Public Economics Commons^™

On Testing For Sphericity With Non-Normality In A Fixed Effects Panel Data Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Chihwa Kao, Bin Peng

Center for Policy Research

Building upon the work of Chen et al. (2010), this paper proposes a test for sphericity of the variance-covariance matrix in a fixed effects panel data regression model without the normality assumption on the disturbances.

Analisa Kesenjangan Prevalensi Stunting Antar Kawasan Di Indonesia Serta Faktor Yang Mempengaruhinya, Melyana Lumbantoru, Hera Susanti

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

Stunting is an indicator for chronic nutritional status that can provide a picture of overall socio-economic disruption in the past, starting from six months old infant and continue until the age of 18 years and can not be corrected again. The study concluded that infant growth monitoring, access to sanitation, health budget allocation per capita, income per capita and female literacy rate are significantiy reducing the occurrence of stunting. While the Theil index shows that the number of stunting is increasingly dispersed throughout Indonesia. At the regional level, the total disparity for stunting tends to decrease. In 2007, 2010 and …

Perdagangan Bebas Versus Proteksionisme, Lepi T. Tarmidi

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

For the past 20 years the world has seen a proliferation of Regional Free Trade Agreements. Some Indonesian economists are criticizing the negative effects of this “neo-liberal” thinking, instead they promote measures of protection to defend domestic industries. Every citizen must bea patriotand a nationalist, and not be a servant of great foreign economic powers. However, the greater majority of economists are for the idea of free trade, since it can bring prosperity to the people through the gains from trade. These economists are also nationalists. However, the controversy between free trade and protectionism has a long history, since the …

Efisiensi Belanja Publik Untuk Meningkatkan Anggaran Lingkungan, Donny Yoesgiantoro

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

The purpose of this research is to provide recommendations to government in taking efficiency measures on public spending in order to increase budget allocation for the environment. The data used are secondary data, obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Indonesia as well as The World Bank. The research method employed is guantitative descriptive approach. Result shows that in the period of 2005-2014, the average spending growth rate is eguivalent with nominal GDP growth rate. However, the growth of spending on Goods and Services is well above higher than that of …

Persepsi Konsumen Terhadap Prioritas Perbaikan Infrastruktur Pasar Tradisional (Studi Kasus : Pasar Perumnas Klender), Bernardhus Wishman Siregar

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

everal studies have found that consumer in Indonesia has shifted their preference from traditional to modern market, due to a better service provided by modern market retailer for its consumer. Focusing on consumer perceptions, this research tries to see the consumer assessment for traditional market's service and infrastructures using the gualitative approach in Pasar Perumnas Klender. Finally, this research found that improvements in infrastructure is necessary in order to meet the consumer needs.

Dampak Pembiayaan Kredit Perbankan Terhadap Nilai Tambah Industri Pengolahan Di Indonesia, Ita Kurnia Sholihah, Telisa Aulia Falianty

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

This study aims to measure the effect of bank credit financing to value-added of manufacturing industry in Indonesia. This study uses the data of manufacturing industry sub-sector level. The data used are sub-sector credit, value added, labor, fixed capital, the minimum wage, the exchange rate, and the Gross Domestic Produc. This study period is 2002 – 2012 and using a Two-Stage Least Square with Fixed Effect as a estimation methode. Finally, the results showed that the significant effect of bank credit financing to encourage value-added manufacturing industry in Indonesia.

Common-Value Procurement Auctions With Renegotiation, Rimvydas Baltaduonis, Lucas Rentschler

Economics Faculty Publications

This note contains the equilibrium bid functions for two types of common-value procurement auctions: 1) a procurement auction in which bids represent an enforceable contract; 2) a procurement auction in which, upon learning the true cost of supplying the good, the winning bidder can renegotiate the contract with the buyer, and each bidder must submit a bond with their bid, which is returned at the end of the auction unless they are the low bidder and renegotiate the contract.

Cost Share Adjustment Processes For Cooperative Group Decisions About Shared Goods: A Design Approach, Edna T. Loehman, Richard Kiser, Stephen Rassenti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

For group decision about shared goods, the nature of the shared good and how its cost is to be shared among group members must be determined. Complexity arises from heterogeneity in preferences and endowments and nonlinear cost. To facilitate group decision, this paper proposes special type of group decision support system, a cost share adjustment process (CSAP), in which cost shares are adjusted iteratively via algorithmic rules until unanimity is reached, ideally producing a socially optimal, cost feasible, and fair outcome. In contrast to public good literature, our designs apply for situations of nonlinear cost, with economies of scale and …

Integration Of Central And Eastern European And The Euro-Area Financial Markets: Repercussions From The Global Financial Crisis, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Anna Tsibulina

WCBT Faculty Publications

We examine integration of financial markets and banking sectors in Central and Eastern Europe and the euro area. We study co-movements between government bond and equity markets of Germany and those of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, as well as Slovenia and Slovakia (the two recent euro members). We assume that financial integration is essential for subsequent monetary convergence, as it will enable the euro candidates to mitigate systemic risk and avert potentially destabilizing shocks. Government bond yields of the Czech Republic and Poland show high correlation with German yields, in contrast to those of the remaining countries. Equity returns of …

Perspectives On The Global Financial Crisis From Emerging Managers And Public Policy Makers [Full Version], James L. Grant

Financial Services Forum Publications

This manuscript attempts to capture the perspectives of emerging managers and public policy makers as evinced in the perspectives of graduate students and others who were enrolled in my newly developed course on the global financial crisis—first offered in the 2010 Harvard Summer Economics Program—at a time when students were engaged in the midst and aftermath of the most severe U.S. and worldwide recession since the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The many perspectives gathered on the causes, consequences, remedies, and perhaps more importantly, a glimpse at student thoughts, concerns, and worries at the time—have been collected from the …

Monetary-Fiscal Policy Interaction: An Empirical Analysis In Egypt, Sahar M. Abdel-Haleim, Mohamed Hassan, Lobna M. Abdel-Latif

Business Administration

This paper examines the effect of the developments introduced since 2003 in Egypt on the nature of interaction of monetary and fiscal policies and the achievement of macroeconomic objectives. Utilizing the Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) approach, the dynamic interaction of policies and their effects on macroeconomic aggregates are investigated. The findings support the success of the developments in eliminating the fiscal dominance. However, coordination between policies is still weak to achieve the macroeconomic stabilization objectives. The results also prove the conventional Keynesian effect of fiscal policy on real GDP. However, the fiscal multiplier is very small. Likewise, expansionary monetary policy …

El Mal De Chagas Y Su Potencial De Eliminación, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

La Asamblea Mundial de la Salud ha elegido algunas enfermedades como blancos para la eliminación. Hay mucha esperanza y una alta probabilidad de que varias enfermedades, recientemente llamadas desatendidas, sean eliminadas en las próximas décadas. Vamos a presenciar el fin de la transmisión de la dracunculiasis, la filariosis linfática, la poliomielitis, y en las Américas por lo menos, la oncocercosis. Ya se ven éxitos significativos como la cuasi erradicación de la dracunculiasis y paso importantes en contra de otras aflicciones. [Original Spanish version]

The World Health Assembly has chosen some diseases as targets for elimination. There is much …

Coastal Defenses, U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of U.S. military coastal defenses during the period up to and including the War 1812.

Creative Economies: Using Arts To Revitalize Post-Industrial Cities And Towns In Massachusetts, Anna Price

Honors College Theses

During my senior year in the Honors College at UMass Boston, I became involved in the yearlong Creative and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program. During this program, I interned alongside other UMass Boston students at a local creative non-profit organization, providing the staff with assistance as they worked towards achieving their goals. This internship was funded by the Creative Economy Fund (CE Fund) from the University of Massachusetts President’s Office. My involvement in this program sparked an interest in pursuing an Honors thesis investigating the CE Fund and how the awarded projects are benefitted by that fund.

After looking through all …

Marriage And Child Bearing, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

This chapter considers the impact of existing incentives and policies to encourage marriage and child-birth, and other direct and indirect ways to raise the total fertility rate (TFR).

Treatment Effects With Unobserved Heterogeneity: A Set Identification Approach, Sung Jae Jun, Yoonseok Lee, Youngki Shin

Center for Policy Research

We propose the sharp identifiable bounds of the distribution functions of potential outcomes using a panel with fixed T. We allow for the possibility that the statistical randomization of treatment assignments is not achieved until unobserved heterogeneity is properly controlled for. We use certain stationarity assumptions to obtain the bounds. Dynamics in the treatment decisions is allowed as long as the stationarity assumptions are satisfied. In particular, we present an example where our assumptions are satisfied and the treatment decision of the present time may depend on the treatments and the observed outcomes of the past. As an empirical illustration …

Why Cpf-Style Systems Generally Work Better, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) has been in existence since 1955, and plays an important role in the lives of millions of Singaporeans. But this does not mean there is nothing to be learnt from asking some fundamental questions about its usefulness.

Can Community Water Projects Combat Child Diarrhea? Results From The Solomon Islands, Thomas G. Sackman

Master's Theses

There is a vast amount of existing literature that has empirically scrutinized whether or not community water projects have the ability to mitigate diarrheal disease. A strong and persistent belief thinks that community water projects do have the means, however, over the decades empirical work commonly finds this to simply not be true. This study expands the research question to the Solomon Islands. The research tests the hypothesis using a differences-in-differences identification strategy by utilizing the government’s staggered timing rollout of community water subprojects with whether or not a village received a community water subproject to test for a program …

The Determinants Of Urban Land And Property Values: The Case Of Rwanda, Pierre Kolowe

Master's Theses

Abstract: The paper seeks to determine the factor of urban housing values and their effects on the well-being of urban residents in terms of access to potable water, quality sanitation and other housing amenities. The study uses a total of 36 variables on structural, environmental and neighborhood attributes from the 2010-2011 survey data on income, expenditures and living conditions for the Rwandan urban households. With the use of the semi-log form of the hedonic price model and the survey data, factors of urban properties are determined and quantitative estimates of the Willingness-to-pay for environmental amenities are determined. The analysis of …

Typhoons And Temperature Impact Crime Rates: Evidence From The Philippines, Emily Wetherley

Master's Theses

This study assesses the impact of typhoons and temperature on interpersonal, property, and non-index crime rates using a novel data set from the Philippines. Distributed lag OLS regression analysis shows that in the concurrent year of increased precipitation, theft rates decrease, but in the year following high average wind-speeds, theft rates increase again. The only significant result of impacts crimes against persons is the rate of physical injury which decreases in years of higher precipitation. These results are defended by interview and focus group information. This study also shows that higher average temperatures cause significantly higher rates of murder, index …

An Experimental Study Of Complex-Offer Auctions From Wholesale Energy Markets, Rimvydas Baltaduonis

Economics Faculty Publications

A Payment Cost Minimization auction has been proposed as an alternative to the Offer Cost Minimization auction for use in wholesale electric power markets with an intention to lower procurement cost of electricity. Efficiency concerns have been raised for this proposal while assuming that the true production costs would be revealed to the auctioneer in a competitive market. Using an experimental approach, the study compares the performance of these two complex-offer auctions, controlling for the level of unilateral market power. The analysis finds that neither auction results in allocations that correspond to the true cost revelation. Two auctions perform similarly …

The Impact Of Arrest On Expectations Of Educational Attainment And Criminal Punishment, Kenneth Arbuckle

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My paper focuses on changes in the expectations of arrested youths. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to examine the effects of an arrest on three separate expectations: the expectation of earning a four-year college degree by the age of 30, the expectation of being arrested after stealing a car, and the expectation of being fined and released after stealing a car. In all cases, I isolate those respondents who have been arrested between and not prior to their interview dates in 1997 and 2001. These are the survey rounds in which the expectation questions of …

The Fundamental Law Of Highway Congestion Revisited: Evidence From National Expressways In Japan, Wen-Tai Hsu, Hongliang Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The fundamental law of highway congestion states that when congested, the travel speed on an expanded expressway reverts to its previous level before the capacity expansion. In this paper, we propose a theory that generalizes this statement and finds that if there exists a coverage effect, that is, the effect of longer road length on traffic conditional on capacity, then the new equilibrium travel speed could be lower than its previous level. Given the fundamental law, the theory predicts that the elasticity of traffic to road capacity is at least 1. We estimate this elasticity for national expressways in Japan …

Exploring The Neighborhood Preferences Of A Segment Of Millennials In Omaha, Nebraska, Aaron Kloke

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

In 2010, Millennials, or those between 18 and 34, surpassed the Baby Boomers in population size. Today, Millennials, also known as Generation Y, make up over 25 percent of the United States’ population. In Omaha, they make up 26.9 percent of the population. The next largest generation in Omaha, the Baby Boomers, make for 19.2 percent of the population. Clearly, this emerging demographic has the ability to change the way we create and design our built environment if it so chooses.

To review how this generation may choose to change the way we design our future neighborhoods, national trends were …

The Incoherent Role Of Bargaining Power In Contract Law, Max Helveston, Michael Jacobs

College of Law Faculty

Contracts that result from the abuse of unequal bargaining power have long been a concern of contract law. Courts have proscribed efforts by the "powerful" to take unfair advantage of the "weak" through contracts of adhesion and standard form contracts. Certain kinds of clauses — liability waivers, and covenants not to compete, among others — regularly attract judicial suspicion because their appearance is deemed indicative of such advantage-taking. In books, symposia, and journal articles, generations of legal scholars have debated the role of bargaining power considerations in the analysis of contracts and contractual terms. The "bargaining power" construct has become …

Identification And Estimation Of Outcome Response With Heterogeneous Treatment Externalities, Tiziano Arduini, Eleonora Patacchini, Edoardo Rainone

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies the identification and estimation of treatment response with heterogeneous spillovers in a network model. We generalize the standard linear-in-means model to allow for multiple groups with between and within-group interactions. We provide a set of identification conditions of peer effects and consider a 2SLS estimation approach. Large sample properties of the proposed estimators are derived. Simulation experiments show that the estimators perform well in finite samples. The model is used to study the effectiveness of policies where peer effects are seen as a mechanism through which the treatments could propagate through the network. When interactions among groups …

Further Evidence On The Spatio-Temporal Model Of House Prices In The United States, Badi H. Baltagi, Jing Li

Research Collection School Of Economics

Holly, Pesaran, and Yamagata (Journal of Econometrics 2010; 158: 160–173) use a panel of 49 states over the period 1975–2003 to show that state-level real housing prices are driven by economic fundamentals, such as real per capita disposable income, as well as by common shocks, such as changes in interest rates, oil prices and technological change. They apply the common correlated effects estimator of Pesaran (Econometrica 2006; 74(4): 967–101), which takes into account spatial interactions that reflect both geographical proximity and unobserved common factors. This paper replicates their results using a panel of 381 metropolitan statistical areas observed over the …

Crossroads Rhode Island: Proposed Social Enterprise Business Plan, Joel Cooper, Joe Brookes, Darci Lake, Victoria Fernandez, Matt Rosenfield, Arnold Robinson

Business

Crossroads Rhode Island provides their clients with a continuum of care that includes basic emergency needs, shelter, housing, case management and vocational services for individuals and families. In order to provide these services they rely on the generosity of their donors and supporters who have helped Crossroads to become the largest homeless services organization in Rhode Island. It is important to Crossroads that they stick to their core values of safety, respect, and effectiveness when helping the homeless or at-risk individuals and families secure stable homes.

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2014, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the year ended 31st December, 2014. In general, 2014 has been a very eventful and challenging year for the Bank, the country, and the world at large. In the course of the year, the Bank underwent significant changes in its governance composition. In 2014, the global economy witnessed considerable vulnerabilities characterized by fragile growth and weak economic outlook. Global growth recovery was modest and continued to be threatened by strong downside risks, as a result of sharp drop in commodity prices, escalating geo-political tensions, and heightening threats …

State Of The Northwest Arkansas Region 2014 Report, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report

The State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report is an annual publication that serves as a tool for evaluating the economic performance of the region in comparison with those peers that are most likely to compete with Northwest Arkansas by virtue of a similar industry mix or geographic proximity. As a player in the global economy, Northwest Arkansas has more to offer than superior performance in traditional economic development categories such as employment, establishment growth, and income. This region showcases strengths in diverse categories like knowledge-based sectors and quality of life indicators. This report highlights and presents the indicators mentioned …