This week in research #38

Here's what caught my eye in research over the past week:

• Davis and Mavisakalyan (with ungated earlier version here) find that a one standard deviation increase in individualism is associated with a ten percentage point increase in the likelihood that prostitution is legal, and that prostitution is more likely to be legal in countries in which women enjoy greater economic status (but no clear relationship between historical patriarchy and legality of prostitution)
• Ferreyra et al. (with ungated earlier version here) develop a theoretical model that shows that universal free college triggers a large enrolment increase but minimal change in graduation rates
• Xing and Tam use the construction of China’s national expressway as a natural experiment, and find that peripheral county governments reduced the level of spending and changed the spending composition after being connected to the expressway, consistent with the view that mobile capital tends to relocate from peripheral areas to core regions with a lower trade cost (those who think that greater transport connectivity improves economic outcomes for remote and peripheral areas need to remember that transport connections allow movement in both directions)
• Binelli et al. (with ungated earlier version here) find a positive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italian students’ academic achievement in terms of both earned credits and GPA, and that both increased study time (due to confinement) and the availability of class recordings contributed to this positive effect
• Li, Chen and Ma find that exposure to (extreme) high temperatures significantly lowers the life satisfaction among older adults in China
• Gans (open access) shows that while generative artificial intelligence can increase communication by reducing costs, it may also disrupt traditional signalling mechanisms
• Matsumura et al. (with ungated earlier version here) show how high-frequency mobility data from mobile applications can be used to 'nowcast' sales in service sectors as well as production in labour-intensive industries (because mobility data shows you where consumers are, and where workers are, respectively)

Finally, for something completely different, one of my ECONS101 students from earlier this year created a tribute video (using AI) for me:

The student writes the lyrics, and AI composes the song and sings the tune. Watch some of their other videos on YouTube. They're pretty good and demonstrate what is possible using some of the simple AI tools that are available right now.