Fuels on the Hill

New York Times,June 27,2008 Congress has always had a soft spot for'experts'who tell members what they want to hear,whether it’s supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth.     

Weak dependence, models and some applications

The paper is devoted to recall weak dependence conditions from Dedecker et al. (Weak dependence, examples and applications. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol 190, 2007)’s monograph; the main basic results are recalled here and we go further in some new applications. We develop here several models of weakly dependent processes and random fields. Among them an ARCH(∞) model is considered with statistical applications to ordinary least squares. A last part aims at proving new asymptotic results for weakly dependent random fields. Such applications are indeed the main proof of the interest of this theoretical notion which measures the asymptotic decorrelation of a process.     

Information And Communication Technology And The Measurement Of Volume Output And Final Demand - A Five-Country Study

Information and communication technology (ICT) products have undergone rapid technical change. Where quality improvements occur, they should be reflected in official price and quantity indices, otherwise there is a tendency to over-estimate price movements and under-estimate volume changes of ICT products. Statistical offices deal with this issue but the degree and nature of quality-adjustment of price indices of ICT products varies considerably between OECD countries. The present study simulates measurement effects on key economic variables (real output, private final consumption, government expenditure, investment, exports and imports) and productivity, under the assumption that the price indices of ICT products are fully quality-adjusted. The paper draws on a large selection of empirical studies to identify differences between quality-adjusted and unadjusted price changes and uses detailed information from input-output tables to assess their weights in final demand. Effects on GDP and its components are quantified for five selected OECD countries.     

Impact of Regional Economic Integration in East Asia

The current study evaluates the economy wide impact of trade liberalization in the ASEAN region along with China, Japan and Korea (ASEAN + 3) by the year 2020 using the GTAP framework. The study also assesses the environmental impact of the trade liberalization in the region focusing on the seven environmental indicators (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, BOD, COD, Suspended Solid and Industrial Waste). The result shows that the countries under agreement (ASEAN + 3) will benefit with increased output, expansion of trade and welfare due to trade reforms. Further, the integration will increase the global welfare, although the regions not under agreement in the world will show a decline in output growth. Vietnam will be gaining with the highest output growth among the ASEAN region; however, the impact on the environment would not be favourable. The environmental impact reveals a mixed outcome for participating countries under the agreement. The paper provides useful insight in pursuing greater trade liberalization among the countries under the study.     

Gross Investment And Technological Change

The impact of technological change upon gross investment has been relatively ignored. Building upon the foundations of the analysis of technological diffusion, an empirical model of gross investment is constructed that takes due account of technological change. This model is then tested upon a panel data set covering 185 UK firms over the period from 1984 to 1992. The results support the hypothesis that there are significant relationships of the expected signs between firm level gross investment, indicators of technological opportunity; the price of the capital goods that embody new technology, and firm and industry characteristics. There is also evidence of lagged adjustment effects in the investment process.     

The firm demand for liquid assets in an inflationary environment

Measures of inflation and the price level are added to the standard model of liquid asset demand and estimated with cross-section data on Brazilian manufacturing firms over a four-year period characterized by substantial inflation (annual rates of 19, 23, 34 and 35%). Results indicate that economies of scale exist in a model that is stable over time. Interest rates have a strong and elastic impact on liquid asset demand when inflation is explicitly controlled for although this result is not consistent across all subsets of data used. The usual assumption of a unitary price level elasticity of liquid asset demand is rejected and firms appear to conserve on liquid asset holdings as the rate of inflation increases suggesting more careful management of payments flows. Some of these findings contradict those of Ungar and Zilberfarb (1980). There are also some difference in behaviour across ownership groups: Brazilian firms do not exhibit economies of scale while multinationals do; and Brazilian firms adjust actual to desired balances faster than multinational firms.     

Investment in human capital and gender wage differences: evidence from the NLSY

This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to investigate gender differences in returns to various forms of human capital. Since the NLSY includes relatively detailed information regarding on- and off-the-job training, we place special emphasis on measuring gender differences in the incidence of and returns to formal post-school training. Also considered is the role of nonhuman capital factors such as industry and occupation in explaining the wage gap. It is found that about 60% of the gender wage gap in the sample is explained by mean differences in individual characteristics and market circumstances. This suggests a smaller role for discrimination in explaining the wage gap than previous research has found. The research indicates that training does not affect the gender wage gap. Also it is found that there is no statistically significant difference in the rate of return to other measures of human capital for women versus men. Our research suggests that the largest factors contributing to the wage gap are differences in the stocks of human capital for men and women, and differences in the distributions of men and women across industries and occupations.     

Indeterminacy and the Regulation of Task Allocation: The Shape of Support Roles in Healthcare

Drawing upon Marsden's typology of employment systems, this article explores how the indeterminacy of the employment relationship is enacted and resolved in relation to the healthcare assistant (HCA), a key work role in the delivery of nursing care in a hospital setting. It suggests that the regulation of task allocation within nursing assumes a hybrid form, requiring further analysis of the influences shaping the HCA role. Based on multi‐method hospital case studies, the article distinguishes different types of HCA, explaining their emergence by reference to the interaction between organizational structure and personal agency. The article illustrates the value of Marsden's framework, and by addressing its limits in a healthcare setting seeks to develop a deeper understanding of task allocation in different workplace employment systems.     

FUNDAMENTALS OF ACCOUNTING/ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL EVALUATION

A major assumption in inventory theory in general and in the area of price changes in particular is that the demand for an item is fixed. It is possible that the reduction in price may result in an increase in demand. In fact this is a reason for the sale offered by many organizations. In this paper we use the familiar net present value approach commonly used in financial decision making to analyze and formulate optimal inventory ordering policies. This approach is more accurate and straight-forward than the average annual cost method that is usually used for comparison of alternative inventory policies.