Sectoral effects of reductions in NATO military expenditures in the major industrialized and developing countries

We use the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade to assess the sectoral effects of (1) a 25 percent unilateral reduction of military expenditures in the individual NATO countries and (2) a 25 percent multilateral reduction of military expenditures in all of the NATO countries combined. Our principal findings suggest that the overall effects of the unilateral and multilateral reductions are not substantial and that the results of the two reductions are qualitatively similar. The sectoral results, which are also broadly similar in the two experiments, suggest that sectors such as basic metals and metal products, durable goods, and community, social, and personal services might be in need of transitional adjustment assistance for displaced workers in the event that the reductions in military expenditures would in fact be carried out.     

Property-Value Impacts of an Environmental Disamenity: The Case of Landfills

The purpose of this article is to quantify the property-value impacts of a change in environmental quality by using the hedonic price model. In particular, we focus on the impact of the presence of landfills on nearby residential real estate prices. We combine elements of an urban location choice and hedonic pricing model to estimate the effects of the presence of multiple environmental disamenities on residential real estate prices. We explicitly account for temporal effects by including housing transactions in areas with both open and closed landfills and control for information effects. In addition, we treat property taxes and prices as being simultaneously determined. Our analysis suggests that closing landfills will not necessarily mitigate property-value impacts.     

The market perception of banking industry risk: A multifactor analysis

This paper analyzes the market perception of the risk of the banking industry during the 1969–89 period by using two methodologies simultaneously. The market factor and economic and industry factors (proxied by interest rate variables) of a multifactor regression model are examined in relation to industry, intra-industry, and bank-specific factors extracted using principal component analysis of bank holding company stock returns. The results provide additional insights into the market perception of bank risk beyond those provided by the market and interest rate risk models of previous studies.Work on this paper was undertaken while the authors were at Temple University.     

Modelling quantitative trade restrictions: Rationing in the Rotterdam model

Summary We develop methods of identifying if, following the imposition of a quantitative import restriction, consumers are rationed, and of allowing for this in the estimation of demand functions. We model demand with the Rotterdam model. The methods are based on Neary and Roberts' model of rationing and rely on identifying differences in the stochastic structure of demand under rationing and market clearing. By way of example we consider the demand-side effects of the voluntary export restraint imposed during the 1970s and 1980s on Comecon exports of women's and children's leather footwear to the UK. The methodology developed is equally applicable to the case where import prices rise to clear excess demand, leaving suppliers facing a quantity ration.This paper was written when the authors were members of the University College of North Wales, Bangor. We are grateful to the participants of seminars at the University of Surrey, The University College of North Wales, the Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm, the International Economics Study Group, and the European Workshop on International Trade, and to John Black and Wendy Takacs for comments on earlier drafts, and to Sue James for typing. This work is conducted under the auspices of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, and is financed by The Ford Foundation and the Department of Trade and Industry, to whom we are grateful. We are also indebted to two anonymous referees for improving the presentation.     

The impact of reputation and variance investigations on the creation of budget slack

Experimental research and survey studies have yielded conflicting findings about the conditions under which budget slack is likely to arise. This study begins to reconcile the contradictory evidence by examining the impact of two features of the organizational context in which budget decisions are made: reputation concerns and variance investigations. The results of a laboratory experiment show concern for maintaining a favourable reputation leads to lower budget slack as does the existence of a variance investigation policy. The findings extend the agency theory framework by incorporating both pecuniary and non-pecuniary features that influence behavior when budgets have consequences beyond the immediate period. The results also suggest reputation concerns and control system features may serve as cost-effective substitutes for exhaustive incentive contracting in practical settings.     

FULL OF EASTERN PROMISE - UNDERSTANDING HOUSING PRIVATIZATION IN POST-SOCIALIST COUNTRIES

In a period of economic transition, many commentators have identified the inefficiencies, distortions and inequalities which exist in the housing system of post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. These structural flaws are deemed to be incompatible with the adoption of free market principles and economic liberalization. For economic and political reasons the reform of the housing system has become a necessary and indispensable element of the market reform process. This paper contributes to the growing debate on the context in which housing reform and housing privatization programs have been adopted in Europe's post-socialist economies. The paper goes on to argue that the introduction of housing privatization and the preoccupation with owner-occupation has not been based on any overall assessment of what has occurred elsewhere in western Europe or on the experience of housing provision in other advanced western capitalist countries. The economically driven orthodox approach towards privatization and the way this has been translated into the housing system of post-socialist countries raises important policy questions on the longer term viability of housing provision and the creation of a sustainable housing system.     

Information costs and home bias: an analysis of US holdings of foreign equities

We test extant hypotheses of the home bias in equity holdings using high quality cross-border holdings data and quantitative measures of barriers to international investment. The effects of direct barriers to international investment, when statistically significant, are not economically meaningful. More important are information asymmetries that owe to the poor quality and low credibility of financial information in many countries. While a direct measure of information costs is not available, some foreign firms have reduced these costs by publicly listing their securities in the United States, where investor protection regulations elicit standardized, credible financial information. A proxy for the reduction in information asymmetries—the portion of a country’s market that has a public US listing—is a major determinant of a country’s weight in US investors’ portfolios. Foreign countries whose firms do not alleviate information costs by opting into the US regulatory environment are more severely underweighted in US equity portfolios.