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2010

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Full-Text Articles in Economics

Alternative Technical Efficiency Measures: Skew, Bias, And Scale, Qu Feng, William C. Horrace Mar 2010

Alternative Technical Efficiency Measures: Skew, Bias, And Scale, Qu Feng, William C. Horrace

Economics - All Scholarship

In the fixed-effects stochastic frontier model an efficiency measure relative to the best firm in the sample is universally employed. This paper considers a new measure relative to the worst firm in the sample. We find that estimates of this measure have smaller bias than those of the traditional measure when the sample consists of many firms near the efficient frontier. Moreover, a two-sided measure relative to both the best and the worst firms is proposed. Simulations suggest that the new measures may be preferred depending on the skewness of the inefficiency distribution and the scale of efficiency differences.

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Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — March 2010, Leonard Lardaro Mar 2010

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — March 2010, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

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Legal Guide For Small Businesses In Mississippi, Harvard Law School Mississippi Delta Project Economic Development Team Mar 2010

Legal Guide For Small Businesses In Mississippi, Harvard Law School Mississippi Delta Project Economic Development Team

Delta Directions: Publications

This Legal Guide for Small Businesses in Mississippi was prepared as part of the work of the GrowDelta Initiative. The GrowDelta Initiative is non-profit, independent group dedicated to fostering economic growth and development in the Mississippi Delta region. Our focus is on serving as an incubator and enabler for those considering new business ventures in the region. We focus on both high-level strategic business thinking and nuts-and-bolts practical guidance – both of which are necessary to succeed in today’s marketplace. The driving focus of The GrowDelta Initiative is to create a “Cycle of Success” whereby individuals can grow and learn …

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Monopoly, Regulation, And Innovation, Matt Bogard Mar 2010

Monopoly, Regulation, And Innovation, Matt Bogard

Economics Faculty Publications

Recently the Justice department has started investigations into alleged anti-trust violations by Monsanto. This has helped fuel a lot of already hyped discontent with one of the world’s leaders in innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture. This article discusses how the regulatory environment could possibly have contributed to more concentration and power in the biotech industry. Increasing regulation would likely have the opposite effect of creating a level playing field in the agriculture industry. From AgWeb, March 27,2010 http://www.agweb.com/blog/Economic_Sense_190/Monopoly_Regulation__and_Innovation_10771/

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Crafting Coherent Policy Responses To The Crisis In The Philippines, Fernando T. Aldaba, Reuel R. Hermoso Mar 2010

Crafting Coherent Policy Responses To The Crisis In The Philippines, Fernando T. Aldaba, Reuel R. Hermoso

Economics Department Faculty Publications

The onslaught of the global economic crisis has thrown many workers in different parts of the world out of their jobs and many in the developing economies have fallen into situations of poverty. In search for the proper response to the crisis, various governments have turned to stimulus spending as a strategy to preserve and create jobs for their affected citizenry. The ILO tripartite constituents – government, workers and employers – designed a Global Jobs Pact (GJP) during the International Labour Conference in 2009. The GJP serves as a guiding framework to national and international policies aimed at stimulating economic …

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Estimating Economic Activity From Space, Tilottama Ghosh Mar 2010

Estimating Economic Activity From Space, Tilottama Ghosh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate estimates of the magnitude and spatial distribution of both formal and informal economic activity is necessary to achieve various social and economic goals of societies and countries at different levels of analysis. However, collection of data on economic variables, especially of national and sub-national income levels is problematic due to various shortcomings in the data collection process. Additionally, the informal economy estimates are often excluded from official statistics. Thus, developing alternative methods for estimating these economic activities may prove to be useful and necessary. This research demonstrates the potential of developing spatially explicit estimates of economic activity from nighttime …

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No. 23: Labour Migration Trends And Policies In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams Mar 2010

No. 23: Labour Migration Trends And Policies In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

Since 1990, there have been major changes to longstanding patterns of intra-regional labour migration within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). At the same time, new channels of migration to and from the region have opened. Labour migration is now more voluminous, dynamic and complex than it has ever been. This presents policy-makers with considerable opportunities and challenges. In order to understand the exact nature of these challenges, it is important to have a good grasp of current labour migration characteristics and trends. Unfortunately, reliable, accurate and comprehensive data on labour migration is not available. The quality and currency of …

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Where The Ends Don’T Meet: Measuring Poverty And Self-Sufficiency Among Oregon’S Families, Melissa Rowe, Sheila A. Martin, Danan Gu, Webb Sprague Mar 2010

Where The Ends Don’T Meet: Measuring Poverty And Self-Sufficiency Among Oregon’S Families, Melissa Rowe, Sheila A. Martin, Danan Gu, Webb Sprague

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report uses the Self-Sufficiency Standard developed by Dr. Diana Pearce at the University of Washington to analyze the extent to which Oregon households earn enough money to meet their basic needs without a public subsidy. This standard, a vast improvement on the federal poverty level, accounts for differences in the cost of living based on family structure, age of children, and county of residence. Dr. Pearce has defined the income required to meet basic needs for every county in Oregon and a number of household types. A large number of Oregon households not considered poor by the federal poverty …

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Between Apprehension And Support: Social Dialogue, Democracy, And Industrial Restructuring In Central And Eastern Europe, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee Mar 2010

Between Apprehension And Support: Social Dialogue, Democracy, And Industrial Restructuring In Central And Eastern Europe, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article explores the attitudes of trade union organizations to restructuring and privatization of their enterprises to strategic foreign investors in Central and Eastern Europe's biggest steel producers: Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia. Contrary to advocates of insulating technocratic decision-makers from social partners, this article argues that higher quality of democracy and concomitant social dialogue carried out at the level of the sector with union organizations that are autonomous of the government in power (as was the case in the Czech Republic and Poland), are associated with greater restructuring and with support for privatization to strategic foreign investors. In …

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Estimated Macroeconomic Effects Of A Chinese Yuan Appreciation, Ray C. Fair Mar 2010

Estimated Macroeconomic Effects Of A Chinese Yuan Appreciation, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper uses a multicountry macroeconometric model to estimate the macroeconomic effects of a Chinese yuan appreciation. The estimated effects on U.S. output and employment are modest. Positive effects on U.S. output from a decrease in imports from China are offset by negative effects on U.S. output from increased inflation and from a decrease in U.S. exports to China because of a Chinese contraction.

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Dynamic Auctions: A Survey, Dirk Bergemann, Maher Said Mar 2010

Dynamic Auctions: A Survey, Dirk Bergemann, Maher Said

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We survey the recent literature on designing auctions and mechanisms for dynamic settings. Two settings are considered: those with a dynamic population of agents whose private information remains fixed throughout time; and those with a fixed population of agents whose private information changes across time. Within each of these settings, we discuss both efficient (welfare-maximizing) and optimal (revenue-maximizing) mechanisms.

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Targeting In Advertising Markets: Implications For Offline Vs. Online Media, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti Mar 2010

Targeting In Advertising Markets: Implications For Offline Vs. Online Media, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We develop a model with many advertisers (products) and many advertising markets (media). Each advertiser sells to a different segment of consumers, and each medium has a different ability to target advertising messages. We characterize the competitive equilibrium in the media markets and evaluate the implications of targeting in advertising markets. An increase in the targeting ability leads to an increase in the total number of purchases (matches), and hence in the social value of advertising. Yet, an improved targeting ability also increases the concentration of firms advertising in each market. Surprisingly, we then find that the equilibrium price of …

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Affective Decision-Making: A Theory Of Optimism-Bias, Anat Bracha, Donald J. Brown Mar 2010

Affective Decision-Making: A Theory Of Optimism-Bias, Anat Bracha, Donald J. Brown

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Optimism-bias is inconsistent with the independence of decision weights and payoffs found in models of choice under risk, such as expected utility theory and prospect theory. Hence, to explain the evidence suggesting that agents are optimistically biased, we propose an alternative model of risky choice, affective decision-making, where decision weights — which we label affective or perceived risk — are endogenized. Affective decision making (ADM) is a strategic model of choice under risk, where we posit two cognitive processes: the “rational” and the “emotional” processes. The two processes interact in a simultaneous-move intrapersonal potential game, and observed choice is the …

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The Central Bank Of Nigeria, The Liquidity And The Sectoral Credit Allocation, Omolara O. Akanji Mar 2010

The Central Bank Of Nigeria, The Liquidity And The Sectoral Credit Allocation, Omolara O. Akanji

Bullion

This article describes the ways in which the CBN has supplied liquidity since 2009. The first is traditional: The CBN supplies liquidity by providing credit through Open Market Operations (OMO) and by lending to depository institutions at the so-called discount window. The second is by enhancing the liquidity of the banks through the Standing Lending Facility (SLF) window. The article notes that the CBN since after banking consolidation exercise in 2005 has departed from its long standing tradition of minimizing its effect on the allocation of credit by supplying liquidity to institutions that it believed to be most in need; …

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National Incomes Policy In A Deregulated Economy: The Nigerian Perspective, Moses K. Tule Mar 2010

National Incomes Policy In A Deregulated Economy: The Nigerian Perspective, Moses K. Tule

Bullion

This paper examines the propriety of a national income policy in a deregulated economy. The literature indicates that various interest groups in the country tend to protect their narrow interests when negotiating for higher wages. Consequently, the goals of government to achieve equitable income distribution in the country with a national income policy are often at variance with the private interests. While congenial atmosphere for collective bargaining was deemed desirable for achieving effective income growth, an environment of consistently rising prices was considered an anticlimax to growth and development. Consequently, the paper opined that in a market economy, a national …

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Estimated Macroeconomic Effects Of The U.S. Stimulus Bill, Ray C. Fair Mar 2010

Estimated Macroeconomic Effects Of The U.S. Stimulus Bill, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper uses a multicountry macroeconometric model to estimate the macroeconomic effects of the U.S. stimulus bill passed in February 2009. The analysis has the advantage of taking into account many endogenous effects. Real U.S. output is estimated to be $554 billion larger when summed over the 12-year period 2009:1–2020:4 (0.29 percent of the total sum of output). The average number of jobs is 509 thousand larger (0.37 percent). There is some redistribution of output and employment away from 2012–2015. At the end of 2020 the federal government debt is larger by $637 billion in real terms (the debt/GDP ratio …

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Dynamic Auctions: A Survey, Dirk Bergemann, Maher Said Mar 2010

Dynamic Auctions: A Survey, Dirk Bergemann, Maher Said

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We survey the recent literature on designing auctions and mechanisms for dynamic settings. Two settings are considered: those with a dynamic population of agents or buyers whose private information remains fixed throughout time; and those with a fixed population of agents or buyers whose private information changes across time. Within each of these settings, we discuss both efficient (welfare-maximizing) and optimal (revenue-maximizing) mechanisms.

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Targeting In Advertising Markets: Implications For Offline Vs. Online Media, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti Mar 2010

Targeting In Advertising Markets: Implications For Offline Vs. Online Media, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We develop a model with many heterogeneous advertisers (products) and advertising markets (media). Each advertiser has a different consumer segment for its product, and each medium has a different ability to target advertisement messages. We characterize the competitive equilibrium in the media markets and investigate the role of targeting for the price and allocation of advertisements across media markets. An increase in the targeting ability leads to an increase in the total number of purchases (matches), and hence in the social value of advertisements. Yet, an improved targeting ability also increases the concentration of advertising firms in each market. Surprisingly, …

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The Role Of Commitment In Bilateral Trade, Dino Gerardi, Johannes Hörner, Lucas Maestri Mar 2010

The Role Of Commitment In Bilateral Trade, Dino Gerardi, Johannes Hörner, Lucas Maestri

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We examine the buyer-seller problem under different levels of commitment. The seller is informed of the quality of the good, which affects both his cost and the buyer’s valuation, but the buyer is not. We characterize the allocations that can be achieved through mechanisms in which, unlike with full commitment, the buyer has the option to “walk away” after observing a given offer. We further characterize the equilibrium payoffs that can be achieved in the bargaining game in which the seller makes all the offers, as the discount factor goes to one. This allows us to identify how different levels …

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Banking Sector Crisis And Resolution Options In Nigeria, U. Kama Mar 2010

Banking Sector Crisis And Resolution Options In Nigeria, U. Kama

Bullion

This paper x-rays banking sector crisis and its resolution options in Nigeria. The causes and impacts of banking crisis as well as the way forward for such crisis will also be examined. The paper is divided into six main sections. Following the introduction, Section 2 gives the conceptual/jurisdictional experience of banking crisis. Section 3 gives an overview of the structure of the Nigerian banking sector, the causes of banking crisis and its impacts on the economy, while Section 4 highlights the various banking sector resolution options and the Nigerian experience in banking sector crisis resolution. Section 5 highlights the way …

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Fiscal Operations And The Efficacy Of Monetary Management In Nigeria, A. E. Idowu Mar 2010

Fiscal Operations And The Efficacy Of Monetary Management In Nigeria, A. E. Idowu

Bullion

This paper underscores the need for predictable fiscal operations at all levels of government as a means of ensuring effective and efficient monetary management in the Nigeria federation. Following the introduction, section two discusses conceptual issues and the review of literature, section three discusses government's fiscal operations and challenges to monetary management, while section four examines fiscal reform and its impact on monetary management. Section five contains suggestion on the way forward and some concluding remarks.

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Funded Contributory Pension Scheme, Financial Deepening And Economic Growth: What Does The Evidence Say So Far About The Nigerian Economy?, Victor O. Asekunowo Mar 2010

Funded Contributory Pension Scheme, Financial Deepening And Economic Growth: What Does The Evidence Say So Far About The Nigerian Economy?, Victor O. Asekunowo

Bullion

The fully funded defined contributory benefit pension system was introduced in Nigeria in July, 2004 to replace the old fiscally unsustainable defined benefit (Pay-As-You-Go) pension system. The new pension scheme, coming at the heels of earlier reforms in Nigeria's financial sector, could be deemed to serve as a further boost towards savings mobilisation, increased financial instruments acquisition and economic growth. After a survey of relevant literature was conducted, secondary data on relevant macroeconomic indices in the Nigerian economy were collected. The data were descriptively analysed. The results showed that TDS (total domestic savings) increased during the post-pension reform period and …

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The Challenges Of Power Supply In Enhancing Integration Processes In Ecowas Member Countries, O. L. Akinboyo Mar 2010

The Challenges Of Power Supply In Enhancing Integration Processes In Ecowas Member Countries, O. L. Akinboyo

Bullion

The birth of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 1975 as an instrument for fostering regional development and unity was also due to the limited economic coherence within the sub-region. This prompted their leaders to embrace regional integration as a central element of their development strategy. There has been increased awareness among these countries that progressive integration holds great potential for minimizing the costs of market fragmentation and thus, represents a precondition for integrating the region into the global economy. Cooperation and integration is also necessary to improve West Africa's competitiveness and position it to maximize the …

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Financial Exchange Rates And International Currency Exposures, Philip R. Lane, Jay C. Shambaugh Mar 2010

Financial Exchange Rates And International Currency Exposures, Philip R. Lane, Jay C. Shambaugh

Dartmouth Scholarship

In order to gain a better empirical understanding of the international financial implications of currency movements, we construct a database of international currency exposures for a large panel of countries over 1990-2004. We show that trade-weighted exchange rate indices are insufficient to understand the financial impact of currency movements and that our currency measures have high explanatory power for the valuation term in net foreign asset dynamics. Exchange rate valuation shocks are sizable, not quickly reversed, and may entail substantial wealth redistributions. Further, we show that many developing countries have substantially reduced their negative foreign currency positions over the last …

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Multiple-Product Firms And Product Switching, Andrew B. Bernard, Stephen J. Redding, Peter K. Schott Mar 2010

Multiple-Product Firms And Product Switching, Andrew B. Bernard, Stephen J. Redding, Peter K. Schott

Dartmouth Scholarship

This paper examines the frequency, pervasiveness, and determinants of product switching by US manufacturing firms. We find that one-half of firms alter their mix of five-digit SIC products every five years, that product switching is correlated with both firm- and firm-product attributes, and that product adding and dropping induce large changes in firm scope. The behavior we observe is consistent with a natural generalization of existing theories of industry dynamics that incorporates endogenous product selection within firms. Our findings suggest that product switching contributes to a reallocation of resources within firms toward their most efficient use. (JEL L11, L21, L25, …

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Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2009, Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell Mar 2010

Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2009, Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

The Mountain West’s recovery from the Great Recession is spreading. Output is growing in every metropolitan area. Still, hiring remains elusive—a fact frustrating the entire nation, but perhaps more so in a region used to snapping, even roaring, back from recessions faster than the rest of the nation. Drawing on data covering the fourth quarter of 2009 (ending in December), this new Mountain Monitor—a companion product to Brookings’ national MetroMonitor and a quarterly resource produced by Brookings Mountain West, a partnership between Brookings and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas—surveys a region that is at once recovering and still …

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Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey 2010 Highlights, Robert Futrell, Christie D. Batson, Barbara G. Brents, Andrea Dassopoulos, Chrissy Nicholas, Mark J. Salvaggio, Candace Griffith Mar 2010

Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey 2010 Highlights, Robert Futrell, Christie D. Batson, Barbara G. Brents, Andrea Dassopoulos, Chrissy Nicholas, Mark J. Salvaggio, Candace Griffith

Reports (USI)

UNLV sociologists conducted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey (LVMASS) to identify the socio-spatial distribution of attitudes and attributes relevant to urban sustainability in the Las Vegas Valley. The project goal is to understand how Las Vegas residents think about urban sustainability issues across three dimensions: 1) natural environment; 2) community and quality of life; 3) economy.

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Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen Mar 2010

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

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Panel Data Inference Under Spatial Dependence, Badi H. Baltagi, Alain Pirotte Mar 2010

Panel Data Inference Under Spatial Dependence, Badi H. Baltagi, Alain Pirotte

Center for Policy Research

This paper focuses on inference based on the usual panel data estimators of a one-way error component regression model when the true specification is a spatial error component model. Among the estimators considered, are pooled OLS, random and fixed effects, maximum likelihood under normality, etc. The spatial effects capture the cross-section dependence, and the usual panel data estimators ignore this dependence. Two popular forms of spatial autocorrelation are considered, namely, spatial auto-regressive random effects (SAR-RE) and spatial moving average random effects (SMA-RE). We show that when the spatial coefficients are large, test of hypothesis based on the usual panel data …

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Health Insurance Tax Credits And Health Insurance Coverage Of Low-Earning Single Mothers, Merve Cebi, Stephen A. Woodbury Mar 2010

Health Insurance Tax Credits And Health Insurance Coverage Of Low-Earning Single Mothers, Merve Cebi, Stephen A. Woodbury

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

No abstract provided.

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