The Economics Of Lotteries: A Survey Of The Literature,
2011
College of the Holy Cross
The Economics Of Lotteries: A Survey Of The Literature, Kent Grote, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
Lotteries represent an important source of government revenues in many states and countries, so they are of interest to public finance economists. In addition, lotteries provide researchers interested in microeconomic theory and consumer behavior with a type of experimental lab that allows economists to explore these topics. This paper surveys the existing literature on lotteries organized around these two central themes. The first section examines the microeconomic aspects of lotteries including consumer decision-making under uncertainty, price and income elasticities of demand for lottery tickets, cross-price elasticities of lottery ticket to each other and to other gambling products, consumer rationality and …
International Women's Soccer And Gender Inequality: Revisited,
2011
College of the Holy Cross
International Women's Soccer And Gender Inequality: Revisited, Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
A number of authors have identified the determinants of success in international sporting competitions such as the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup. This paper serves to update past work on international women’s soccer performance given the rapid development of the game over the past decade. We compare the determinants of men’s international soccer team performance with that of their female counterparts and find that a different set of variables are important in explaining success for the two genders. While economic and demographic influences hold for both, the impacts of specific political and cultural factors diverge. In particular, Latin heritage predicts …
Gender Differences In Competitive Balance In Intercollegiate Basketball,
2011
College of the Holy Cross
Gender Differences In Competitive Balance In Intercollegiate Basketball, Jaret Treber, Rachel Levy, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper adds to the literature on competitive balance in college sports by comparing men's and women's NCAA basketball. Using data from the Division I National Championships, we find evidence consistent with the idea that women’s college basketball is less competitively balanced than men’s college basketball. We argue that this difference may be explained by a theory of player ability borrowed from evolutionary biology first promulgated by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and subsequently utilized in Berri (2004). An implication of this idea is that competitive balance in women’s NCCA basketball will naturally improve over time. This is good news for …
No. 25: Complex Movements, Confused Responses: Labour Migration In South Africa,
2011
Balsillie School of International Affairs/WLU
No. 25: Complex Movements, Confused Responses: Labour Migration In South Africa, Jonathan Crush
Southern African Migration Programme
The end of apartheid undermined the rationale for apartheid-era immigration. Immigration from Europe (which had been declining in the 1980s) dwindled to almost nothing as the new government dissociated itself from the racist immigration policies of the apartheid era. At the same time, downsizing and mine closures in the 1990s led to a dramatic decline in employment opportunities for African migrants in the mining industry. Tens of thousands of local and foreign migrants were retrenched. Although the industry has recovered somewhat, and continues to employ some foreign workers, the overall numbers of temporary migrant workers remain far below the levels …
Publicly Vs. Privately Controlled Higher Education Costs: Panel Data Estimates,
2011
Wright State University - Main Campus
Publicly Vs. Privately Controlled Higher Education Costs: Panel Data Estimates, G. Thomas Sav
Economics Faculty Publications
More so now than ever, budgetary problems and widespread reforms are generating questions regarding higher education costs among publicly controlled compared to privately controlled colleges and universities. Past studies have offered scale and scope estimates anchored in 1995 and earlier cross sectional data that could contain omitted variable biased. In contrast, this paper employs panel data spanning the 2005 through 2009 years to estimate a multiproduct cost function and scale and scope economies separately for public and private sector colleges and universities. The two-way fixed effects results indicate the presence of significant institutional and time effects. Overall, the findings suggest …
Supply Chain Performance Of The Australian Beef Industry: Comparing The Industry Structure, Inter-Firm Relationships And Knowledge Systems Of Western Australia And Queensland,
2011
Curtin University of Technology
Supply Chain Performance Of The Australian Beef Industry: Comparing The Industry Structure, Inter-Firm Relationships And Knowledge Systems Of Western Australia And Queensland, Mohammad Nasir Uddin,, Nazrul Islam, Mohammed Quaddus
Books & book chapters
The meat and livestock industry in Australia accounts for more than 45 per cent of Australia’s total value of agricultural production, within which beef is the largest industry in value terms (Nossal, Sheng and Zhao 2008). But the industry is experiencing a long-term decline in terms of trade, and has lagged behind other industries in rates of productivity improvement (MLA 2008). As it is critical for the economy that the beef industry maintains profitability and sustainability, it is believed that the performance, competitiveness and success of the industry depends on improving cost efficiency and productivity of the whole supply chain …
The Trend Of The Returns To Educations In Urban China During 1988 To 2002,
2011
Clemson University
The Trend Of The Returns To Educations In Urban China During 1988 To 2002, Shuang Zheng
All Theses
China underwent a significant social and economic transformation starting from the 1980s. The transition to market oriented economy brought change to the market of human capital. Using Mincer-type equation, we analyzed the returns to education in China using the data from the Chinese Household Income Project Survey conducted in the years 1988, 1995 and 2002, which covers the most interesting period. Although the returns to education were found generally lower than world average, a significant and steady increase in the returns was observed. Actually, the returns to each schooling year were more than doubled in the fourteen years. This increase …
Generic Results For Establishing The Asymptotic Size Of Confidence Sets And Tests,
2011
Yale University
Generic Results For Establishing The Asymptotic Size Of Confidence Sets And Tests, Donald W.K. Andrews, Xu Cheng, Patrik Guggenberger
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
This paper provides a set of results that can be used to establish the asymptotic size and/or similarity in a uniform sense of confidence sets and tests. The results are generic in that they can be applied to a broad range of problems. They are most useful in scenarios where the pointwise asymptotic distribution of a test statistic has a discontinuity in its limit distribution. The results are illustrated in three examples. These are: (i) the conditional likelihood ratio test of Moreira (2003) for linear instrumental variables models with instruments that may be weak, extended to the case of heteroskedastic …
Similar-On-The-Boundary Tests For Moment Inequalities Exist, But Have Poor Power,
2011
Yale University
Similar-On-The-Boundary Tests For Moment Inequalities Exist, But Have Poor Power, Donald W.K. Andrews
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
This paper shows that moment inequality tests that are asymptotically similar on the boundary of the null hypothesis exist, but have poor power. Hence, existing tests in the literature, which are asymptotically non-similar on the boundary, are not deficient. The results are obtained by first establishing results for the finite-sample multivariate normal one-sided testing problem. Then, these results are shown to have implications for more general moment inequality tests that are used in the literature on partial identification.
A Conditional-Heteroskedasticity-Robust Confidence Interval For The Autoregressive Parameter,
2011
Yale University
A Conditional-Heteroskedasticity-Robust Confidence Interval For The Autoregressive Parameter, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
This paper introduces a new confidence interval (CI) for the autoregressive parameter (AR) in an AR(1) model that allows for conditional heteroskedasticity of general form and AR parameters that are less than or equal to unity. The CI is a modification of Mikusheva’s (2007a) modification of Stock’s (1991) CI that employs the least squares estimator and a heteroskedasticity-robust variance estimator. The CI is shown to have correct asymptotic size and to be asymptotically similar (in a uniform sense). It does not require any tuning parameters. No existing procedures have these properties. Monte Carlo simulations show that the CI performs well …
A Conditional-Heteroskedasticity-Robust Confidence Interval For The Autoregressive Parameter,
2011
Yale University
A Conditional-Heteroskedasticity-Robust Confidence Interval For The Autoregressive Parameter, Donald W.K. Andrews, Patrik Guggenberger
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
This paper introduces a new confidence interval (CI) for the autoregressive parameter (AR) in an AR(1) model that allows for conditional heteroskedasticity of general form and AR parameters that are less than or equal to unity. The CI is a modification of Mikusheva’s (2007a) modification of Stock’s (1991) CI that employs the least squares estimator and a heteroskedasticity-robust variance estimator. The CI is shown to have correct asymptotic size and to be asymptotically similar (in a uniform sense). It does not require any tuning parameters. No existing procedures have these properties. Monte Carlo simulations show that the CI performs well …
The Demonetization Of Gold: Transactions And The Change In Control,
2011
Yale University
The Demonetization Of Gold: Transactions And The Change In Control, Thomas Quint, Martin Shubik
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
Three models of a monetary economy are considered, in order to show the effects of a gold demonetization: the first with a gold money, the second with demonetized gold but no central bank, and the third with demonetized gold, but with a central bank. The distinctions between ownership and control are discussed.
Similar-On-The-Boundary Tests For Moment Inequalities Exist, But Have Poor Power,
2011
Yale University
Similar-On-The-Boundary Tests For Moment Inequalities Exist, But Have Poor Power, Donald W.K. Andrews
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
This paper shows that moment inequality tests that are asymptotically similar on the boundary of the null hypothesis exist, but have very poor power. Hence, existing tests in the literature, which are asymptotically non-similar on the boundary, are not deficient. The results are obtained by first establishing results for the finite-sample multivariate normal one-sided testing problem. Then, these results are shown to have implications for more general moment inequality tests that are used in the literature on partial identification.
Information Aggregation, Investment, And Managerial Incentives,
2011
Yale University
Information Aggregation, Investment, And Managerial Incentives, Elias Albagli, Christian Hellwig, Aleh Tsyvinski
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
We study the interplay of share prices and firm decisions when share prices aggregate and convey noisy information about fundamentals to investors and managers. First, we show that the informational feedback between the firm’s share price and its investment decisions leads to a systematic premium in the firm’s share price relative to expected dividends. Noisy information aggregation leads to excess price volatility, over-valuation of shares in response to good news, and undervaluation in response to bad news. By optimally increasing its exposure to fundamental risks when the market price conveys good news, the firm shifts its dividend risk to the …
Irving Fisher, Debt Deflation And Crises,
2011
Yale University
Irving Fisher, Debt Deflation And Crises, Robert J. Shiller
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
It is the 100th anniversary of Irving Fisher’s 1911 book The Purchasing Power of Money . But, more important than that, it is a good time, during the current financial turmoil, to reconsider some of his theories again, in light of current events. And I think that some of his theories about variations in the purchasing power of money are very important today, have been underappreciated, and are worthy of considering anew.
Robust Mechanism Design: An Introduction,
2011
Yale University
Robust Mechanism Design: An Introduction, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
This essay is the introduction for a collection of papers by the two of us on “Robust Mechanism Design” to be published by World Scientific Publishing. The appendix of this essay lists the chapters of the book. The objective of this introductory essay is to provide the reader with an overview of the research agenda pursued in the collected papers. The introduction selectively presents the main results of the papers, and attempts to illustrate many of them in terms of a common and canonical example, the single unit auction with interdependent values. In addition, we include an extended discussion about …
Risky Curves: From Unobservable Utility To Observable Opportunity Sets,
2011
Yale University
Risky Curves: From Unobservable Utility To Observable Opportunity Sets, Daniel Friedman, Shyam Sunder
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
Most theories of risky choice postulate that a decision maker maximizes the expectation of a Bernoulli (or utility or similar) function. We tour 60 years of empirical search and conclude that no such functions have yet been found that are useful for out-of-sample prediction. Nor do we find practical applications of Bernoulli functions in major risk-based industries such as finance, insurance and gambling. We sketch an alternative approach to modeling risky choice that focuses on potentially observable opportunities rather than on unobservable Bernoulli functions.
The Effect Of Language On Economic Behavior: Evidence From Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, And Retirement Assets,
2011
Yale University
The Effect Of Language On Economic Behavior: Evidence From Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, And Retirement Assets, Keith M. Chen
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
Languages differ widely in the ways they encode time. I test the hypothesis that languages that grammatically associate the future and the present, foster future-oriented behavior. This prediction arises naturally when well-documented effects of language structure are merged with models of intertemporal choice. Empirically, I find that speakers of such languages: save more, retire with more wealth, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese. This holds both across countries and within countries when comparing demographically similar native households. The evidence does not support the most obvious forms of common causation. I discuss implications for theories of intertemporal choice.
Three Essays On Opacity, Corporate Governance, And Credit Ratings,
2011
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Three Essays On Opacity, Corporate Governance, And Credit Ratings, Yiwen Gu
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
In the first essay, utilizing a more recent and expanded 20-year sample 1991-2010 of dual-rated bonds issued, I confirm Morgan's (2002) finding that banks are relatively more opaque than nonbanks. The likelihood of a rating split is higher, and the magnitude of the rating gap is larger, for banks than nonnbanks. Moreover, rating agency disagreements are more significant for banks with relatively higher loan and trading securities holdings and maintain lower capital, and for banks engaged in mortgage securitization. Importantly, I find that rating agency disagreements reflect market proxies of information uncertainty. Further, opacity makes external financing more costly. Equity …
Losers And Losers: Some Demographics Of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms,
2011
Syracuse University
Losers And Losers: Some Demographics Of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms, Andrew I. Friedson, Thomas J. Kniesner
Center for Policy Research
Our research examines individual differences in the effects of medical malpractice tort reforms on pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts by age and most likely settlement size. Findings of note include that, unlike previously assumed, both absolute and percentage losses from tort reform are small for infants in an asset value sense and that the prime-aged working population is the group most negatively affected by tort reform. Maximum entropy quantile regressions highlight the robustness of our conclusions and reveal that the settlement losses most informative for policy evaluation differ greatly from mean regression estimates.
