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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Does Tv Affect Child Cognitive Development?, Fali Huang, Myoung-Jae Lee Aug 2007

Does Tv Affect Child Cognitive Development?, Fali Huang, Myoung-Jae Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate whether TV watching at ages 6-7 and 8-9 affects cognitive development measured by math and reading scores at ages 8-9 using a rich childhood longitudinal sample from NLSY79. Dynamic panel data models are estimated to handle the unobserved child-specific factor, endogeneity of TV watching, and dynamic nature of the causal relation. A special emphasis is put on the last aspect where TV watching affects cognitive development which in turn affects the future TV watching. When this feedback occurs, it is not straightforward to identify and estimate the TV effect. We adopt estimation methods available in the biostatistics literature …


The Coevolution Of Economic And Political Development, Fali Huang Aug 2007

The Coevolution Of Economic And Political Development, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper establishes a simple model of long run economic and political development, which is driven by the inherent technical features of di¤erent production factors and the political con‡icts among factor owners on how to divide the outputs. The main production factor in economy evolves from land to physical capital and then to human capital, which enables their respective owners (landlords, capitalists, and workers) to gain political power in the same sequence, shaping the political development path from monarchy to oligarchy and …nally to democracy with full su¤rage. When it is too costly for any group of factor owners to …


Regression With Slowly Varying Regressors And Nonlinear Trends, Peter C. B. Phillips Aug 2007

Regression With Slowly Varying Regressors And Nonlinear Trends, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

Slowly varying (SV) regressors arise commonly in empirical econometric work, particularly in the form of semilogarithmic regression and log periodogram regression. These regressors are asymptotically collinear. Usual regression formulas for asymptotic standard errors are shown to remain valid, but rates of convergence are affected and the limit distribution of the regression coefficients is shown to be one dimensional. Some asymptotic representations of partial sums of SV functions and central limit theorems with SV weights are given that assist in the development of a regression theory. Multivariate regression and polynomial regression with SV functions are considered and shown to be equivalent, …


On The Segmentation Of Markets, Nicolas L. Jacquet, Serene Tan Aug 2007

On The Segmentation Of Markets, Nicolas L. Jacquet, Serene Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper endogenizes the market structure of an economy with heterogeneous agents who want to form bilateral matches in the presence of search frictions and when utility is nontransferable. There exist infinitely many marketplaces, and each agent chooses which marketplace to be in: agents get to choose not only whom to match with but also whom they meet with. Perfect segmentation is obtained in equilibrium, where agents match with the first person they meet. All equilibria have the same matching pattern. Although perfect assortative matching is not obtained in equilibrium, the degree of assortativeness is greater than in standard models.


Instrumental Variable Quantile Estimation Of Spatial Autoregressive Models, Zhenlin Yang Jul 2007

Instrumental Variable Quantile Estimation Of Spatial Autoregressive Models, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose an instrumental variable quantile regression (IVQR) estimator for spatial autoregressive (SAR) models. Like the GMM estimators of Lin and Lee (2006) and Kelejian and Prucha (2006), the IVQR estimator is robust against heteroscedasticity. Unlike the GMM estimators, the IVQR estimator is also robust against outliers and requires weaker moment conditions. More importantly, it allows us to characterize the heterogeneous impact of variables on different points (quantiles) of a response distribution. We derive the limiting distribution of the new estimator. Simulation results show that the new estimator performs well in finite samples at various quantile points. In the special …


A Corrected Plug-In Method For Quantile Interval Construction Through A Transformed Regression, Zhenlin Yang, Yiu Kuen Tse Jul 2007

A Corrected Plug-In Method For Quantile Interval Construction Through A Transformed Regression, Zhenlin Yang, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a corrected plug-in method for constructing confidence intervals of the conditional quantiles of an original response variable through a transformed regression with heteroscedastic errors. The interval is easy to compute. Factors affecting the magnitude of the correction are examined analytically through the special case of Box-Cox regression. Monte Carlo simulations show that the new method works well in general and is superior over the commonly used delta method and the quantile regression method. An empirical application is presented. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]


Direction-Of-Change Forecasts For Asian Equity Markets Based On Conditional Variance, Skewness And Kurtosis Dynamics: International Evidence, Peter F. Christoffersen, Francis X. Diebold, Robert S. Mariano, Anthony S. Tay, Yiu Kuen Tse Jul 2007

Direction-Of-Change Forecasts For Asian Equity Markets Based On Conditional Variance, Skewness And Kurtosis Dynamics: International Evidence, Peter F. Christoffersen, Francis X. Diebold, Robert S. Mariano, Anthony S. Tay, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

Recent theoretical work has revealed a direct connection between asset return volatility forecastability and asset return sign forecastability. This suggests that the pervasive volatility forecastability in equity returns could, via induced sign forecastability, be used to produce direction-of change forecasts useful for market timing. We attempt to do so in an international sample of developed equity markets, with some success, as assessed by formal probability forecast scoring rules such as the Brier score. An important ingredient is our conditioning not only on conditional mean and variance information, but also conditional skewness and kurtosis information, when forming direction-of-change forecasts.


Indirect Inference For Dynamic Panel Models, Jun Yu Jul 2007

Indirect Inference For Dynamic Panel Models, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

It is well-known that maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of the autoregressive parameter of a dynamic panel data model with fixed effects is inconsistent under fixed time series sample size (T) and large cross section sample size (N) asymptotics. The estimation bias is particularly relevant in practical applications when T is small and the autoregressive parameter is close to unity. The present paper proposes a general, computationally inexpensive method of bias reduction that is based on indirect inference (Gouriéroux et al., 1993), shows unbiasedness and analyzes efficiency. The method is implemented in a simple linear dynamic panel model, but has wider …


The Evolution And Utilization Of The Gatt/Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Pao-Li Chang Jul 2007

The Evolution And Utilization Of The Gatt/Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Pao-Li Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper provides a theoretical framework of dispute settlement to explain the surge in blocking incidence of GATT panel reports during the 1980s and the variations in withdrawn incidence versus total disputes across different decades of the GATT regime. The study first suggests the role of the degree of legal controversy over a panel ruling in determining countries' incentives to block (appeal) a panel report under the GATT (WTO) regime. The study then analyzes the effects of political power on countries' incentives to use, and their interactions in using, the dispute settlement mechanism, when two-sided asymmetric information exists regarding panel …


Financial Variables As Predictors Of Real Output Growth, Anthony S. Tay Jul 2007

Financial Variables As Predictors Of Real Output Growth, Anthony S. Tay

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate two methods for using daily stock returns to forecast, and update forecasts of, quarterly real output growth. Both methods aggregate daily returns in some manner to form a single stock market variable. We consider (i) augmenting the quarterly AR(1) model for real output growth with daily returns using a nonparametric Mixed Data Sampling (MIDAS) setting, and (ii) augmenting the quarterly AR(1) model with the most recent r -day returns as an additional predictor. We discover that adding low frequency stock returns (up to annual returns, depending on forecast horizon) to a quarterly AR(1) model improves forecasts of output …


Estimation Of Impulse Response Functions Using Long Autoregression, Pao Li Chang, Shinichi Sakata Jul 2007

Estimation Of Impulse Response Functions Using Long Autoregression, Pao Li Chang, Shinichi Sakata

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article proposes an alternative methodology to estimate impulse response functions without imposing parametric restrictions. The impulse responses are estimated by regressing the series of interest on estimated innovations, which are the residuals obtained from a prior-stage ‘long autoregression.’ We establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator. The proposed estimator is closely related to the estimator of Jordà (2005, American Economic Review 95, 161–182). Our large sample analysis, as a byproduct, establishes the asymptotic equivalence between Jordà's estimator and our estimator, and provides justifications for the statistical inference method used in Jordà (2005).


Characterizing Exchange Rate Policy In East Asia: A Reconsideration, Hwee Kwan Chow, Yoonbai Kim, Wei Sun Jun 2007

Characterizing Exchange Rate Policy In East Asia: A Reconsideration, Hwee Kwan Chow, Yoonbai Kim, Wei Sun

Research Collection School Of Economics

Frankel and Wei (1994) developed and popularized a method for uncovering the implicit weights assigned to major international currencies constituting a currency basket. We extend the methodology in two dimensions: include regional competitive pressure and employ a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to overcome simultaneity bias. With these modifications, we confirm the prominent role of the US dollar in the exchange rate policy of East Asian economies beyond the short run. However, despite the high degree of commitment to nominal exchange rate stability prior to the crisis, fluctuations in most East Asian currencies are also significantly influenced by country specific shocks. …


Nonlinear Filters Based On Taylor Series Expansions, Hisashi Tanizaki, Roberto S. Mariano Jun 2007

Nonlinear Filters Based On Taylor Series Expansions, Hisashi Tanizaki, Roberto S. Mariano

Research Collection School Of Economics

The nonlinear filters based on Taylor series approximation are broadly used for computational simplicity, even though their filtering estimates are clearly biased. In this paper, first, we analyze what is approximated when we apply the expanded nonlinear functions to the standard linear recursive Kalman filter algorithm. Next, since the state variable αt and αt-t are approximated as a conditional normal distribution given information up to time t - 1 (i.e., It-1) in approximation of the Taylor series expansion, it might be appropriate to evaluate each expectation by generating normal random numbers of αt and α …


A Structuralist Model Of The Small Open Economy In The Short, Medium And Long Run, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps Jun 2007

A Structuralist Model Of The Small Open Economy In The Short, Medium And Long Run, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps

Research Collection School Of Economics

Open-economy macroeconomics contains a monetary model in the Keynesian tradition that is deemed serviceable for analyzing the short run and a nonmonetary neoclassical model thought capable of handling the long run. But do the Keynesian and neoclassical models meet the challenges thrown out by the main events of the past few decades? We first indicate that the effects of these shocks on the open economy are not well captured by either the standard Keynesian model or the standard neoclassical theory. Next we provide a careful development of a nonmonetary model of the equilibrium path of the real exchange rate, share …


Autarkic Indeterminacy And Trade Determinacy, Kong Weng Ho, Nicholas Sim Jun 2007

Autarkic Indeterminacy And Trade Determinacy, Kong Weng Ho, Nicholas Sim

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.


A Structuralist Model Of The Small Open Economy In The Short, Medium And Long Run, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps Jun 2007

A Structuralist Model Of The Small Open Economy In The Short, Medium And Long Run, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps

Research Collection School Of Economics

In open-economy macroeconomics there is a monetary model in the Keynesian tradition that is deemed serviceable for analyzing the short run and there is a nonmonetary neoclassical theory thought capable of handling the long run. But do the Keynesian and neoclassical models meet the challenges thrown out by the main events of the past few decades¡ªthe '80s shock to Europe taking the form of an external jump in real interest rates; the sort of shock experienced in the U.S. and parts of northern Europe in the second half of the '90s: the emerging prospect of new industries in the future …


A Structuralist Model Of The Small Open Economy In The Short, Medium And Long Run, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps Jun 2007

A Structuralist Model Of The Small Open Economy In The Short, Medium And Long Run, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps

Research Collection School Of Economics

Open-economy macroeconomics contains a monetary model in the Keynesian tradition that is deemed serviceable for analyzing the short run and a nonmonetary neoclassical model thought capable of handling the long run. But do the Keynesian and neoclassical models meet the challenges thrown out by the main events of the past few decades—the ’80s shock to Europe from the sharp increase of external real interest rates; the kind of speculative shock experienced in the U.S. and parts of northern Europe in the second half of the ’90s: the prospect of new industries emerging in the future with needs for new capital; …


Distance To Frontier And The Big Swings Of The Unemployment Rate: What Room Is Left For Monetary Policy?, Hian Teck Hoon, Kong Weng Ho Jun 2007

Distance To Frontier And The Big Swings Of The Unemployment Rate: What Room Is Left For Monetary Policy?, Hian Teck Hoon, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper builds upon Hoon and Phelps (1992, 1997) to ask how much of the evolution of the unemployment rate over several decades in country can be explained by real factors in an equilibrium model of the natural rate where country's productivity growth depends upon its distance from the world's technological leader. One motivating contemporary example includes the evolution of unemployment rates in Europe as it recovered from the second world war and caught up technologically to the US. Another example that may be less familiar to many people is Singapore (the second fastest growing economy from 1960 to 2000 …


Poverty Alleviation Through Geographic Targeting, Chris Elbers, Tomoki Fujii, Peter Lanjouw, Berk Ozler, Wesley Yin May 2007

Poverty Alleviation Through Geographic Targeting, Chris Elbers, Tomoki Fujii, Peter Lanjouw, Berk Ozler, Wesley Yin

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper, we employ recently completed “poverty maps” for three countries as tools for an ex ante evaluation of the distributional incidence of geographic targeting of public resources. We simulate the impact on poverty of transferring an exogenously given budget to geographically defined sub-groups of the population according to their relative poverty status. We find large gains from targeting smaller administrative units, such as districts or villages. However, these gains are still far from the poverty reduction that would be possible had the planners had access to information on household level income or consumption. Our results indicate that a …


Bayesian Analysis Of Dsge Models, Sungbae An, Frank Schorfheide May 2007

Bayesian Analysis Of Dsge Models, Sungbae An, Frank Schorfheide

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper reviews Bayesian methods that have been developed in recent years to estimate and evaluate dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. We consider the estimation of linearized DSGE models, the evaluation of models based on Bayesian model checking, posterior odds comparisons, and comparisons to vector autoregressions, as well as the non-linear estimation based on a second-order accurate model solution. These methods are applied to data generated from correctly specified and misspecified linearized DSGE models and a DSGE model that was solved with a second-order perturbation method.


Modelling Spatial Dependence And Social Interactions, Zhenlin Yang May 2007

Modelling Spatial Dependence And Social Interactions, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Spatial dependence or social interaction among economic agents or social actors, such as neighbourhood effects, copycatting, and peer group effects, has recently received increased attention from regional scientists, economists, econometricians, and statisticians.


A Unified Confidence Interval For Reliability-Related Quantities Of Two-Parameter Weibull Distribution, Zhenlin Yang, Min Xie, Augustine C.M. Wong May 2007

A Unified Confidence Interval For Reliability-Related Quantities Of Two-Parameter Weibull Distribution, Zhenlin Yang, Min Xie, Augustine C.M. Wong

Research Collection School Of Economics

Statistical inference methods for the Weibull parameters and their functions usually depend on extensive tables, and hence are rather inconvenient for the practical applications. In this paper, we propose a general method for constructing confidence intervals for the Weibull parameters and their functions, which eliminates the need for the extensive tables. The method is applied to obtain confidence intervals for the scale parameter, the mean-time-to-failure, the percentile function, and the reliability function. Monte-Carlo simulation shows that these intervals possess excellent finite sample properties, having coverage probabilities very close to their nominal levels, irrespective of the sample size and the degree …


Financial Liberalization And Monetary Policy Cooperation In East Asia, Hwee Kwan Chow, Peter N. Kriz, Roberto S. Mariano, Augustine H. H. Tan May 2007

Financial Liberalization And Monetary Policy Cooperation In East Asia, Hwee Kwan Chow, Peter N. Kriz, Roberto S. Mariano, Augustine H. H. Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

As the countries in East Asia embark on financial liberalization, a key issue that confronts policymakers is the greater complexity of risks that is injected into the financial system. In particular, capital account liberalization may potentially increase the vulnerability of individual countries to external financial shocks. This paper advocates the optimally cascading of financial liberalization that is consistent across three dimensions: extent of domestic financial liberalization; the degree of exchange rate flexibility; and the scope of capital account liberalization. Unless the process of liberalization is properly managed, it could provoke destabilizing capital flows and lead to volatile exchange rates. Smooth …


Urban Rail Transit Ppps: Survey And Risk Assessment Of Recent Strategies, Sock-Yong Phang May 2007

Urban Rail Transit Ppps: Survey And Risk Assessment Of Recent Strategies, Sock-Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The proliferation of urban rail transit public-private partnerships (PPPs) in Latin America and Southeast Asia is a recent phenomenon. This paper first reviews the theoretical literature on the public procurement versus PPP decision in the context of rail transit and assesses the risks involved in entering these partnerships. The urban rail transit PPP approaches adopted in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Hong Kong, and London are described and classified into four broad approaches: (i) the development of new systems through Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO), (ii) the concessioning of rail and subway services, (iii) the sale of state-owned operators …


Unit Root Log Periodogram Regression, Peter C. B. Phillips May 2007

Unit Root Log Periodogram Regression, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

Log periodogram (LP) regression is shown to be consistent and to have a mixed normal limit distribution when the memory parameter d=1. Gaussian errors are not required. The proof relies on a new result showing that asymptotically infinite collections of discrete Fourier transforms (dft's) of a short memory process at the fundamental frequencies in the vicinity of the origin can be treated as asymptotically independent normal variates, provided one does not include too many dft's in the collection.


Global And Regional Sources Of Risk In Equity Markets: Evidence From Factor Models With Time-Varying Conditional Skewness, Aamir R. Hashmi, Anthony S. Tay Apr 2007

Global And Regional Sources Of Risk In Equity Markets: Evidence From Factor Models With Time-Varying Conditional Skewness, Aamir R. Hashmi, Anthony S. Tay

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine the influence of global and regional factors on the conditional distribution of stock returns from six Asian markets, using factor models in which unexpected returns comprise global, regional and local shocks. The models allow for conditional heteroskedasticity and time-varying conditional skewness, and are used to measure mean, variance, and skewness spillovers. We find that incorporating time-varying conditional skewness improves the fit of our spillover models, and can alter measurements of variance spillovers. However, time-varying conditional skewness is mostly a local phenomenon; with exceptions, there is little spillover in skewness from global and regional factors.


A Simple Approach To The Parametric Estimation Of Potentially Nonstationary Diffusions, Federico Bandi, Peter C. B. Phillips Apr 2007

A Simple Approach To The Parametric Estimation Of Potentially Nonstationary Diffusions, Federico Bandi, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

A simple and robust approach is proposed for the parametric estimation of scalar homogeneous stochastic differential equations. We specify a parametric class of diffusions and estimate the parameters of interest by minimizing criteria based on the integrated squared difference between kernel estimates of the drift and diffusion functions and their parametric counterparts. The procedure does not require simulations or approximations to the true transition density and has the simplicity of standard nonlinear least-squares methods in discrete time. A complete asymptotic theory for the parametric estimates is developed. The limit theory relies on infill and long span asymptotics and is robust …


Simulation-Based Estimation Of Contingent-Claims Prices, Jun Yu Apr 2007

Simulation-Based Estimation Of Contingent-Claims Prices, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

A new methodology is proposed to estimate theoretical prices of financial contingent-claims whose values are dependent on some other underlying financial assets. In the literature the preferred choice of estimator is usually maximum likelihood (ML). ML has strong asymptotic justification but is not necessarily the best method in finite samples. The present paper proposes instead a simulation-based method that improves the finite sample performance of the ML estimator while maintaining its good asymptotic properties. The methods are implemented and evaluated here in the Black-Scholes option pricing model and in the Vasicek bond pricing model, but have wider applicability. Monte Carlo …


Asian Currency Baskets: A Useful Surveillance Tool?, Charles Adams, Hwee Kwan Chow Mar 2007

Asian Currency Baskets: A Useful Surveillance Tool?, Charles Adams, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper considers whether an intra-regional currency basket and the associated divergence indicators could play a useful role in official exchange rate surveillance. Recently, proponents of an Asian currency basket have referred to the role the European Currency Unit played in constructing exchange rate divergence indicators as evidence of the usefulness of intra-regional currency baskets for exchange rate monitoring. The paper shows that such indicators have a number of features that can lead to them obscuring underlying changes in exchange rates and that the signals they emit will often be difficult to interpret. In addition, the use of regional currency …


Trade Agreements With Domestic Policies As Disguised Protection, Gea Myoung Lee Mar 2007

Trade Agreements With Domestic Policies As Disguised Protection, Gea Myoung Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

WTO rules prohibit “disguised protection” in the form of domestic policies. How then do governments cooperate over trade and domestic policies when none can verify whether a nation's domestic tax reduction is a protective measure or a reaction to a production externality? In this paper, each government privately observes whether a production externality associated with its import-competing good is high or low. This paper finds that in an optimal agreement, disguised protection with domestic policies is never used by governments with a high externality, and is never commonly realized. Moreover, in an optimal agreement, tariffs may be conditional on domestic …