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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Dynamic Price Competition, Dirk Bergemann, Juuso Välimäki Apr 2003

Dynamic Price Competition, Dirk Bergemann, Juuso Välimäki

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the model of price competition for a single buyer among many sellers in a dynamic environment. The surplus from each trade is allowed to depend on the path of previous purchases, and as a result, the model captures phenomena such as learning by doing and habit formation in consumption characterize Markovian equilibria for finite and infinite horizon versions of the model and show that the stationary infinite horizon version of the model possesses an equilibrium where all the sellers receive an equilibrium payoff equal to their marginal contribution to the social welfare.


Market Bubbles And Wasteful Avoidance: Tax And Regulatory Constraints On Short Sales, Michael R. Powers, David M. Schizer, Martin Shubik Apr 2003

Market Bubbles And Wasteful Avoidance: Tax And Regulatory Constraints On Short Sales, Michael R. Powers, David M. Schizer, Martin Shubik

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Although short sales make an important contribution to financial markets, this transaction faces legal constraints that do not govern long positions. In evaluating these constraints, other commentators, who are virtually all economists, have not focused rigorously enough on the precise contours of current law. Some short sale constraints are mischaracterized, while others are omitted entirely. Likewise, the existing literature neglects many strategies in which well advised investors circumvent these constraints; this avoidance may reduce the impact of short sale constraints on market prices, but may contribute to social waste in other ways. To fill these gaps in the literature, this …


On Local And Network Games, Thomas Quint, Martin Shubik Apr 2003

On Local And Network Games, Thomas Quint, Martin Shubik

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The knowledge constraints and transactions costs imposed by geographical distance, network connections and time conspire to justify local behavior as a good approximation for global rationality. We consider a class of games to illustrate this relationship and raise some questions as to what constitutes a satisfactory solution concept.


Communication And Monetary Policy, Jeffrey Amato, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin Mar 2003

Communication And Monetary Policy, Jeffrey Amato, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

One role of monetary policy is to coordinate expectations in the economy and greater transparency of monetary policy may lead to greater coordination. But if transparent monetary policy helps coordinate expectations, then it must also magnify mistakes.


Beauty Contests, Bubbles And Iterated Expectations In Asset Markets, Franklin Allen, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin Mar 2003

Beauty Contests, Bubbles And Iterated Expectations In Asset Markets, Franklin Allen, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In a financial market where traders are risk averse and short lived, and prices are noisy, asset prices today depend on the average expectation today of tomorrow’s price. Thus (iterating this relationship) the date 1 price equals the date 1 average expectation of the date 2 average expectation of the date 3 price. This will not in general equal the date 1 average expectation of the date 3 price. We show how this failure of the law of iterated expectations for average belief can help understand the role of higher order beliefs in a fully rational asset pricing model and …


Eclectic Distributional Ethics, John E. Roemer Mar 2003

Eclectic Distributional Ethics, John E. Roemer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Utilitarians, egalitarians, prioritarians, and sufficientarians each provide examples of situations demonstrating, often compellingly, that a sensible ethical observer must adopt their view and reject the others. We argue, to the contrary, that an attractive ethic is eclectic, in the sense of coinciding with these apparently different views in different regions of the space of social states.


Information Acquisition In Committees, Dino Gerardi, Leeat Yariv Mar 2003

Information Acquisition In Committees, Dino Gerardi, Leeat Yariv

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The goal of this paper is to illustrate the significance of information acquisition in mechanism design. We provide a stark example of a mechanism design problem in a collective choice environment with information acquisition. We concentrate on committees that are comprised of agents sharing a common goal and having a joint task. Members of the committee decide whether to acquire costly information or not at the outset and are then asked to report their private information. The designer can choose the size of the committee, as well as the procedure by which it selects the collective choice, i.e., the correspondence …


Consistent Hac Estimation And Robust Regression Testing Using Sharp Origin Kernels With No Truncation, Peter C.B. Phillips, Yixiao Sun, Sainan Jin Mar 2003

Consistent Hac Estimation And Robust Regression Testing Using Sharp Origin Kernels With No Truncation, Peter C.B. Phillips, Yixiao Sun, Sainan Jin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A new family of kernels is suggested for use in heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (HAC) and long run variance (LRV) estimation and robust regression testing. The kernels are constructed by taking powers of the Bartlett kernel and are intended to be used with no truncation (or bandwidth) parameter. As the power parameter (ρ) increases, the kernels become very sharp at the origin and increasingly downweight values away from the origin, thereby achieving effects similar to a bandwidth parameter. Sharp origin kernels can be used in regression testing in much the same way as conventional kernels with no truncation, as suggested …


Political Equilibrium With Private Or/And Public Campaign Finance: A Comparison Of Institutions, John E. Roemer Mar 2003

Political Equilibrium With Private Or/And Public Campaign Finance: A Comparison Of Institutions, John E. Roemer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We propose a theory of party competition (two parties, single-issue) where citizens acquire party membership by contributing money to a party, and where a member’s influence on the policy taken by her party is proportional to her campaign contribution. The polity consists of informed and uninformed voters: only informed voters join parties, and the party campaign chest, the sum of its received contributions, is used to advertise and reach uninformed voters. Parties compete with each other strategically with respect to policy choice and advertising. We propose a definition of political equilibrium, in which party membership, citizen contributions, and parties’ policies …


Indeterminacy Of Citizen-Candidate Equilibrium, John E. Roemer Mar 2003

Indeterminacy Of Citizen-Candidate Equilibrium, John E. Roemer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In a citizen candidate equilibrium, there are n candidates each of whom announces a policy in a policy space of dimension d. Thus the policy equilibrium lives in a space of dimension nd . We show, in a canonical example, that the equilibrium manifold is generically of dimension nd . In particular, the set of equilibria contains an open set in T n .


Committee Design In The Presence Of Communication, Dino Gerardi, Leeat Yariv Mar 2003

Committee Design In The Presence Of Communication, Dino Gerardi, Leeat Yariv

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The goal of this paper is to introduce communication in a collective choice environment with information acquisition. We concentrate on decision panels that are comprised of agents sharing a common goal and having a joint task. Members of the panel decide whether to acquire costly information or not, preceding the communication stage. We take a mechanism design approach and consider a designer who can choose the size of the decision panel, the procedure by which it selects the collective choice, and the communication protocol by which its members abide prior to casting their individual action choices. We characterize the solution …


End-Of-Sample Cointegration Breakdown Tests, Donald W.K. Andrews, Jae-Young Kim Mar 2003

End-Of-Sample Cointegration Breakdown Tests, Donald W.K. Andrews, Jae-Young Kim

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper introduces tests for cointegration breakdown that may occur over a relatively short time period, such as at the end of the sample. The breakdown may be due to a shift in the cointegrating vector or due to a shift in the errors from being I (0) to being I (1). Tests are introduced based on the post-breakdown sum of squared residuals and the post-breakdown sum of squared reverse partial sums of residuals. Critical values are provided using a parametric subsampling method. The regressors in the model are taken to be arbitrary linear combinations of deterministic, stationary, and integrated …


The Strong Law Of Demand, Donald J. Brown, Caterina Calsamiglia Feb 2003

The Strong Law Of Demand, Donald J. Brown, Caterina Calsamiglia

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We show that a demand function is derived from maximizing a quasilinear utility function subject to a budget constraint if and only if the demand function is cyclically monotone. On finite data sets consisting of pairs of market prices and consumption vectors, this result is equivalent to a solution of the Afriat inequalities where all the marginal utilities of income are equal. We explore the implications of these results for maximization of a random quasilinear utility function subject to a budget constraint and for representative agent general equilibrium models. The duality theory for cyclically monotone demand is developed using the …


Laws And Limits Of Econometrics, Peter C.B. Phillips Feb 2003

Laws And Limits Of Econometrics, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We start by discussing some general weaknesses and limitations of the econometric approach. A template from sociology is used to formulate six laws that characterize mainstream activities of econometrics and the scientific limits of those activities., we discuss some proximity theorems that quantify by means of explicit bounds how close we can get to the generating mechanism of the data and the optimal forecasts of next period observations using a finite number of observations. The magnitude of the bound depends on the characteristics of the model and the trajectory of the observed data. The results show that trends are more …


Catalytic Finance: When Does It Work?, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin Feb 2003

Catalytic Finance: When Does It Work?, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In a simple model of currency crises caused by creditor coordination failure, we show that bailouts that reduce ex post inefficiency will sometimes create ex ante moral hazard but will sometimes enhance the incentives for governments to take preventative actions. This model helps us understand a debate about the role of the IMF in catalyzing lending to developing countries.


Heterogeneity And Uniqueness In Interaction Games, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin Feb 2003

Heterogeneity And Uniqueness In Interaction Games, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Incomplete information games, local interaction games and random matching games are all special cases of a general class of interaction games (Morris (1997)). In this paper, we use this equivalence to present a unified treatment of arguments generating uniqueness in games with strategic complementarities by introducing heterogeneity in these different settings. We also report on the relation between local and global heterogeneity, on the role of strategic multipliers and on purification in the three types of interaction game.


Bonds Or Loans? The Effect Of Macroeconomic Fundamentals, Galina Hale Feb 2003

Bonds Or Loans? The Effect Of Macroeconomic Fundamentals, Galina Hale

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The costs of debt crises are not invariant to the foreign debt instrument composition: bank loans or bonds. The lending boom of the 1990s witnessed considerable variation over time and across countries in the debt instrument used by emerging market (EM) borrowers. This paper tests how macroeconomic fundamentals affect the composition of international debt instruments used by EM borrowers. Analysis of micro-level data using ordered probability model shows that macroeconomic fundamentals explain a significant share of variation in the ratio of bonds to loans for private borrowers, but not for the sovereigns.


The Elusive Empirical Shadow Of Growth Convergence, Peter C.B. Phillips, Donggyu Sul Feb 2003

The Elusive Empirical Shadow Of Growth Convergence, Peter C.B. Phillips, Donggyu Sul

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Two groups of applied econometricians have figured prominently in empirical studies of growth convergence. In terms of a popular caricature, one group believes it has found a black hat of convergence (evidence for growth convergence) in the dark room of economic growth, even though the hat may not exist (the task may be futile). A second group believes it has found a black coat of divergence (evidence against growth convergence) even though this object also may not exist (empirical reality, including the nature of growth divergence, is ever more complex than the models used to characterize it). The present paper …


Coordination, Communication And Common Knowledge: A Retrospective On The Electronic Mail Game, Stephen Morris Feb 2003

Coordination, Communication And Common Knowledge: A Retrospective On The Electronic Mail Game, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Common knowledge plays an important role in coordination problems and coordination problems are central to many areas of economic policy. In this paper, I review some common knowledge puzzles culminating in the electronic mail game. These puzzles may seem distant from practical concerns. However, I then argue why insights derived from this literature are useful in interpreting empirical evidence of how people coordinate under uncertainty and in understanding the role of communication in coordinating behaviour.


Rationalizing And Curve-Fitting Demand Data With Quasilinear Utilities, Donald J. Brown, Caterina Calsamiglia Feb 2003

Rationalizing And Curve-Fitting Demand Data With Quasilinear Utilities, Donald J. Brown, Caterina Calsamiglia

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In the empirical and theoretical literature a consumer’s utility function is often assumed to be quasilinear. In this paper we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for testing if the consumer acts as if she is maximizing a quasilinear utility function over her budget set. If the consumer’s choices are inconsistent with maximizing a quasilinear utility function over her budget set, then we compute the “best” quasilinear rationalization of her choices.


Generalized Potentials And Robust Sets Of Equilibria, Stephen Morris, Takashi Ui Jan 2003

Generalized Potentials And Robust Sets Of Equilibria, Stephen Morris, Takashi Ui

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper introduces generalized potential functions of complete information games and studies the robustness of sets of equilibria to incomplete information. A set of equilibria of a complete information game is robust if every incomplete information game where payoffs are almost always given by the complete information game has an equilibrium which generates behavior close to some equilibrium in the set. This paper provides sufficient conditions for the robustness of sets of equilibria in terms of argmax sets of generalized potential functions and shows that the sufficient conditions generalize the existing sufficient conditions for the robustness of equilibria.


Tests Of Independence In Separable Econometric Models, Donald J. Brown, Marten H. Wegkamp Jan 2003

Tests Of Independence In Separable Econometric Models, Donald J. Brown, Marten H. Wegkamp

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A common stochastic restriction in econometric models separable in the latent variablesis the assumption of stochastic independence between the unobserved and observed exogenous variables. Both simple and composite tests of this assumption are derived from properties of independence empirical processes and the consistency of these tests is established


Who Refers To Whom: A Study Of Research References And The Relationship Between Research Reports And Final Publication, Samuel Mccarthy, Martin Shubik, Jianfeng Yu Jan 2003

Who Refers To Whom: A Study Of Research References And The Relationship Between Research Reports And Final Publication, Samuel Mccarthy, Martin Shubik, Jianfeng Yu

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The size and style of referencing for a large sample of 60 years of publications of the Cowles Foundation are examined. The influence of computerization is considered. Self-referencing is noted and some observations are made on the costs and distribution of research papers.


Tests Of Independence In Separable Econometric Models: Theory And Application, Donald J. Brown, Rahul Deb, Marten H. Wegkamp Jan 2003

Tests Of Independence In Separable Econometric Models: Theory And Application, Donald J. Brown, Rahul Deb, Marten H. Wegkamp

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A common stochastic restriction in econometric models separable in the latent variables is the assumption of stochastic independence between the unobserved and observed exogenous variables. Both simple and composite tests of this assumption are derived from properties of independence empirical processes and the consistency of these tests is established. As an application, we simulate estimation of a random quasilinear utility function, where we apply our tests of independence.


Gmm Estimation Of Autoregressive Roots Near Unity With Panel Data, Hyungsik Roger Moon, Peter C.B. Phillips Jan 2003

Gmm Estimation Of Autoregressive Roots Near Unity With Panel Data, Hyungsik Roger Moon, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper investigates a generalized method of moments (GMM) approach to the estimation of autoregressive roots near unity with panel data and incidental deterministic trends. Such models arise in empirical econometric studies of firm size and in dynamic panel data modeling with weak instruments. The two moment conditions in the GMM approach are obtained by constructing bias corrections to the score functions under OLS and GLS detrending, respectively. It is shown that the moment condition under GLS detrending corresponds to taking the projected score on the Bhattacharya basis, linking the approach to recent work on projected score methods for models …


Jackknifing Bond Option Prices, Peter C.B. Phillips, Jun Yu Jan 2003

Jackknifing Bond Option Prices, Peter C.B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In continuous time specifications, the prices of interest rate derivative securities depend crucially on the mean reversion parameter of the associated interest rate diffusion equation. This parameter is well known to be subject to estimation bias when standard methods like maximum likelihood (ML) are used. The estimation bias can be substantial even in very large samples and it translates into a bias in pricing bond options and other derivative securities that is important in practical work. The present paper proposes a very general method of bias reduction for pricing bond options that is based on Quenouille’s (1956) jackknife. We show …


Vision And Influence In Econometrics: John Denis Sargan, Peter C.B. Phillips Jan 2003

Vision And Influence In Econometrics: John Denis Sargan, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Denis Sargan’s intellectual influence in econometrics is discussed and some of his visions for the future of econometrics are considered in this memorial article. One of Sargan’s favorite topics in econometric theory was finite sample theory, including both exact theory and various types of asymptotic expansions. We provide some summary discussion of asymptotic expansions of the type that Sargan developed in this field and give explicit representations of Sargan’s formula for the Edgeworth expansion in the case of an econometric estimator that can be written as a smooth function of sample moments whose distributions themselves have Edgeworth expansions.


Fractional Brownian Motion As A Differentiable Generalized Gaussian Process, Victoria Zinde-Walsh, Peter C.B. Phillips Jan 2003

Fractional Brownian Motion As A Differentiable Generalized Gaussian Process, Victoria Zinde-Walsh, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Brownian motion can be characterized as a generalized random process and, as such, has a generalized derivative whose covariance functional is the delta function. In a similar fashion, fractional Brownian motion can be interpreted as a generalized random process and shown to possess a generalized derivative. The resulting process is a generalized Gaussian process with mean functional zero and covariance functional that can be interpreted as a fractional integral or fractional derivative of the delta-function.


Tests Of Independence In Separable Econometric Models: Theory And Application, Donald J. Brown, Rahul Deb, Marten H. Wegkamp Jan 2003

Tests Of Independence In Separable Econometric Models: Theory And Application, Donald J. Brown, Rahul Deb, Marten H. Wegkamp

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A common stochastic restriction in econometric models separable in the latent variables is the assumption of stochastic independence between the unobserved and observed exogenous variables. Both simple and composite tests of this assumption are derived from properties of independence empirical processes and the consistency of these tests is established. As an application, we simulate estimation of a random quasilinear utility function, where we apply our tests of independence.


Monetary Equilibrium With Missing Markets, Pradeep Dubey, John Geanakoplos Dec 2002

Monetary Equilibrium With Missing Markets, Pradeep Dubey, John Geanakoplos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider a two-period model with missing assets and missing market links, in which money plays a central role and is linked to every instrument in the economy. If there are enough missing market links relative to the ratio of outside to inside money, then monetary equilibrium (ME) exists and money has positive value. The nonexistence of GEI (of the underlying economy) shows up as a liquidity trap in terms of the ME. In sharp contrast to GEI, the ME are generally determinate not only in terms of real, but also financial, variables.