Wages in a factor proportions model with energy input

This paper examines US wage adjustment in a structural vector autoregression of the factor proportions model with capital, labor, and energy inputs. Data cover the years 1949 to 2006. The wage adjusts to changes in input levels and output prices over six to eight years. Energy has a more robust wage impact than capital. The wage reacts weakly if at all to the falling price of manufactures and rising price of services during the sample period. Estimates relate directly to factor proportions theory suggesting robust substitution with labor in the middle of the factor intensity ranking.     

Pre-recession efficiencies and input allocation decisions of agricultural and critically insolvent banks

The late 2000s’ economic recession is considered the longest economic downturn since the 1930s Great Depression. Declining real estate values ignited an increase in loan defaults and mortgage foreclosures that led to a surge of bank failures at a rate not experienced by the U.S. banking industry since the 1980s. A total of 509 bank failures were recorded by the FDIC from January 2007–December 2014, with nearly 60% of these failures occurring in 2009 and 2010. In contrast, there were only 24 bank failures in the U.S. during the 7-year period prior to 2007. This study analyzed certain components of operating decisions made by banks that either survived or became critically insolvent during the late 2000s financial crisis using an Input Distance Stochastic Frontier function to estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and allocative efficiency (AE) between agricultural banks and non-agricultural banks. This efficiency analysis was applied to a 7-year pre-recession period and is designed to final out any early warning signals that decrease the efficiency level of banks. Results suggest that survival banks were more technically efficient than critically insolvent banks, and banks’ tendency to utilize cheaper inputs were more likely to stand the economic crisis.     

Age-income profiles,income distribution and transition proportions

This paper presents a model to link age-income profiles, income distribution, and transition proportions. Transition proportions play a central role in the Markov-chain approach to income distribution. This stochastic model is much criticized, but it is shown in the paper that its most attractive characteristic can be maintained, while at the same time integrating it with a micro-economic foundation of age-income profiles. These profiles are inferred from capability development and individual choice. The model also analytically generates an income distribution.     

Attention economies

A new theoretical model is developed which describes the structure of competition for attention and characterizes equilibria. The exogenous fundamentals of an attention economy are the space of receiving subjects with their attention capacity, and the potential set of competing firms (senders) with their radiation technology. The endogenous variables explained by the theory are equilibrium audiences (the clients belonging to a sender), their signal exposure and attention, and the diversity of senders surviving the contest for attention. Application of the equilibrium analysis suggests that international integration or progress in information technologies tend to decrease global diversity. Local diversity, perceived by the individual receivers, may increase nonetheless.     

契约配置与制度配置：路径比较

契约配置和制度配置的路径存在重要差异。契约配置路径包括私人交易演进型、政府之间与社会团体之间交易演进型和政府、社会团体与私人之间交易演进型等路径。制度配置路径包括契约演进型、需求型、供给型和引进型等路径。契约配置和制度配置路径比较的经济学意义表现在二者均具有稀缺性,在经济资源配置中具有不同的作用,并存在路径依赖关系,促进二者的耦合性是市场经济的本质要求。     

Public input competition

Public investment in infrastructure may help create agglomeration economies, by attracting mobile factors such as skilled labour. Competition among regions in public investment can then be destructive. This paper analyzes the Nash equilibria to a simple model of public input competition. Even though the regions are assumed identical, the equilibrium may not be symmetric. The problem with non-cooperative behaviour is not (only) that regions invest too much, but that too many regions may choose to invest. Depending on the parameter values, the Nash equilibrium may be efficient, may be inefficient or may not exist (at least not in pure strategies). Better mobility among regions leads to more aggressive competition. The analysis suggests that rents from public investment may be dissipated by governments' competition to attract mobile factors.     

Markup cyclicality and input factor adjustments

This paper investigates the existence of markups and their cyclical behaviour at the industry sector level. Markups are given as a price-cost relation that is estimated from a dynamic, structural model of the firm. The firms face costly adjustment of labour and potential financial constraints. The model is tested on a panel of firm- and plant-level data from Norwegian manufacturing industries. The results indicate a frequent presence of moderate pro-cyclical markups. Labour adjustment costs are present in four out of seven sectors but small in magnitude. The results are related to the role played by unions in a setting with high union density.     

Public-good valuation and intra-family allocation

I derive values of marginal changes in a public good for two-person households, measured alternatively by household member i’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the good on behalf of the household, WTP _i (H), or by the sum of individual WTP values across family members, WTP(C). Households are assumed to allocate their resources in efficient Nash bargains over private and common household goods. WTP _i (H) is then defined by trade-offs between the public good and the household good, and WTP(C) by trade-offs of between the public good and private goods. WTP _i (H) is found to be higher (lower) than WTP(C) when member i has a relatively high (low) marginal valuation of the public good, but tends on average to equal WTP(C). As a consequence, individuals tend to represent households correctly on average when questioned about the household’s WTP for a public good, even when they are purely selfish and answer truthfully. Adding all members’ WTP answers on behalf of the household then leads to double counting. Pure and paternalistic altruism (the latter attached to consumption of the public good) move each member’s WTP on behalf of the household closer to the true sum of individual WTP, but only paternalistic altruism raises this sum.      

Aid allocation and poverty reduction

This paper derives a poverty-efficient allocation of aid and compares it with actual aid allocations. The allocation of aid that has the maximum effect on poverty depends on the level of poverty and the quality of policies. Using the headcount, poverty-gap, and squared poverty gap measures of poverty, alternatively, all yield similar poverty-efficient allocations. Finally, we find that the actual allocation of aid is radically different from the poverty-efficient allocation. With the present allocation, aid lifts around 10 million people annually out of poverty in our sample of countries. With a poverty-efficient allocation, the productivity of aid would nearly double.     

Maximin behavior and efficient allocation

A mechanism that can implement any Pareto-efficient allocation in a two-person Edgeworth box economy when agents choose among uncertain alternatives by the maximin criterion is described. This, coupled with the association of maximin and its generalizations with complete ignorance, suggests that deliberately withholding information from agents about each other's preferences might allow the design of mechanisms with improved performance.     

Investor Attention Strategy

This article documents the motivation, the construction, and the profitability of an investment strategy based on investor attention in the options market. Using the option volume after a 1-week dormant period as a proxy for investor attention, the author shows that heightened investor attention after the dormant period has rich investment implications. A portfolio constructed on the basis of volume spike events immediately after the dormant period generates an abnormal return of 68 basis points on a monthly basis (8.16% on an annualized basis). This abnormal return is robust to risk adjustment using standard asset pricing models. The author's findings constitute strong evidence that it is profitable for outside investors to mimic attentive investors in the options market and reap economically and statistically significant profits.     

Labor skills and factor proportions trade in the gulf cooperation council

A new measure of factor intensity and abundance from trade theory is utilized to predict potential trade and income redistribution between traditional and modern economies in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Differences in labor skill intensity and abundance suggest there will be substantial trade between the modern (Bahrain, Qatar, UAE) and traditional (Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia) economies in the GCC. Due to the limited data, the UAE and Kuwait are taken to represent the modern and traditional economies.     

Investor Attention and Global Stock Returns

The author constructs a direct measure of investor attention toward global benchmark indices using Google search volume and empirically examines its impact on stock returns. The author documents a significant decrease in index returns following an increase in investor attention. This result is consistent with the investor recognition hypothesis (Merton [1987 Merton, R. “A Simple Model of Capital Market Equilibrium with Incomplete Information.” Journal of Finance, 42, (1987), pp. 483–510.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]) and the finding of no-media premium in the United States (Fang and Peress [2009 Fang, L., and J. Peress. “Media Coverage and the Cross-section of Stock Returns.” Journal of Finance 64, (2009), pp. 2023–2052.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]). Additional tests suggest that the attention effect may be attributable to local and U.S. investors. Finally, such negative effect of attention is found to be strengthened (weaken) in the market with positive (negative) sentiments.     

Attention and salience in preference reversals

Experimental Economics - We investigate the implications of Salience Theory for the classical preference reversal phenomenon, where monetary valuations contradict risky choices. It has been stated...     

A brief study of age specific birth proportions,Japan and Singapore

The suitability of age-specific birth proportions (ASBP), or percentage distribution of births, as a rough and ready index of fertility change was analyzed by establishing a theoretical framework for its limitations and uses. The discussion suggested that the utility of ASBP as an indicator of fertility change depends on the characteristics and behavior of the population being considered. The concept was then empirically applied to birth trends in Japan and Singapore for 2 different time periods. Analysis suggested that ASBP trends in Japan reflected changes in age-specific fertility rates relative to general fertility rate as well as trends in parity distribution. The Singapore analysis was more complicated, raising different issues. As very limited empirical work has been done on ASBPs, the utility of ASBPs as an indicator of fertility change cannot be definitely ascertained. It was suggested however that ASBP trends may be applicable in countries where the age distribution of fertile-aged women is fairly stable. More empirical research should be done on ASBP trends in other countries, the behavior of A matrix as discussed in this paper, and useful empirical relationship of ASBP with other fertility measures.     

Incentives for input foreclosure

We analyze the incentives of a vertically integrated firm to foreclose downstream rivals in a model of upstream price competition between suppliers of only imperfectly substitutable inputs. Our main motivation is a critical assessment of common assertions that draw inferences from pre-merger observable variables to post-merger incentives to foreclose. In particular, we find that, contrary to some commonly expressed views, high margins on the downstream and low margins on the upstream market are not good predictors for the incentives of a newly integrated firm to foreclose rivals. Besides this contribution to policy, our model also extends existing results in the literature on vertical foreclosure through allowing for the interaction of product differentiation on the upstream and on the downstream market.     

Aid allocation rules

This paper studies an aid allocation rule used by major development agencies, and investigates optimal allocations when recipients are neoclassical economies undergoing transition dynamics. When recipients face aid absorption constraints, allocations that favor poorer recipients are not always optimal, contrary to what is assumed in assessments of donor performance. The most quantitatively significant factors that determine the optimal sensitivity to recipient characteristics are the generosity of the aid budget and the extent of absorption constraints. In neoclassical recipients, aid can only accelerate growth where there is already growth, so the optimal rule places little weight on growth and optimality is largely a matter of balancing recipient need against absorption constraints.