Investment Externalities and a Corrective Subsidy

The paper proposes an intertemporal equilibrium model that highlights the interdependence between aggregate investment and the degree of product differentiation with free entry of monopolistic producers. An investment externality is identified that results in underaccumulation of capital in the decentralized market equilibrium. Some form of investment promotion is called for. The paper compares the effectiveness of a general investment tax credit and an ad valorem output subsidy with policies that favor smaller business size. It is also shown that the complementarity among individual investments creates a potentially powerful investment multiplier.     

The Effects of Oil Price Uncertainty on Global Real Economic Activity

This paper investigates the effect of oil price uncertainty on global real economic activity using a quarterly vector autoregressive model with stochastic volatility in mean. Stochastic volatility allows oil price uncertainty to vary separately from changes in the level of oil prices, and allows one to incorporate an extraneous indicator of oil price uncertainty such as realized volatility that greatly improves the precision of the estimated uncertainty series. The estimation results show that an oil price uncertainty shock has negative effects on world industrial production all else equal. For example, it is shown that a doubling of oil price volatility is associated with a cumulative decline as high as 0.3 percentage points in world industrial production.     

Spatial Competition and Shopping Externalities: Evidence from the Housing Market

In search markets, greater spatial concentration of sellers increases price competition. At the same time, though, a greater concentration of sellers can create a shopping externality by attracting more buyers to the site. Using housing sales data, we test for spatial competition and shopping externality effects on prices and marketing time. We find that they reflect both competitive and shopping externality effects from surrounding houses, although the relative strength varies with how fresh the house is in the market, the freshness of surrounding houses, and the phase of the market cycle. New listings have the strongest shopping externality effect on neighboring houses that have been on the market for some time. Vacant houses have their strongest competition effects in the declining market and externality effects in the rising market. Fresh houses on the market reap little benefit from shopping externalities in all phases of the market cycle.     

On Spatial Public Finance Empirics

This paper focuses on the empirical specification of theoretical models of strategic interaction that give rise to a spatial pattern in local government expenditures and revenues. It shows that estimation of a reduced form inter-jurisdictional reaction function might not by itself allow to discriminate among competing strategic interaction theories. A review of the recent empirical literature suggests that exploring in more depth the specific empirical implications of alternative theoretical models, as well as fully exploiting the institutional features of multi-tiered government structures and local electoral systems, can help identify the structural model generating the observed spatial auto-correlation in policy variables.JEL Code: H71, H72, H77     

Commodity Prices and the Business Cycle in Latin America: Living and Dying by Commodities?

We analyze the dynamic interactions between commodity prices and output growth of the seven biggest Latin American exporters: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Using a novel definition of Markov-switching impulse response functions, we find that the response of each country's output growth to commodity price shocks is time dependent, size dependent, and sign dependent. The major evidence of asymmetries in output growth responses occurs when commodity price shocks lead to regime shifts. Thus, we conclude that the design of optimal countercyclical stabilization policies should consider that the reactions of economic activity vary considerably across business cycle regimes.     

Liquidity,assets and business cycles

The objective here is to evaluate the quantitative importance of financial frictions in business cycles. The analysis shows that a negative financial shock can cause aggregate investment, employment and consumption to fall with output. Despite this realistic comovement among macro quantities, a negative financial shock generates an equity price boom as the shock tightens firms׳ financing constraint. This counterfactual response of the equity price is robust to a wide range of variations in how financial frictions are modeled and whether financial shocks affect asset liquidity or firms׳ collateral constraints. Some possible resolutions to this puzzle are discussed.     

Technological Change as Reflected in Hotel Property Prices

This paper investigates the effects of age on the sale prices of hotel real estate. Value erosion of commercial property due to the passage of time may be offset by renovation, although substantial follow-on investment usually occurs several years following construction. Obsolescence produces value losses during the post-construction period prior to new investment that result from technological change (Colwell & Ramsland, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 8(1), 47–63, 2003). A hedonic model is specified to allow age to measure the effects of obsolescence in hotel prices. Although the long-run obsolescence rate for hotel properties of 1.93%/year aligns closely with the rate estimated elsewhere for retail properties, the path of obsolescence through time shows some marked departures. Contrary to the theory and the empirical results from the retail real estate market, hotel prices do not reveal much more obsolescence in the years immediately following construction than later. Also, the age and sale price relation turns positive nearing the third decade of the lives of hotels indicating a vintage effect. Thus, a V-shaped obsolescence function emerges that either may be explained by a fixed-cost renovation expenditure function or a vintage effect produced by the demand for surviving assets. A series of tests of hotel brand-specific obsolescence rates reveals considerable variation in these rates among seasoned properties, perhaps an indication of a convex renovation expenditure function and sequential follow-on investment.     

Why Invest in Your Neighbor? Social Contract on Educational Investment

It may be in the interestof low-ability individuals to subsidize the education of high-abilityindividuals. The sufficient conditions are surprisingly mild:positive externalities in education and complementarity in productionbetween human capital and labor supplied by the low-ability individuals.However, tax competition and the free mobility of the educatedgive rise to time-inconsistency and free-riding problems whichrender such a social contract infeasible and result in a suboptimallylow investment in education.     

Environmental Product Standards, International Trade and Monopolistic Competition

Thispaper examines the performance of non-cooperative environmentalpolicy in the case of local consumption externalities. In a two-countrymodel with monopolistic competiton, governments simultaneouslyimpose environmental product standards. Stricter regulationsforce the industrial sector to shift resources from non-environmentalto environmental R&D. Since the R&Dallocation in each country depends on the domestic as well asforeign policy, local decisions affect the economic and ecologicalsystem in the other region. Despite the arising spillovers, thepayoff dominant equilibria of the countries' game are efficient.This result requires similar but not identical preferences andtechnologies in both countries. It holds even if the regionsdiffer in market size. Under certain conditions, the non-cooperativesolutions remain efficient in the case of global pollution.     

企业核心竞争力的培育和提升

随着市场经济的逐步完善,企业的竞争力进入了新的历史阶段,提升企业的竞争能力,打造企业的核心竞争力成为企业面临的重大问题。全面提升企业竞争力必须进行制度创新和技术创新,塑造企业文化,提高员工素质。只有这样,才能使企业立于不败之地。     

城镇化、工业化与房地产价格之间的动态关系

文章选取1987-2011年相关数据,运用VAR模型分析三者的动态关系。通过格兰杰因果检验知：从长期来看,城镇化率和工业化是房价波动的原因,房价与工业化并不能引起城镇化率的提高,房价和城镇化率不是工业化提高的原因;通过脉冲响应函数,城镇化率的提升,引起房价上涨,但有一定的滞后期,工业化带动房价波动,当工业化达到一定程度,对房价的影响不如以前明显;通过方差分解,短期内房价本身贡献最高,城镇化率与工业化对房价贡献率有一定滞后性。     

实体企业金融化行为的逆周期效应及\"脱实向虚\"风险研究

基于2002-2017年A股上市公司数据,利用面板固定效应回归分析方法,检验实体企业金融化行为.结果显示:实体企业金融化行为具有显著的逆周期效应,但受企业异质性影响,不同类型企业金融化行为逆周期效应具有差异性,属于轻资产、国有制、制造业以及非东部的企业,其金融化行为的逆周期效应较为突出.实体企业金融化行为会抑制固定资产及研发创新的投入,进而挤出实体资产收益.在经济周期不同阶段,实体企业金融化行为的潜在动机表现不同.在经济上行期,企业金融化是套利投资行为;在经济下行期,企业金融化可以起到平滑资金作用,但需防范实体企业过度金融化可能带来的\"脱实向虚\"风险.     

房地产价格对企业投资结构的影响研究

依据我国2009—2020年微观企业面板数据,运用固定效应模型,考量房地产价格对企业投资结构的影响。结果显示,房地产价格对企业金融资产投资占比正向影响显著,对企业实体资产投资占比负向影响显著;房地产价格通过融资约束效应、劳动力成本效应与套利动机效应对企业投资结构产生影响。与西部地区企业相比,房地产价格对东部、中部地区的企业投资结构影响更显著;与非国有企业和中小型企业相比,房地产价格上涨对国有企业和大型企业金融资产投资占比的促进作用更弱。鉴于此,应合理调控房地产价格,优化企业融资环境和投资结构,促进企业高质量发展。     

Latin American Cycles: Has Anything Changed After the Great Recession?

This paper analyzes the evolution of growth cycles and business cycles in Latin America from 1980 to 2013 by using monthly industrial production. Focusing on both synchronization and other cyclical features, we find evidence of significant cyclical links between the countries of the region, which seem to be highly integrated in this period. Notably, we find that the Great Recession did not lead to any significant impact on the preexisting Latin American cyclical linkages.     

Changes in Non-Local Lending to Small Business

In this paper, I use recently collected Community Reinvestment Act loan data to examine how small business lending in local geographic areas (defined as markets) by lenders not physically located in those areas changed between 1996 and 2001. The results show that the importance of outside lending increased substantially over this period when measured in terms of the number of loans rather than the dollar volume of loans. The levels and rates of growth in out-of-market lending are more modest if the share of out-of-market lending is expressed in dollar volumes and almost insubstantial if organizations that engage in substantial credit card lending are excluded as out-of-market lenders. Using a fixed-effects model and an extensive panel data set, I find that the share of outside lending into local geographic markets is positively associated with local market concentration and the average wage of tellers in the market, consistent with the hypothesis that outside loans are to some degree substitutes for in-market loans.     

House Prices, Fundamentals and Bubbles

Abstract:  This paper studies actual (real) house prices relative to fundamental (real) house values. Such a focus is warranted since housing constitutes a large fraction of most household portfolios, and its characteristics are such that, in contrast to what prevails in financial markets, arbitrage will be limited and hence correction toward 'true' value is likely to be a prolonged process. Using UK data and a time-varying present value approach, our results preclude the existence of an explosive rational bubble due to non-fundamental factors. We further find that intrinsic bubbles have an important role to play in determining actual house prices although price dynamics appear to impact, particularly in periods of strong deviation from fundamental value. Price dynamics are found to be driven by momentum behaviour.