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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Economics

Economics Faculty Publications

Series

2001

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

How Do Forecasts Respond To Changes In Monetary Policy?, Laurence Ball, Dean D. Croushore Oct 2001

How Do Forecasts Respond To Changes In Monetary Policy?, Laurence Ball, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

Just as changes in atmospheric conditions affect weather forecasts, changes in monetary policy affect economic forecasts. When monetary policy shifts, forecasters change their predictions about growth and inflation. But does the economy change to the same extent that forecasts do? In this article, Laurence Ball and Dean Croushore examine forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters to determine if forecasts and the economy respond in tandem or if there are significant differences.

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Quantile Regression, Kevin F. Hallock, Roger Koenker Sep 2001

Quantile Regression, Kevin F. Hallock, Roger Koenker

Economics Faculty Publications

Quantile regression as introduced by Koenker and Bassett seeks to extend ideas of quantiles to the estimation of conditional quantile functions--models in which quantiles of the conditional distribution of the response variable are expressed as functions of observed covariates.

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Economists' Publication Patterns, James E. Hartley, James Monks, Michael D. Robinson Apr 2001

Economists' Publication Patterns, James E. Hartley, James Monks, Michael D. Robinson

Economics Faculty Publications

The results presented in this paper give a comprehensive picture of the extent of publishing by economists. While it is obvious that the traditional emphasis on refereed journal articles captures only a part of economists' research output, to date it has been difficult to determine how large a part of that output was not being measured. This note provides the necessary perspective and presents information on the relative productivity of faculty at different institutional types and with different years of experience.

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Unpacking ‘Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?’, Spencer J. Pack Jan 2001

Unpacking ‘Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?’, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper responds to Keith Tribe's provocative Journal of Economic Literature article, “Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?” There Tribe argued that most people most of the time grossly misread Smith, due, among other things, to their quite inadequate appreciation of Smith's linguistic, social, moral, and theological context. Against Tribe, the paper argues that Smith can profitably be read as both an eighteenth-century moralist and a twenty-first century critic. Smith can be a source of inspiration, wisdom and profundity for contemporary economists. Moreover, Smith can be successfully employed by modern economists to change, deepen, and broaden contemporary economic theory.

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A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2001

A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Adam Smith was trying to counter medieval church theology, which held that any self-interested behavior was sinful and detrimental. Smith countered that self-interest could yield valuable outcomes for society as people pursued specialization and market trade. Much later these quotes would be used to justify the greedy and grasping personae of homo economicus, illustrating how a little Adam Smith can prove to be a dangerous thing. For example, Max Lerner in 1937 would say that Adam Smith "sanctified predatory impulses" and "gave a new dignity to greed." By the 1980s the movie Wall Street has the financial tycoon Gordon …

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Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2001

Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Voluntary free trade has the potential, slowly and gradually over time, to create "general opulence" because it allows workers to acquire greater competency and specialization: in a word, workers become more productive. The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand market areas and thereby potentially contribute to raising future living standards of workers. This paper seeks to analyze the theoretical basis for trade, provide an economic overview of FTAA countries, and analyze the winners and losers from trade.

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Culture, Development, And Government: Reservations In India, Evan W. Osborne Jan 2001

Culture, Development, And Government: Reservations In India, Evan W. Osborne

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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