Macroeconomics Commons^™

Essays On Capital Structure Of Nations, Giovanni Perez

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ten Years Of Economic Analyses For The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Overview Of Experiences And Lessons Learned, Rob Van Der Veeren, Ann Kathrin Buchs, Günter Hörmandinger, Soile Oinonen, Conceição Santos, Max Vretborn

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which came into force in 2008, requires from Member States inter alia to perform various (types of) economic analyses. In order to help Member States to implement this directive, the European working group on Economic and Social Analysis was initiated in 2009. This working group has developed various guidance documents which have been very useful in helping each other to understand the Directive and its requirements, to develop one language, to understand the pros and cons of various approaches, and to share experiences. However, up until now, outside of this working group this information …

International Risk Sharing In Overlapping Generations Models, James Staveley-O'Carroll, Olena M. Staveley-O'Carroll

Economics Department Working Papers

We present a solution to the Backus-Smith puzzle that, instead of relying on extreme parameter values or complex modeling assumptions, simply switches the framework from infinitely lived agents to overlapping generations. Young agents face non-diversifiable wage risk that leads to a low degree of risk sharing within each country. Subsequently, international price movements are not sufficient to achieve the high consumption-real exchange rate correlation produced in standard infinitely lived agent DSGE models.

Free Trade And Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethical Dilemmas In Global Economic Development, Sarah Papion

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through the lens of the free-trade-optimist, it is black and white: corporations bring jobs, and jobs equal a happy and healthy economy. A major oversight in this neoliberal Utopian ideology is that corporations are not in the business of building communities, nor do they have an interest in keeping their operations stationary enough to allow economic growth to occur over a span of years. Corporations abandon communities as quickly as they arrive to find their next cheap labor hub. Quite contradictory to the original purpose of free trade, economic growth in Free Trade Zones is not long term or secure. …

Foreign Capital Inflows And Economic Well-Being: A Statistical Analysis Of 46 Sub-Saharan African Countries From 1995-2015, Alexander M. Csanadi

Undergraduate Economic Review

Variation in the economic well-being among sub-Saharan African countries is among the highest of any region in the world. This paper attempts to address this disparity by exploring the role of foreign capital inflows. This project extends the concept of well-being beyond GDP growth, to include measures of poverty and inequality. A multivariate regression analysis finds that the observed capital inflows have significant effects on all three measurements of well-being. Findings suggest that the level of affluence of the domestic population has significant effects on the ability of those populations to translate diaspora remittances into improvements in well-being.

The Economic Impact Of The 2018 Spartan Race On The West Virginia Economy, Christiadi, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Nonlinearities In The Real Exchange Rates: New Evidence From Developed And Developing Countries, Yamin S. Ahmad, Ming Chien Lo, Olena M. Staveley-O'Carroll

Economics Department Working Papers

This paper investigates nonlinearities in the dynamics of real exchange rates. We use Monte Carlo simulations to establish the size properties of the Teräsvirta-Anderson (1992) and the Teräsvirta (1994) test, when the dynamics of the real exchange rate is influenced by an exogenous process. In addition, we examine the modification proposed by Ahmad, Lo and Mykhaylova (2013; Journal of International Economics) to show that the modified nonlinearity test performs much better than the original in both Monte Carlo exercises and in the actual data on 1431 bilateral real exchange rate series. Finally, we investigate the dynamics of the real exchange …

Accounting For Leverage In Intangible And Tangible Investments Across The Business Cycle, Neil Mauskar

Undergraduate Economic Review

In this paper, I study the role of the leverage ratio and its impact on investing in tangible and intangible goods. The results confirm the hypotheses outlined in the introduction. Specifically, the results show that when accounting for differences in the leverage ratio between firms, investment is cyclical. However, when looking only at firms with low leverages, intangible investing becomes countercyclical. Moreover, during recessions, firms with lower leverages tend to invest more than firms with higher leverages. Finally, the results argue for the existence of financial frictions between investing in tangibles and intangibles.

Essays In New Keynesian Monetary Policy, Tzu-Hao Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dissertation consists of three Chapters. I consider New Keynesian models which involve tradeoffs between output gap and inflation variances. Such policy strategy is often referred to as flexible inflation targeting rules (e.g., Lars Svensson 2011, pp.1238-95). Taylor rules, in general, have the symbolic expression ��_t=��_x��_t+��_����_t+��_g��_t, where ��_t is the nominal interest rate at period t, ��_t is the target variable output gap at period t, ��_t is the target variable inflation rate at period t, ��_t is realized shock …

Does Manufacturing Sophistication Lead To Higher Demand For Vocational Workers? Evidence From Indonesia, Padang Wicaksono, Lionel Priyadi

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Indonesia post-crisis manufacturing growth has been dominated by technologically sophisticated industry. Hypothetically, this development would increase the demand for skilled and more specialized workers like vocational school graduates. However, statistical evidences show that manufacturing sophistication stimulated by integration with the Global Production Network increase demand for vocational as well as general high school graduates. Moreover, higher demand does not necessarily result in sustainable career prospect, as many vocational graduates still have limited opportunity to improve their skills while climbing the seniority ladder possibly caused by shifting Global Value Chain from export-oriented toward domestic market-oriented that affect the industry's technological complexity.

The Relationship Of Vat Rate And Revenues In The Case Of Informality, Riatu M. Qibthiyyah

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study explored relationship between tax rate and revenues in the case of VAT, one of few type of consumption taxes that is considered to be a broad-based tax. Based on a larger set of countries - in comparison to previous studies, this study shows VAT rate has an inverted U-shaped relationship to VATÂ revenues, confirming the Laffer Curve theory. Exploring further on the effect of informality to maximum VAT rate, we found that higher informality will reduce government flexibility in its effort to increase tax rate. Furthermore, openness has significant and positive effect on VAT revenues performance, and tax …

Income Inequality Between Formal-Informal Employees Based On Education Group, Dias Satria

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Integrally, the informal sector deals with the formal sector with pro-cyclical nature or as a complementary sector. Such conditions allow for wage disparity between sectors even in the same education group. Thus, this study seeks to determine the determinants of wage inequality between formal and informal employees in skilled and unskilled workers in Indonesia in 2017 using Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The results showed that the discrimination factor had a greater influence than the endowment factor on wage inequality and the endowment factors that contributed to the increase in wage inequality between the two groups were age squared, experience, and job training.

Recent Developments In Indonesia's Macro-Economy And Trade, Q1-2018, Febrio Kacaribu

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This paper discusses Indonesia's macroeconomic and trade development in the first quarter of 2018. The macroeconomic data shows that the industrial growth was inhibited by regulatory regime inconsistency, while consumption growth still lagged overall GDP growth, and investment growth tended to rise. The trade data shows that the non-oil-and-gas commodities dominated its export, although the commodities terms-of-trade declined. Indonesia's imports were mostly used as raw and auxiliary materials for the input of domestic production. The data also reveals that the larger the firms, the stronger tendency that they have comparative advantage in capital-intensive commodities, and vice versa.

Modification Of The Regulatory Impact Assessment On Indonesia's Economic Policies, Kiki Verico

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This paper modifies the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) method in Indonesia's trade, investment, and industrial incentive policies. First, it analyses the Indonesian Bilateral Trade Agreements of Indonesia - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) and Indonesia - Pakistan Preferential Trade Agreement (IP-PTA) This paper found if the trading partner has GNI per capita higher than Indonesia's then the expected outcome was the increasing FDI inflows and if its GNI per capita lower therefore the most top foreseeable result was the rising net trade balance of Indonesia. Second, it analyses industrial sector incentive analysis and found that firms prefer supply-side than fiscal …

Three Essays On Macroeconomics And Laboratory Experiments, Justin Leblanc

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines two prominent macroeconomic models and their behavioral underpinnings in a laboratory setting. The first is that of state-dependent pricing models (i.e., “menu cost” models). Comparisons were made between laboratory results and a computer- simulated optimal behavior, and results indicate that subjects update prices too frequently resulting in statistically suboptimal profits due to subjects’ inability to clearly ascertain the optimal threshold at which to update prices. Second, the consumption predictions made under rational inattention theory were examined via a laboratory experiment. Results indicate that subjects’ behavior aligns well with predictions in that they consume stochastically, yet adjust their …

The Economic Impact Of Coal In West Virginia, Christiadi, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

An Essay On Fiscal Policy Transmissions In Currency Union, Nikhil Damodaran

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The effect of changes in fiscal policy for open economies are distinct and different from their effects in closed economies. The main idea behiend this dissertation is to examine why and how these differences affect the choice of fiscal instrument designed to provide stimulative effects to an open economy in a currency union. In extending a two country model and adapting it to examine trade within a currency union, I provide a way to truncate rational expectations equilibrium involving two large countries with endogenous relative price determination in chapter three. Using this model, I show that a spending increase is …

The Cost Of Jaywalking On Traffic Congestion In An Intersection In Greater Cairo: A Case Study, Hussein Gawdat

Theses and Dissertations

There have been many studies focusing on different types of traffic delays, pedestrians’ interaction at signalized intersections and economic losses as a result of these delays. However, there is a huge gap in the current literature, regionally and globally, in studying the traffic delays associated with jaywalking. In Egypt, jaywalking is considered a common phenomenon, however, population increased drastically over the past decades in Greater Cairo leading to more congested streets. This research provides a case study that investigates the economic effect of jaywalking on traffic flow in Mashaal, a sample location in Greater Cairo, due to traffic congestion. The …

An Economics Primer For Cyber Security Analysts, John T. Harvey

Military Cyber Affairs

One of the ingredients necessary to an understanding of the impact of cyber attacks is a reliable model of the economy. We face great challenges in trying to protect an already potentially unstable system from cyber aggression and operating with a flawed understanding of the determinants of output, employment, asset prices, et cetera, surely condemns us to failure. This is so not only because we need to know where points of leverage might exist for bad actors to disrupt and disable our system, but because policy recommendations may face significant push back from both selected scholars and powerful vested interests. …

Moderate Growth With A Stronger Industrial Sector, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record solid economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. While Nebraska’s large farming sector has stabilized, it will not contribute much to economic growth during the forecast period. Job growth also will be sluggish in transportation, retail trade and state and local government. Job growth, however, will be stronger in the services, finance, manufacturing and construction. Projected growth rates for 2018 to 2020 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.8% to 1.0% per year, below the national rate. Non-farm income will grow between 3.6% and 3.8% each year. This growth is …

Globalization, Conflict, And The Effects Of The Rate Of Change Of Globalization: An Empirical Analysis, Ashley Stephens

Honors Projects

The world is becoming increasingly more interconnected with technological advances leading to more and more globalization. It is important to see how globalization affects society, especially in the lesser developed post-conflict regions of Africa. The theories of liberalism, Marxism, and realism all offer plausible, yet strikingly different theories on the relationship between globalization and conflict. This paper conceptually examines the dominant theories of globalization and conflict, then uses open-source panel data on globalization and conflict in Africa to empirically test which theory is supported by the data, then tests if there is a correlation between the rate of globalization and …

The Economic Impacts Of A U.S. Withdrawal From Nafta: A Cge Analysis, Jonathan Liu

Undergraduate Economic Review

The aim of this study is to examine the economic impacts of a U.S. withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Canada, Mexico and the United States. The shocks simulate scenarios in which the U.S instates penalizing tariff rates on NAFTA countries, a trade war between NAFTA members and a tariff reset to the WTO MFN rates. The effects of these tariff structures are analyzed under the framework of a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with a focus on macroeconomic variables and welfare. The findings show that, in all iterations, Mexico’s economy takes a substantial hit, America’s …

Essays In Business Cycles And Asset Pricing, Ruiyang Hu

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates several key macroeconomic and asset pricing topics, with a particular interest in exploring the underlying driving forces of business cycles and asset market fluctuations. The dissertation includes three chapters, with the first two chapters solo-authored by me and the third chapter co-authored with Dr. Carlos Zarazaga.

The first chapter develops a dynamic and stochastic general equilibrium model, and exploits Bayesian inference methods to investigate the major sources of fluctuations in aggregate variables and asset prices. Taking into account the possibility that the growth of total factor productivity, labor-augmenting technology and investment-specific technology might consist of permanent and …

Public Policy And Millennium Development Challenges: Case Study Of Africa, Pathkonn Kombate

Master's Theses

Abstract:

Based on a panel of 50 African countries from 1970 to 2015, this study analyzes the impact of public investments and spending in education and health sectors on GDP per capita growth. I separately modeled for education and health capital, while controlling for governance and demonstrated the importance of investments and expenditures on human capital in countries production capacity accumulation, which in the long run leads sustainable economic growth. Results show a positive relationship between spending in those sectors and the per capita income growth and proves their importance on the continents’ combat against poverty.

The Significance Of Mongolia's Foreign Policy And Security Apparatus On A Global And Regional Scale, Bolor Lkhaajav

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mongolia, land-locked between two politically, economically, and militarily powerful nations — Russia and China — often must balance its foreign and security policies with its two neighbors and countries beyond. When discussing Mongolia’s foreign policy and security apparatus, historians and scholars look at the international relations of East Asia as a whole. This is the case not because Mongolia’s foreign policy is insignificant but because greater powers impose greater influence on smaller states. Mongolia’s partial involvement in World War II (WWII), and the Cold War introduced new challenges as well as opportunities for Mongolia to modernize its foreign policy principles …

Institutional Quality And Illicit Financial Flows In Developing And Developed Countries: An Empirical Assessment, Zin Kyaw Lin

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates the direct linkage between institutional quality and illicit financial flows (IFFs) of 47 developing and developed countries from the period of 2005 to 2014. Corruption and political stability are found to be correlated to the IFFs.

A New Keynesian Approach To Estimating Welfare Losses Under Strict And Flexible-Targeting Regimes, Shawn Weber

Theses and Dissertations

How do different inflation-targeting regimes affect the monetary loss-function of a central bank aiming at stabilizing inflation around an inflation target and stabilizing the real economy? Under a basic New-Keynesian framework, this paper examines the effect of inflation-targeting regimes on the monetary loss function of a central bank.

Analyzing Housing Demand And Its Role In The U.S. Economy, Irina Ayzenberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the most recent economic downturn, caused by the burst of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis, the housing market took a direct hit: mortgage default rates were over 10 percent, housing prices fell 35 percent from 2005 to 2009, more than 5 million homes were foreclosed since 2008, and interest rates hit rock-bottom. In response, the U.S. Federal Reserve adopted aggressive expansionary monetary policies to get the economy back on track, some of which are in effect today. In order to really understand the state and direction of the U.S. economy today, we need to better understand …

Does Debt Matter?, Luhan Li

Applied Economics Theses

National debt is a popular topic, since people have a lot of different views on national debt. For example, many people think that there is a positive relationship between national debt and GDP per capita. In other words, the national debt has also increased with the growth of GDP per capita. However, some people feel that there is an inverse relationship between them, so much so that the topic has been discussed. Based on my interest in this topic, I decided to discuss this question. This paper will discuss their influence and importance by analyzing national debt, GDP per capita, …

The Impact Of Macroeconomic Factors On The Price Of Gold, Yunhao Sun

Applied Economics Theses

My thesis is that macro factors have been important to the change of the gold price, but have had a differential impact in three factors: Gross Global Product (GGP), real interest rate, and U.S. dollar index (USDI). I estimated the 1^st difference of the gold model to determine the impact of macro factors on the price of gold per quarter. The model was estimated using the OLS approach the sample size was 148. I make use of data from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis economic data. The result was that 1^st difference model had statistically insignificant coefficients. …