Cost comparisons of reduced-impact and conventional logging in the tropics

Comparisons of the costs of reduced-impact (RIL) and conventional logging (CL) based on new data from Gabon and 10 previously published studies revealed that some tropical forest operators should adopt RIL out of financial self-interest but many may require other motivation. Among the comparisons in which costs were expressed per cubic meter of harvested timber, three reported lower costs for RIL, one showed identical costs with CL, and six reported RIL to be more costly.     

Evaluating the Impact of Educational Expansion on the Occupational Status of Youth

This paper exploits the remarkable increase in the average educational attainment of Australian youth during the 1980's to evaluate the role of education in labour market performance. Rather than focus on the impact of schooling on wages, however, we examine changes in the occupational distribution of recent labour market entrants. The evidence indicates that the educational expansion appears to move all individuals up the educational ladder without altering their relative position. The results indicate that while the second cohort obtained substantially more education than the first cohort the occupational distribution of the two cohorts were almost identical. Furthermore, there was no evidence that the increased education counterbalanced changes in the structure of labour demand or manifested itself in higher wages.     

Two Trees

We solve a model with two i.i.d. Lucas trees. Although the correspondingone-tree model produces a constant price-dividend ratio andi.i.d. returns, the two-tree model produces interesting asset-pricingdynamics. Investors want to rebalance their portfolios afterany change in value. Because the size of the trees is fixed,prices must adjust to offset this desire. As a result, expectedreturns, excess returns, and return volatility all vary throughtime. Returns display serial correlation and are predictablefrom price-dividend ratios. Return volatility differs from cash-flowvolatility, and return shocks can occur without news about cashflows.     

Explaining economic growth in the Soviet Union, 1950–86

Production function estimates are provided for Soviet industrial production and gross national product for the period 1950–86. A variety of alternative specifications is tested, including Cobb-Douglas, constant elasticity of substitution and variable elasticity of substitution production functions, and an error correction mechanism is used to investigate the long-run properties of the estimated equation. The structural stability of the estimates is also examined. Constant-returns-to-scale Cobb-Douglas production functions suggest that the rate of total factor productivity growth in the Soviet economy has declined steadily over time, becoming negative sometime in the period between 1970 and 1980. However the extensive statistical tests can doubt on the validity of any production function estimated on Soviet data.     

The Opening, Short, Medium and Long Term Performance of Canadian Unit Trust Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)

Abstract:   This paper investigates the initial pricing and performance of Canadian unit trust IPOs over a three‐ to four‐year period and then draws implications for the efficiency of the Canadian market. Overall, the results confirm the following: in the short term, unit trust IPOs are underpriced and outperform the Canadian market; in the medium term, IPOs are fairly priced and neither outperform nor underperform the Canadian market; and in the long term, IPOs are fairly priced but underperform the Canadian market. In addition, our results confirm that the size of underpricing is related to ex‐ante uncertainty about the value of the issue. Ex‐ante uncertainty proxies, namely total risk, exchange listing, relative bid‐ask spread, and relative volume of initial trade, all explain the size of underpricing. When the effects of these factors are controlled, the results confirm that Canadian unit trust IPOs are indeed overpriced in the short term but underpriced in the long term. We conclude that the Canadian unit trust IPO market appears to be inefficient in the short and long term, but over the medium, the market appears to be efficient.     

A Cox Parametric Bootstrap Test of the von Liebig Hypotheses

This study uses a Cox parametric bootstrap test to select between two specifications of the von Liebig hypothesis, a switching regression (SR) model, and a linear response function with a stochastic plateau. Specifying the production function as a linear response function with a stochastic plateau yields a superior approximation of the data for livestock gain as a function of forage allowance than the SR approach.
Dans la présente étude, nous avons utilisé la technique du bootstrap paramétrique de Cox pour choisir entre deux caractéristiques de l'hypothèse de von Liebig: un modèle de régression avec changement de régime et une fonction de réponse linéaire avec plateau stochastique. établir la fonction de production comme une fonction de réponse linéaire avec plateau stochastique offre une meilleure approximation des données sur le gain de poids du bétail comme fonction de l'apport de fourrages comparativement au modèle de régression avec changement de régime.     

Long-run Relationships Between World Vegetable Oil Prices

In the international edible oil markets, there is believed to be high substitutability between vegetable oils and fats produced under different conditions. In light of this, we consider the question: what is the nature of the long-run relationships between vegetable oil prices? Long-run co-movements among oil prices are analysed, based on a multivariate cointegration model. The empirical finding is that most co-movements are consistent with the predictions of market theory. Prices of oils tend to be grouped according to their different end-uses. Some policy implications of a buffer stock scheme are discussed.