direct role in a mother’s labor supply response to childbirth.
Open Access
Opportunity from disaster: Evidence of the Christchurch earthquake’s effects on high schoolers’ post-graduation outcomes
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2018) Cuffe, Harold E; Wills, Olivia
We estimate the causal effects of a large unanticipated natural disaster on high schoolers’ university enrolment decisions and subsequent medium-term labour market outcomes. Using national administrative data after a destructive earthquake in New Zealand, we estimate that the disaster raises tertiary education enrolment of recent high school graduates by 6.1 percentage points. The effects are most pronounced for males, students who are academically weak relative to their peers, and students from schools directly damaged by the disaster. As relatively low ability males are overrepresented in sectors of the labour market helped by the earthquake, greater demand for university may stem from permanent changes in deeper behavioural parameters such as risk aversion or time preference, rather than as a coping response to poor economic opportunities.