ASKING ABOUT CHANGES IN HAPPINESS IN A DAILY WEB SURVEY AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR THE EASTERLIN PARADOX*

This paper investigates whether the level of happiness and integrated process of changes in happiness are the same. Using the daily data of two waves of 4 and 6 months each, we found that the level of happiness is stationary, whereas the integrated process of changes is non‐stationary with a rising trend, implying that they are different series. An examination of the causes of the difference indicated that although adaptation completely influences the level of happiness, it only partially influences the change in happiness. This may be because the latter is based on a comparison between today and yesterday.     

A reexamination of trends in primary commodity prices

This paper conducts a reexamination of the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis by employing the unit root test proposed by Lee and Strazicich (2003) and Lee and Strazicich (2004) that allow for up to two structural breaks. Given the higher power of these tests compared to the Zivot and Andrews (1992) and Lumsdaine and Papell (1997) tests, rejection of the null can be considered as genuine evidence of stationarity. The main findings of this paper are that eleven out of twenty-four commodity prices are found to be difference stationary implying that shocks to these commodities tend to be permanent in nature. The remaining thirteen prices are found to exhibit trend stationary behavior with either one or two structural breaks. Most of the commodities that do not exhibit difference stationary behavior seem to contain no significant trends. There are fewer cases, in relation to past studies, of commodities that display negative trends thereby weakening the case for the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis.     

Smooth transition trends and labor force participation rates in the United States

This paper employs smooth transition trend models to investigate the long-run time series behavior of quarterly US labor force participation rates. In particular, we examine whether long-run growth in labor force participation rates can be modeled by smooth transitions between states rather than as abrupt mean level changes or as a stochastic trend. Smooth transitions permit for non-instantaneous adjustment of individual workers to changes associated with economic events or general labor market conditions. We employ unit root testing procedures with alternatives characterized by stationary fluctuations around one or two smooth transitions in linear trend. We examine labor force participation rates by gender- and age-specific groups. The results indicate that all female and most male participation series are better characterized as stationary processes that undergo transitional deterministics.     

Finite state Markov-chain approximations to highly persistent processes

The Rouwenhorst method of approximating stationary AR(1) processes has been overlooked by much of the literature despite having many desirable properties unmatched by other methods. In particular, we prove that it can match the conditional and unconditional mean and variance, and the first-order autocorrelation of any stationary AR(1) process. These properties make the Rouwenhorst method more reliable than others in approximating highly persistent processes and generating accurate model solutions. To illustrate this, we compare the performances of the Rouwenhorst method and four others in solving the stochastic growth model and an income fluctuation problem. We find that (i) the choice of approximation method can have a large impact on the computed model solutions, and (ii) the Rouwenhorst method is more robust than others with respect to variation in the persistence of the process, the number of points used in the discrete approximation and the procedure used to generate model statistics.     

Epistemological foundations for the assessment of risks in banking and finance

This article presents the epistemological and conceptual foundations on which current attempts to model crises and assess financial risks are based. It draws a distinction between two research programs, in Lakatos' sense: on the one hand, crises understood as structural events within a cycle; on the other hand, crises seen as statistical tail events. The methodological, theoretical and practical consequences of such a dichotomy are exposed. A crucial difference lies in the assumptions about change in the causal processes generating economic outcomes, especially asset returns. Furthermore, this article insists on providing conceptual definitions of key terms that have distinct meanings within the two research programs.     

Shock Persistence and Stochastic Trends in Australian Aggregate Output and Consumption*

The distinction between transitory and permanent shocks is at the centre of the debate on which class of models is best suited to represent economic variables: stationary models around a deterministic trend, or stationary models around a stochastic trend The debate u here focused on the Australian case. It is found that both aggregate output and consumption are characterized by stochastic trends, but without a transitory component This corresponds to a measure of shock persistence equal to one for both variables. For the specific case of aggregate output, this result may be interpreted as indicating the absence of business cycles     

Does history matter?: Empirical analysis of evolutionary versus stationary equilibrium views of the economy

The evolutionary vision in which history matters is of an evolving economy driven by bursts of technological change initiated by agents facing uncertainty and producing long term, path-dependent growth and shorter-term, non-random investment cycles. The alternative vision in which history does not matter is of a stationary, ergodic process driven by rational agents facing risk and producing stable trend growth and shorter term cycles caused by random disturbances. We use Carlaw and Lipsey’s simulation model of non-stationary, sustained growth driven by endogenous, path-dependent technological change under uncertainty to generate artificial macro data. We match these data to the New Classical stylized growth facts. The raw simulation data pass standard tests for trend and difference stationarity, exhibiting unit roots and cointegrating processes of order one. Thus, contrary to current belief, these tests do not establish that the real data are generated by a stationary process. Real data are then used to estimate time-varying NAIRU’s for six OECD countries. The estimates are shown to be highly sensitive to the time period over which they are made. They also fail to show any relation between the unemployment gap, actual unemployment minus estimated NAIRU and the acceleration of inflation. Thus there is no tendency for inflation to behave as required by the New Keynesian and earlier New Classical theory. We conclude by rejecting the existence of a well-defined a short-run, negatively sloped Philips curve, a NAIRU, a unique general equilibrium, short and long-run, a vertical long-run Phillips curve, and the long-run neutrality of money.     

The Great Leap Forward, Economic Reforms, and the Unit Root Hypothesis: Testing for Breaking Trend Functions in China''s GDP Data

This paper has two related objectives. The first is to evaluate empirically whether annual data for China's GDP and its sectoral components from 1952 to 1998 can be modeled more accurately as a stationary process around a breaking trend function as opposed to a unit-root process. The second is to identify the long-run growth path of the Chinese economy and shocks that are big enough to have altered the path. The conclusion that China's major output time series are trend stationary with structural breaks has significant implications for the government in policy decisions for long-run growth and short-run stabilization. It also has implications for modeling comovements between output variables and other macroeconomic variables in cointegration analysis of the Chinese economy.J. Comp. Econom., December 2000, 28(4), pp. 814–827. Department of Commerce, Massey University (Albany), Auckland, New Zealand.     

中国核心通胀率与产出缺口经验分析

利用新菲利普斯曲线,本文设定包含通胀与产出的非观测成分模型估计中国的核心通胀率与产出缺口。通过卡尔曼滤波平滑推断程序,季度通胀和产出均被分解为互相独立的趋势成分和周期成分。估计结果表明,二十年来我国的潜在产出变化相对于传统HP滤波结果更为平滑,其近似呈线性增长。这意味着我国产出特征可通过简洁的趋势平稳过程来描述,而Nelson and Plosser(1982)以来普遍采用的单位根过程未必是刻画我国产出的最优模型。核心通胀率推断还表明,1998-2002年间的通货紧缩并非如物价指数下降表现的一样严重。     

On the relationship between population change and sustainable development

This paper investigates the relationship between population growth and economic growth, through the study of fertility choices and their effects on natural resources. It aims at analyzing the interactions between endogenous fertility choices and the environment and their link to the sustainable matter. We analyze a growth model driven by natural resources and without production, where agents have jointly to determine consumption and fertility, taking into account the effects of their decisions on the dynamics of natural resources. We adopt the most optimistic view on natural capital (it generates endogenous growth) and the weakest notion of sustainable paths (all variables are positive): in such a framework we expect that sustainable paths exist. We instead show that this is not always true. In fact, even if renewal capacity of natural resources is unbounded, not always can a sustainable path be found: this depends on the difference between the stationary fertility rate and the mortality rate. If the stationary fertility is lower than the mortality rate, a sustainable path will not be found, and in such a case public intervention is necessary in order to address the economy along a sustainable path. This can simply be done through policies affecting public attention to environmental protection or the intensity of the dilution effect.     

Testing for Equilibrium in the Australian Wage Equation*

In this paper a range of unit root and cointegration tests are applied to the time-series variables most commonly found in the various specifications of the Australian wage equation. We find a contradiction between the standard Dickey-Fuller (DF) tests and the results from Johansen estimation regarding the order of integration. The conclusion we reach using tests developed by Perron (1989,1990) is that all the variables are trend stationary processes and that the cointegration framework is inappropriate in this case.     

When economic growth is less than exponential

This paper argues that growth theory needs a more general notion of “regularity” than that of exponential growth. We suggest that paths along which the rate of decline of the growth rate is proportional to the growth rate itself deserve attention. This opens up for considering a richer set of parameter combinations than in standard growth models. Moreover, it avoids the usual oversimplistic dichotomy of either exponential growth or stagnation. Allowing zero population growth in three different growth models (the Jones R&D-based model, a learning-by-doing model, and an embodied technical change model) serves as illustration that a continuum of “regular” growth processes fill the whole range between exponential growth and complete stagnation.     

Finnish GNP-series 1954/I–1990/IV: Small shock persistance or trend stationarity? Some evidence with variance ratio estimates

The “shock persistance” of Finnish adjusted quarterly real GNP series in logarithms from 1954/QI to 1990/QIV is analyzed using variance ratio estimators. The results indicate that the random walk component of the series is not big. The small sample properties of variance ratio estimators are studied using empirical distribution derived from simulations. The persistence measures calculated via the ARIMA modelling of the lnGNP_t series are biased upwards. The sampling properties show that the simple random walk model is not an alternative model for the lnGNP. A trend stationary alternative, an AR(2) process, gives almost the same “shock persistence” measures as the assumed unit root processes.     

More Uncertainty about the Unit Root in U.S. Real GNP

The new KPSS test is used to test the null hypothesis that U.S. real GNP is a trend stationary process. When appropriately sized, the test fails to reject the trend stationary null. This provides an important counter-example to the generic inability to reject the difference stationary null hypothesis for output by classical hypothesis testing. The evidence in favor of the trend stationary representation is weakened, however, by showing that such size correction dramatically reduces power. Reversing the null and alternative hypotheses, this paper complements Rudebusch’s (1993) recent analysis.     

Modelling seasonality in innovation diffusion

The ability to forecast new product growth is especially important for innovative firms that compete in the marketplace. Today many new products exhibit very strong seasonal behaviour, which may deserve specific modelling, both for producing better forecasts in the short term and for better explaining special market dynamics and related managerial decisions. By considering seasonality as a deterministic component to be estimated jointly with the trend through Nonlinear Least Squares methods, we have developed two extensions of the Guseo–Guidolin model that are able to simultaneously describe trend and seasonality. Such models are based on two different but equally reasonable approaches: in one case we consider a simple additive decomposition of a time series and design a model in which seasonality is directly added to the trend and jointly estimated with it; in the other we design a more complex structure, mimicking that of a Generalized Bass model and embed two separate seasonal perturbations within the dynamic market potential and the corresponding adoption process. The different characteristics of two products, a pharmaceutical drug and an IT device, make it possible to appreciate empirically various modelling options and performances. Both models are quite simple to implement and to interpret from a managerial point of view.     

Maximin growth paths with recursive preferences: A complete characterization

This paper examines the growth paths that maximize the utility of the worst off generation for an economy where preferences are stationary and can be represented by a recursive utility function. The analysis focuses on the case where second period utility is an inferior good. It is shown that in such a case the maximin growth paths are time inconsistent. A possible solution to the time inconsistency problem is examined.     

Cross-sectional and time-series momentum returns and market dynamics: evidence from Japan

We test the behavioural theories of overconfidence and underreaction on cross-sectional (CS) and time-series (TS) momentum returns in the Japanese stock markets. Both CS and TS momentum returns are large and significant when the market continues in the same state and turns into losses when the market transitions to another state, consistent with the overconfidence but not the underreaction model. We find that TS conditional momentum returns exceed conditional CS momentum returns because of its active position since TS takes a net long (short) position following UP (DN) markets while CS is a zero-cost strategy irrespective of the market state. Finally, we find no relation between idiosyncratic volatility (IV) and momentum returns which is not supportive of either the overconfidence or underreaction model but implies that IV is not a significant limit to arbitrage in Japan.     

The employability of new graduates: a study of differences between UK universities

The non-stationarity tests of Phillips-Perron (1988) (PP tests) suggest that Australian macroeconomic output possesses a stochastic rather than a deterministic log-linear trend. Kwiatkowski et al. (1991) argue that such tests have low power and propose the KPSS test, in which the null is stationary. However, the KPSS test results reinforce the PP findings for Australia. Cochrane (1988) variance ratio (VR) tests further suggest that there may be a very strong random-walk component in the Australian business cycle. Rappoport and Reichlin (1989), however, argue that all such tests are biased in favour of the stochastic trend alternative if there are trend breaks in the data. Following up on this point, the paper finds that, in Australia's case, the stochastic trend alternative is statistically dominated when the data are allowed to be characterized by a probabilistic, regime-switching, segmented trend specification. Therefore, to the extent that real business-cycle theories of the business cycle gain support from stochastic trends in real output, this latter piece of Australian evidence does not strengthen their case.     

A formal psychological theory for evolutionary economics

The purpose of this paper is to seek to rise to the challenge posed by Harstad and Selten by providing a single unifying model of the psychological processes underlying the behaviour which drives the process of economic evolution. It seeks, in short, to make evolutionary economics yet more intellectually competitive. A self-contained account is given of a new model of the psychology of economic behaviour developed at the University of Queensland as part of the legacy of the Brisbane Club of evolutionary economists. Two results derived within this model are presented - the “Schumpeter” and “Made to Stick” theorems - and are used to elaborate the centrality of knowledge and its growth to the behaviour which drives evolutionary processes in the economy. A core contribution of this paper is to identify the way in which knowledge thus evolves. These are then used to elaborate explanations of evolutionary economic behaviour on both sides of the production-consumption dichotomy, in particular the manner in which the growth of knowledge may be facilitated by interpersonal interaction and particular conditions in the mind, or personality types. We discuss some relevant policy aspects of the model before concluding. The intention of this paper is to provide a basis for future research aiming to build a more coherent, more comprehensive and more simple view of the behaviour driving evolutionary dynamics.