Economics Commons^™

Contract Enforcement And Productive Efficiency: Evidence From The Bidding And Renegotiation Of Power Contracts In India, Nicholas Ryan

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Weak contract enforcement may reduce the efficiency of investment in developing countries. I study how contract enforcement affects efficiency in procurement auctions for the largest power projects in India. I gather data on bidding and ex post contract renegotiation and find that the renegotiation of contracts in response to cost shocks is widespread, despite that bidders are allowed to index their bids to future costs like the price of coal. Connected firms choose to index less of the value of their bids to coal prices and, through this strategy, expose themselves to cost shocks to induce renegotiation. I use a …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 3, Number 2, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Aaron Nazarian, Steven L. Fullerton, Sergio Olivas

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And Occupational Health: Are There Limits To Our Ability To Adapt?, Marcus Dillender

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This study considers the relationship between temperature and occupational health. The results indicate that both high and low temperatures increase injury rates and that high temperatures have more severe adverse effects in warmer climates, which suggests that avoiding the adverse effects of high temperatures may be easier for workers when hot days are rarer. While research on the effect of temperature on mortality finds substantial capacity for adaption with current technology, the results presented here suggest that outdoor workers face challenges in adapting to high temperatures.

Bicentennial Commemoration Has To Be More Than Just An Anniversary, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan examined the significance of the bicentennial commemoration to mark the 200th anniversary of the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles on January 29, 1819. He cautioned that such commemorations cannot be just about sentimentality, novelty or the feel-good factor of how far Singapore has come along but should instead encourage us to think and remember as well as to learn the invaluable lessons of our past.

Social Policy Reform And Rigidity In Singapore's Authoritarian Developmental State, Lily Zubaidah Rahim, Lam Keong Yeoh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Singapore’s economic achievements have been widely applauded as a model worthy of emulation, particularly by authoritarian and rapidly industrialising economies. Yet, the city-state retains the dubious distinction of being one of the most inequitable countries in the world—in income inequality terms. Singapore is the only developed economy where workers are not entitled to a minimum wage or compulsory retrenchment benefits. However, following the 2011 electoral backlash against the long-serving People’s Action Party (PAP) government, numerous social policy reforms were introduced. But have these social policy reforms been effective in qualitatively addressing income and socio-economic inequality? To address this question, the …

Regional Prevalence Of Health Worker Absenteeism In Tanzania, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

Absenteeism of health workers in developing countries is common and can severely undermine the reliability of the health system. Therefore, it is important to understand where the prevalence of absenteeism is high. We develop a simple imputation method that combines a Service Delivery Indicators survey and a Service Provision Assessment survey to estimate the prevalence of absenteeism of health workers at the level of regions in Tanzania. The resulting estimates allow one to identify the regions in which the prevalence of absenteeism is significantly higher or lower than the national average and help policymakers determine priority areas for intervention.

Refusal Bias In Hiv Data From The Demographic And Health Surveys: Evaluation, Critique And Recommendations, Oyelola A. Adegboye, Tomoki Fujii, Denis H. Y. Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Non-response is a commonly encountered problem in many population-based surveys. Broadly speaking, non-response can be due to refusal or failure to contact the sample units. Although both types of non-response may lead to bias, there is much evidence to indicate that it is much easier to reduce the proportion of non-contacts than to do the same with refusals. In this article, we use data collected from a nationally-representative survey under the Demographic and Health Surveys program to study non-response due to refusals to HIV testing in Malawi. We review existing estimation methods and propose novel approaches to the estimation of …

Sanctions For Nuclear Inhibition: Comparing Sanctions Conditions Between Iran And North Korea, Inwook Kim, Jung-Chul Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Whendo sanctions succeed in nuclear inhibition? Is there a generalizable frameworkto estimate sanction effectiveness against nuclear aspirants? Instead ofrelying on partial equilibrium analysis, we conceptualize sanctions as threesequential phases—imposition of economic pain, conversation to politicalpressure, and creation (or failure thereof) of zone of possible agreement(ZOPA). The effectiveness of each phase is subject to phase-specific contextualvariables, an aggregation of which helps measure individual sanction’s effectiveness,conduct cross-case comparison, and estimate one’s replicability in other cases.To illustrate its analytical utility, we analyze the divergent sanctionoutcomes between Iran in 2012-2015 and North Korea 2013-2017. Iran waseconomically more vulnerable, politically less resilient, and its bargainingposition …

Efficient Estimation Of Integrated Volatility Functionals Via Multi-Scale Jackknife, Jia Li, Yunxiao Liu, Dacheng. Xiu

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose semiparametrically efficient estimators for general integrated volatility functionals of multivariate semimartingale processes. A plug-in method that uses nonparametric estimates of spot volatilities is known to induce high-order biases that need to be corrected to obey a central limit theorem. Such bias terms arise from boundary effects, the diffusive and jump movements of stochastic volatility and the sampling error from the nonparametric spot volatility estimation. We propose a novel jackknife method for bias correction. The jackknife estimator is simply formed as a linear combination of a few uncorrected estimators associated with different local window sizes used in the estimation …

Asymptotic Theory For Estimating Drift Parameters In The Fractional Vasicek Model, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article develops an asymptotic theory for estimators of two parameters in the drift function in the fractional Vasicek model when a continuous record of observations is available. The fractional Vasicek model with long-range dependence is assumed to be driven by a fractional Brownian motion with the Hurst parameter greater than or equal to one half. It is shown that, when the Hurst parameter is known, the asymptotic theory for the persistence parameter depends critically on its sign, corresponding asymptotically to the stationary case, the explosive case, and the null recurrent case. In all three cases, the least squares method …

Code Mixing As A Form Of Indonesian Identity Based On The Motto Of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Fajar Muhammad Nugraha

International Review of Humanities Studies

In 2018, the Language Comission of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) of the Republic of Indonesia has made verification towards all the languages that exists in Indonesia. The verification conducted from 1991 to 2017 resulted in 652 languages to be found. That number still does not include the dialects and their sub-divisions of the 652 languages. Meanwhile, UNESCO recorded 143 languages based on their vitality status. Identity can be interpreted as similarity or unity with others in a certain area or other things (Rummens, 1993: 157-159). "The identity possessed by an individual can be in the form of …

The Digital Knowledge Economy Index: Mapping Content Production, Sanna Ojanperä, Mark Graham, Matthew Zook

Geography Faculty Publications

We propose the construction of a Digital Knowledge Economy Index, quantified by way of measuring content creation and participation through digital platforms, namely the code sharing platform GitHub, the crowdsourced encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and Internet domain registrations and estimating a fifth sub-index for the World Bank Knowledge Economy Index for year 2012. This approach complements conventional data sources such as national statistics and expert surveys and helps reflect the underlying digital content creation, capacities, and skills of the population. An index that combines traditional and novel data sources can provide a more revealing view of the status of the world’s digital …

Tax Strategies For Farmers And Cooperatives Under The New Section 199a, Greg Mckee

Cornhusker Economics

This tax season will be the first time cooperatives and their patrons will consider the income tax consequences of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). A key element of the TCJA, Section 199A, affects farm income tax liability. Not only is the Section 199A deduction a good tax break for farmers, it changes incentives for farmer patrons to market through cooperatives. It also changes incentives for how cooperatives distribute their income. Cooperative members, their boards of directors, and management teams will have many tax strategy options to consider in 2019.

The good news about Section 199A is …

Counterfactuals With Latent Information, Dirk Bergemann, Benjamin Brooks, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We describe a methodology for making counterfactual predictions when the information held by strategic agents is a latent parameter. The analyst observes behavior which is rationalized by a Bayesian model, in which agents maximize expected utility, given partial and differential information about payoff-relevant states of the world, represented as an information structure. A counterfactual prediction is desired about behavior in another strategic setting, under the hypothesis that the distribution of the state and agents’ information about the state are held fixed. When the data and the desired counterfactual prediction pertain to environments with finitely many states, players, and actions, there …

Counterfactuals With Latent Information, Dirk Bergemann, Benjamin Brooks, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We describe a methodology for making counterfactual predictions in settings where the information held by strategic agents is unknown. The analyst observes behavior assumed to be rationalized by a Bayesian model, in which agents maximize expected utility, given partial and differential information about payoff-relevant states of the world. A counterfactual prediction is desired about behavior in another strategic setting, under the hypothesis that the distribution of the state and agents’ information about the state are held fixed. When the data and the desired counterfactual prediction pertain to environments with finitely many states, players, and actions, the counterfactual prediction is described …

The Costs Of Obtaining Environmental Outcomes Through Coastal Habitat Restoration, Shea Gould, Matthew G. Interis

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Studies examining the costs of coastal habitat restoration have focused on the cost per acre of restoration or on cost efficiency of various restoration methods. On the other hand, studies examining the benefits of restoration have focused on various ecosystem services that more directly affect welfare including amenity value, storm protection, nutrient retention and biodiversity. We examine a set of 133 Gulf of Mexico coastal habitat restoration projects to estimate the cost of obtaining average annual habitat units (AAHUs), a measure which captures the quantity and, importantly, quality of habitat restored, which is one of the more direct ecosystem service …

Year Of Cuba 2019-2020, Nashieli Marcano, Leslie Drost

Research Guides & Subject Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Money And Banking, Ahmed Elkhouly

Open Educational Resources

The course discusses the importance of money and banking to economic activity on the national and international level. You will learn the definition of money and about the different financial institutions that help circulate money through the system. The course also covers deposit expansion, the evolution of commercial banking, deposit creation, and a detailed study of the Federal Reserve Banking system. The course also includes the relationship between money and banking and Macroeconomic theory and concludes with the importance of money and banking in international trade and finance.

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Lijuan Feng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 studies the effect of body weight on labor market outcomes. Using longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1989 to 2011, and both instrumental variable and fixed effects estimation to control for the endogeneity of body weight, I examine the wage effect of BMI by gender, type of residence area, and occupation. Results from linear OLS regression show a positive relationship between body weight and income for males in both rural and urban areas and females in rural areas, while a negative one for females in urban areas. After controlling for the unobserved individual …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: January 23, 2019, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) 1 rose by 0.70% during December of 2018. The increase in the LEI-N, which is designed to predict economic activity six months into the future, implies solid economic growth in Nebraska during the first half of 2019. Nebraska manufacturing hours and airline passenger counts both rose during December, while business expectations remained strong. Respondents to the December Survey of Nebraska Business reported plans to increase both sales and employment at their businesses over the next six months.

Trends In Nebraska Agricultural Land Ownership And Rental Patterns, Jim Jansen, Jay Parsons, Kate Brooks

Cornhusker Economics

In Nebraska, different types of rental arrangements are used on agricultural land. These arrangements commonly include crop share, cash lease, and cash lease with flexible provisions.

Crop Share: landowner receives a percentage of actual crop yield as payment for leasing the agricultural land to the tenant. The landowner may share input and production costs of raising the crop.

Cash Leases: landowner receives an agreed upon cash payment amount for leasing the agricultural land to the tenant.

Cash lease with Flexible Provisions: land owner and tenant set a base cash rental rate which can flex upon actual crop yields, prices, or …

Empty Discarded Pack Data And The Prevalence Of Illicit Trade In Cigarettes In California, James Prieger

School of Public Policy Working Papers

Illicit trade in tobacco products (ITTP) creates many harms including reduced tax revenues; damages to the economic interests of legitimate actors; funding for organized-crime and terrorist groups; negative effects of participation in illicit markets, such as violence and incarceration; and reduced effectiveness of smoking-reduction policies, leading to increased damage to health. To study the prevalence of tax avoidance and ITTP, we analyze a large, novel set of data from empty discarded pack (EDP) studies. In EDP studies, teams of researchers collect all cigarette packs discarded in publicly accessible spaces of selected neighborhoods. Packs are examined for the absence of local …

Endogenous Market Formation And Monetary Trade: An Experiment, Gabriele Camera, Dror Goldberg, Avi Weiss

ESI Working Papers

The theory of money assumes decentralized bilateral exchange and excludes centralized multilateral exchange. However, endogenizing the exchange process is critical for understanding the conditions that support the use of money. We develop a “travelling game” to study the emergence of decentralized and centralized exchange, theoretically and experimentally. Players located on separate islands can either trade locally, or pay a cost to trade elsewhere, so decentralized and centralized markets can both emerge in equilibrium. The former minimize trade costs through monetary exchange; the latter maximizes overall surplus through non-monetary exchange. Monetary trade emerges when coordination is problematic, while centralized trade emerges …

The Attack And Defense Games, Roman Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

The attack and defense game is a game in which an attacker (a group of attackers) has an incentive to revise the status quo and a defender (a group of defenders) wants to protect it. The asymmetry in objectives creates incompatible interests and results in a mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium. However, this equilibrium could be heavily impacted by behavioral considerations.

Structural Change, Productivity, And The Shift To Services: The Case Of Indonesia, Nabil Rizky Ryandiansyah

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Since Chenery & Syrquin (1975), the pattern of transition from agriculture-heavy economies to industry and then later to services has been central to growth literatures. But recent empirical works have casted doubts on whether developing countries are able to follow the same path. This paper analyzes whether structural change in Indonesia has been productivity-enhancing. This paper finds that structural change from 1998-2014 has not been able to generate impact on economy-wide productivity. This paper also explores possible determinants of the direction of structural change. This paper does not find commodity dependence nor human capital to have clear association with low …

A Comparative Analysis Between Islamic Banks And Conventional Banks In Indonesia Before And After Global Financial Crisis, Lina Nugraha Rani

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The objective of this study is to elaborate the comparison and examine the stability level between Islamic and conventional banks operational in Indonesia during the period of before and after Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The impact of Global Financial Crisis on Islamic and conventional banks was analyzed using the tests of IRF (Impulse Response Function) and Variance Decomposition Analysis (VDA) which existed in the VAR (Vector Autoregressive) Method. The pre (GFC) period used in this study is between January 2003 and July 2007, whereas the post GFC is between August 2007 and December 2016. The results of this study are …

Financial Development And Income Inequality In Indonesia: A Sub-National Level Analysis, Harry Aginta

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study constructs financial inclusion indicator and analyzes the link of financial inclusion and income inequality for 33 provinces in Indonesia. By using Fixed Effect Panel Model, we find financial inclusion appears to have insignificant effect to on inequality at national level. While at sub-national level, adding other variables such as GRDP, years of schooling, and trade openness, we find financial inclusion appears to have negative and significant impact on income inequality in manufacture and mining-based provinces, not in agriculture-based. The results suggest that financial inclusion helps to lower income inequality when economic condition encourage people to utilize financial access …

Corruption And Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) In Asean-5: A Panel Evidence, Bakri Abdul Karim Mr, Zulkefly Abdul Karim

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This paper examines the effects of corruption on the inflow of FDI in ASEAN-5 countries by controlling twomacroeconomic variables namely Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and inflation. Using a static panel dataestimation, the results show the significant relationship between corruption and Gross Domestic Product(GDP) on the inflow of FDI in ASEAN-5. This results indicate that less corrupted countries and largermarket size would attract more FDI inflows. The policy implications from this study suggests that ASEAN-5 governments need to have concerted and continues efforts in improving the integrity and credibility of theiradministration and transactions. In addition, maintaining their sustainable of economic growth …

Availability Of Infrastructure For Poverty Reduction In Indonesia: Spatial Panel Data Analysis, Galih Pramono

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Poverty is a key issue in various developing countries, including Indonesia. One of the efforts to reduce poverty is building the infrastructure. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of infrastructure on the level of poverty by considering the spatial effect in the period 2011-2015. This study applies spatial panel data analysis with Spatial Autoregressive (SAR) model with fixed effect. The findings show that the infrastructure of electricity, health, sanitation, and building of senior high school has a significant negative impact on the percentage of the underprivileged people. Meanwhile, the building of elementary school has a significant positive impact …

Forced Labor In Hong Kong, Kylan Rutherford

Marriott Student Review

Domestic workers are among the most exploited groups, composing 24% of the estimated 45.8 million forced laborers worldwide. The market for domestic workers has expanded especially rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region; in Hong Kong alone, there are currently 360,000 domestic workers—about 10% of Hong Kong’s workforce—mostly originating from the Philippines and Indonesia (Hincks, 2017). 94% of these workers show signs of exploitation or forced labor (Kang, 2017). The nature of their work in a foreign country limits their access to government protection, forces them to comply with illegally high recruitment fees, and can push them to submit to abuse in …