Economics Commons^™

Monetary Integration: The West African Experience, Emmanuel Ating Onwioduokit

Bullion

This paper discusses the experience of monetary integration in West Africa. The second part of the paper presents on historical overview of monetary integration in West Africa. Part lll briefly examines the Union Economique et Monetoire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA). Part lV discusses the Second Monetary Zone in West Africa (WAMZ), while Part V contains performance assessment of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme. The Lingering Challenges ore outlined in Port Vl. Part Vll contains some concluding remarks.

Mean-Dispersion Preferences And Constant Absolute Uncertainty Aversion, Simon Grant, Ben Polak

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We axiomatize, in an Anscombe-Aumann framework, the class of preferences that admit a representation of the form V ( f ) = µ – ρ( d ), where mu is the mean utility of the act f with respect to a given probability, d is the vector of state-by-state utility deviations from the mean, and ρ( d ) is a measure of (aversion to) dispersion that corresponds to an uncertainty premium. The key feature of these mean-dispersion preferences is that they exhibit constant absolute uncertainty aversion. This class includes many well-known models of preferences from the literature on ambiguity. We …

“Connected Substitutes And Invertibility Of Demand, Steven T. Berry, Amit Gandhi, Philip A. Haile

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the invertibility (injectivity) of a nonparametric nonseparable demand system. Invertibility of demand is important in several contexts, including identification of demand, estimation of demand, testing of revealed preference, and economic theory exploiting existence of an inverse demand function or (in an exchange economy) uniqueness of Walrasian equilibrium prices. We introduce the notion of “connected substitutes” and show that this structure is sufficient for invertibility. The connected substitutes conditions require weak substitution between all goods and sufficient strict substitution to necessitate treating them in a single demand system. The connected substitutes conditions have transparent economic interpretation, are easily checked, …

Fiscal Federalism And Nigeria's Development: Comparative Perspectives From Canadian Fiscal Federalism, Olumide Victor Ekanade

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper evaluates the historical dynamics that have shaped the development of fiscal federalism in Nigeria and Canada over the years. It contends that certain contradictions have inhibited the efficient and equitable allocation of tax powers and expenditure responsibilities in Nigeria. These include Nigeria's defective federal structure, military rule, Presidential federalism, politicized sharing principles, and the parochial political culture. These absurdities now threaten the stability of the Nigerian federation. The paper submits that the Canadian Federation offers a viable option for renewal with principles such as autonomy of sub national units, the predominance of the civic culture, scientific equalization, and …

Outsourcing Mutual Fund Management: Firm Boundaries, Incentives And Performance, Joseph S. Chen, Jeffrey D. Kubik, Harrison Hong

Economics - All Scholarship

This paper investigates the effects of managerial outsourcing on the incentives and performance of mutual funds. We document that mutual fund families outsource the management of a significant fraction of their funds to unaffiliated advisory firms. Funds managed externally significantly under-perform those ran internally. To establish the causality of this relationship, we instrument for whether a fund is outsourced and find similar estimates. We hypothesize that contractual externalities due to firm boundaries make it more difficult to extract performance from an outsourced relationship. We verify two auxiliary predictions of this hypothesis: compared to counterparts ran internally, an outsourced fund faces …

Chaebol And Korea's Industrial Finance, Murat Doral, Michael Patrono

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The Korean economy is based on a government led and export oriented growth model centered on business groups or conglomerates known as chaebols which have close relationships with the government. The government led growth model, also known as Guided or Managed Capitalism, relies on a government dominated, but privately owned, business sector. The private business sector is itself dominated by chaebols which are family owned or controlled business groups. These groups are supported by preferential relationships with the government. While the chaebol system was an important element of South Korea's early industrial growth, it ultimately had to be reformed. The …

Working Women In Choson Korea: An Exploration Of Women's Economic Activities In A Patriarchal Society, Michael J. Pettid

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper examines the economic activities of women in Choson Korea in an attempt to uncover the realities of their lives in terms of economic contribution and support of the well-being of their households. Despite the prevailing rhetoric of the "Confucianization" of late Choson, it is the belief of this writer that such a situation probably did not apply strictly to rural society or in matters of the necessity of economic strength. Rather I will argue that the economic realities of late Choson and farm life in general valued the labor and contributions of all members of a household, and …

Exploiting Public Private Partnership As A Tool For Infrastructure Development In Nigeria., Sani F. Mohammed

Bullion

The paper highlights the importance of infrastructure development to economic growth and the need for government to toke a more strategic approach to tackling its dearth in Nigeria stressing the need to consider the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as the preferred public infrastructure procurement option. This was in the light of the fact that the traditional procurement methods hove proved ineffective due to the growing competition for limited state funds, and the citizens' higher expectations for efficient services in critical sectors such as power, transportation, waste management. etc. The paper also reviewed the literature on PPP, its models, benefits and examples …

Fdi, Education, And Economic Growth: Quality Matters!, Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we revisit the results from the influential study by Borensztein et al. (Journal of International Economics 45:115–135, 1998), which argues that inward foreign direct investment (FDI) promotes the economic growth in a less developed host country only when the host country obtains a threshold level of secondary schooling. Borensztein et al. (Journal of International Economics 45:115–135, 1998) only focus on the quantity of education. We take into consideration both the quantity and the quality of education. We adjust the original schooling data in Borensztein et al. (Journal of International Economics 45:115–135, 1998) by two quality of education …

Ecowas Single Currency By Year 2020: The Need For Timely And Reliable Data To Enhance The Achievement Of The Convergence Criteria, Olorunyomi L. Akinboyo

Bullion

The issue of single currency in West Africa has long been on the agenda of the political and monetary authorities since the inception of ECOWAS in 1975. The principal aim of economic and monetary integration effort was to expand intra-community trade. As obtained in other regional blocks especially in the euro area where a single currency the, 'Euro' is used. ECOWAS identified a number of impediments to the development of inter-regional trade. which include multiplicity of currencies, widespread controls and restrictions on exchange transactions. Consequently, member central banks and other relevant agencies adopted brood and diverse set of statistical data, …

Money And Inflation: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Monetary Policy In Nigeria, Mbutor O. Mbutor, Okafor Ifeanyi Izuchukwu, Ameh Oguche Sunday

Bullion

The paper establishes the relationship between monetary policy and inflation.

On Fractionally Integrated Logistic Smooth Transitions In Time Series, Olanrewaju I. Shittu, Yaya S. Olaolua

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Long memory and nonlinearity are two key features of some macroeconomic time series which are characterized by persistent shocks that seem to rise faster during recession than it falls during expansion. A variant of nonlinear time series model together with long memory are used to examine these features in inflation series for three economies. The results which compares favourably with that of van Dijk et al. (2002) elicit some interesting attributes of inflation in the developed and developing economies.

Best Linear Unbiased Estimate Using Buys-Ballot Procedure When Trend-Cycle Component Is Linear, Ifeanyi S. Wueze, Nwogu C. Eleazar, Jude C. Ajaraogu

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The Best linear unbiased estimate (BLUE) of Buys-Ballot estimates when trend-cycle component is linear are discussed in this paper. The estimates are those proposed by Iwueze and Nwogu (2004). Discussed are the Chain Based Estimation (CBE) method and the Fixed Based Estimation (FBE) method. The variates for the CBE method were found to have constant mean and variance but are correlated with only one significant autocorrelation coefficient at lag one. The variates for the FBE method were found to have constant mean, non-constant variance but with constant autocorrelation coefficient at all lags . Because the CBE variates exhibit stationarity, Best …

Robust Linear Classifier For Unequal Cost Ratios Of Misclassification, Oludare S. Ariyo, A O. Adebanji

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper focuses on the robust classification procedures when the assumption of equal cost of misclassification is violated. A normal distribution based data set is generated using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) version 9.1. Using Barlett’s approximation to chi-square, the data set was found to be homogenous and was subjected to three linear classifiers namely: Maximum Likelihood Discriminant Function (MLDF), Fisher’s linear Discriminant Function and Distance Based Discriminant Function. To Judge the performances of these procedures, the Apparent Error Rates for each procedure is obtained for different cost ratios 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 and 1:5 and sample sizes 5:5, 10:10, …

Global Financial Meltdown And The Reforms In The Nigerian Banking Sector, Sanusi L. Sanusi

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The paper examined the global financial meltdown and the reforms in the Nigerian banking sector. It was a public speech by the formal Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria that observed the extent and severity of the crisis that began with the bursting of the housing bubble in the United States in August 2007 reflects the confluence of myriad of factors some of which are familiar from previous crises, while others are new. As in previous times of financial turmoil, the pre-crisis period was characterized by (i) surging asset prices that proved unsustainable; (ii) a prolonged credit expansion leading …

Does That Pay Practice Really Have Any Impact?, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

Few organizations take the time to credibly study whether some pay, benefits, work-life balance or other total rewards practices have any impact on the organizations' bottom line or employee outcomes like productivity or turnover. It's too difficult to do well, organizations don't actually want to know the answer, and/or organizations don't have the know-how or time. One successfully executed, evidence-based study of a new compensation practice is Safelite AutoGlass. Edward Lazear compared the productivity change worker by worker, for only those employees present under both pay arrangements. Lazear found that not only did productivity increase after the change from hourly …

Assessment Of The Socio-Economic Impacts Of Sb 1080 On Immigrant Groups, Mary C. King, John G. Corbett, John Chiappetta, Anabel López Salinas

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In July 2008, the State of Oregon implemented SB 1080, legislation that required all applicants for an Oregon Driver License or ID card to present proof of legal presence in the United States. In 2007, some 140,000 unauthorized immigrants were estimated to be living in Oregon, more than two-thirds of whom were estimated to be members of the labor force. Approximately 97% of Oregon’s unauthorized immigrants are thought to be Latino, nearly all of Mexican origin. This report includes a discussion of the social science findings on the situation of undocumented workers in the U.S and what is known about …

Youth Employment And Unemployment In Developing Countries: Macro Challenges With Micro Perspectives, Berna Kahraman

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

An increasingly challenging phenomenon for both developing and advanced economies, the negative consequences of long-lasting youth unemployment both at the individual and the societal level are well established. The volatility of local economies in an era of recurrent global economic crisis may have solidified the disadvantaged status of young people within the larger economies. Understanding youth labor outcomes in developing countries may offer new perspectives for policy makers as well as help to unmask chronic problems in our economic systems and give direction to further studies concerning the youth labor market.

One might expect that declines in the size of …

The Family And Medical Leave Act: Effects On Women's Wages And Employment, Andrea E. Miller

Honors Theses

For many years, women's labor force participation and issues of parental leave have been of great importance not only to families and individuals, but also to policy makers, researchers, and employers alike. The Family and Medical Leave Act was the first federal policy enacted in an effort to accommodate medical leave for employees. The Family and Medical Leave Act allowed both men and women to take extended, unpaid leaves due to personal or family medical and health issues. The FMLA establishes a federal, minimum leave threshold in order for employees to take such an extended leave to include the following …

Using Monte Carlo Simulations To Establish A New House Price Stress Test, James R. Follain, Seth H. Giertz

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

The focus of this paper is on the house price stress test (termed ALMO) that was designed to assess the fiscal strength of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and, if necessary, to trigger remedial action in order to avert a crisis. We assess whether the ALMO stress test was an adequate representation of an extremely weak housing market, given the best available information leading up to the Great Recession. A Monte Carlo simulation model is developed to estimate the severity of low probability events (i.e., severe house price declines). We illustrate the complexity and subjective nature of the process used …