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2008

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Articles 301 - 330 of 898

Full-Text Articles in Economics

Differences Lead To Differences: Diversity And Income Inequality Across Countries, Michael Hotard Jun 2008

Differences Lead To Differences: Diversity And Income Inequality Across Countries, Michael Hotard

Master's Theses - Economics

This paper will test the relationship between income inequality and ethnic heterogeneity. Although previous research has used ethno-linguistic fractionalization as a control variable in inequality regressions, no research has focused primarily on an alternative measure of heterogeneity – polarization. Using Gini coefficients from the from the World Income Inequality Database and polarization data from Montalvo and Reynal-Querol (2005b), a pooled OLS regression is run using data from 58 countries with 205 total observations. The results of these regressions suggest that ethnic polarization does have a positive effect on income inequality, even controlling for country characteristics and allowing for regional differences.

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Potential Impact Of Eitc Adjustments On Financial Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Families: A Simulation Model, Younghee Lim, Catherine Lemieux Jun 2008

Potential Impact Of Eitc Adjustments On Financial Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Families: A Simulation Model, Younghee Lim, Catherine Lemieux

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Policies that help low-income mothers find and keep employment as a means of obtaining self-sufficiency have been a focal point of the welfare reform debate in the past decade. In the midst of this dialogue, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has gained popularity as one of the core work support programs for America's low- and moderately low-income families with children. This study compares the estimated effects of EITC when its value deteriorated in the late 1990s with that of a simulated EITC for which the real value kept pace with the actual cost of living on welfare caseload reductions. …

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A Difusão Do Orçamento Participativo Brasileiro: ‘Boas Práticas' Devem Ser Promovidas?, Brian Wampler Jun 2008

A Difusão Do Orçamento Participativo Brasileiro: ‘Boas Práticas' Devem Ser Promovidas?, Brian Wampler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The "third wave" of democratization has been accompanied by the spread of new institutions that allow citizens to deliberate and decide policy outcomes. Leading international organizations, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, have disseminated "best practice" programs identified with "good government" policy reform efforts. One of the most well-known programs, Participatory Budgeting (PB), was first adopted by Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) in 1989 as a means to promote social justice, accountability, and transparency. There has been widespread adoption of PB in Brazil, led by the PT. Yet, by 2001, nearly half of PB programs had been adopted …

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Rationalizing Choice With Multi-Self Models, Attila Ambrus, Kareen Rozen Jun 2008

Rationalizing Choice With Multi-Self Models, Attila Ambrus, Kareen Rozen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper studies a class of multi-self decision-making models proposed in economics, psychology, and marketing. In this class, choices arise from the set-dependent aggregation of a collection of utility functions, where the aggregation procedure satisfies some simple properties. We propose a method for characterizing the extent of irrationality in a choice behavior, and use this measure to provide a lower bound on the set of choice behaviors that can be rationalized with n utility functions. Under an additional assumption (scale-invariance), we show that generically at most five “reasons” are needed for every “mistake.”

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Robust Implementation In General Mechanisms, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris Jun 2008

Robust Implementation In General Mechanisms, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A social choice function is robustly implemented if every equilibrium on every type space achieves outcomes consistent with it. We identify a robust monotonicity condition that is necessary and (with mild extra assumptions) sufficient for robust implementation. Robust monotonicity is strictly stronger than both Maskin monotonicity (necessary and almost sufficient for complete information implementation) and ex post monotonicity (necessary and almost sufficient for ex post implementation). It is equivalent to Bayesian monotonicity on all type spaces.

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Affective Decision Making And The Ellsberg Paradox, Anat Bracha, Donald J. Brown Jun 2008

Affective Decision Making And The Ellsberg Paradox, Anat Bracha, Donald J. Brown

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Affective decision-making is a strategic model of choice under risk and uncertainty where we posit two cognitive processes — the “rational” and the “emotional” process. Observed choice is the result of equilibrium in this intrapersonal game. As an example, we present applications of affective decision-making in insurance markets, where the risk perceptions of consumers are endogenous. We derive the axiomatic foundation of affective decision making, and show that affective decision making is a model of ambiguity-seeking behavior consistent with the Ellsberg paradox.

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Rationalization And Cognitive Dissonance: Do Choices Affect Or Reflect Preferences?, Keith M. Chen Jun 2008

Rationalization And Cognitive Dissonance: Do Choices Affect Or Reflect Preferences?, Keith M. Chen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential theories in psychology, and its oldest experiential realization is choice-induced dissonance. In contrast to the economic approach of assuming a person’s choices reveal their preferences, psychologists have claimed since 1956 that people alter their preferences to rationalize past choices by devaluing rejected alternatives and upgrading chosen ones. Here, I show that every study which has tested this preference-spreading effect has overlooked the potential that choices may reflect individual preferences. Specifically, these studies have implicitly assumed that subject’s preferences can be measured perfectly, i.e., with infinite precision. Absent this, their methods, even with …

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Asymptotics For Ls, Gls, And Feasible Gls Statistics In An Ar(1) Model With Conditional Heteroskedaticity, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger Jun 2008

Asymptotics For Ls, Gls, And Feasible Gls Statistics In An Ar(1) Model With Conditional Heteroskedaticity, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper considers a first-order autoregressive model with conditionally heteroskedastic innovations. The asymptotic distributions of least squares (LS), infeasible generalized least squares (GLS), and feasible GLS estimators and t statistics are determined. The GLS procedures allow for misspecification of the form of the conditional heteroskedasticity and, hence, are referred to as quasi-GLS procedures. The asymptotic results are established for drifting sequences of the autoregressive parameter and the distribution of the time series of innovations. In particular, we consider the full range of cases in which the autoregressive parameter ρ n satisfies (i) n (1 - ρ n ) → ∞ …

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Asymptotics For Ls, Gls, And Feasible Gls Statistics In An Ar(1) Model With Conditional Heteroskedaticity, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger Jun 2008

Asymptotics For Ls, Gls, And Feasible Gls Statistics In An Ar(1) Model With Conditional Heteroskedaticity, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper considers a first-order autoregressive model with conditionally heteroskedastic innovations. The asymptotic distributions of least squares (LS), infeasible generalized least squares (GLS), and feasible GLS estimators and t statistics are determined. The GLS procedures allow for misspecification of the form of the conditional heteroskedasticity and, hence, are referred to as quasi-GLS procedures. The asymptotic results are established for drifting sequences of the autoregressive parameter and the distribution of the time series of innovations. In particular, we consider the full range of cases in which the autoregressive parameter rhon satisfies (i) n (1 – ρ n ) → ∞ and …

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Robust Implementation In General Mechanisms, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris Jun 2008

Robust Implementation In General Mechanisms, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A social choice function is robustly implemented if every equilibrium on every type space achieves outcomes consistent with it. We identify a robust monotonicity condition that is necessary and (with mild extra assumptions) sufficient for robust implementation. Robust monotonicity is strictly stronger than both Maskin monotonicity (necessary and almost sufficient for complete information implementation) and ex post monotonicity (necessary and almost sufficient for ex post implementation). It is equivalent to Bayesian monotonicity on all type spaces.

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Affective Decision Making And The Ellsberg Paradox, Anat Bracha, Donald J. Brown Jun 2008

Affective Decision Making And The Ellsberg Paradox, Anat Bracha, Donald J. Brown

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We characterize, in the framework for variational preferences, the affective decision making model of choice under risk and uncertainty introduced by Bracha and Brown (2007). This characterization (i) provides a rigorus decision-theoretic foundation for affective decision making, (ii) offers an axiomatic explanation for ambiguity-seeking in the Ellsberg Paradox and (iii) suggests a dual representation of ADM games in terms of the Legendre-Fenchel conjugate.

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Estimating Derivatives In Nonseparable Models With Limited Dependent Variables, Joseph G. Altonji, Hidehiko Ichimura, Taisuke Otsu Jun 2008

Estimating Derivatives In Nonseparable Models With Limited Dependent Variables, Joseph G. Altonji, Hidehiko Ichimura, Taisuke Otsu

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We present a simple way to estimate the effects of changes in a vector of observable variables X on a limited dependent variable Y when Y is a general nonseparable function of X and unobservables. We treat models in which Y is censored from above or below or potentially from both. The basic idea is to first estimate the derivative of the conditional mean of Y given X at x with respect to x on the uncensored sample without correcting for the effect of changes in x induced on the censored population. We then correct the derivative for the effects …

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Estimating Derivatives In Nonseparable Models With Limited Dependent Variables, Joseph G. Altonji, Hidehiko Ichimura, Taisuke Otsu Jun 2008

Estimating Derivatives In Nonseparable Models With Limited Dependent Variables, Joseph G. Altonji, Hidehiko Ichimura, Taisuke Otsu

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We present a simple way to estimate the effects of changes in a vector of observable variables X on a limited dependent variable Y when Y is a general nonseparable function of X and unobservables, and X is independent of the unobservables. We treat models in which Y is censored from above, below, or both. The basic idea is to first estimate the derivative of the conditional mean of Y given X at x with respect to x on the uncensored sample without correcting for the effect of x on the censored population. We then correct the derivative for the …

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Credit Elasticities In Less-Developed Economies: Implications For Microfinance, Dean S. Karlan, Jonathan Zinman Jun 2008

Credit Elasticities In Less-Developed Economies: Implications For Microfinance, Dean S. Karlan, Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Policymakers often prescribe that microfinance institutions increase interest rates to eliminate their reliance on subsidies. This strategy makes sense if the poor are rate insensitive: then microlenders increase profitability (or achieve sustainability) without reducing the poor's access to credit. We test the assumption of price inelastic demand using randomized trials conducted by a consumer lender in South Africa. The demand curves are downward sloping, and steeper for price increases relative to the lender's standard rates. We also find that loan size is far more responsive to changes in loan maturity than to changes in interest rates, which is consistent with …

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A Long Spell Of Uncertainty, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Bruce Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner Jun 2008

A Long Spell Of Uncertainty, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Bruce Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Economics Faculty Publications

We find ourselves in a period of sustained economic uncertainty. Today, like 6 months ago, the U.S. economy is on the brink of a recession. Weakness in lending activity, coupled with weakness in the housing sector and related manufacturing industries has stymied economic growth since late 2007. At times, recession seems imminent. But, the official measures, such as quarterly gross domestic product, do not clearly signal that the economy is contracting. Further, prices are rising rapidly for food and energy. That is the uncertainty. Will 2008 be remembered as a recession year, or as a period of disappointing but slow …

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Endogenous Asymmetric Information And International Equity Home Bias: The Effects Of Portfolio Size And Information Costs, John M. Barron, Jinlan Ni Jun 2008

Endogenous Asymmetric Information And International Equity Home Bias: The Effects Of Portfolio Size And Information Costs, John M. Barron, Jinlan Ni

Economics Faculty Publications

Equity home bias is one of the major puzzles in international finance. This paper investigates the impact of asymmetric information on equity home bias in a rational expectation model where portfolio managers differ in their levels of initial portfolio size and information acquisition is endogenous. The model characterizes the information acquisition and investment decisions made by each portfolio manager, and the resulting equilibrium. We find that portfolio managers with larger portfolio size acquire information about the foreign asset; this is consistent with new evidence linking the degree of home bias across portfolio managers to portfolio size.

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Asymptotics For Ls, Gls, And Feasible Gls Statistics In An Ar(1) Model With Conditional Heteroskedasticity, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger Jun 2008

Asymptotics For Ls, Gls, And Feasible Gls Statistics In An Ar(1) Model With Conditional Heteroskedasticity, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper considers a first-order autoregressive model with conditionally heteroskedastic innovations. The asymptotic distributions of least squares (LS), infeasible generalized least squares (GLS), and feasible GLS estimators and t statistics are determined. The GLS procedures allow for misspecification of the form of the conditional heteroskedasticity and, hence, are referred to as quasi-GLS procedures. The asymptotic results are established for drifting sequences of the autoregressive parameter and the distribution of the time series of innovations. In particular, we consider the full range of cases in which the autoregressive parameter ρ n satisfies (i) n(1 - ρ n ) → ∞ and …

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Club Deals In Leveraged Buyouts, Micah S. Officer, Oguzhan Ozbas, Berk A. Sensoy Jun 2008

Club Deals In Leveraged Buyouts, Micah S. Officer, Oguzhan Ozbas, Berk A. Sensoy

Finance Faculty Works

We analyze the pricing and characteristics of club deal leveraged buyouts (LBOs)—those in which two or more private equity partnerships jointly conduct an LBO. Using a comprehensive sample of completed LBOs of U.S. publicly traded targets conducted by prominent private equity firms, we find that target shareholders receive approximately 10% less of pre-bid firm equity value, or roughly 40% lower premiums, in club deals compared to sole-sponsored LBOs. This result is concentrated before 2006 and in target firms with low institutional ownership. These results are robust to controls for target and deal characteristics, including size, Q, measures of risk, and …

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Why A Property Tax Cap Is A Bad Idea For New York, John Yinger Jun 2008

Why A Property Tax Cap Is A Bad Idea For New York, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

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Information Aggregation In Polls, John Morgan, Phillip C. Stocken Jun 2008

Information Aggregation In Polls, John Morgan, Phillip C. Stocken

Dartmouth Scholarship

We study information transmission via polling. A policymaker polls constituents, who differ in their information and ideology, to determine policy. Full revelation is an equilibrium in a poll with a small sample, but not with a large one. In large polls, full information aggregation can arise in an equilibrium where constituents endogenously sort themselves into centrists, who respond truthfully, and extremists, who do not. We find polling statistics that ignore strategic behavior yield biased estimators and mischaracterize the poll's margin of error. We construct estimators that account for strategic behavior. Finally, we compare polls and elections.

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Globalization, Precarious Work, And The Food Bank, Ernie S. Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Herd Jun 2008

Globalization, Precarious Work, And The Food Bank, Ernie S. Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Herd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores whether people are better off working in the precarious employment associated with a neoliberal globalized economy. Firstly, we show the impacts of globalization on the composition of food bank users in Toronto, Canada. We then compare two groups offood bank users, one with at least one household member working, the other without. Our findings demonstrate that the life experiences of the two groups remain depressingly similar: those employed remained mired in poverty and continued to lead marginalized, precarious lives. The lack of investment in education or training characteristic of 'work-first' welfare reforms leads to unstable, low-paid work …

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Pre-Test Assessment, Thomas Berry Jun 2008

Pre-Test Assessment, Thomas Berry

College of Business Faculty and Staff Works

Pre-tests are a non-graded assessment tool used to determine pre-existing subject knowledge. Typically pre-tests are administered prior to a course to determine knowledge baseline, but here they are used to test students prior to topical material coverage throughout the course. While counterintuitive, the pre-tests cover material the student is not expected to know, but serve as a motivational tool and a road map for the students, resulting in improved course performance.

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Grasping The Small: The Political Economy Of Growth, Poverty And The Role Of The State In Two Chinese Provinces, John A. Donaldson Jun 2008

Grasping The Small: The Political Economy Of Growth, Poverty And The Role Of The State In Two Chinese Provinces, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Gaussian Inference In Ar(1) Time Series With Or Without A Unit Root, Peter C. B. Phillips, Chirok Han Jun 2008

Gaussian Inference In Ar(1) Time Series With Or Without A Unit Root, Peter C. B. Phillips, Chirok Han

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper introduces a simple first-difference-based approach to estimation and inference for the AR(1) model. The estimates have virtually no finite-sample bias and are not sensitive to initial conditions, and the approach has the unusual advantage that a Gaussian central limit theory applies and is continuous as the autoregressive coefficient passes through unity with a uniform rate of convergence. En route, a useful central limit theorem (CLT) for sample covariances of linear processes is given, following Phillips and Solo (1992, Annals of Statistics, 20, 971–1001). The approach also has useful extensions to dynamic panels.

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Inference For General Parametric Functions In Box-Cox-Type Transformation Models, Zhenlin Yang, Eden Ka-Ho Wu, Anthony F. Desmond Jun 2008

Inference For General Parametric Functions In Box-Cox-Type Transformation Models, Zhenlin Yang, Eden Ka-Ho Wu, Anthony F. Desmond

Research Collection School Of Economics

The authors propose a simple but general method of inference for a parametric function of the Box-Cox-type transformation model. Their approach is built upon the classical normal theory but takes parameter estimation into account. It quickly leads to test statistics and confidence intervals for a linear combination of scaled or unscaled regression coefficients, as well as for the survivor function and marginal effects on the median or other quantile functions of an original response. The authors show through simulations that the finite-sample performance of their method is often superior to the delta method, and that their approach is robust to …

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Time-Varying Incentives In The Mutual Fund Industry, Jacques Olivier, Anthony S. Tay Jun 2008

Time-Varying Incentives In The Mutual Fund Industry, Jacques Olivier, Anthony S. Tay

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper re-examines the incentives of mutual fund managers arising from investor flows. We provide evidence that the convexity of the flow-performance relationship varies with economic activity. We show that the effect is economically large and is not driven by abnormal years. We test two possible channels through which this pattern may arise. We investigate implications of the timevarying convexity for the incentives of managers to alter strategically the risk of their portfolios. We provide evidence that poor mid-year performers increase the risk of the portfolio only when economic activity is strong. Finally, we briefly discuss some methodological implications.

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New Mexico Labor Market Review 05-30-2008, New Mexico Department Of Workforce Solutions May 2008

New Mexico Labor Market Review 05-30-2008, New Mexico Department Of Workforce Solutions

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 April 2008.

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California Ocean And Coastal Investment Study Final Report, Kildow May 2008

California Ocean And Coastal Investment Study Final Report, Kildow

Publications

The National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP), in cooperation with the California Coastal Conservancy and the Ocean Protection Council (OPC), completed this study to provide an inventory of state expenditures for the coast and ocean for fiscal years 2005-06 (FY 2006) and 2006-07 (FY 2007). The purpose of the study is to understand where current public investments are being made and whether further investments need to occur to be consistent with the OPC Strategic Plan as well as those of various state programs.

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Darfur: Rainfall And Conflict, Michael Kevane, Leslie C. Gray May 2008

Darfur: Rainfall And Conflict, Michael Kevane, Leslie C. Gray

Economics

Data on rainfall patterns only weakly corroborate the claim that climate change explains the Darfur conflict that began in 2003 and has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than two million persons. Rainfall in Darfur did not decline significantly in the years prior to the eruption of major conflict in 2003; rainfall exhibited a flat trend in the thirty-years preceding the conflict (1972-2002). The rainfall evidence suggests instead a break around 1971. Rainfall is basically stationary over the pre- and post-1971 sub-periods. The break is larger for the more northerly rainfall stations, and is less noticeable for En …

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The Impact Of Being Born With Cleft And Cleft Reparative Surgery On Overall Health And Speech Outcomes, Khatansuudal Evsanaa May 2008

The Impact Of Being Born With Cleft And Cleft Reparative Surgery On Overall Health And Speech Outcomes, Khatansuudal Evsanaa

Master's Theses

Orofacial cleft is one of the most common and treatable birth defects in the world. If left untreated, orofacial cleft can impair normal speech development, growth, and could lead to a number of health consequences later in life. The main motivation of the study is to measure the impact of being born with cleft and the cleft reparative surgery on overall speech and health cleft for teenagers in India using difference-in-differences approach along with household fixed effects method. An overall health outcome was measured using height, weight, grip strength and BMI, and the speech acceptability was measured using a “Universal …

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