Economics Commons^™

Institutional Framework For The Regulation And Supervision Of The Financial Sector, Mordi N. Charles

Bullion

Since the 1980s, there has been international consensus on the issue of adequate regulation and supervision of the financial sector (and, in particular, banking institutions) and this issue have featured prominently in many international fora where discussions have centred on the operations/health of the financial sector, whether in developed or developing countries. This paper focusses attention on the institutional framework for the regulation and supervision of the financial sector in Nigeria. It attempts to identify the various institutions that make up the financial sector and articulates how they are regulated and supervised and who has responsibility for what, so as …

Internationalisation Of Financial Services: Challenges For Financial Sector Stability In Nigeria., Adeola Ade

Bullion

Internationalisation or Globalisation refers to the increasing integration of "economics around the world, particularly through trade and financial flows. lt is the actual movement, the capacity to move and the potential movement across nations of trade, , investment, technology, finance and labour. lt's also involves the effects of these I forces and the consequent liberalization I of the market. This paper focuses on internationalisation as it relates to the financial sector in Nigeria and its most common manifestation, which is liberalization. It aims to identify ways in which we can benefit from this process while remaining realistic about its potential …

Debugging And Sanitizing The Nigerian Financial System., M. O. Kayode, Ayodele F. Odusola

Economic and Financial Review

Using a concentric circle analysis, the paper provides a framework for examining the centrality of the borrower/ user or manager of funds in the stability of the financial system. The paper advocated among others, the rejuvenation of the value system, involvement of banks in project ideas and packaging, institutionalization and implementation of bankruptcy law as well as application of incentives and sanctions.

Determinants Of Public Sector Wages In Nigeria, Moses Kpughur. Tule

Economic and Financial Review

This paper discusses the determinants of public sector wages in Nigeria. Using quarterly time series data for 1970-2001, and employing the error correction methodology, the paper identified Trade Disputes, Cost of Living, previous Work Experience and Productivity to be the main determinants. It found the wage level to be inadequate for a decent standard of living, and noted the effects of inappropriate wages on public sector productivity to include personnel attrition, labour freelancing as well as corruption.

The Eco-Currency, Expectations And Business Growth In West Africa, O. J. Nnanna

Economic and Financial Review

This paper shall examine the pros and cons of adopting the ECO in the WAMZ. The introduction of the ECO has the potential of enhancing trade within the WAMZ member states in the medium to long-term. However, the quest for a common currency must be driven by economic fundamentals, rather than political expediency. Consequently, there is need to ensure macroeconomic convergence and homogeneity of the financial and product markets before the ECO is introduced.

Biotechnology And The Law: A Consideration Of Intellectual Property Rights And Related Social Issues, Michael D. Mehta

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Recent advances in biotechnology are expected by many to improve crop yield, reduce reliance on agricultural inputs like pesticides and herbicides, alleviate world hunger, improve the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals, assist in the discovery of genes that trigger diseases like cancer, and make more efficient our legal institutions through DNA testing. Clearly, innovations in biotechnology are a powerful force for social change, and they pose unique challenges and opportunities for legal scholars and institutions. This section of the Pierce Law Review focuses on the interface between law and technology by examining how innovations in biotechnology accelerate debates about …

Prospects And Problems Of Expanding Trade With Japan: A Survey Of Philippine Exporters, Rosalina Palanca-Tan

Economics Department Faculty Publications

The paper looks at firm-level factors that affect Philippine exports to Japan with the main objective of recommending provisions for the proposed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) that will enable existing and prospective Philippine exporters to fully exploit the potential of the Japanese market. To this end, the study identifies Philippine products with export prospects in Japan and conducts a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis of these production sectors. The inability of the Philippine agricultural, processed food and consumer manufactures to successfully tap into the growing import markets of Japan can be traced largely to low quality and price …

Private Sector, Govt And Pakistan's Economic Progress, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Pakistan has made considerable progress during the last 55 years since its independence. The article discusses the respective roles of government and private sector in development, arguing that markets need government and government needs markets for inclusive economic progress.

How Will 401(K) Pension Plans Affect Retirement Income?, Andrew A. Samwick, Jonathan Skinner

Dartmouth Scholarship

How has the emergence of defined contribution pensi on plans, such as 401(k) plans, affected the financial security of future retirees? We consider this question using a unique dataset of pension plan formulas for the Surveys of Consumer Finances in 1983 and 1989 and the characteristics of 401(k) plans from the Surveys of Consumer Finances between 1989 and 2001. Our simulations account for uncertainty in earnings and rates of return on stocks and bonds, ownership of company stock, uncertainty in earnings, and heterogeneity in asset choices, plan participation, and job tenure. We find that in the mid-1990s, 401(k) plans were …

Iatrogenic Specification Error: A Cautionary Tale Of Cleaning Data, Christopher R. Bollinger, Amitabh Chandra

Dartmouth Scholarship

In empirical research it is common practice to use sensible rules of thumb for cleaning data. Measurement error is often the justification for removing (trimming) or recoding (winsorizing) observations whose values lie outside a specified range. We consider a general measurement error process that nests many pl ausible models. Analytic results demonstrate that winsorizing and trimming are only solutions for a narrow class of measurement error processes. Indeed, for the measurement error processes found in most social-science data, such procedures can induce or exacerbate bias, and even inflate the variance estimates. We term this source of bias “Iatrogenic” (or econometrician …

Santa Fe Living Wage Baseline Study_March 2004, Lee A. Reynis

BBER Publications

This baseline study provides a comprehensive portrait of Santa Fe’s economy prior to implementation of the city’s living wage ordinance, detailing demographic trends, labor market conditions, cost‑of‑living pressures, industry structures, and the characteristics of low‑wage workers. It establishes the empirical foundation needed to evaluate future economic, social, and business impacts of the phased‑in wage increases.

(Wp 2004-01) Inappropriate Pooling Of Wealthy And Poor Countries In Empirical Fdi Studies, Bruce A. Blonigen, Miao Grace Wang

Economics Working Papers

This paper examines the question of whether less-developed countries' (LDCs') experiences with foreign direct investment (FDI) systematically different from those of developed countries (DCs).

We do this by examining three types of empirical FDI studies that typically do not distinguish between LDCs and DCs in their analysis. First, we find that the underlying factors that determine the location of FDI activity across countries vary systematically across LDCs and DCs in a way that is not captured by current empirical models of FDI. Second, the effect of FDI on economic growth is one that is only supported for LDCs in the …

Road Congestion Pricing In Singapore: 1975-2003, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Facing traffic congestion in the Central Business District and enormous demands on scarce land resources by the growing number of motor vehicles, Singapore, a small island city-state the size of Seattle, embarked on a bold decision to reduce road congestion by implementing the famous Area Licensing Scheme in 1975. This was a manual system of tolls for multiple entries into the Restricted Zone. While achieving the intended effect of cutting down on the volume of vehicular traffic in the Restricted Zone, the authors (and others) found that the problem of congestion had merely shifted in time and place. Many changes …

Trade, Capital Accumulation And Structural Unemployment: An Empirical Study Of The Singapore Economy, Hiau Looi Kee, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the factors responsible for the secular decline of Singapore’s unemployment rate over the period 1966-2000 in an environment of low and stable inflation rates. We introduce wage bargaining and unions into a specific-factors, two-sector economy with an export sector and a non-tradable sector to obtain an endogenous natural unemployment rate. Increases in the relative export price and capital stock in the export sector are predicted to reduce structural unemployment. These hypotheses could not be rejected based on structural estimations and co-integration regressions. Empirically, capital accumulation in the export sector explains most of the decline in Singapore’s unemployment …

Why Is China So Competitive? Measuring And Explaining China's Competitiveness, F. Gerard Adams, Byron Gangnes, Yochanan Shachmurove

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates factors responsible for the competitiveness of China in the world economy and relative to its East Asian rivals. China has been highly successful in capturing world export markets. Chinese competitiveness is not just a matter of an undervalued exchange and extremely low labor costs. It reflects primarily the coincidence of favorable cost conditions with improvements in China’s ability to produce products that meet world market specifications. These improvements are closely related to foreign participation in China’s economy through foreign direct investment and joint venture enterprises.

Modeling The Firm-Size Distribution Using Box-Cox Heteroscedastic Regression, Zhenlin Yang, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

Using the Box-Cox regression model with heteroscedasticity (BCHR), we re‐examine the size distribution of the Portuguese manufacturing firms studied by Machado and Mata (2000) using the Box-Cox quantile regression (BCQR) method. We show that the BCHR model compares favourably against the BCQR method. In particular, the BCHR model can answer the key questions addressed by the BCQR method, with the advantage that the estimated quantile functions are monotonic. Furthermore, confidence intervals of the regression quantiles are easy to compute, and the estimation of the Box-Cox heteroscedastic regression is straight forward.

The Empirical Relationship Between Exchange Rates And Interest Rates In Post-Crisis Asia, Hwee Kwan Chow, Yoonbai Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

In post-crisis Asia, all crisis-hit countries (except Malaysia) announced a shift from exchange rate based monetary policy framework to the explicit adoption of inflation targeting that uses interest rates as the key monetary policy operating instrument. In this study, we examine the empirical relationship between exchange rates and interest rates, and investigate how the dynamics between them have changed following the crisis. This is carried out by constructing a bivariate VAR-GARCH model for each of the four Asian crisis countries, namely Indonesia, Korea, Philippines and Thailand. The findings suggest these countries do not use interest rate policy more actively to …

Transaction-Data Analysis Of Marked Durations And Their Implications For Market Microstructure, Anthony S. Tay, Christopher Ting, Yiu Kuen Tse, Mitchell Warachka

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose an Autoregressive Conditional Marked Duration (ACMD) model for the analysis of irregularly spaced transaction data. Based on the Autoregressive Conditional Duration (ACD) model, the ACMD model assigns marks to characterize events such as tick movements and trade directions (buy/sell). Applying the ACMD model to tick movements, we study the influence of trade frequency, direction and size on price dynamics, volatility and the permanent and transitory price impacts of trade. We also apply the ACMD model to analyze trade-direction data and estimate the probability of informed trading (PIN). We find that trade frequency has a critical role in price …

Bargaining And Competition Revisited, Takashi Kunimoto, Roberto Serrano

Research Collection School Of Economics

We show the robustness of the Walrasian result obtained in models of bargaining in pairwise meetings. Restricting trade to take place only in pairs, most of the assumptions made in the literature are dispensed with. These include assumptions on preferences (differentiability, monotonicity, strict concavity, bounded curvature), on the set of agents (dispersed characteristics) or on the consumption set (allowing only divisible goods).

Have U.S. - Japan Trade Agreements Made A Difference?, Byron Gangnes, Craig Parsons

Research Collection School Of Economics

International trade is governed by a complicated patchwork of international treaties, bilateral agreements, and unilateral actions, often directed at trade in very specific commodities. A determination of the impact of trade measures begins with an assessment of their direct effect on trade volumes and prices in targeted sectors. While in some cases—such as the recent U.S. anti-dumping duties on steel—the measures have readily identifiable impacts, in others cases the effects are more difficult to determine.

Santa Fe Living Wage Baseline Study_March 2004 (2), Lee A. Reynis

BBER Publications

This report documents economic, demographic, and labor‑force conditions in Santa Fe before the city’s living wage ordinance took effect, analyzing wage structures, industry dynamics, poverty, housing affordability, and the experiences of low‑wage workers. It serves as a benchmark for assessing how the ordinance may influence employment, business operations, household well‑being, and broader economic trends.

Why Pakistan Should Exit The Imf Programme?, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Pakistan has formally conveyed its decision that the country does not wish to enter into a successor agreement with the IMF on completion of the current PRGF Programme at the end of 2004. This decision has evoked two kinds of responses – one that of relief that we will no longer be subjected to the harsh conditionalities of the Fund and second that of disbelief that the country is not yet ready to shed off this yoke and even if this is done it will only be for a temporary duration – in other words, it will not be sustainable.

New Mexico Labor Market Review 02-29-2004, New Mexico Department Of Labor

Historic Publications

The New Mexico Labor Market Review is a monthly publication presenting statistical data and analysis on labor market conditions throughout New Mexico. Issues examine statewide and regional trends in employment, unemployment, labor force estimates, industry activity, wages, occupational demand, and related economic conditions, often accompanied by feature articles on topics affecting the state’s economy. This issue covers January 2004.

The Disenchantment Of Logically Formal Legal Rationality Or Max Weber's Sociology In The Genealogy Of The Contemporary Mode Of Western Legal Thought, Duncan Kennedy

ExpressO

Max Weber began his sociology of law with a description of the then present of Western legal thought, along with a brief summary of its previous stages. This appreciation begins with a summary description of the Western legal thought of Weber's time, as it looks from our present 100 years later, emphasizing the contrast between the mainstream of his time, now called Classical Legal Thought, and its critics in the social current. Part II presents Weber's sociology of law, comparing and contrasting his approach with that of the social current. The most striking thing about Weber's sociology of law, from …

Entrapment And The Problem Of Deterring Police Misconduct, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Many the states currently use a version of the entrapment defense known as the “objective test,” which focuses solely on the extent of police overreaching in the case, and seeks to deter police misconduct by acquitting the defendant. Acquitting defendants as a means of deterring undercover police misconduct, however, is a public policy fraught with problems, and these problems have not been adequately addressed in the literature to date. This article applies the insights of modern deterrence theory to wrongful activity by police in undercover operations. In doing so, three general problems emerge. First, the objective test relies on an …

Methods For Evaluating Employment Programs In Sofia, Bulgaria, Christopher J. O'Leary

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Working Together Toward Recovery, David J. Reiss, Mathew Kleiner

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Financial Sector Reforms And Pro-Poor Growth: Case Study Of Pakistan, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

The attributes of a well functioning financial system are quite well known by now. Such a system is necessary for enhancing the efficiency of intermediation, which is achieved by reducing information, transaction, and monitoring costs; for promoting productive investment by identifying and funding good business opportunities; for mobilizing domestic savings; for monitoring the performance of businesses; for enabling the trading, hedging, and diversification of risk; and for facilitating the exchange of goods and services. These functions result in allocation of resources to the most efficient, resulting in a more rapid accumulation of physical and human capital, and faster technological progress, …

Habitat Destruction By Collectors Associated With Decreased Abundance Of Rock-Dwelling Lizards, Matthew J. Goode, William C. Horrace, Michael J. Sredl, Jeffrey M. Howland

Economics - All Scholarship

Declines in biodiversity caused by habitat loss have been well documented on large spatial scales, however, effects of habitat loss on small scales have received little attention. Some common methods of reptile collection, primarily for commercial harvest, result in destruction of cracks, crevices, and other cool, moist microhabitats in desert rock outcrops. We developed a method for identifying habitat destruction associated with reptile collecting. We surveyed lightly and heavily disturbed areas near Phoenix, Arizona to determine if microhabitat loss caused by collectors was associated with decreased relative abundance of reptiles. Of four diurnal lizard species studied, relative abundance of two …

Mixed Signals: Reconsidering The Political Economy Of Judicial Deference To Administrative Agencies, Matthew C. Stephenson

ExpressO

This paper investigates rational choice explanations for patterns of Supreme Court decision-making with respect to the appropriate level of judicial deference to administrative agency decisions. In particular, I assess empirically the thesis that the Supreme Court expands deference when the Supreme Court is ideologically closer to the executive than to the circuit courts, and contracts deference when the opposite is true. I find little to no evidence supporting this "rational choice" theory of judicial deference. Given this surprising null finding, I offer alternative explanations for the data and suggest directions for future research.