Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Entry And Vertical Disintegration, Christiaan Hogendorn

Christiaan Hogendorn

We formalize and extend George Stigler’s famous article “The division of labor is limited by the extent of the market.” We emphasize economies of scale in intermediate goods production as a determinant of firm boundaries and vertical control. We show that there are potential coordination failures which may prevent efficient vertical disintegration, and we discuss how these might be either overcome or used to the advantage of incumbent firms.

Money And Real Fluctuations In The Chilean Economy, Andres Acuña, Carlos Oyarzun

Andrés A. Acuña

Hub-And-Spoke Or Else? Free Trade Agreements In The 'Enlarged' European Union, Luca De Benedictis, Roberta De Santis, Claudio Vicarelli

Luca De Benedictis

The object of this paper is to estimate if and how the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the Baltic Free Trade Agreement (BFTA) exerted a significant impact on intra-European trade, effectively reducing the influence of the European Association Agreements (EAs) in shaping the European trade structure has a hub-and-spoke system – with the EU15 being the hub and the CEECs the spoke. This paper analyses bilateral trade flows between eight CEECs and EU-23. We estimate a gravity equation using a system GMM dynamic panel data approach. Results support the assumptions that gravity forces and “persistence effects” matter. With …

Asimmetrie Negli Incentivi, Equilibrio Competitivo E Impegno Agonistico, Distorsioni In Presenza Di Doping E Combine, Raul Caruso

Raul Caruso

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Brazilian Mutual Funds With Stochastic Frontiers, Andre Santos, Joao Tusi, Newton Da Costa Jr, Sergio Da Silva

Sergio Da Silva

We evaluate the performance of 307 Brazilian stock mutual funds employing stochastic frontiers. We list the top ten actively managed funds and the bottom ten for the period April 2001−July 2003, and show that a fund’s efficiency increases with management skill to beat the market. We also find that portfolios with low volatility tend to be more efficient. Yet we find no relationship between fund size and performance, though this might be blurred by a survivorship bias.

Travel Hysteresis In The Us Current Account After The Mid-1980s, Roberto Meurer, Guilherme Moura, Sergio Da Silva

Sergio Da Silva

Following the real appreciation of the US dollar in the first half of the 1980s, travel expenditures in the current account soared. Employing standard regression techniques as well as Markov−switching regime analysis we show that such expenditures did not return to their pre−appreciation levels thereafter. The permanent increase suggests the presence of travel hysteresis in the US current account after the mid−1980s.

Travel Hysteresis In The Brazilian Current Account, Roberto Meurer, Guilherme Moura, Sergio Da Silva

Sergio Da Silva

The strong Brazilian currency between 1994 and 1998 led Brazilians to an unprecedented increase in their travels abroad. Even after the 1999 currency crisis, travel patterns did not recover to their pre−exchange rate devaluation levels. The occasional exchange rate valuation has left long−lasting effects by changing habits, and thereby generating a travel hysteresis in the Brazilian current account.

Why Do Economists Favor Free Trade But Politicians Don't?, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Adjusting Imperfect Data: Overview And Case Studies, Lars Vilhuber

Lars Vilhuber

[Excerpt] In this chapter, instead of using the similarity in the cleaned datasets to investigate economic fundamentals, we focus on the differences in the underlying ‘dirty’ data. We describe two data elements that remain fundamentally different across countries, and the extent to which they differ. We then proceed to document some of the problems that affect longitudinally linked administrative data in general, and we describe some of the solutions analysts and statistical agencies have implemented, and some that they did not implement. In each case, we explain the reasons for and against implementing a particular adjustment, and explore, through a …

Oil For What?—Illicit Iraqi Oil Contracts And The U.N. Security Council, Paul Heaton

Paul Heaton

Over a 6½-year period the Iraqi government issued over 1300 oil contracts through the U.N. Oil-For-Food Program. This paper demonstrates that Security Council members obtained significantly more contracts than non-members and contract receipt is associated with pro-Hussein votes on resolutions. For non-permanent seat holders Council membership is associated with a 46% premium in contract value, while permanent seat holders obtained an estimated benefit of approximately $29 million each over the life of the program. A 10% increase in the probability of casting a pro-Iraq vote on the Council corresponds to $55 million in additional contracts. Contrary to median voter models, …

Three Decades Of Italian Comparative Advantages, Luca De Benedictis

Luca De Benedictis

The paper explores the structure of Italian Revealed Comparative Advantages (RCA), focusing on the export structure itself, on its changes over time and on its degree of persistence. The analysis is developed with the use of visual statistical tools and nonparametric statistical techniques that allow to estimate the empirical distribution of the Balassa (1965) Index, and to track its dynamics during three decades, from the 1970s to present. The main results of the analysis are that the structure of Italian RCA is highly persistent, but is changing; the structure is very different when it is examined at a macro-regional level; …

Economics: Structure Or Behavior, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

The Baring Crisis And The Brazilian Encilhamento, 1889-1891: An Early Example Of Contagion Among Emerging Capital Markets, Kirsten Wandschneider, Gail Triner

Kirsten Wandschneider

This article assesses the role of international markets in the brazilian financial crisis of 1890 91 (the crash of the encilhamento). it looks for the impact of the argentine financial crisis in 1890 (the baring crisis) on brazilian access to capital markets. the history of bond yield fluctuations in london for brazilian and argentine debt, exchange rates, data on investment flows and archival and journalistic accounts reveal a close congruence between the argentine and brazilian crises. the effects of the argentine experience carried over to brazil because the open capital and money markets of the period easily transmitted crisis from …

Estimated Age Effects In Baseball, Ray Fair

Ray C Fair

Age effects in baseball are estimated in this paper using a nonlinear fixed-effects regression. The sample consists of all players who have played 10 or more ``full-time'' years in the major leagues between 1921 and 2004. Quadratic improvement is assumed up to a peak-performance age, which is estimated, and then quadratic decline after that, where the two quadratics need not be the same. Each player has his own constant term. The results show that aging effects are larger for pitchers than for batters and larger for baseball than for track and field, running, and swimming events and for chess. There …

On The Influence Of Extreme Parties In Electoral Competition With Policy-Motivated Candidates, Georges Casamatta, Philippe De Donder

Georges Casamatta

We study and compare equilibrium platforms in models of unidimensional electoral competition with two and four policy motivated parties. We first analyze the plurality game, where the party getting the most votes is elected and implements its proposed platform. Restrictions on the set of credible announcements are needed to get existence of equilibria. Comparing equilibria with two and four parties, we obtain that moderate parties react to the introduction of extreme parties by proposing the same or more extreme equilibrium platforms. We then study the proportional system, where the policy implemented is a weighted sum of the proposals, with the …

Evaluación Y Descentralización, Fernando González-Laxe

Fernando González-Laxe

No abstract provided.

Factor Shares From Household Survey Data, Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu

Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu

Liberalisation Of The European Services Market And Its Impact On Switzerland: Assessing The Potential Impacts Of Following The Eu's 2004 Services Directive, Henk Lm Kox, Arjan Lejour

Henk LM Kox

Investing In Louisiana: Venture Capital Activity 1995-2004, Dave N. Norris, Aijun Besio

Dave Norris

No abstract provided.

Stock Selection Based On Cluster Analysis, Newton Da Costa Jr, Jefferson Cunha, Sergio Da Silva

Sergio Da Silva

We put forward a technique based on cluster analysis to group stocks in spot markets according to a risk−return criterion. We show how an informed investor will make money using the cluster analysis to select stocks of major companies from North and South America.

Insurance, Self-Protection, And The Economics Of Terrorism, Darius Lakdawalla, George Zanjani

Darius N. Lakdawalla

This paper investigates the rationale for public intervention in the terrorism insurance market. It argues that government subsidies for terror insurance are aimed, in part, at discouraging self-protection and limiting the negative externalities associated with self-protection. Cautious self-protective behavior by a target can hurt public goods like national prestige if it is seen as “giving in” to the terrorists, and may increase the loss probabilities faced by others by encouraging terrorists to substitute toward more vulnerable targets. We argue that these externalities are essential for normative analysis of government intervention and may also explain why availability problems in this market …

A Theory Of Health Disparities And Medical Technology, Darius Noshir Lakdawalla, Dana Goldman

Darius N. Lakdawalla

Better-educated people are healthier, although the sources of this relationship remain unclear. Starting with basic principles of consumer theory, we develop a model of how health disparities are determined that does not depend on the precise causal mechanism. Improvements in the productivity of health care disproportionately benefit the heaviest health care users. Since richer patients tend to use the most health care, this suggests that new technologies—by making more diseases treatable, reducing the price of health care, or improving health care productivity—could widen socioeconomic disparities in health. An exception to this rule, however, is a simplifying technology, which can contract …

Regional Analysis And Sustainable Development: Application Of A Synthetic Sustainability Index To Galicia And The European Union, Fernando González-Laxe

Fernando González-Laxe

No abstract provided.

The Two-Part Instrument In A Second-Best World, Don Fullerton, Ann Wolverton

Don Fullerton

Standard Pigovian tax theory has been extended in two directions. First, many polluting activities are difficult to tax because they are not market transactions, and so recent papers have shown that the same effects can be achieved by use of a two-part instrument (2PI): a tax on output or income and a subsidy for clean alternatives to pollution. It is a generalization of a deposit-refund system. Second, a different literature concerns the second-best pollution tax in the presence of other tax distortions. Here, we combine the two extensions by looking at the second-best 2PI. When government needs revenue, is the …

An Economic Analysis Of Alternative Policies For Controlling So2 Emissions In The Yangtze River Delta's Electric Generating Sector, Daniel Dudek, Ben Zipperer, Wang Hao, Zhang Jian-Yu, Lin Hong

Ben Zipperer

Mixed-integer optimization model of emissions trading policy effects on the Chinese electric generating sector.

Compensation For Quality Difference In A Search Model Of Money, Yuk-Fai Fong, Balazs Szentes

Yuk-Fai Fong

We study an economy in which there is always double coincidence of wants, agents have perfect information about qualities of goods, and there are no transaction costs. The hold-up problem arises because efforts invested in improving quality prior to search may not be compensated in the market. Situations in which barter fails to motivate quality improvement are identified. With money, however, the extra effort in quality improvement will be compensated when high-quality good producers trade with agents holding both the low-quality good and money. Injection of money can induce almost all agents to produce the high-quality good.

Triple Bottom Line Event Evaluation: A Proposed Framework For Holistic Event Evaluation, Liz Fredline, Michael Raybould, Leo Jago, Marg Deery

Michael Raybould

Although there has long been an interest in measuring the economic impacts of events, it is only relatively recently that concern about the sustainability of event tourism has driven an imperative to develop methods for evaluating and monitoring other sorts of impacts including social and environmental. This trend mirrors moves in general tourism and business more broadly where discussion about triple bottom line reporting underpins a move for enterprises to be accountable to stakeholders, not only in regard to the economic bottom line, but also with regard to their “footprint” on the environment and on society more broadly. There is …

Is There A Brazilian J−Curve?, Guilherme Moura, Sergio Da Silva

Sergio Da Silva

We show that the Marshall−Lerner condition holds for the Brazilian trade balance, and discard a J−curve in the short run. We present these results using impulse−response functions in a variety of (linear and nonlinear) models, including Markov−switching, vector error−correction models.

The Prudent Village: Risk Pooling Institutions In Medieval English Agriculture, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

The prudent peasant mitigated the risk of crop failures by scattering his arable land throughout his village, Deirdre McCloskey argued, because alternative risksharing institutions did not exist. But, alternatives did exist, this essay concludes. Medieval English peasants formed two types of farmers’ cooperatives. Fraternities protected members from the perils of everyday life. Customary poor laws redistributed resources towards villagers beset by bad luck. In both institutions, the expectation of reciprocation motivated farmers with surpluses to aid neighbors with shortages.

The Bundling Of Academic Journals, Aaron S. Edlin, Daniel L. Rubinfeld

Daniel L. Rubinfeld

No abstract provided.