Economics Commons^™

Measures Of International Transport Cost For Oecd Countries, Stephen S. Golub, B. Tomasik

Economics Faculty Works

This paper presents new estimates of country-specific international transport costs for 21 OECD countries over the period 1973-2005. The methodology is based on direct measures of air, maritime, and road transport costs rather than on cif/fob ratios or other balance of payments data employed in previous studies. Transport costs are calculated as costs per kilogramme for each mode of transport at a bilateral level and then aggregated. Australia and New Zealand are found to have the highest transport costs among the OECD countries considered, followed by Japan. The time trends are sensitive to the choice of deflator, but the results …

A Study Of The Marginal Revenue Product Of Lebron James, Jared Taylor

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this paper is to determine if LeBron James has made the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team a more profitable business since joining the team in 2003. The principles of labor economics will be applied in determining the marginal revenue product of LeBron James and its relationship to the profits of the Cavaliers. It is the premise of this paper that proper utilization of one input can positively affect a firm’s profitability. An understanding of such a concept can be very useful in showing firm’s how to manage and employ labor in their pursuits of increased revenues.

The Significance Of Statistical Significance: Two Authors Restate An Incontrovertible Caution. Why A Book?, Richard O. Lempert

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

“The Significance of Statistical Significance” reviews THE CULT OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice and Lives by Stephen T. Ziliak and Dierdre N. McCloskey. The book’s core message is that statistical significance should not be equated with substantive significance and that empirical researchers should convey more information about the magnitude of relationships and effects than many now do. This review summarizes, approves of and elaborates on Ziliak and McCloskey’s message with special attention to concerns of the legal academy. It clarifies appropriate uses of significance tests within the research framework of controlling for plausible rival …

Economic Impact Analysis Of The Tourism Industry, Robertico R. Croes

Dick Pope Sr. Institute Publications

The tourism industry in Osceola County has undergone some significant changes over the past ten years. The inventory of the accommodation sector increased by more than 20%; the industry became more diversified and complex by a greater number of timeshare properties in the area, the emergence of vacation homes as a prominent market segment and the emergence of convention hotels. The continuing evolution of the tourism industry has kept it a significant player in the economic landscape of the county. The analysis considered the local tourism industry from the perspective of both direct impacts (i.e. employment, value-added and government revenues …

Gene Patenting In The Life Sciences Industry: Boon Or Bane?, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Does gene patenting encourage or hinder knowledge diffusion and take-up in the life sciences industry? Research by Singapore Management University management professor Kenneth Huang, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology management professor Fiona Murray found that patenting can have a negative impact on scientific progress. Huang spoke to Knowledge@SMU about the implications of his research findings in the Singapore context.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — May 2008, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Portland Me: Affordable Housing V. Open Space, Patrick Wright, Brett Richardson, Richard Barringer

Planning

Amid an acknowledged “affordable housing crisis”, a first-time developer approaches the City to release part of a tax-acquired property, promising a smart-growth development that would provide sorely needed starter homes for working families. The case highlights the complications of balancing competing interests in Portland ME. It shows where rational planning fails in the presence of strong neighborhood opposition, a disjointed city staff structure, and the absence of political will among City Councilors. It highlights the need for champions within local government when a project evokes competing interests. It demonstrates the extent to which “words matter” to policy outcomes, and who …

Epistemic Conditions For Rationalizability, Eduardo Zambrano

Economics

In this paper I present conditions, not involving common knowledge of rationality, that lead to (correlated) rationalizability. The basic observation is that, if the actual world belongs to a set of states where the set Z of action profiles is played, everyone is rational and it is mutual knowledge that the action profiles played are in Z, then the actions played at the actual world are rationalizable actions. Alternatively, if at the actual world the support of the conjecture of player i is Dⁱ, there is mutual knowledge of: (i) the game being played, (ii) that …

What Is The Price Elasticity Of Waiting Time For Taxis In Yaoundé, Cameroon?, Patrick Gilmartin

Economics Honors Projects

One tool used to allocate resources in markets is the auction. If this mechanism is applied in a situation characterized by large numbers of buyers and sellers (to avoid the possibility of single agent having the power to impact prices) then efficient allocation of resources should result, with important implications for welfare maximization. This paper looks at the essentially-deregulated taxi system in place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, which has endogenously developed around a bidding system. The "large number" criterion holds, as does that of a relatively low degree of informational asymmetry between buyer and seller, making the city an interesting case …

Honestly, Who Else Would Fund Such Research? Reflections Of A Non-Smoking Scholar, Michael L. Marlow

Economics

Many public-health researchers are quick to raise charges of bias to explain away the few studies that reach politically incorrect conclusions. Claims of bias are often thrown at researchers who are funded by the industries targeted for aggressive intervention. This paper discusses whether it makes sense that bias is a relevant issue only when researchers have connections to private industry or find fault with government intervention. I focus on the issue of whether smoking bans harm any restaurant or bar owners. This area of research has experienced a large number of claims of bias and deception, leveled against research that …

Economic Inequality In The New European Union: Are Monetary Policies In The European Union Unfair For Certain Countries?, Gregory Eric Banach

Dissertations

This research is focused on the affect one uniform monetary policy will have on the less developed countries that entered the European Union (EU) in 2004. One of the challenges facing the new entrants involves the required implementation of monetary policy goals, even though these new entrants do not have a vote on how the monetary policy is determined. Monetary policy in the EU is the responsibility of the European Central Bank (ECB) who has a stated goal price stability. It is possible to use the Taylor Rule to test whether the ECB focuses on price stability for both old …

Rehab Or Relocation? Estimating The Demand For Cocaine Through An American Port City Analysis, Gustave A. Bartuska

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Over the past five decades American drug policy can succinctly be classified by two words: expensive and punitive. American drug policy makers have conducted the “war on drugs” largely through supply side intervention. As the theory goes, by attacking drug producers, drug prices will rise due to the increased risk faced by suppliers, this risk will in turn be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. In order to critically asses the merits of such an expensive antidrug policy it is essential to estimate the price elasticity of demand for drugs.

The main finding of this paper …

University Of Texas At El Paso Capital Improvements: Economic Impact On El Paso, Texas, David A. Schauer, Carlos Olmedo, Dennis L. Soden

IPED Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Cd. Juárez Manufacturing And El Paso Industry Linkages, Carlos Olmedo, Roberto Tinajero, Mario E. Caire

IPED Technical Reports

The City of El Paso Economic Development Department views the development of strategies to enhance industry recruitment and retention as a key initiative to promote the regional economy. In an effort to identify opportunities for El Paso industries to become suppliers to the high demand for inputs by the Cd. Juárez manufacturing base, the Institute for Policy and Economic Development (IPED) at the University of Texas at El Paso has undertaken an input-output (I-O) study to examine customer-supplier linkages between Cd. Juárez manufacturing and El Paso industry. Analysis built on strongly associated linkages among industries (via I-O sales and purchasing …

The Effects Of Children's Gender On Living Arrangements And Child Support, Kristin Mammen

Publications and Research

Previous evidence suggests that the gender composition of a family's children--specifically, the presence of sons--affects a number of parental behaviors, including marriage formation, marriage disruption, and living arrangements. Using the March Current Population Survey from 1988 to 2006, this paper examines whether girls are at a double disadvantage in terms of living in single mother homes, and in the likelihood of receiving child support from absent fathers. The findings show that girls are indeed more likely to live in single mother homes and boys are overrepresented in married parent homes with a father or stepfather, and in single father families. …

Geography, Poverty, And Development Policy In The New African Millennium: Monitoring The Millennium Development Goals Through Human Development, Joseph Tamba Koroma

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV I AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. The eighth goal (MDG 8), aims to develop and strengthen a global partnership for development between rich and poor countries. Three main components of the latter (MDG 8) aim to accelerate the infusion of official development aid (ODA), liberalize international trade, and introduce information and communication technologies (ICT) in the hope of creating a conducive …

Economic Variables And Their Influence On Scientific Accplishment, Willis Boykin

All Theses

ABSTRACT This research looks for an association between economic variables and scientific advancement. More specifically, the main economic variables will be average schooling in the labor force, output per worker, capital per worker and different forms of the three. Index scores will provide a quantitative measure of scientific advancement. This paper explores the relationship of these variables among individuals and societies.

German Banks In The Global Economy: Global Pressures And Public Sector Banking, Jason A. Gorn

Pitzer Senior Theses

German banking is distinguished from neighboring European banking systems by the influence of its public sector banks. Nearly 50 percent of German banking is carried out by government owned state banks (ländesbanken) and regional savings banks (sparkassen) whose roots date from the 18 th century. German banks play a particularly important role in the economy and exert more control over firms and corporations than do their American counterparts. German banks tend to be less profitable than foreign counterparts. German public banks were originally founded to foster local and regional business. However, the operations of German public sector banks now extend …

A Study Of Craft Worker Length Of Employment At Select Missouri Construction Companies, Richard D. Bruce

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Craft worker retention is a constant concern of construction firms who selfperform portions of projects. These companies must maintain an understanding oftheir work force. A methodology is presented in this study for studying information in readily available employee databases to gain such an understanding. Using a sample of 10 of Missouri's 17 largest contractors, that employ 5,277 craft workers; this study examined the employee databases to identify differences in mean length of employment based on hire age, craft, union affiliation, and company size. The analysis of variance statistical technique was utilized to test four null hypotheses. Based on the test …

Nonlinearity And Temporal Dependence, Xiaohong Chen, Lars P. Hansen, Marine Carrasco

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Nonlinearities in the drift and diffusion coefficients influence temporal dependence in scalar diffusion models. We study this link using two notions of temporal dependence: beta-mixing and rho-mixing. We show that beta-mixing and rho-mixing with exponential decay are essentially equivalent concepts for scalar diffusions. For stationary diffusions that fail to be rho-mixing, we show that they are still beta-mixing except that the decay rates are slower than exponential. For such processes we find transformations of the Markov states that have finite variances but infinite spectral densities at frequency zero. Some have spectral densities that diverge at frequency zero in a manner …

Unit Root And Cointegrating Limit Theory When Initialization Is In The Infinite Past, Peter C.B. Phillips, Tassos Magdalinos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

It is well known that unit root limit distributions are sensitive to initial conditions in the distant past. If the distant past initialization is extended to the infinite past, the initial condition dominates the limit theory producing a faster rate of convergence, a limiting Cauchy distribution for the least squares coefficient and a limit normal distribution for the t ratio. This amounts to the tail of the unit root process wagging the dog of the unit root limit theory. These simple results apply in the case of a univariate autoregression with no intercept. The limit theory for vector unit root …

Long Memory And Long Run Variation, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A commonly used defining property of long memory time series is the power law decay of the autocovariance function. Some alternative methods of deriving this property are considered working from the alternate definition in terms of a fractional pole in the spectrum at the origin. The methods considered involve the use of (i) Fourier transforms of generalized functions, (ii) asymptotic expansions of Fourier integrals with singularities, (iii) direct evaluation using hypergeometric function algebra, and (iv) conversion to a simple gamma integral. The paper is largely pedagogical but some novel methods and results involving complete asymptotic series representations are presented. The …

Semiparametric Cointegrating Rank Selection, Xu Cheng, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Some convenient limit properties of usual information criteria are given for cointegrating rank selection. Allowing for a nonparametric short memory component and using a reduced rank regression with only a single lag, standard information criteria are shown to be weakly consistent in the choice of cointegrating rank provided the penalty coefficient C n → ∞ and C n /n → 0 as n → ∞. The limit distribution of the AIC criterion, which is inconsistent, is also obtained. The analysis provides a general limit theory for semiparametric reduced rank regression under weakly dependent errors. The method does not require the …

Structural Nonparametric Cointegrating Regression, Qiying Wang, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Nonparametric estimation of a structural cointegrating regression model is studied. As in the standard linear cointegrating regression model, the regressor and the dependent variable are jointly dependent and contemporaneously correlated. In nonparametric estimation problems, joint dependence is known to be a major complication that affects identification, induces bias in conventional kernel estimates, and frequently leads to ill-posed inverse problems. In functional cointegrating regressions where the regressor is an integrated time series, it is shown here that inverse and ill-posed inverse problems do not arise. Remarkably, nonparametric kernel estimation of a structural nonparametric cointegrating regression is consistent and the limit distribution …

Testing For Non-Nested Conditional Moment Restrictions Using Unconditional Empirical Likelihood, Taisuke Otsu, Myung Hwan Seo, Yoon-Jae Whang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We propose non-nested hypotheses tests for conditional moment restriction models based on the method of generalized empirical likelihood (GEL). By utilizing the implied GEL probabilities from a sequence of unconditional moment restrictions that contains equivalent information of the conditional moment restrictions, we construct Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Cramer-von Mises type moment encompassing tests. Advantages of our tests over Otsu and Whang’s (2007) tests are: (i) they are free from smoothing parameters, (ii) they can be applied to weakly dependent data, and (iii) they allow non-smooth moment functions. We derive the null distributions, validity of a bootstrap procedure, and local and global power …

Three Essays On Environmental Economics And International Trade, Patrick Mclaughlin

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT This dissertation addresses the broad topic of appropriate metrics, proxies, and estimation methods in environmental economics and international trade research, presented as three separate studies. The first, entitled, 'Something in the Water? Testing for Groundwater Quality Information in the Housing Market,' examines how informed real estate markets are with respect to groundwater quality by using a couple of different proxies for groundwater quality in a hedonic framework. This research topic has potentially suffered from imperfect proxies and incomplete information, which I test. In the second, entitled, 'Do Economic Integration Agreements Actually Work? Issues in Understanding the Causes and Consequences …

Nonlinearity And Temporal Dependence, Xiaohong Chen, Lars P. Hansen, Marine Carrasco

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Nonlinearities in the drift and diffusion coefficients influence temporal dependence in diffusion models. We study this link using three measures of temporal dependence: rho-mixing, beta-mixing and alpha-mixing. Stationary diffusions that are rho-mixing have mixing coefficients that decay exponentially to zero. When they fail to be rho-mixing, they are still beta-mixing and alpha-mixing; but coefficient decay is slower than exponential. For such processes we find transformations of the Markov states that have finite variances but infinite spectral densities at frequency zero. The resulting spectral densities behave like those of stochastic processes with long memory. Finally we show how state-dependent, Poisson sampling …

Unit Root Model Selection, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Some limit properties for information based model selection criteria are given in the context of unit root evaluation and various assumptions about initial conditions. Allowing for a nonparametric short memory component, standard information criteria are shown to be weakly consistent for a unit root provided the penalty coefficient C n → ∞ and C n /n → 0 as n → ∞. Strong consistency holds when C n /(log log n ) 3 → ∞ under conventional assumptions on initial conditions and under a slightly stronger condition when initial conditions are infinitely distant in the unit root model. The limit …

Local Limit Theory And Spurious Nonparametric Regression, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A local limit theorem is proved for sample covariances of nonstationary time series and integrable functions of such time series that involve a bandwidth sequence. The resulting theory enables an asymptotic development of nonparametric regression with integrated or fractionally integrated processes that includes the important practical case of spurious regressions. Some local regression diagnostics are suggested for forensic analysis of such regresssions, including a local R² and a local Durbin Watson (DW) ratio, and their asymptotic behavior is investigated. The most immediate findings extend the earlier work on linear spurious regression (Phillips, 1986), showing that the key behavioral characteristics of …

Optimal Bandwidth Choice For Interval Estimation In Gmm Regression, Yixiao Sun, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In time series regression with nonparametrically autocorrelated errors, it is now standard empirical practice to construct confidence intervals for regression coefficients on the basis of nonparametrically studentized t -statistics. The standard error used in the studentization is typically estimated by a kernel method that involves some smoothing process over the sample autocovariances. The underlying parameter ( M ) that controls this tuning process is a bandwidth or truncation lag and it plays a key role in the finite sample properties of tests and the actual coverage properties of the associated confidence intervals. The present paper develops a bandwidth choice rule …