Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Financial frictions (3)
- Asymmetric information (2)
- Economic development (2)
- Excess sensitivity (2)
- Gravity (2)
-
- History (2)
- Mutual funds (2)
- Poverty (2)
- Rational expectations (2)
- Realized volatility (2)
- Small-area estimation (2)
- Static expectations (2)
- AIC (1)
- Adaptive estimation (1)
- Additive nonparametric regression; Instrumental variables; Local polynomial regression; Structural models (1)
- Advertising (1)
- Aggregation (1)
- Agrarian capitalism (1)
- Agribusiness (1)
- Agriculture and state (1)
- Amplification (1)
- Asia (1)
- Asset price overshooting (1)
- Asymmetric stable Paretian distribution (1)
- Asymmetric timeliness (1)
- Asymptotic expansion (1)
- Autoregression (1)
- Bandwidth choice (1)
- Bargaining (1)
- Bias reduction (1)
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 70
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Dealing With 'Messy Policy Problems' In The Health Care Sector, Knowledge@Smu
Dealing With 'Messy Policy Problems' In The Health Care Sector, Knowledge@Smu
Knowledge@SMU
In his new book, Dealing with Messy Policy Problems, to be published in April 2009, political science professor Steven Ney of the Singapore Management University offers insights on how to make sense of complex, messy and often overlapping policy problems. Ney contends that having conflicts is a necessary part of the process of finding solutions to complex policy issues. He spoke to Knowledge@SMU on policy issues relating to the crisis in global health care. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum Likelihood And Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models In Finance, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu
Maximum Likelihood And Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models In Finance, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper overviews maximum likelihood and Gaussian methods of estimating continuous time models used in finance. Since the exact likelihood can be constructed only in special cases, much attention has been devoted to the development of methods designed to approximate the likelihood. These approaches range from crude Euler-type approximations and higher order stochastic Taylor series expansions to more complex polynomial-based expansions and infill approximations to the likelihood based on a continuous time data record. The methods are discussed, their properties are outlined and their relative finite sample performance compared in a simulation experiment with the nonlinear CIR diffusion model, which …
Global Analysis Of An Expectations Augmented Evolutionary Dynamics, Angelo Antoci, Antonio Gay, Massimiliano Landi, Pier Luigi Sacco
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 strategy population game, and relate our findings to standard evolutionary dynamics and equilibrium selection when agents have rational forward looking expectations.
Future Fiscal And Budgetary Shocks, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps
Future Fiscal And Budgetary Shocks, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps
Research Collection School Of Economics
We study the effects of future tax and budgetary shocks in a non-monetary and possibly non-Ricardian economy. An (unanticipated) temporary labor tax cut to be effective on a given future date—a delayed “debt bomb”—causes at once a drop in the (unit) value placed on the firms' business asset, the customer, with the result that share prices, the hourly wage, and employment drop in tandem. This paradox of reduced activity through announcement of future “stimulus” does not hinge on an upward jump of long interest rates. A future tax-rate cut lacking a “sunset” provision has the same negative effects.
Directed Altruism And Enforced Reciprocity In Social Networks, Stephen Leider, Markus M. Mobius, Tanya S. Rosenblat, Quoc-Anh Do
Directed Altruism And Enforced Reciprocity In Social Networks, Stephen Leider, Markus M. Mobius, Tanya S. Rosenblat, Quoc-Anh Do
Research Collection School Of Economics
We conducted online field experiments in large real-world social networks in order to decompose prosocial giving into three components: (1) baseline altruism toward randomly selected strangers, (2) directed altruism that favors friends over random strangers, and (3) giving motivated by the prospect of future interaction. Directed altruism increases giving to friends by 52% relative to random strangers, whereas future interaction effects increase giving by an additional 24% when giving is socially efficient. This finding suggests that future interaction affects giving through a repeated game mechanism where agents can be rewarded for granting efficiency-enhancing favors. We also find that subjects with …
Growth Is Good For Whom, When, How? Economic Growth And Poverty Reduction In Exceptional Cases, John A. Donaldson
Growth Is Good For Whom, When, How? Economic Growth And Poverty Reduction In Exceptional Cases, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Economic growth and liberal economic policies often help the poor, but what about the numerous cases in which they do not? This article analyzes two types of cases: those in which income growth of the poor was significantly lower than expectations (negative exceptions) and those in which income growth of the poor significantly exceeded expectations (positive exceptions). Insights from these cases inform our theoretical understanding of poverty reduction. In addition, this article contributes a typology of strategies used in these cases, including alternative pathways to economic growth and neoliberal prescriptions for poverty reduction.
Testing For Parameter Stability In Quantile Regression Models, Liangjun Su, Zhijie Xiao
Testing For Parameter Stability In Quantile Regression Models, Liangjun Su, Zhijie Xiao
Research Collection School Of Economics
We propose a test for structural change of conditional distribution in dynamic regression models. The test is constructed based on time series regression quantile estimates and complements conventional parameter instability tests in least-square type regression models. Asymptotic distribution for our test under the null hypothesis is derived.
Can A Representative Agent Model Represent A Heterogeneous Agent Economy?, Sungbae An, Yongsung Chang, Sun-Bin Kim
Can A Representative Agent Model Represent A Heterogeneous Agent Economy?, Sungbae An, Yongsung Chang, Sun-Bin Kim
Research Collection School Of Economics
Accounting for observed fluctuations in aggregate employment, consumption, and real wage using the optimality conditions of a representative household requires preferences that are incompatible with economic priors. In order to reconcile theory with data, we construct a model with heterogeneous agents whose decisions are difficult to aggregate because of incomplete capital markets and the indivisible nature of labor supply. If we were to explain the model-generated aggregate time series using decisions of a stand-in household, such a household must have a nonconcave or unstable utility as is often found with the aggregate US data.
Impacts Of Information And Communication Technologies On Country Development: Accounting For Area Interrelationships, Robert J. Kauffman, Ajay Kumar
Impacts Of Information And Communication Technologies On Country Development: Accounting For Area Interrelationships, Robert J. Kauffman, Ajay Kumar
Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems
Single-item composite indices gauge ICT readiness at the country level but do not represent the direct impact of ICTs on a country's development. This paper describes a new approach to measuring the macrolevel impacts of ICTs across a range of development areas. The indirect effects of one area on others is taken into consideration by a simultaneous equation model that permits the inclusion of multiple development areas. The model is applied to data pertaining to four development areas in 64 countries: trade flows, agricultural productivity, R&D, and quality of life. ICT readiness is found to have a positive association with …
Schooling And Political Participation Revisited, Davin Chor, Filipe R. Campante
Schooling And Political Participation Revisited, Davin Chor, Filipe R. Campante
Research Collection School Of Economics
We investigate how the link between individual schooling and political participation is a ected by country characteristics which determine the relative productivity of human capital in political versus production activities. In our model, individuals face an e ort-allocation decision over the use of their human capital. Focusing on the role played by country factor endowments, we show that the abundance of a factor that is used in the least (respectively most) human capital-intensive sector will increase (respectively decrease) both: (i) the level of individual political participation; and (ii) the responsiveness of individual political participation to increases in human capital. We …
Endogenous Transaction Cost, Specialization, And Strategic Alliance, Juyuan Zhang, Yi Zhang
Endogenous Transaction Cost, Specialization, And Strategic Alliance, Juyuan Zhang, Yi Zhang
Research Collection School Of Economics
In property rights theory, firm is an organizational response to reduce transaction cost associated with hold-up of using market mechanism. We claim that strategic alliance { without changing firm boundaries or asset ownership { is another type of organizational response. We construct a model to investigate individual firms' strategic choice on specialization or diversification when producing intermediate products and their further choice of organizational form: autarchy or forming strategic alliance. We introduce fixed learning costs as an indicator of scales of economy and show that only if fixed learning costs are large enough, will firms have incentive to be specialization …
Unpacking Sources Of Comparative Advantage: A Quantitative Approach, Davin Chor
Unpacking Sources Of Comparative Advantage: A Quantitative Approach, Davin Chor
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper develops an approach for quantifying the relative importance of different sources of comparative advantage for country welfare in a global trade equilibrium. To explain the pattern of specialization, I present a multi-country, perfectly-competitive Ricardian model that extends Eaton and Kortum (2002) to predict industry trade flows. In this framework, comparative advantage is determined by the interaction of country and industry characteristics, with countries specializing in industries whose specific production needs they are best able to meet with their factor endowments, institutional environment, and technological strengths. I estimate the model parameters using a large dataset of bilateral trade flows, …
Utility Functions, Future Consumption Targets And Subsistence Thresholds, Ashok Guha, Brishti Guha
Utility Functions, Future Consumption Targets And Subsistence Thresholds, Ashok Guha, Brishti Guha
Research Collection School Of Economics
If the consumer’s risk aversion behavior varies intertemporally and if the risk aversion coefficient on future consumption becomes very large, the consumer tends to aim at a fixed future consumption target. A by-product is a reinterpretation of subsistence theories of consumption.
The More Kids, The Less Mom's Divvy: Impact Of Childbirth On Intrahousehold Resource Allocation, Tomoki Fujii, Ryuichiro Ishikawa
The More Kids, The Less Mom's Divvy: Impact Of Childbirth On Intrahousehold Resource Allocation, Tomoki Fujii, Ryuichiro Ishikawa
Research Collection School Of Economics
We investigate how the impact of childbirth on intrahousehold allocation for married Japanese couples. We developed reduced‐form and structural‐form specifications from a unified theoretical framework. Under a weak set of assumptions, we can focus on private goods to track the changes in intrahousehold resource allocation. Our estimation results show that that allocation of resources within household tend to move to the disadvantage of women after a childbirth. One additional child is associated with a reduction in the wife's private expenditure share. Our estimation results reject the income-pooling hypothesis, and show that women are more risk averse than men.
The Labor Market Of Italian Politicians, Antonio Merlo, Vincenzo Galasso, Massimiliano Landi, Andrea Mattozzi
The Labor Market Of Italian Politicians, Antonio Merlo, Vincenzo Galasso, Massimiliano Landi, Andrea Mattozzi
Research Collection School Of Economics
We analyze the career profiles of Italian legislators in the post-war period. Using a unique, newly collected dataset that contains detailed information on all the politicians who have been elected to the Italian Parliament between 1948 and 2008, we address a number of important issues that pertain to their career paths prior to election to Parliament, their parliamentary careers, and their post-Parliament employment. Our data span two institutional regimes: Italy's First Republic (1948-1994) and the Second Republic (1994-present), characterized by different electoral rules and party structures. We first present a brief overview of the Italian political system. We then provide …
How Well Can We Target Aid With Rapidly Collected Data? Empirical Results For Poverty Mapping From Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii
How Well Can We Target Aid With Rapidly Collected Data? Empirical Results For Poverty Mapping From Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii
Research Collection School Of Economics
We compare commune-level poverty rankings in Cambodia based on three different methods: small-area estimation, principal component analysis using aggregate data, and interviews with local leaders. While they provide reasonably consistent rankings, the choice of the ranking method matters. In order to assess the potential losses from moving away from census-based poverty mapping, we used the concentration curve. Our calculation shows that about three-quarters of the potential gains from geographic targeting may be lost by using aggregate data. The usefulness of aggregate data in general would depend on the cost of data collection.
Improving Semiparametric Estimation By Using Surrogate Data, Song Xi Chen, Leung, Denis H. Y., Jin Qin
Improving Semiparametric Estimation By Using Surrogate Data, Song Xi Chen, Leung, Denis H. Y., Jin Qin
Research Collection School Of Economics
The paper considers estimating a parameter beta that defines an estimating function U(y, x, beta) for an outcome variable y and its covariate x when the outcome is missing in some of the observations. We assume that, in addition to the outcome and the covariate, a surrogate outcome is available in every observation. The efficiency of existing estimators for beta depends critically on correctly specifying the conditional expectation of U given the surrogate and the covariate. When the conditional expectation is not correctly specified, which is the most likely scenario in practice, the efficiency of estimation can be severely compromised …
Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon
Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper studies the effects of financial market imperfections on a firm’s operating and exporting decisions. I introduce financial frictions into a trade model with heterogeneous firms along the line of Melitz (2003). With the presence of financial constraints, even among a group of firms with the same productivity level, firms that are more financially constrained operate on a less efficient scale, and as a result, may no longer find operating and/or exporting profitable. In addition, financial frictions may create a distortion compared to the Melitz (2003) world since operation and export participation may be undertaken by those with better …
Regression Asymptotics Using Martingale Convergence Methods, Rustam Ibragimov, Peter C. B. Phillips
Regression Asymptotics Using Martingale Convergence Methods, Rustam Ibragimov, Peter C. B. Phillips
Research Collection School Of Economics
Weak convergence of partial sums and multilinear forms in independent random variables and linear processes and their nonlinear analogues to stochastic integrals now plays a major role in nonstationary time series and has been central to the development of unit root econometrics. The present paper develops a new and conceptually simple method for obtaining such forms of convergence. The method relies on the fact that the econometric quantities of interest involve discrete time martingales or semimartingales and shows how in the limit these quantities become continuous martingales and semimartingales. The limit theory itself uses very general convergence results for semimartingales …
A Welfare Analysis Of Capital Account Liberalization, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang
A Welfare Analysis Of Capital Account Liberalization, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang
Research Collection School Of Economics
We develop a model of a small open economy with credit market frictions to analyze the consequences of capital account liberalization. We show that financial opening facilitates the inflows of cheap foreign funds and improves production efficiency. Reforms increasing labor market exibility can further improve such efficiency gains. However, capital account liberalization also has important distributional consequences. Specifically, it may be impossible to use public transfers to fully compensate the loss of those negatively affected by capital account liberalization. This explains why financial opening often meets fierce opposition even though it leads to efficiency gains for the economy as a …
On The Evaluation Of The Joint Distribution Of Order Statistics, Koon Shing Kwong, Yiu Man Chan
On The Evaluation Of The Joint Distribution Of Order Statistics, Koon Shing Kwong, Yiu Man Chan
Research Collection School Of Economics
Dunnett and Tamhane [Dunnett, C.W., Tamhane, A.C., 1992. A step-up multiple test procedure. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 87, 162-170.] proposed a step-up procedure for comparing k treatments with a control and showed that the step-up procedure is more powerful than its counterpart single step and step-down procedures. Since then, several modified step-up procedures have been suggested to deal with different testing environments. In order to establish those step-up procedures, it is necessary to derive approaches for evaluating the joint distribution of the order statistics. In some cases, experimenters may have difficulty in applying those step-up procedures in multiple hypothesis testing …
A Nonparametric Hellinger Metric Test For Conditional Independence, Liangjun Su, Halbert White
A Nonparametric Hellinger Metric Test For Conditional Independence, Liangjun Su, Halbert White
Research Collection School Of Economics
We propose a nonparametric test of conditional independence based on the weighted Hellinger distance between the two conditional densities, f(y|x,z) and f(y|x), which is identically zero under the null. We use the functional delta method to expand the test statistic around the population value and establish asymptotic normality under β-mixing conditions. We show that the test is consistent and has power against alternatives at distance n−1/2h−d/4. The cases for which not all random variables of interest are continuously valued or observable are also discussed. Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that the test behaves reasonably well in …
Limit Theory For Explosively Cointegrated Systems, Peter C. B. Phillips, Tassos Magdalinos
Limit Theory For Explosively Cointegrated Systems, Peter C. B. Phillips, Tassos Magdalinos
Research Collection School Of Economics
A limit theory is developed for multivariate regression in an explosive cointegrated system. The asymptotic behavior of the least squares estimator of the cointegrating coefficients is found to depend upon the precise relationship between the explosive regressors. When the eigenvalues of the autoregressive matrix Θ are distinct, the centered least squares estimator has an exponential Θn rate of convergence and a mixed normal limit distribution. No central limit theory is applicable here, and Gaussian innovations are assumed. On the other hand, when some regressors exhibit common explosive behavior, a different mixed normal limiting distribution is derived with rate of convergence …
Discussion Of Do The Biggest Aisles Serve Brighter Future? Implications Of Global Retail Chains' Presence For Romania, Davin Chor, Beata Javor, Li Xue
Discussion Of Do The Biggest Aisles Serve Brighter Future? Implications Of Global Retail Chains' Presence For Romania, Davin Chor, Beata Javor, Li Xue
Research Collection School Of Economics
No abstract provided.
Numerical Analysis Of Non-Constant Pure Rate Of Time Preference: A Model Of Climate Policy, Tomoki Fujii, Larry Karp
Numerical Analysis Of Non-Constant Pure Rate Of Time Preference: A Model Of Climate Policy, Tomoki Fujii, Larry Karp
Research Collection School Of Economics
When current decisions affect welfare in the far-distant future, as with climate change, the use of a declining pure rate of time preference (PRTP) provides potentially important modeling flexibility. The difficulty of analyzing models with non-constant PRTP limits their application. We describe and provide software (available online) to implement an algorithm to numerically obtain a Markov perfect equilibrium for an optimal control problem with non-constant PRTP. We apply this software to a simplified version of the numerical climate change model used in the Stern Review. For our calibration, the policy recommendations are less sensitive to the PRTP than widely believed. …
Earnings Asymmetric Timeliness And Shareholder Distributions, Richard M. Frankel, Yan Sun, Rong Wang
Earnings Asymmetric Timeliness And Shareholder Distributions, Richard M. Frankel, Yan Sun, Rong Wang
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
We study whether more asymmetrically timely earnings constrain payouts to shareholders in the presence of bad news. Our goal is to provide evidence on the ex post contracting benefits of accounting conservatism. We distinguish between cash flow asymmetric timeliness and accrual asymmetric timeliness to examine how each relates to asymmetric sensitivity of shareholder payouts. We find that only the asymmetric timeliness of cash flows is significantly related to the asymmetric sensitivity of shareholder payouts. Other measures of conservatism (earnings skewness and accumulated nonoperating accruals) are also not significantly related to the sensitivity of shareholder payouts given bad news. These results …
A Semiparametric Stochastic Volatility Model, Jun Yu
A Semiparametric Stochastic Volatility Model, Jun Yu
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper examines how volatility responds to return news in the context of stochastic volatility (SV) using a nonparametric method. The correlation structure in the classical leverage SV model is generalized based on a linear spline. In the new model the correlation between the return innovation and volatility innovation is dependent on the type of news arrived to the market. Theoretical properties of the proposed model are examined. A simulation-based maximum likelihood method is developed to estimate the new model. Simulations show that the estimation method provides reliable parameter estimates. The new model is fitted to daily and weekly data …
The Rise Of Agrarian Capitalism With Chinese Characteristics: Agricultural Modernization, Agribusiness And Collective Land Rights, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson
The Rise Of Agrarian Capitalism With Chinese Characteristics: Agricultural Modernization, Agribusiness And Collective Land Rights, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The article discusses the agricultural transformation taking place in the rural areas of China. Details about the Chinese laws regarding rural reform and the effect they have had on rural Chinese farmers and families are included. The authors examine the expansion of agrarian capitalism in China and describe the rise of agribusiness in rural Chinese areas. The practices of Chinese agribusinesses and the Chinese land rights laws are explored. The relationships between individual farmers and agribusinesses is also examined.
Nonparametric Prewhitening Estimators For Conditional Quantiles, Liangjun Su, Aman Ullah
Nonparametric Prewhitening Estimators For Conditional Quantiles, Liangjun Su, Aman Ullah
Research Collection School Of Economics
We define a nonparametric prewhitening method for estimating conditional quantiles based on local linear quantile regression. We characterize the bias, variance and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator. Under weak conditions our estimator can achieve bias reduction and have the same variance as the local linear quantile estimators. A small set of Monte Carlo simulations is carried out to illustrate the performance of our estimators. An application to US gross domestic product data demonstrates the usefulness of our methodology.
Singapore Company Promises Dialysis Treatment Breakthrough, Knowledge@Smu
Singapore Company Promises Dialysis Treatment Breakthrough, Knowledge@Smu
Knowledge@SMU
If all goes well, two years from now kidney patients will get a new lease of life when a portable, artificial kidney is launched by a Singapore-based company. AWAK Technologies was formed in 2007 to commercialise a technology that allows people suffering from kidney failure to lead a life that is close to normal. AWAK CEO Neo Kok Beng spoke recently on “Disrupting the Kidney Dialysis Market: Revolutionary Technologies & Business Models” at a CEO Talks forum organised by the Wee Kim Wee Centre, Singapore Management University.