Economics Commons^™

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2007, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

In 2007, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) faced significant challenges in monetary management due to statutory allocations to government tiers, autonomous foreign exchange inflows, and pre-election spending. These challenges were addressed through Open Market Operations (OMO), issuance of treasury securities, standing facilities, and foreign exchange swaps. The introduction of the monetary policy rate (MPR) in December 2006 moderated inter-bank rates, encouraged trading, and improved the transmission of monetary policy actions. The Bank intensified its non-regular management activities to ensure the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) target was met. The financial system at end-2007 comprised the CBN, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance …

Income Growth In U.S. States: Is It Pro-Poor?, Brandon Curtis

Master's Theses - Economics

While it is generally assumed that economic growth will have a positive effect the vast majority of the population, this claim is often left unchallenged. In particular, the effect of economic growth on the low-income segment of the population is not well understood. In particular, it is not clear if 1) the poor benefit from economic growth, and if so 2) what is the size of the benefit? A growing number of studies have been devoted to answering these questions. This field of study is commonly known as the pro-poor growth literature.

American Index Put Options Early Exercise Premium Estimation, Ako Doffou

WCBT Faculty Publications

"This paper examines empirically the value of early exercise by testing the ability of two American put valuation models to predict the early exercise premium for the S&P 100 American put options. An accuracy test and a quality test are performed on (1) the MacMillan (1986) & Barone-Adesi and Whaley (1987) model, and (2) the Carr, Jarrow and Myneni(1992) model. The test results show that early exercise premium is significant regardless of moneyness. Moreover, consistent with the theory, the value of early exercise is significantly negatively related to moneyness and interest rates and significantly positively related to time to maturity …

Nuestros Niños: Child Care Needs Assessment For The Latino Population In Bloomington-Normal, Andrew Maxwell, Joseph Alustiza, Sean Moore, Mary Stephen, Sanjay Soman, Andrew Kasprzak, Brian Hillery, Kara Harvey, Michael Hotard, Rebecca Bliss, Brandon Curtis, Adrienne Martin, Bishal Kasu, Jessica Aleksy

Community Project Design and Management Reports - Sociology

Immigration from the Latin American nations has become a prominent topic of discussion nationwide. Illinois is, to be sure, not an exception. The Latino population of Bloomington-Normal has grown drastically in recent years. To address these new developments, coalitions and organizations have been formed which endeavor to understand, and even provide for, the needs of this new community. Some hope this may facilitate their contribution to their new neighborhood.

This report is part of a larger needs assessment, which seeks to fulfill that goal of understanding. It examines the need for child care in relation to the Latino population in …

Fast Food, Addiction, And Market Power, Timothy J. Richards, Paul M. Patterson, Stephen F. Hamilton

Economics

No abstract provided.

(Wp 2007-03) Trade Openness, Capital Mobility, And The Sacrifice Ratio, Joseph P. Daniels, David D. Vanhoose

Economics Working Papers

This paper develops and evaluates empirically the implications of a theoretical model of an open economy in which variations in both trade openness and capital mobility can influence the sacrifice ratio. Key predictions forthcoming from the model are that both forms of globalization can independently affect the capital ratio, once the influences of the level of central bank independence and the degree of wage stickiness in nations‘ economies are taken into account. Examination of cross-country data encompassing 58 disinflations for 16 countries yields evidence consistent with these essential predictions of the theoretical framework.

An Examination Of The Danish Immigrant-Trade Link, Roger White

Economics

This paper investigates the influence of immigrants on Danish imports and exports. As public and political debates concerning immigration policy are expected to continue, the findings presented here provide valuable information. Prior to 2002, Denmark’s immigration policy was among the most liberal in Europe. However, concerns regarding terrorism, social services depletion, and detrimental labour market effects, all purported to stem from immigration, led the Danish government to severely tighten its policy. In examining Denmark, we explore the immigrant-trade relationship in a small host country that is globally well-integrated, open to trade, and proximate to both major trading partners and primary …

Base Realignment And Closure Impact On Industry In El Paso, Tx And Doña Ana, Nm: Workforce Growth, Training Needs And Access To Federal Government Contracts, Carlos Olmedo, Dennis L. Soden, Daniel J. Quiñones, Elizabeth K. Gibson, Dannette De Leon, Michael F. Vargas

IPED Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Global Information Technology Report 2006-2007: Connecting To The Networked Economy, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Publications

This World Economic Forum report by Dutta (INSEAD) and Mia (WEF) evaluates the penetration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in 122 economies across the globe.

Beyond Foraging: Behavioral Science And The Future Of Institutional Economics, Alexander J. Field

Economics

Institutions affect economic outcomes, but variation in them cannot be directly linked to environmental factors such as geography, climate, or technological availabilities. Game theoretic approaches, based as they typically are on foraging only assumptions, do not provide an adequate foundation for understanding the intervening role of politics and ideology; nor does the view that culture and institutions are entirely socially constructed. Understanding what institutions are and how they influence behavior requires an approach that is in part biological, focusing on cognitive and behavioral adaptations for social interaction favored in the past by group selection. These adaptations, along with their effects …

Redistribution By Insurance Market Regulation: Analyzing A Ban On Gender-Based Retirement Annuities, Amy Finkelstein, James Poterba, Casey Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This paper illustrates how a model of an insurance market with asymmetric information can be calibrated and solved to evaluate the economic consequences of government regulation. We estimate the impact of restricting gender-based pricing in the United Kingdom retirement annuity market, a market in which individuals are required to annuitize their retirement savings by selecting among a range of different annuity contracts. After calibrating a lifecycle utility model and estimating a model of annuitant mortality that allows for unobserved heterogeneity, we solve for the range of equilibrium contract structures with and without gender-based insurance pricing. Eliminating gender-based annuity pricing is …

Fitting Event-History Models To Uneventful Data, Douglas A. Wolf, Thomas M. Gill

Center for Policy Research

Data with which to study disability dynamics usually take the form of successive current-status measures of disability rather than a record of events or spell durations. One recent paper presented a semi-Markov model of disability dynamics in which spell durations were inferred from sequences of current-status measures taken at 12-month intervals. In that analysis, it was assumed that no unobserved disablement transitions occurred between annual interviews. We use data from a longitudinal survey in which participants' disability was measured at monthly intervals, and simulate the survival curves for remaining disabled that would be obtained with 1- and 12-month follow-up intervals. …

Singapore's Exchange Rate Policy: Some Implementation Issues, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

Reflecting the small open nature of its economy, Singapore has adopted an exchange rate-centered monetary policy framework since 1981. The exchange rate regime in Singapore is an intermediate regime that follows the basket-band-crawl system. With this managed float system, the MAS has successfully deterred speculators from attacking the domestic currency for most of the past three decades. At the same time, the flexibility accorded by the managed float system aided Singapore in escaping from the 1997–1998 Asian crisis relatively unscathed. In order to advance our understanding of the hitherto successful operation of Singapore's exchange rate policy, we examine the following …

Building Social Trust: A Human Capital Approach, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Much evidence suggests individuals di¤er in their predisposition to cooperate, which is essentially a component of human capital. This paper examines the role of individual cooperative tendencies and their interactions with institutions in generating social trust; it also endogenizes cooperative tendencies using a human capital investment model. Multiple equilibria and ine¢ ciencies exist due to positive externalities. An innovative …nding is that, when institutions are more e¤ective in punishing defecting behaviors, more people invest in cooperative tendencies and hence the endogenous social trust is higher, though the equilibrium cooperative tendencies are lower. This paper provides a plausible explanation for many …

Capping The Mortgage Interest Deduction, John E. Anderson, Jeffrey Clemens, Andrew Hanson

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper we examine the economic implications of several policy options for capping the mortgage interest deduction (MID). We extend the standard user–cost model of owner–occupied housing to include a cap on the mortgage size receiving tax–favored status. Our user–cost estimates for taxpayers with mortgages above the current–law cap are 4.41 percent higher than estimates from a model without the cap. We simulate the share of mortgage dollars that would be subject to three alternative cap policy variants and summarize the distributional impacts of each proposal, computing the share of mortgage dollars impacted across U.S. Metropolitan Areas.

The High-Tech Sector In Northeast Ohio: 2007 Update, Ziona Austrian, Jill S. Taylor

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report describes trends in the high-tech sector in Northeast Ohio, focusing on the 2004-2006 time period. It is the first update to a baseline report released in February 2007 that analyzed trends between 2000 and 2005. This study follows the baseline report in that it examines the high-tech sector in Northeast Ohio from three perspectives — high-tech industries, high-tech occupations, and research and development activity. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of high-tech industries in terms of employment, average wage, gross regional product (output), and productivity. High-tech occupations are analyzed in terms of employment levels. Research and development activity …

Risk And Recovery, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Bruce Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Economics Faculty Publications

The crisis in the housing and financial sectors has led to a dramatic slowdown in U.S. economic growth. Fourth quarter GDP growth and job growth are expected to be anemic and the economy may fall into recession in 2008. Indeed, several of the dozen members of the Nebraska Business Forecast Council do believe that the U.S. economy will likely slip into recession during 2008. However, the overall consensus of the Council is that the U.S. economy will avoid a recession. Economic growth will be slow in the first three quarters of 2008 before recovering in late 2008 and 2009.

Jefferson's Abomination In The Valley: A Study Of The Economic Effects Of The Embargo Of 1807 On Louisville's Frontier Economy, Williams Lewis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis examines the effects of the Embargo of 1807 on Louisville and its surrounding areas. The purpose of this study is to discover if the interior suffered to the same degree as other regions of the country as a result of Thomas Jefferson's trade restrictions. Louisville is the focus area because it is not only representative of the Ohio Valley and the interior but also because it marked the end of civilization and the beginning of the frontier. Distinctions between class, economic status, and occupation between the inhabitants of Jefferson County are also observed. This particular approach leads to …

The Effects Of Human/Wildlife Conflict On The Potential For Community-Based Ecotourism In The Kasigau Region Of Southeast Kenya, Natalie Mountjoy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Many believe community-based ecotourism (CBE) can assist in conservation efforts and community development; however, little research has been done to assess the potential of CBE in a specific region. As part of a large, long-term, international research project, I define three problematic areas that may impede successful CBE efforts in the Kasigau location of southeast Kenya: bushmeat utilization, community attitudes and wildlife abundance. Samples of meat purchased from butcheries and meat markets are identified to species using molecular analysis, community attitudes are ascertained via written social surveys and transect sampling methods are used to determine the relative abundance and diversity …

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — December 2007, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Long Run Covariance Matrices For Fractionally Integrated Processes, Peter C. B. Phillips, Sik Kim Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

An asymptotic expansion is given for the autocovariance matrix of a vector of stationary long-memory processes with memory parameters d ∈ [0,½). The theory is then applied to deliver formulas for the long-run covariance matrices of multivariate time series with long memory.Phillips acknowledges partial support from a Kelly Fellowship and from the NSF under grant SES 04-142254. This may be proved directly using a Fourier integral asymptotic expansion when the spectrum of the short-memory component is analytic.

Building The Case: Health Promotion For Vocational Rehabilitation Consumers, Catherine Ipsen, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

A new line of research for the Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities (RTC: Rural) focuses on the role of secondary conditions and health promoting lifestyle behaviors in obtaining and maintaining employment for adults with physical disabilities. This line of research started with Ipsen (2006) conducting an analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data. She found that individuals who reported lower rates of secondary conditions and/or who practiced better lifestyle behaviors had a higher probability of being employed after controlling for demographic characteristics including age, gender, race, education, and disability severity. Past research has shown that …

A Consistent Characteristic Function-Based Test For Conditional Independence, Liangjun Su, Halbert White

Research Collection School Of Economics

Y is conditionally independent of Z given X if Pr{f(y|X,Z)=f(y|X)}=1 for all y on its support, where f(·|·) denotes the conditional density of Y given (X,Z) or X. This paper proposes a nonparametric test of conditional independence based on the notion that two conditional distributions are equal if and only if the corresponding conditional characteristic functions are equal. We extend the test of Su and White (2005. A Hellinger-metric nonparametric test for conditional independence. Discussion Paper, Department of Economics, UCSD) in two directions: (1) our test is less sensitive to the choice of bandwidth sequences; (2) our test has power …

Geographic Decomposition Of Inequality In Health And Wealth: Evidence From Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

The small-area estimation developed by Elbers, Lanjouw and Lanjouw (2002, 2003), in which a census and a survey are combined to produce the estimates of welfare measures for small geographic areas, has become a standard tool for poverty analysis in developing countries. The small-area estimates are typically plotted on a map, which are commonly called a poverty map. Poverty maps proved useful for policy analysis and formulation, and have become increasingly popular among policy-makers and researchers. In Cambodia, poverty maps have been used by various international organizations, ministries and non-governmental organizations for analyzing the poverty situations for their operation areas, …

Global Analysis Of An Expectations Augmented Evolutionary Dynamics, Angelo Antoci, Antonio Gay, Massimiliano Landi, Pier Luigi Sacco

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider a deterministic evolutionary model where players form expectations about future play. Players are not fully rational and have expectations that change over time in response to current payoffs and feedback from the past. We provide a complete characterization of the qualitative dynamics so induced for a two strategies population game, and relate our findings to standard evolutionary dynamics and equilibrium selection when agents have rational forward looking expectations.

Nonstationary Discrete Choice: A Corrigendum And Addendum, Peter C. B. Phillips, Sainan Jin, Ling Hu

Research Collection School Of Economics

We correct the limit theory presented in an earlier paper by Hu and Phillips [2004a. Nonstationary discrete choice. Journal of Econometrics 120, 103-138] for nonstationary time series discrete choice models with multiple choices and thresholds. The new limit theory shows that, in contrast to the binary choice model with nonstationary regressors and a zero threshold where there are dual rates of convergence (n1/4 and n3/4), all parameters including the thresholds converge at the rate n3/4. The presence of nonzero thresholds therefore materially affects rates of convergence. Dual rates of convergence reappear when stationary variables are present in the system. Some …

Incidental Trends And The Power Of Panel Unit Root Tests, Hyungsik Roger Moon, Benoit Perrron, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

The asymptotic local power of various panel unit root tests is investigated. The (Gaussian) power envelope is obtained under homogeneous and heterogeneous alternatives. The envelope is compared with the asymptotic power functions for the pooled t-test, the Ploberger and Phillips [2002. Optimal testing for unit roots in panel data. Mimeo] test, and a point optimal test in neighborhoods of unity that are of order n-1/4T-1 and n-1/2T-1, depending on whether or not incidental trends are extracted from the panel data. In the latter case, when the alternative hypothesis is homogeneous across individuals, it is shown that the point optimal test …

Building Social Trust: A Human Capital Approach, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Much evidence suggests individuals differ in their predisposition to cooperate, which is essentially a component of human capital. This paper examines the role of individual cooperative tendencies and their interactions with institutions in generating social trust; it also endogenizes cooperative tendencies using a human-capital investment model. Multiple equilibria and inefficiencies exist due to positive externalities. An innovative finding is that, when institutions are more effective in punishing defecting behaviors, more people invest in cooperative tendencies and hence the endogenous social trust is higher, though the equilibrium cooperative tendencies are lower. This paper provides a plausible explanation for many empirical and …

Chinese Loyalty To Supervisor Questionnaire Development, Ding-Yu Jiang, Bor-Shuian Cheng, Chi-Ying Cheng, Li-Fang Chou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Loyalty to supervisor is a prevalent but under-investigated phenomenon in Chinese organizations. One plausible reason for this is the lack of a reliable and valid measure of loyalty in the Chinese context. This study aims to develop a valid measure of Chinese loyalty to supervisor. In Study 1, we identify a four-dimension construct of loyalty to supervisor that consists of 11 sub-dimensions (factors) on the basis of loyalty literature. The four dimensions are: identification with supervisor, task assistance, obedience, and sacrifice for supervisor. In Study 2, a 40-item Chinese loyalty to supervisor scale was developed and examined by three independent …

Paying To Save: Tax Withholding And Asset Allocation Among Low- And Moderate-Income Taxpayers, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

We analyze the phenomenon that low- and moderate-income (LMI) tax filers exhibit a “preference for over-withholding” their taxes, a measure we derive from a unique set of questions administered in a dataset of 1,003 households, which we collected through the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. We argue that the relationship between their withholding preference and portfolio allocation across liquid and illiquid assets is consistent with models with present-biased preferences, and that individuals exhibit self-control problems when making their consumption and saving decisions. Our results support a model in which individuals use commitment devices to constrain their consumption. …