Economics Commons^™

Exchange Rates And Casualties During The First World War, George J. Hall

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

I estimate a single factor model of Swiss exchange rates during World War I for five of the primary belligerents: Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. At the outbreak of the war these nations suspended convertibility of their currencies into gold with the promise that after the war each would restore convertibility at the old par. However, once convertibility was suspended, each currency became a state-contingent claim; after the war it would pay off at (or near) the old par if the country won or pay off significantly less than par (perhaps nothing) if the country lost. The single factor …

Educational Trends And Income In El Paso: A Longitudinal Perspective, Christine Thurlow Brenner

IPED Technical Reports

Education is clearly linked to income as numerous studies have shown. In El Paso, this link underscores what can only be called a crisis. As the region’s education level has declined over the past few decades, income has followed in a parallel fashion. This study strongly points out this linkage over the past 50 years, suggesting that a number of issues related to the education pipeline need to be addressed broadly across the community.

The Returns To Education And Basic Skills Training For Individuals With Poor Health Or Disability, Kevin Hollenbeck, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines linkages between disability and health status and the returns to education and basic skills training. It bases analyses on two separate data sources: wave 3 from the 1993 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). The data sets have been used to estimate standard wage equations with education and basic skills training among the independent variables. The NALS data set allows us to control for prose, quantitative, and document literacy. The wage equations rely on Heckit corrections for labor force participation, and we stratify by sex. …

The Economic Cost Of Depressive Disorders: Evidence From A Large Midwest Public University, Alketa Hysenbegasi

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to estimate the total cost of depression and the benefits of its treatment per diagnosed depressed student in Western Michigan University. To accomplish this, first, I measure the overall impact of depression and the effectiveness of its treatment on the student school performance. The empirical evidence show that diagnosed depression decreases student GPA by 0.48 points (almost a half grade), but this impairment is reduced by treatment about 0.43 points. Further, I develop and validate different measurements of student school performance and I observe that the negative effect of diagnosed depression and the positive effect of treatment …

The Benefits Implications Of Recent Trends In Flexible Staff Arrangements, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Workers in flexible staffing arrangements - including temporary agency, direct-hire temporary, on-call, and contract workers - are much less likely than regular, direct-hire employees to be covered by laws mandating or regulating workplace benefits. Workers in such arrangements, in turn, are much less likely to receive pension, health insurance, and other benefits on the job. This paper documents these differences in coverage by benefits regulations and differences in benefits receipt. The paper also reviews evidence on the incentives employers have to use workers in these various flexible staffing arrangements. Although reducing benefits costs is not the only reason employers use …

Black-White Segregation, Discrimination, And Home Ownership, Kelly Derango

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The effect of discrimination on black-white racial segregation is studied using a confidential supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Audit studies reveal that the rate of discrimination in rental housing is substantially higher than in owner-occupied housing. Thus, a variable indicating home ownership is used to proxy for the discrimination rate faced by blacks. The fixed-effects estimates of segregation imply that home ownership is associated with a decline in black-white segregation. This effect decreases slightly at higher income levels but increases substantially with the education of the head of household. Evidence is presented that the effect of …

Assessment Of Kalamazoo County's Education For Employment (Efe) Programs Using 2001 Survey Data, Kevin Hollenbeck, Noyna Debburman

Reports

No abstract provided.

Trends. Environmental Issues: Struggles To Think Globally, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the difficulties of thinking globally in the context of environmentalism and environmental policy, even for proponents of environmental stewardship.

Pakistan’S Development Challenge, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

Pakistan’s biggest development challenge to day is to reduce its debt burden in order to pursue a path that leads towards sustainable and equitable growth for poverty reduction. The main plank of the present government to meet this challenge is its Debt Burden Reduction Strategy popularly characterized as debt Exit Strategy. It is not the intention to stop borrowing but to borrow for productive purposes, use the loans judiciously, contact them at soft terms and reduce the overall burden of debt in relation to income. The idea behind this strategy is to reduce reliance on International Financial Institutions (IFIs) for …

Trends. Colombian Rebels And Elite Interests: Rights And Wrongs On Human Rights, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses and analyzes the reactions of elites to rebel actions (e.g., human rights violations, other violent actions) in Colombia.

Why Perceptions About Pakistani Economy Differ?, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

An extremely important question has been raised by several commentators and observers of Pakistan economy: Why is it that the external donors believe that Pakistani economy is doing well while the public and press in Pakistan think otherwise? This question needs to be analysed carefully and dispassionately in order to identify the factors responsible for such differing perceptions. I have dwelt on this subject earlier also but I thought I should deal with it at some length once again

Policy Analysis And Economic Impact Study Of Smoke-Free Indoor Air Ordinances In The Paso Del Norte Region, Dennis L. Soden, Steve A. Johnson

IPED Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Double Jeopardy: Review Of "The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are In Jeopardy And What Can Be Done About It" By J. Heymann, Ellen B. Magenheim

Economics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Indivisibility Of Economic And Political Rights, Linda M. Keller

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen. New York: Knopf , 1999 (Paperback Edition: Random House, 2000). 366pp.

Second Order Expansions For The Distribution Of The Maximum Likelihood Estimator Of The Fractional Difference Parameter, Offer Lieberman, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the fractional difference parameter in the Gaussian ARFIMA(0, d ,0) model is well known to be asymptotically N (0, 6/ π 2 ). This paper develops a second order asymptotic expansion to the distribution of this statistic. The correction term for the density is shown to be independent of d , so that the MLE is second order pivotal for d . This feature of the MLE is unusual, at least in time series contexts. Simulations show that the normal approximation is poor and that the expansions make significant improvements in accuracy.

Nonparametric Estimation Of A Multifactor Heath-Jarrow-Morton Model: An Integrated Approach, Andrew Jeffrey, Oliver B. Linton, Thong Nguyen, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We develop a nonparametric estimator for the volatility structure of the zero coupon yield curve in the Heath, Jarrow-Morton framework. The estimator incorporates cross-sectional restrictions along the maturity dimension, and also allows for measurement errors, which arise from the estimation of the yield curve from noisy data. The estimates are implemented with daily CRSP bond data.

International Finance In General Equilibrium, John Geanakoplos, Dimitrios P. Tsomocos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Our purpose in this paper is to unify international trade and finance in a single general equilibrium model. Our model is rich enough to include multiple commodities (including traded and nontraded goods), heterogeneous consumers in each country, multiple time periods, multiple credit markets, and multiple currencies. Yet our model is simple enough to be effectively computable. We explicitly calculate the financial and real effects of changes in tariffs, productivity, and preferences, as well as the effects of monetary and fiscal policy. We maintain agent optimization, rational expectations, and market clearing (i.e., perfect competition with flexible prices) throughout. But because of …

Regression With Slowly Varying Regressors, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Slowly varying regressors are asymptotically collinear in linear regression. Usual regression formulae for asymptotic standard errors 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 slowly varying functions and central limit theorems with slowly varying weights are given that assist in the development of a regression theory. Multivariate regression and polynomial regression with slowly varying functions are considered and shown to be equivalent, up to standardization, to regression on a polynomial in a logarithmic trend. The theory involves second, third …

The Cnbc Effect: Welfare Effects Of Public Information, Stephen Morris, Hyun Song Shin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

What are the welfare effects of enhanced dissemination of public information through the media and disclosures by market participants with high public visibility? For instance, is it always desirable to have frequent and timely publications of economic statistics by government agencies and the central bank? We examine the impact of public information in a setting where agents take actions appropriate to the underlying fundamentals, but they also have a coordination motive arising from a strategic complementarity in their actions. When the agents have no private information, greater provision of public information always increases welfare. However, when agents also have access …

Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models Of The Short Term Interest Rate, Jun Yu, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper proposes a Gaussian estimator for nonlinear continuous time models of the short term interest rate. The approach is based on a stopping time argument that produces a normalizing transformation facilitating the use of a Gaussian likelihood. A Monte Carlo study shows that the finite sample performance of the proposed procedure offers an improvement over the discrete approximation method proposed by Nowman (1997). An empirical application to U.S. and British interest rates is given.

Social Security Investment In Equities I: Linear Case, Peter A. Diamond, John Geanakoplos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper explores the general equilibrium impact of social security portfolio diversification into private securities, either through the trust fund or private accounts. The analysis depends critically on heterogeneities in saving, production, assets, and taxes. Limited diversification weakly increases interest rates, reduces the expected return on short-term investment (and the equity premium), decreases safe investment, increases risky investment and increases a suitably weighted social welfare function. However, the effects on aggregate investment, long-term capital values, and the utility of young savers hinges on assumptions about technology. Aggregate investment and long-term asset values can move in opposite directions.

Social Security Investment In Equities, Peter A. Diamond, John Geanakoplos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper explores the general equilibrium impact of social security portfolio diversification into private securities, either through the trust fund or private accounts. The analysis depends critically on heterogeneities in saving, production, assets, and taxes. Limited diversification weakly increases interest rates, reduces the expected return on short-term investment (and the equity premium), decreases safe investment, increases risky investment and increases a suitably weighted social welfare function. However, the effects on aggregate investment, long-term capital values, and the utility of young savers hinges on assumptions about technology. Aggregate investment and long-term asset values can move in opposite directions.

The Development Of Boston's Seaport District: Employment Opportunities And Community Strategies, O. Steven Quimby

Gastón Institute Publications

The development of Boston's Seaport District will create thousands of full-time employment opportunities over the next decade. To ensure equitable access to these opportunities for Boston's communities of color, it is imperative that organizations offering employment-training programs begin to take these opportunities into account now in their training efforts. The Center for Community Economic Development (CCED) at the University of Massachusetts Boston has prepared this report, The Development of Boston's Seaport District: Employment Opportunities and Community Strategies, as a step in becoming informed about these opportunities.

This study examines employment opportunities to be created in three industries projected to be …

Economic Currents: The State Of The State Economy, Alan Clayton-Matthews

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

Pain and anxiety are accompanying the news of an economy that has not grown since December. The Massachusetts Current Economic Index, a proxy for real gross state product growth, was actually lower in April than it was at the end of last year, and it is only 1.5 percent greater than in April 2000.

Women Involvement In Food Crop Production, Processing And Marketing In Nigeria, Abiola O., Omoabugan O. B.

Bullion

The paper examines the extent of involvement of women in food crop production, processing and marketing in a typical African locality. Appropriate statistical techniques were employed in the data analyses. The findings show that women are greatly involved in the production, processing and marketing of food crops, especially cassava, which is one of the staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa.

Emerging Trends In External Reserve Management, Nnadi C. Ben

Bullion

This paper tries to identify some of the main trends in central Banks reserve management in recent years. lt describes some significant changes, which have taken place, with regard to the objectives and investment policies of central banks, while pointing out some elements that could noticeably slow or even reverse the trends identified. The study reveals reserve management has continued to evolve broadly in the areas of securitisation, return maximization, use of derivates and performance measurement. Secondly, in response to the increasing volatility of financial variables, central banks have at the same time continued to place emphasis on liquidity constraints.

Kontribusi Pendidikan Terhadap Produktivitas Pertanian: Sebuah Uji Kausalitas, Diahhadi Setyonaluri

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

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Globalisasi Dan Reformasi Keuangan Internasional, Rahmatina A. K.

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

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The Lingnan Commentary - July 2001 (No. 3), Hong Kong Institute Of Business Studies, Lingnan University

The Lingnan Commentary 嶺南評論 : A Quarterly Review of Economic, Business and Social Issues by Lingnan University

No abstract provided.

Regional Trading Arrangements In Globalize World: Singapore Experiences With Sijori And Afta, Berly Martawardaya

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

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