Economics Commons^™

Random Walks And Half-Lives In Chilean And Mexican Peso Real Exchange Rates: 1980 - 2003, Andre V. Mollick

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Several papers have shown that high-inflation contributes to mean reversion in real exchange rates. This paper studies the Chilean peso (CLP) and Mexican peso (MXN) real exchange rates over 1980-2003. Three datasets are used: two with quarterly and monthly bilateral data (against the U.S. dollar) with consumer and producer price indices and another with monthly real effective rate exchange rates (REER). Unit root tests do not reject the root in levels for both currencies. Half-lives, however, contrast markedly: at 5 years or infinity for the Chilean peso and between 1 and 3 years for the Mexican peso. These findings suggest …

How Critical Is Us Assistance?, Sara Agha Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

The article examines US economic and military assistance to Pakistan since September 2001, breaking it down into debt relief, military aid, economic assistance and reimbursements for logistics support. Using four key indicators, the author argues that even a complete withdrawal of US aid would have only a marginal impact on Pakistan's budget, foreign exchange receipts and overall economy. The piece concludes that Pakistan should not be unduly concerned about losing US official aid and should instead focus on broader bilateral economic ties.

Common Nutritional Deficiencies In The Three Richest Versus The Poorest Countries In The World: Why Are They Similar Or Different?, Ginger Ann Bailey

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Over one billion people suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and they reside in both the poorest and the richest countries in the world. What needs to be determined is if the deficiencies are similar or different, and most importantly why. By learning what nutritional deficits exist in these countries and why they occur, we are then able to create appropriate interventions in order to improve the nutritional status of populations worldwide.

Iraq: Post-Invasion Reconstruction Or Deconstruction, Heba Saleh

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

International Business In Northeast Ohio, Patricia Cirillo, Jill S. Taylor, Ziona Austrian

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Taxes On Saving: Evidence From 29 Oecd Countries, Caihua Zheng

All Theses

Despite an extensive literature on the determinants of savings, the effects of tax policy on saving behavior have not been resolved conclusively. The purpose of this thesis is to estimate the impact of tax policy on both national and private saving rates using panel data collected for 29 OECD countries spanning a thirty year period from 1975 to 2005. Using tax rate changes to reflect tax policy changes, the cross-section and the panel data models incorporate the statutory value-added tax rate, the average and top personal income tax rate and the top corporate income tax rates as indicators of tax …

Taxation Maximaztion: Why States Tax The Way They Do, Adam Pope

All Theses

This paper examines state tax systems and provides an explanation for their structure. The results of this study show that states maximize the value of a tax by increasing its use based on the demographic makeup of the state. Furthermore, this paper provides some evidence that groups are not successful in lobbying state legislatures to protect themselves from taxation.

Factors Affecting The Formation Of Interest Groups, Aileen Sampson

All Dissertations

This paper presents empirical information to assist in answering the question: Why does the number of interest groups vary from one political jurisdiction to another? This paper's contribution to the understanding of the political economy of collective behavior is an empirical, cross-sectional study of interest group formation in the United States. The unit of observation is the county circa 2000. On a per capita basis, this study finds that lower voter participation rates, higher government expenditures, and higher religious adherence, on average, are consistent with the formation of more interest groups. On the other hand, having a higher number of …

Product Liability Litigation: An Issue Of Merck And Lawsuits Over Vioxx, Kurt Rotthoff

All Dissertations

Merck & Co., Inc. pulled Vioxx, a $2.5 billon a year nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, off the shelf in September 2004. The removal followed a study that was published reporting Vioxx increased the risk of cardiovascular events after long-term use. In the years since then, many lawsuits have been filed against Merck. This paper examines the incentive to recall a product and the effects of Merck pulling Vioxx from the shelves. Using the market's expected internal rate of return for Merck, I calculate the expected profits from future Vioxx sales. I then use data on financial effects, along with the outcomes …

Death And Taxes: The Impact Of Government Policy On Health, Anca Cotet

All Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the impact of various government policies on health. First, I study the effect of labor income taxes on health. Labor income taxes are predicted to affect health through their impact on the value of time, which is at the same time an important input but also the output of health production. Using variation in labor income tax rates among US states, I find that both higher taxes and more progressive taxes keeping tax liability constant lead to a decline in health.
Second, I challenge the common wisdom that non-economic damage caps on malpractice awards have a positive …

Three Essays In Political Economy, Melissa Yeoh

All Dissertations

The first essay provides a theoretical framework that informs the ongoing debate regarding the effect of conservation easement subsidies on local property tax revenue. Supporters claim that conservation easements increase property tax revenue by providing environmental amenities that increase the value of adjacent properties. Critics argue that they decrease property tax revenue by lowering land values and shrinking the tax base. In instances when local property tax revenue decline due to the income tax deductibility of conservation easements, the decline is larger when the demand for land is more elastic, the proportion of non-agricultural land in the county is larger, …

Consumption, Time Preference, And The Life Cycle, Michael Charles Bailey

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper presents two life-cycle models of consumption implementing novel assumptions about time preference and subjective time. The goal of this paper is to investigate implications of the existence of subjective time to consumption decisions over the life cycle. The first model is a model of 'systematic impatience' and implements the assumption of increasing subjective time by specifying a time dependent rate of time preference upon which the rational consumers in this model maximize lifetime utility. The second model investigates consumer behavior in subjective time, or the subjective sense of the actual passage of time. Consumers in this model maximize …

Akerlof And Kranton On Identity In Economics: Inverting The Analysis, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

The concept of identity was introduced into the neoclassical utility maximising framework by Akerlof and Kranton in an analysis which draws directly from social psychology's social identity approach and self-categorisation theory. This paper examines their analysis, and compares the social identity approach and an alternative social psychology identity framework called the sociological approach to identity. Using this comparison, the paper argues that their treating identity as an argument in the utility function leaves unaddressed how individuals' different social identities are related. The paper suggests a framework for addressing this issue by embedding their utility function in a personal identity objective …

Debra L. Delaet On Health And Human Rights: Basic International Documents, 2d Edition, Edited By Stephen P. Marks. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Published By Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center For Health And Human Rights; Distributed By Harvard University Press, 2006. 392pp., Debra L. Delaet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Health and Human Rights: Basic International Documents, 2d Edition, edited by Stephen P. Marks. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Published by Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights; Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2006. 392pp.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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

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 …

Poverty In Moldova, Corneliu Bolbocean

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Moldova is the poorest nation in Europe and the Moldavian society has one f the highest degrees of economic inequality among the Soviet states. Official statistics as well as the World Bank poverty reports suggest that the number of people who live below the absolute poverty line is around 30%. In reality poverty is a massive phenomenon in Moldova and the real poverty rate exceeds 70% for both rural and urban areas.

The Impact Of Foreign Aid On Development And Aggregate Welfare In Developing Countries, Todd J. Kumler '07

Honors Projects

Over one billion people across the globe live in extreme poverty, struggling to survive on less than one U.S. dollar per day. The persistently low levels of aggregate welfare and human development in developing countries have recently caught the attention of many politicians and social observers. As the developed nations and multinational organizations of the world are called upon to increase development assistance to these impoverished countries, a question must be asked: Will increased foreign aid effectively raise human development in developing countries? While many studies have analyzed the impact of development aid on economic growth in developing nations, few …

Reining In The Competition For Capital, Ann R. Markusen Editor

Upjohn Press

This book explores the causes, character, and potential remedies for the growing spatial competition for capital. Its diverse group of contributors present a broad set of workable reforms including: regulation of site consultants; mandated transparency in negotiations, bids, and deals; better structured deals; performance requirements and clawbacks for subsidized firms; and adoption of united economic development budgets.

The Value Of Economic Reality: Applying Economic Value Added, David M. Phillips

Senior Honors Theses

The concept of Economic Value Added (EVA) is a revolutionary way to measure the value of a business. In its simplest form, EVA is a system that determines companies’ worth and performance based on their economic reality, not numbers produced according to traditional accounting rules. EVA sets high standards for measuring performance and is essential for all companies wishing to create value for their shareholders.

The Economics Of Water Utilization: Tools And Applications, Matt Bogard

Agriculture Department Seminar Series

Given worldwide problems of access to safe potable water, this presentation examines how tools of economics can aid in drafting appropriate mitigating policies. Utilizing partial equilibrium analysis, it demonstrates the role that prices play in social coordination and then applies the framework to real world examples. In addition it examines Pigouvian Taxation and Coasean Bargaining as two classic methods for dealing with externalities in the context of water pollution. Second-best solutions such as tradable permits and metered pricing by public utilities are discussed. This presentation concludes by examining the issues and challenges that policy makers face when trying to implement …

Production Costs, Burton Pflueger

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

A Key Component In Texas Manufacturing: The Economic Impact Of The Boeing Company, Mathew Mcelroy, Elizabeth K. Gibson, Dennis L. Soden, David A. Schauer

IPED Technical Reports

This study was conducted by the Institute for Policy and Economic Development (IPED) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) at the request of Boeing Corporation in the state of Texas in order to measure the economic impact of Boeing activities on the state. These include direct expenditures on wages and salaries, as well as supplier expenditures, other direct costs expended such as tuition reimbursements, and philanthropic activities.

Global Governance And The Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of The Market Data For The Ocean And Coastal Economy, Charles S. Colgan

Publications

This paper supplements reports and data released on the Coastal and Ocean Economies of the United States by the NOEP. It provides a discussion of the relevant literature involved in the investigation of the Ocean and Coastal related Economies, the theoretical background of measures such as gross domestic product (GDP) and gross state product (GSP), and provides details on sources, methods, assumptions, and limitations of the data provided by NOEP.

Those concerned with the health of coastal and ocean resources increasingly need to understand the socio-economic context in which changes are occurring. The market data of the National Ocean Economics …