International Economics Commons^™

Measuring Technical Efficiency In Sports, Trevor Collier, Andrew Johnson, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Standard economic production theory is the basis for measuring technical efficiency in sports. Using programming or regression models, efficiency is defined as the distance of a given team observation from the technology. In this article, the authors show that the standard measures of efficiency using deterministic models are biased downward due to serial correlation with respect to the efficiency measure. In particular, if the number of observed wins for a given team is affected by the team’s inefficiency, it is necessarily true that another team is able to produce outside of the technology. As a result, the observed frontier is …

The Impact Of Institutional Arrangements On Educational Efficiency, Trevor Collier

Trevor Collier

Per-pupil expenditures on education in the United States have grown immensely in recent decades, yet student achievement has been stagnant. An abundance of research has sought to solve this enigma, much of it centered on the incentive structure facing administrators. Some recent papers use TIMSS data to analyze the relationship between institutional arrangements—that typically do not vary within a single country—and student achievement. Similarly, we utilize TIMSS 1999 to determine if there is an indirect relationship between institutional arrangements and student achievement, via a relationship with school efficiency. Our results show that the specified link between institutional arrangements and student …

Teacher Qualifications And Student Achievement: A Panel Data Of Analysis, Trevor Collier

Trevor Collier

Recent academic research suggests that teacher quality plays an important role in student achievement: however, empirical research on the efficacy of policies requiring teachers to obtain certain degrees is inconclusive, particularly in elementary education. This paper models a panel data production function with fixed effects using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) to asses the relationship between different undergraduate and graduate majors and elementary student test scores. Specifcally, we aim to discern if there is a difference in teacher efficacy within the different education related majors (e.g. early childhood education and elementary education) and between education and non-education related majors.

Estimation Of Multi-Output Production Functions In Commercial Fisheries, Trevor Collier, Andrew Mamula, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Measuring the productivity of vessels in a multi-species fishery can be problematic. Typical regression techniques are not capable of handling multiple outputs while Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) tends to ignore the stochastic nature of production. Applied economists have devoted considerable time to this problem and have developed several methods of dealing with the issue of multiple output technologies in commercial fisheries. Our paper contributes to this literature by providing another method for estimating production functions of vessels operating in multi-species fisheries. We utilize a two-stage model – with data from the West Coast Limited Entry Groundfish Trawl Fishery – using …

Tobin, James, Tony Caporale

Tony Caporale

James Tobin was born in Champaign, Illinois, in 1918. He received his bachelor's degree in 1939 and his master's degree in 1940, both from Harvard. Following naval service during the years 1942-6, he returned to his graduate studies and received his PhD from Harvard in 1947. In 1950, he joined the economics department at Yale University, and he has largely remained at Yale and has been identified with this institution throughout his career. He twice directed the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, first from 1955 to 1961, and then from 1964 to 1965. He also served for two years, …

The Relationship Between Output Variability And Growth: Evidence From Post War U.K. Data, Tony Caporale, Barbara Mckiernan

Tony Caporale

The paper investigates the relationship between output variability and economic growth using a GARCH-M model with industrial production in post-war Great Britain. The data reveals a positive relationship between variability and growth rates.

Debt Dilution And Sovereign Default Risk, Juan Carlos Hatchondo, Leonardo Martinez, Cesar Sosa Padilla

Leonardo Martinez

No abstract provided.

Fiscal Rules And The Sovereign Default Premium, Juan Carlos Hatchondo, Leonardo Martinez, Francisco Roch

Leonardo Martinez

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Protection And The Industrial Composition Of Multinational Activity, Olena Ivus, Walter Park, Kamal Saggi

Olena Ivus

In a North-South model with endogenous FDI, we examine the impact of Southern IPR protection on the mode and industry composition of international technology transfer. A novel feature of the model is that, due to technological reasons, industries differ with respect to their susceptibility to imitation. In equilibrium, licensing occurs in industries where the risk of imitation is low and FDI where it is of intermediate magnitude. Stronger IPRs in the South (i) alter the industrial composition of multinational activity towards licensing at the expense of FDI, (ii) reduce local imitation, (iii) increase licensing and, to a lesser extent, FDI.

Holes In The Dike: The Global Savings Glut, U.S. House Prices And The Long Shadow Of Banking Deregulation, Mathias Hoffmann, Iryna Stewen

Mathias Hoffmann

We show how capital inflows into and financial deregulation within the United States interacted in driving the recent boom and bust in U.S. housing prices. Interstate banking deregulation during the 1980s cast a long shadow: in states that opened their banking markets to out-of-state banks earlier, house prices were more sensitive to aggregate U.S. capital inflows during 1990-2012. Capital inflows relaxed the value-at-risk constraints of geographically diversified (‘integrated’) U.S. banks more than those of local banks. Therefore, integrated banks absorbed a larger share of capital inflows and expanded mortgage lending more. This drove up housing prices.

The Effect Of The U.S. Biofuels Mandate On Poverty In India, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Marie-Helene Hubert, Beyza Ural Marchand

Ujjayant Chakravorty

More than 40% of US grain is now used for energy and this share is expected to rise under the current Renewable Fuels Mandate (RFS). There are no studies of the global distributional consequences of this purely domestic policy. Using micro-level survey data, we trace the effect of the RFS on world food prices and their impact on household level consumption and wage impacts in India. We first develop a partial equilibrium model to estimate the effect of the RFS on the price of selected food commodities - rice, wheat, corn, sugar and meat and dairy, which together provide almost …

Islands As `Bad' Geography. Insularity, Connectedness, Trade Costs And Trade, Luca De Benedictis, Anna Maria Pinna

Luca De Benedictis

Currency Wars And The Erosion Of Dollar Hegemony, Lan Cao

Lan Cao

Import Quota Allocation Between Regions Under Cournot Competetion, Abdessalem Abbassi, Lota Tamini, Ahlem Dakhlaoui

abdessalem abbassi

The paper analyzes the impact of import quotas on the welfare of different regions belonging to a single country. The regions compete with one another using Cournot conjectures and international trade is hindered by import quotas. Our results can help the country to determine the optimal import quotas and the best way to allocate import permits between regions. Wefind three mains results. First, we show how the world price, the difference in production costs between regions and the relative market size determine the allocation of import quotas, the interregional trade and the rent of import permits holders. Second, we show …

La Efectiva Integración Del Mercosur. Estado Actual Del Proceso. Avances Y Desafíos, Francisco Carlos Ruiz Diaz

Francisco Carlos Ruiz Diaz

El Mercosur se encuentra actualmente en un equilibrio que no es su condición de equilibrio de largo plazo. Su agenda comercial con pocos avances. Se han incluido dos nuevos socios, lo cual implica menos concentración (poder en las negociaciones) por parte de los socios mayoritarios (Argentina y Brasil). En los próximos años el Mercosur tendrá como desafíos: fortalecer y completar las instituciones para la libre circulación, retomar los esfuerzos para potenciar los temas comerciales, conectividad física e infraestructura, profundizar el relacionamiento externo (problemas de «agregación de preferencias), consolidar la coordinación macroeconómica y recuperar la credibilidad del sistema de solución de …

Reversing Ethiopia's Intellectual Capital Flight, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Recently, the Ethiopian Government drafted a five year plan (2010 to 2015) to achieve the country’s economic growth. When Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation plan was analyzed in light of the new growth theory and traced historically in terms of the push and pull factors that contributed to the flight of skilled Ethiopians to more advanced countries, it was found that over the years Ethiopia has funded the education of its nationals only to see them contributing to the growth of developed countries. Being stripped of skilled human capital, leaving it ill prepared to face globalization and survive in the new …

Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla

Sarosh Kuruvilla

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …

Receiving The Headian Legacy: International Lawyers, South-To-North Resource Transfers, And The Challenge Of International Development, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Written over fifteen years ago by Ivan Leigh Head, a highly distinguished Canadian international lawyer, foreign policy expert, and international development thinker, the words contained in the above quotation point firmly at this great man's analytic incisiveness and hint at the sheer depth of his fairness of mind. For although the net transfer of resources from the much poorer geopolitical "South" to a far richer "North" remains to this day one of the most important obstacles to international development, rarely have the dominant accounts of international development given this phenomenon the pride of place that it surely deserves.

Notes On The Seminar On African Economic Outlook 2015, Held On The 8th Of October 2015 At The House Of The Estates Of Finland, J. G. A. Saviranta

Akseli Saviranta

The following document presents summarised key notes from the United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) seminar titled “African Economic Outlook 2015 – Unlocking the potential of local economies for inclusive growth”. The seminar presented the 2015 report titled “African Economic Outlook 2015 – Regional Development and Spatial Inclusion”, produced by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre, and the United Nations Development Programme. The African Development Bank, UNU-WIDER, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland were the co-organisers of the Seminar.

Responsible International Citizenry In The Asian Century: Why Failure To Meet International Obligations Adversely Affects Australian National Interests, Danielle Ireland-Piper

Danielle Ireland-Piper

If Australia is to secure its financial and security interests in the Asian century, then it must build effective working relationship in the Asia-Pacific. To do so, Australia must build familial and not merely transactional relationship in Asia. In turn, this requires Australia to present as a responsible international citizen. This image of responsible citizenry, however, is difficult to achieve when the Australian Constitution permits race-based laws and Australia’s approach to regional asylum seeker management may violate international law. This is because the hypocrisy inherent in non-compliance impedes Australia's capacity to build meaningful relationship in the Asian region. in that …

Sector Inmobiliario Y Debilidad De La Zona Euro, Jaime Luque

Jaime P. Luque

No abstract provided.

On The Strategic Use Of Border Tax Adjustments As A Second-Best Climate Policy Measure, Charles F. Mason, Edward B. Barbier, Victoria Umanskaya

Charles F Mason

No abstract provided.

Cartelizing Taxes: Understanding The Oecd's Campaign Against Harmful Tax Competition, Andrew P. Morriss, Lotta Moberg

Andrew P. Morriss

Formed in 1961 to promote global economic and social well-being, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has become the collective voice of rich countries on international tax issues. After an initial focus on improving commerce through addressing double taxation issues, the organization shifted to a focus on restricting tax competition and increasing automatic exchanges of tax information. In this paper we analyze the reasons for this shift in policy focus. After describing the history of the OECD's work on taxation, we examine the OECD's project against "harmful tax competition" as it has played out since its launch in …

The Real Sdr And Indirect Redeemability, Warren Coats

Warren Coats

Small Firms And Domestic Bank Dependence In Europe's Great Recession, Mathias Hoffmann, Bent E. Sorensen

Mathias Hoffmann

The paper studies the role of small businesses (SME) in the transmission of the Eurozone crisis to member countries and whether regions or countries with many SMEs were less able to share risk. Our analysis draws attention to domestic bank dependence---defined as the share of domestic private credit originated by domestic banks---as a key variable modulated the impact of shocks on bank-dependent SMEs and thus on the real economy. We argue that Eurozone banking integration in the years after the creation of the single currency was lopsided in the sense that, until 2008, cross-border lending between banks increased markedly while …

Parity And Non-Parity Determinants Of Exchange Rates In Latin American Economies, Catherine S.F. Ho, Mohamed Ariff

Mohamed Ariff

This paper reports how non-parity fundamental factors together with parity factors are correlated with exchange rate movements. Seven Latin American countries were included in this study using a selection criterion that for a pair of countries to be included, the pair must have more than 50 per cent of trade with the group chosen. The econometric methods applied are appropriate to this topic and include pooled time series regression and seemingly unrelated regression. The findings show that there is support for short and long-run effects on exchange rates from inflation and interest rates. We entered non-parity factors suggested in recent …

Endogenous R&D And Intellectual Property Laws In Developed And Emerging Economies, Aniruddha Bagchi, Abhra Roy

Abhra Roy

The incentive of providing protection of intellectual property has been analyzed, both for an emerging economy as well as for a developed economy. The optimal patent length and the optimal patent breadth within a country are found to be positively related to each other for a fixed structure of laws abroad. Moreover, a country can respond to stronger patent protection abroad by weakening its patent protection under certain circumstances and by strengthening its patent protection under other circumstances. These results depend upon the curvature of the R&D production function. Finally, we investigate the impact of an increase in the willingness-to-pay …

Globalization And Inequality An International Comparison Between Sweden And The Us, Sergio A. Berumen

Sergio A. Berumen

In this paper we first review the concepts of Globalization and Inequality, paying special attention to the conclusions reached previously by other economists. Later on, we carry on with an international comparison between Sweden and the United States for the period 1913-2012. We depict the evolution in inequality levels for both countries, based in two main indicators: the Gini Index and the top 1% income share. Our findings point out that inequality has strongly risen in the United States whilst Sweden’s level of inequality is not far from the one presented immediately after the World War II. These results may …

Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla

Eli D Friedman

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …

Getting Through The Hard Times Together? Chinese Workers And Unions Respond To The Economic Crisis, Eli D. Friedman

Eli D Friedman

How do post-socialist unions respond to market crisis? And what are the implications of this response for labor representation? Drawing on literature on post-socialist labor and union democracy, I argue that economic crisis affects not just labor – capital and labor – state relations, but also the relationship between union representatives and workers. Such a dynamic is highlighted by an empirical account of the divergent activities of workers and All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) unions in China following the economic crisis of 2008. While the union responded to mass unemployment with an administrative and policy-oriented strategy, workers took to …