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What Type Of Central Banker Dampens The Political Business Cycle? The Case Of Africa, Christine Strong Jan 2023

What Type Of Central Banker Dampens The Political Business Cycle? The Case Of Africa, Christine Strong

Economics Faculty Publications

This article investigates the extent to which central bank independence can help to reduce political business cycles in Africa. Like previous studies, we find evidence of political cycles in our sample of 34 African countries for the period 1980–2018, but our findings show that politicians' ability to manipulate both fiscal and monetary policy depends on the degree of alliance between the fiscal authority and the monetary authority. Indeed, our analysis reveals that the political business cycle worsens when the central banker is an ally whereas a non‐ally central banker is associated with a decrease in the ability of the incumbent …


The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Lei Wen, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2023

The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Lei Wen, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

The impact of capital accumulation on job creation is an important and interesting issue in economic development. This model provides a general-equilibrium framework for studying technology choice with unemployment in a developing economy based on micro-foundations. Unemployment in the urban sector results from the existence of efficiency wages. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose technologies to maximise profits. A more advanced technology uses more capital and less labour. In the steady state, an increase in the amount of capital induces firms to choose more advanced technologies and the wage rate increases. While a higher capital stock always induces …


Search, Technology Choice, And Unemployment, Constantine Angyridis, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2022

Search, Technology Choice, And Unemployment, Constantine Angyridis, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

Technology variations among countries account for a significant part of their income differences. In this paper, a firm's technology choice is embedded in a search theoretic framework for unemployment. More advanced technology is assumed to have a higher setup cost, but it is more productive. The model is tractable and the following results are derived analytically. An increase in the unemployment benefit leads to an increase in the equilibrium wage rate, giving an incentive to firms to choose a more advanced technology. Thus, this result regarding unemployment insurance in models with wage posting carries through with Nash bargaining as well. …


Fixed Costs And The Division Of Labor, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2021

Fixed Costs And The Division Of Labor, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

How market size and the level of coordination costs determine the degree of specialization is studied in an infinite horizon model with the amount of capital determined endogenously. Firms producing the same intermediate good engage in oligopolistic competition and choose the degree of specialization of their technologies to maximize profits. A more specialized technology is a technology with a lower marginal cost, but a higher fixed cost. Interestingly, the relationship between the level of coordination costs and a firm’s degree of specialization is ambiguous. A firm in a country with a larger market size, more patient citizens, or a higher …


Coordination Costs, Market Size, And The Choice Of Technology, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2019

Coordination Costs, Market Size, And The Choice Of Technology, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

Impact of coordination costs and market size on a firm’s choice of technology is studied in a general equilibrium model in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. A firm establishes an organizational hierarchy to coordinate its production. First, it is shown that an increase in market size leads a firm to choose a more specialized technology. Second, surprisingly, a robust result is that an increase in the level of coordination efficiency leads a firm to choose a less specialized technology.


How Do The Trans-Pacific Economies Affect The Usa? An Industrial Sector Approach, Takeshi Yagihashi, David D. Selover Jan 2017

How Do The Trans-Pacific Economies Affect The Usa? An Industrial Sector Approach, Takeshi Yagihashi, David D. Selover

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper studies how the Trans-Pacific region affects the US economy in terms of business cycle transmission. We use a large data set consisting of disaggregated sectoral industrial production indexes from selected countries in the region and employ a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) approach to analyze the transmission of shocks in different industries. We find that a positive output shock in the entire Trans-Pacific region has positive effects on the majority of US manufacturing sectors. We also find that sectoral shocks in five sectors of the Trans-Pacific region have a large impact on the overall US economy. Three of the …


Silence Is Golden: Railroad Noise Pollution And Property Values, Jay K. Walker Jan 2016

Silence Is Golden: Railroad Noise Pollution And Property Values, Jay K. Walker

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper uses a unique dataset containing property values and manually collected noise measurements in Memphis, Tennessee to estimate the impact of train noise pollution on commercial and residential property values. Results show that a residential property exposed to 65 decibels or greater of railroad noise results in a 14 to 18 percent decrease in property value. Once a 65 decibel measure is included, there is no additional impact on price of distance to the closest railroad crossing. For commercial property, neither crossing proximity nor noise level significantly affect property value. The results provide evidence of a negative externality that …


A Dynamic Model Of The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou, Ruhai Zhou Jan 2016

A Dynamic Model Of The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou, Ruhai Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

In this overlapping-generations model, there is unemployment in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose technologies to maximize profits. With capital as a fixed cost of production, increasing returns in the manufacturing sector exist. In the unique steady state, first, when individuals become more patient, the savings rate increases while the level of an individual’s income decreases. Second, an increase in population or percentage of income spent on manufactured goods does not change steady-state technology while the level of an individual’s income decreases. Third, an increase in the wage rate leads manufacturing firms to choose more …


Good Girl, Bad Boy: Corrupt Behavior In Professional Tennis, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker Jan 2015

Good Girl, Bad Boy: Corrupt Behavior In Professional Tennis, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper identifies matches on the male and female professional tennis tours in which one player faces a high payoff from being "on the bubble" of direct entry into one of the lucrative Grand Slam tournaments, while their opposition does not. Analyzing over 378,000 matches provides strong evidence for corrupt behavior on the men's tour, as bubble players are substantially more likely to beat better ranked opponents when a win is desperately needed. However, we find no such evidence on the women's tour. These results prevail throughout a series of extensions and robustness checks, highlighting gender differences regarding corrupt and …


Examining Industrial Interdependence Between Japan And South Korea: A Favar Approach, David D. Selover, Takeshi Yagihashi Jan 2015

Examining Industrial Interdependence Between Japan And South Korea: A Favar Approach, David D. Selover, Takeshi Yagihashi

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the economic relationship between Japan and South Korea by incorporating disaggregated output measures. Using a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model, we conduct several experiments to test the nature of the interdependence, both in the aggregate and by sector. We find that South Korean output shocks affect the Japanese economy in a significant manner, whereas Japanese output shocks have a limited effect on South Korea. By further examining the transmission mechanism of sectoral output shocks and comparing them with the direction of sectoral trade, we find evidence of cross-border production sharing, which explains the asymmetric results seen in …


The Choice Of Technology And Equilibrium Wage Rigidity, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2015

The Choice Of Technology And Equilibrium Wage Rigidity, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

In this general equilibrium model, firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose increasing returns technologies to maximize profits. Capital and labor are the two factors of production. The existence of efficiency wages leads to unemployment. The model is able to explain some interesting observations of the labor market. First, even though there is neither long-term labor contract nor costs of wage adjustment, wage rigidity is an equilibrium phenomenon: an increase in the exogenous job separation rate, the size of the population, the cost of exerting effort, and the probability that shirking is detected will not change the equilibrium wage rate. …


Intermediate Inputs And External Economies, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2014

Intermediate Inputs And External Economies, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

Is the degree of external economies (at the industry level) higher than the degree of internal increasing returns (at the firm level)? If so, what is the exact source of this difference? In the general equilibrium model in which firms producing final goods choose the degree of specialization of their technologies, external economies arise from the usage of intermediate inputs and the existence of internal increasing returns. It is frequently assumed that increasing returns are absent at the firm level while present at the industry level. In this model, the existence of increasing returns at the firm level is necessary …


International Trade With Increasing Returns In The Transportation Sector, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2014

International Trade With Increasing Returns In The Transportation Sector, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

In this general equilibrium framework, the transportation sector is modeled as a distinct sector with increasing returns. A more advanced technology has a higher fixed cost but a lower marginal cost of production. Even with both manufacturing firms and transportation firms engaged in oligopolistic competition and optimally choosing their technologies, the model is tractable and results are derived analytically. Technology adoptions in the manufacturing sector and transportation sector are reinforcing, and multiple equilibria may exist. Firms choose more advanced technologies and the prices decrease when the size of the population is larger.


The Choice Of Technology And Rural-Urban Migration In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2013

The Choice Of Technology And Rural-Urban Migration In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper studies a general equilibrium model of rural-urban migration in which manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose increasing returns technologies to maximize profits. Urban residents incur commuting costs to work in the Central Business District. Surprisingly a change in the size of the population or an increase in the exogenously given wage rate will not affect a manufacturing firm’s choice of technology. This helps to explain why firms in developing countries may not adopt labor intensive technologies even under abundant labor supply. An increase in the number of manufacturing firms increases both the employment rate and the …


2008 Virginia Beach Tourism Economic Impact Study, Gilbert R. Yochum, Vinod Agarwal May 2009

2008 Virginia Beach Tourism Economic Impact Study, Gilbert R. Yochum, Vinod Agarwal

Economics Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to estimate the total economic impact and the direct taxes and fees generated by the 2008 in-flow of visitors to the City of Virginia Beach's tourist industry. Total tourism economic impact is defined as the sum of direct, indirect and induced output, employment and earnings that result from visitor spending in Virginia Beach.


Intra-Firm Specialization, Income Distribution, And International Trade, Haiwen Zhou Jan 2006

Intra-Firm Specialization, Income Distribution, And International Trade, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

The impact of international trade on a firm’s degree of specialization and income distribution is studied in a general equilibrium framework in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. International trade increases a firm’s degree of specialization, but the number of goods a country produces may not change. Trade may lower the welfare of the scarce factor of production. Sufficient conditions for a country’s welfare to increase with trade are provided.


Economics Of The Pacific Whiting, Merluccius Productus, Fishery, Eric Anderson Jan 1985

Economics Of The Pacific Whiting, Merluccius Productus, Fishery, Eric Anderson

Economics Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Interest in the economics of Pacific whiting, Merluccius productus, production and consumption has been simulated in recent years by expanding U.S. participation in the fishery formerly dominated by foreign fishing and processing. This has raised several questions within the U.S. fishing industry: 1) Will it be profitable for additional U.S. fisherman and processors to enter the fishery? 2) What configuration will the U.S. Pacific whiting industry take? and 3) What will be the nature of markets for Pacific whiting products? This paper summarizes the conclusions of several reports and studies which bear on these questions.