Fall 2024 Research Roundup

In this research roundup, we celebrate recent publications by four of our LED faculty: Jeff Chan, Nikolai Cook, Juan Morales and Justin Smith.  Their papers cover a wide range of important and interesting topics, including US immigration policies, Twitter and US presidential elections, the tax treatment of charitable giving in Canada and potential remedies to the “credibility crisis” in economics.

Nikolai M. Cook, along with co-authors Abel Brodeur, Jonathan S. Hartley, and Anthony Heyes, published a paper in the Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics. Their study examines the effectiveness of two potential remedies to a "credibility crisis" in economics: pre-registration (where authors register the general details of their empirical research) and pre-analysis plans (where authors pre-specify their analysis, including which outcomes they will examine and how). Drawing on hypothesis test data from 314 articles found in economics journals, the authors find that the two remedies are effective only when they were both present, complete, and registered prior to authors having access to data. The paper offers suggestions on improvements for how economics handles pre-registration and pre-analysis plans.

Jeff Chan, Director of the Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis, published his research on the effects of immigration policies on immigrant assimilation in the Journal of Comparative Economics. The paper looks at restrictive immigration policies enacted in the United States in the 1920s, tracing their effects on already-landed immigrant men. The analysis finds that men from countries affected more strongly by the restrictions became more likely to become naturalized citizens and marry US-born spouses. This was likely due to decreased opportunities to meet partners from the same country of origin due to the restrictions and incentives to become citizens for men married to US-born women. The paper suggests that immigration policies can have unintended consequences even for immigrants already present.

Justin Smith, along with co-authors Ross Hickey and Abigail Payne, published an article on charitable giving in Canada in The Canadian Tax Journal. Canadians benefit from generous tax subsidies for donations to registered charities. Indeed, favourable tax treatment for donations dates back to 1917 and Canada’s war effort at the time. The paper examines the history of the tax treatment of charitable giving in Canada, its influence on donor behavior, and proposes suggestions for a more efficient tax credit structure. Nationally representative data indicate that for about half of all donors, the tax credit is at least part of their motivation to give. Further analysis shows that increases in the credit rate lead to proportionate increases in donations among high-income individuals and more than proportionate increases among those with lower incomes. Given the significant role of tax credits in the decision to donate, the authors advocate for a simplified system featuring a single credit rate that treats all donations equally.

Finally, Juan Morales published a VoxEU column (co-authored with Daniel Ershov) highlighting key results from their recent article in The Economic Journal. The study examines how the change in Twitter's retweet button before the 2020 U.S. presidential election affected news sharing. Their analysis reveals that while the policy did not reduce the spread of misinformation relative to factual news, it disproportionately affected liberal news outlets. The authors suggest that such platform interventions may inadvertently deepen political divides. Read the article here: VoxEU. 

For more information on recent Laurier Economics faculty research publications and working papers, visit LCERPA’s research page.