Health care utilization and self-assessed health: specification of bivariate models using copulas

The discernment of relevant factors driving health care utilization constitutes one important research topic in health economics. This issue is frequently addressed through specification of regression models for health care use (y—often measured by number of doctor visits) including, among other covariates, a measure of self-assessed health (sah). However, the exogeneity of sah within those models has been questioned, due to the possible presence of unobservables influencing both y and sah, and because individuals’ health assessments may depend on the quantity of medical care received. This article addresses the possible simultaneity of (sah, y) by adopting a full information approach, through specification of the bivariate probability function (p.f.) of these discrete variables, conditional on a set of exogenous covariates (x). The approach is implemented with copula functions, which afford separate consideration of each variable margin and their dependence structure. The specification of the joint p.f. of (sah, y) enables estimation of several quantities of potential economic interest, namely features of the conditional p.f. of y given sah and x. The adopted models are estimated through maximum likelihood, with cross-sectional data from the Portuguese National Health Survey of 1998–1999. Estimates of the margins’ parameters do not vary much among different copula models, while, in accordance with theoretical expectations, the dependence parameter is estimated to be negative across the various joint models.     

Spreading the Word: Transaction Cost Economics in the Conversation of Economics

Transaction cost economics is a key topic in many conversations in business and economics related disciplines, much as a result of Oliver Williamson's intellectual crusade. By claiming a “distinct worldview,” he develops arguments of association and differentiation to established worldviews, like traditional microeconomics, earlier institutionalism, Austrian and radical economics, and also within the new institutional economics itself, in order to advance his theory. His resourcefulness defies straight argumentative decisions, catering to different audiences whilst trying to break new ground. Surely Williamson has not pleased everyone, but his discourse is greatly responsible for placing TCE in the everyday parlance of economics.     

Bosnia's Third Space? Nationalist Separatism and International Supervision in Bosnia's Brčko District

This article analyses how the strategic Bosnian locality of Br?ko emerged as a distinctive geopolitical space during the post-war period. This resulted from the struggle between separatist nationalisms and the international community over the status of displaced persons in Bosnia, but this struggle played out differently in the municipality of Br?ko as its status was unresolved at Dayton and for years afterward. Post-war nationalist rivalry to determine Br?ko's status through the manipulation of displaced persons provoked the creation of the Br?ko District as a territorial condominium nominally shared by Bosnia's two entities but under direct international supervision. Drawing upon fieldwork in Bosnia, we develop a critical geopolitical account of Br?ko from wartime through the post-war period to the present. The article concludes by considering whether Br?ko as a third geopolitical space holds potential to offer Bosnia a third space, overcoming the oppositional binaries of the war.     

Asset Pricing with a Bank Risk Factor

This paper studies how the state of the banking sector influences stock returns of nonfinancial firms. We consider a two‐factor pricing model, where the first factor is the traditional market excess return and the second factor is the change in the average distance to default of commercial banks. We find that this bank factor is priced in the cross section of U.S. nonfinancial firms. Controlling for market beta, the expected excess return for a stock in the top quintile of bank risk exposure is on average 2.83% higher than for a stock in the bottom quintile.     

Trade Credit,the Financial Crisis,and SME Access to Finance

Mounting evidence indicates that firms, particularly SMEs, suffered from a significant credit crunch during this crisis. We analyze for the first time whether trade credit provided an alternative source of external finance to SMEs during the crisis. Using firm‐level Spanish data we find that credit constrained SMEs depend on trade credit, but not bank loans, and that the intensity of this dependence increased during the financial crisis. Unconstrained firms, in contrast, are dependent on bank loans but not on trade credit.     

Spatial ability learning through educational robotics

Several authors insist on the importance of students’ acquisition of spatial abilities and visualization in order to have academic success in areas such as science, technology or engineering. This paper proposes to discuss and analyse the use of educational robotics to develop spatial abilities in 12 year old students. First of all, a course to introduce robotics to 6th grade primary school students was designed. The key intention was to prepare practical and motivating sessions in order to foster the students’ involvement in hands-on learning. Hence, during the sessions of the course, challenges were provided for the students, in order to develop their capabilities as proficient problem solvers. The teacher assisted and guided the students, and the students were encouraged to solve the problems by themselves, working in 3-members teams. The main goal of this paper is to discuss and analyse the potential usefulness of educational robotics to develop spatial abilities. To carry out the analysis, students were randomly divided into an experimental group (EG), which participated in the robotics course, and a control group (CG), which did not take part in the robotics course. The extensive existing literature for spatial ability evaluation was analysed and reviewed and a pre-test and a post-test were prepared for use in the research study. Initially, the spatial ability of both EG and CG students was assessed with the pre-test. Then, after finishing the robotics course, the same sets of students were tested with the post-test. An extensive analysis of the results is provided in the paper. Results show that the positive change in spatial ability of the participants in the robotics course (EG) was greater than change evident in the students who did not join the course (CG). The improvement was statistically significant. The results also show that the overall performance of the students depends on the instruments used to evaluate their spatial abilities. Hence, this study manifests clearly the importance of the selection of those instruments.     

Hidden links in the warranted rate of growth: the supermultiplier way out

Post Keynesian models consider growth to be demand-led – a logical consequence of Keynes's principle of effective demand. After Harrod's seminal paper in 1939 Harrod, R. F. 1939. An essay in dynamic theory. Economic journal, 49, 14–33.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] they try to unearth the hidden variables that might allow the adaptation of the warranted rate, determined from the supply side, to demand-growth expectations that supposedly have an autonomous source. The purpose of this paper is to show that an investment function based on the accelerator and integrated in a supermultiplier is able to shape the warranted rate in consonance with the autonomous trend. The supermultiplier reveals itself as a stable and stabilising mechanism when demand is split into permanent and transient. Hopefully the paper will build bridges with other Keynesian, Kaleckian and Sraffian strands that have so far dismissed the supermultiplier solution because of its apparently inherent instability.     

Implications of Keeping‐Up‐with‐the‐Joneses Behavior for the Equilibrium Cross Section of Stock Returns: International Evidence

This paper tests the cross‐sectional implications of “keeping‐up‐with‐the‐Joneses” (KUJ) preferences in an international setting. When agents have KUJ preferences, in the presence of undiversifiable nonfinancial wealth, both world and domestic risk (the idiosyncratic component of domestic wealth) are priced, and the equilibrium price of risk of the domestic factor is negative. We use labor income as a proxy for domestic wealth and find empirical support for these predictions. In terms of explaining the cross‐section of stock returns and the size of the pricing errors, the model performs better than alternative international asset pricing models.     

¿Conduce la flexibilización a menor desempleo? Un análisis empírico del mercado laboral español

En España se llevaron a cabo dos grandes reformas laborales (2010 y 2012) bajo el supuesto de que la flexibilización del mercado laboral y la descentralización de la negociación colectiva conducirían mecánicamente a reducir el desempleo (hipótesis flexibilizadora). Este artículo destaca la centralidad de la demanda y de la composición sectorial de la economía para explicar el comportamiento de esta variable (hipótesis estructural). Mediante un análisis con datos de panel a escala subnacional, evaluamos la capacidad de ambas hipótesis para explicar la evolución del desempleo. Nuestros resultados cuestionan los supuestos de la hipótesis flexibilizadora y subrayan la importancia de los factores cíclicos y estructurales.