Fractionalization and the municipal bond market
Daniel Bergstresser*
Randolph Cohen**
Siddharth Shenai***
(First version April 2010. Current draft June 2011. Comments welcome.)
Abstract
We study the impact of ethnic and religious fractionalization on the U.S. municipal debt market, and find that issuers from more ethnically and religiously fractionalized counties pay higher yields on their municipal debt. A two standard deviation increase in religious fractionalization is associated with a six basis point increase in bond yields, and a two standard deviation increase in ethnic fractionalization is associated with a ten basis point increase. To provide a scale for these results, a four-notch rating change, from AAA to AA-, is
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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1844685
Study, a survey of the major religious denominations conducted by the Association of
Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.2 In this context, fractionalization represents the probability that two randomly selected members of a group will share a particular attribute. For example, in a society that is half white and half Hispanic, the ethnic fractionalization measure would be 0.5; there would be a 50 percent chance that any two randomly selected people would be of the same ethnicity. Fractionalization is the most common measure used to capture the extent to which a particular society is divided across a particular characteristic.
We focus on ethnic and religious fractionalization because these characteristics are both salient and relatively fixed. Wealth, income, and education are not directly observable, and like age they vary mechanically over the life cycle. Ethnic and religious affiliations are generally more static. These measures capture the underlying concept that we focus on, namely the strength of social ties across citizens and between citizens and officials in a local area.
We find evidence that municipal issuers in religiously fractionalized counties pay more to borrow than those in other counties. The point estimates suggest
The information is collected on percent of population that is black and percent of population that is Spanish speaking. The family income is divided by seven classes and the percent of the families in each of the classes, median yearly family income, median home value, median rent per month, percentage of the population with no cars, percentage of
1. What is the likelihood that any of their children (sons and/or daughters) will be born with the disorder?
127). This point is the first of emphasized three that seems worthy of its own chapter. While still maintaining that Americans are not polarized, Fiorina et al. give concessions to the opposition, recognizing their own speculation (p. 133). In addition to this, the authors included an appendix immediately after the chapter to clarify their charts. Although slightly different, this is reminiscent of the early chapters. The authors have rediscovered their confidence that had faltered in the two previous arguments. No longer relying on misrepresentations to paint a prettier picture, the authors instead trust in themselves enough to admit supposition and then defend it. Before getting into that, the authors begin by explaining that many scholars have identified a correlation between religion and voter identification (p. 128). What Fiorina et al. argue is that specific religions are not an indicator of specific political identification. Instead, they claim that it is the commitment of an individual to their religion, regardless of denomination, is the determining factor. This important distinction provides the authors with a base on which to build their
This is based of demographic and social tabulations that help balance the funding based on population integration. Through residential racial integration, the continual influx of immigrants, and the emergence of a multiracial population, America has remained a “mosaic” of cultures – separate entities combining to create a great diversity. While indeed, some races have mixed through interracial marriages, cultural differences have be sustained and diversity in this country has actually increased .
Structural or institutional racism is formed by the social, economic, political or educational forces that foster discriminatory outcomes or give preference to members of one group over the other deriving its genesis from the concept of race. The biological fact for the race has been invalidated by biologists, but the social aspect of it is formed by the community. The physical traits still possess the meanings of social race identity. It is these social race identities that deliberate placement in the social hierarchy, which dictates the access to or denial of privileges and or power. Assignment of status based on skin color character has evolved to a complex social structure that promotes power differential between whites and people of color. The use of physical features in classifying individual, institutional groups trace its history from the extended encounter between the Europeans and non-European back in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. In the United States, the cognitive dissonance between values and beliefs of the human rights, liberty, democracy and equity founders alongside with the practice of Africans ' enslavement. The move made Mexicans a foreign minority in their land was determined by the classification of citizens by their characters as inferior and not worthy of any entitlement. The concept of race has been widely used to institutionalize benefits to one group of people and deny the same benefits to other people.
Scientist have used genetic similarities to try and determine a pattern people who are affected by schizophrenia, and how likely their relatives are to also develop the disease. The incidence is unusally high amongst twins, with some numbers indicating that twins have a fifty percent to develop schizophrenia if their sibling has already developed it. This number can also be higher between identical twins compared to fraternal twins.
(112) The historical development of ethnic categorization as a distinct concept from race in the U.S. Census was defined through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in October 1997. This criterion was meant to discern between biological/genetic factors and the ethnic aspects of Latino/Hispanic identity as part of this governmental decree: “The racial and ethnic categories set forth in the standards should not be interpreted as being primarily biological or genetic in reference” (The White House.org, 2015, para.17). Therefore, 1997 was the specific date in which this policy became active in distinguishing race from ethnicity in population variability in the Hispanic/Latino community.
Practice is not uniform. In the United States there are familiar with, for example, racial categorization, measurements of the race by the Census Bureau, Census of France does not include any action on the race, ethnicity and religion. Race and identity categories are a crossroads role of social beliefs, perceptions and actions continue to be strengthened by the system of reward and punishment. Race practice is not uniform. In the United States there are familiar with, for example, racial categorization, measurements of the race by the Census Bureau, Census of France does not include any action on the race, ethnicity and religion. Individuals trying to redefine the restrictions of race and appropriate by proposing the creation of a new race
In the United States the society is becoming increasingly diverse, in terms of behaviors, values, beliefs and norms. According to the Census of 2010 there are six racial categories recognized. Those are: White American, Black or African American, Native American and Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. The United States Census Bureau has identified the Hispanic and Latino Americans as ethnicity not a race. Besides these we also come across with some other cultures, like Asian Indian, Middle Eastern and Russian/Eastern European. It has been found from the statistics that, there are more than 40 million Americans born outside of the United
Over the years, the American society has created an almost endless number of minority groups and sub-populations. Who is classified as a member of a minority
Race and Ethnicity are integral parts of America. They are often used interchangeably. Race is associated with biology. It is a socially and politically constructed category of individuals who are assumed to share common inborn biological traits, such as bone structure, hair type, skin, or eye color. These distinctions have been used to the detriment or advantage of American groups over time. Whereas ethnicity is associated with culture factors. It is often tied to nationality of origin and characterized by a person’s ethnic traits, customs, and/or associations. Race and ethnicity in some ways go hand in hand and in other ways differ. Although the similarities are not quite the same they still have the same concept. Today’s society plays a huge role in defining these terms.
In the United States, one in three residents is identified as an African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic/Latino or multiracial and by 2050 this number is expected to increase. Despite advances in technology, race continues to be a significant factor in determining whether an
The majority of the applicants, pre and post housing crisis, were males 58% vs. females 42% and 59% vs. females 42%, respectively. The partitioning of the applicants' race consisted of whites, 69% (of this 60% male vs. 40% female), Blacks 13% (of this 46% male vs. 54% female), Hispanics 13% (of this 62% male vs. 38% female), and Asians 5% (of this 60%male vs. 40% female) and Native Americans 0.4% (of this 57% male vs. 43% female). Shown in Table 3 is the results from a lot of independent samples t-test, which was utilized to discover differences between male and female origination, denial and fallout rates after controlling for race. The normality assumption held for each group and homogeneity of variance assumption for all groups except
Race is a categorization in which people sharing visible biological characteristics such as skin, hair, eye color even bone structure. Individuals may regard themselves or others by a single group on that basis (2016). At first glance, the definition of race can seem to be easy to define, however, race is more complicated than it appears. In some racial group, there are different variation of race especially in Latin America. In America, we have the “one drop rule” which means if a person have a small portion of non-white ancestry should be considered black.
While filling out a questionnaire like the Census it is solely up to the individual to decide the race they considered themselves to be in. Race can have many different meanings while trying to categorize a person. As we have learned in the past weeks, there are many aspects that can be considered while defining someone’s race. A few examples would be color, culture, family history and place of origin. Because of the flexibility in defining race, different ethnicities focus more on certain aspects. This causes a discontinuity while defining race. This leads to the question brought up by Julie Dowling in her writing.