This week in research #92

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

• Kaicker finds that the pandemic induced lockdowns resulted in a sharp increase in the share of alcohol in total expenditure across rural and urban India, and for all income levels
• Yildirim and Bilman investigate whether hosting the return leg in two-legged soccer ties improve a team’s advancement chances, and find that the video assistant referee (VAR) offsets the second-leg home advantage solely in the presence of the away goals rule (AGR), while AGR creates that advantage solely in VAR’s absence
• Wienhold and Roberts find that the upgrading by producers who grow coffee for differentiated specialty markets is mainly (but variably) appropriated by downstream actors (so farmers don't really benefit much from growing specialty coffee)
• Anderson and Zaber (with ungated earlier version here) find that when students receive additional financial aid, on average they reduce labour earnings dollar for dollar (so financial aid would reduce student working, but not improve incomes)
• Liu, Geng, and Chen (with ungated earlier version here) find that two-year colleges in the US experience an approximately 10 percent decline in both enrolment and the number of degrees and certifications awarded within a decade following a hurricane, whereas four-year institutions exhibit no significant effects
• Gicheva et al. (open access) find that, among North Carolina tertiary students, female college students have been passing fewer classes and experiencing slower credit accumulation since 2021, compared with male students
• Brunello et al. (open access) find evidence of strong inter-generational persistence in choice of major in Italian universities, especially in medicine and health professions, followed by economics and law, and STEM
• Barnes, Dischman, and Mendez find that postseason officiating disproportionately favours the Mahomes-era Kansas City Chiefs, coinciding with the team’s emergence as a key driver of TV viewership/ratings and, thereby, revenue (was there more financial pressure from Philadelphia in the last Super Bowl?)