Skilled labor, unskilled labor, and economic growth

We study a growth model in which workers with different skill levels are imperfect substitutes. We show that economies with high substitutability between skilled and unskilled workers have high levels of capital, output, and a high proportion of skilled workers.     

Trade Preferences to Small Developing Countries and the Welfare Costs of Lost Multilateral Liberalization

The proliferation of preferential trade liberalization overthe last 20 years has raised the question of whether it slowsmultilateral trade liberalization. Recent theoretical and empiricalevidence indicates that this is the case even for unilateralpreferences that developed countries provide to small and poorcountries, but there is no estimate of the resulting welfarecosts. This stumbling block effect can be avoided by replacingthe unilateral preferences with a fixed import subsidy, whichgenerates a Pareto improvement. More importantly, this paperpresents the first estimates of the welfare cost of preferentialliberalization as a stumbling block to multilateral liberalization.Recent estimates of the stumbling block effect of preferenceswith data for 170 countries and more than 5,000 products areused to calculate the welfare effects of the European Union,Japan, and the United States switching from unilateral preferencesfor least developed countries to an import subsidy scheme. Ina model with no dynamic gains to trade, the switch producesan annual net welfare gain for the 170 countries that adds about10 percent to the estimated trade liberalization gains in theDoha Round. It also generates gains for each group: the EuropeanUnion, Japan, and the United States ($2,934 million), leastdeveloped countries ($520 million), and the rest of the world($900 million).     

Ethical Standards in Advertising: A Worldwide Perspective

An empirical study indicates how close advertisers from all the continents have been from the natural law and other fundamental moral principles. In their professional activities, many advertisers assumed the philosophical relativism as the framework for fundamental concepts. The ethical problems have not been equated with objectivity and the realist approach is appointed as a solution.     

Overinvestment and fraud

We analyze the interactions between two managerial tasks: investing and revealing information. We assume that a manager can invest influencing the firm’s quality, then he reports this quality to investors. Whenever truthful reporting is not an equilibrium, the manager has incentives to overinvest relative to shareholders. Therefore, the potential for market manipulation is the key in understanding investment policy; it is the desire to manipulate prices that leads to inefficient investment. Also, more manipulation occurs when the manager is in control, so prices are less informative. Finally, we show that the manager is better off with an exogenous reporting policy.     

Informal work networks

Abstract We present a model of time allocation between formal and informal labour supply, where workers learn of informal job opportunities from their peers. In addition to formal income taxation and enforcement, individuals’ labour supply decisions depend on the number of their peers with informal jobs and the strength of social ties. Workers allocate more time to informal activities when tax enforcement is lax and job information transmission is good. More connected social networks (e.g., wheel, complete) feature lower average income but higher average utility than poorly connected social networks (e.g., star, empty). Average income may be non‐monotonic in tax enforcement.     

Linear programming-based estimators in simple linear regression

In this paper we introduce a linear programming estimator (LPE) for the slope parameter in a constrained linear regression model with a single regressor. The LPE is interesting because it can be superconsistent in the presence of an endogenous regressor and, hence, preferable to the ordinary least squares estimator (LSE). Two different cases are considered as we investigate the statistical properties of the LPE. In the first case, the regressor is assumed to be fixed in repeated samples. In the second, the regressor is stochastic and potentially endogenous. For both cases the strong consistency and exact finite-sample distribution of the LPE is established. Conditions under which the LPE is consistent in the presence of serially correlated, heteroskedastic errors are also given. Finally, we describe how the LPE can be extended to the case with multiple regressors and conjecture that the extended estimator is consistent under conditions analogous to the ones given herein. Finite-sample properties of the LPE and extended LPE in comparison to the LSE and instrumental variable estimator (IVE) are investigated in a simulation study. One advantage of the LPE is that it does not require an instrument.     

Nonlinear Dynamics in Expectations: An Empirical Study

The paper investigates whether expectations data are consistent with nonlinear dynamics possibly involving deterministic chaos. Survey data on exchange rate expectations for four different currencies over one‐week and one‐month prediction horizons are considered. The evidence indicates that one cannot neglect the possibility of nonlinear dynamics underlying the erratic behaviour of expectation data, even though the evidence in that respect is not overwhelming.     

Harmonizing External Quotas in an FTA: A Step Backward?

This paper explores how political–economy forces shape quantitative barriers against the rest of the world in an FTA. We show that whereas the dilution of lobbying power in an FTA typically leads to a relaxation of external quotas, this result is likely to be overturned as integration deepens. In particular, we show that cooperation among member countries on the level of their external quotas, cross–border lobbying by import–competing interests in the free–trade area, and the consolidation of national external quotas into a single one, all lead to stiffer restrictions against imports from the rest of the world. We also show that, unlike tariffs, endogenous quotas are not crucially affected by the presence of rules of origin.     

When the frugal become wasteful: An examination into how impression management can initiate the end-stages of consumption for frugal consumers

Premature disposal of functional products is a global problem adding to waste and feeding a consumer culture. Contrary to this, frugal consumers take care and extend the life of their products, elongating the usage and value obtained from their possessions. Despite this, little is known about frugal consumers and the factors that eventually initiate their actions towards the end-stages of consumption (e.g., declined usage). The present research explores one such psychological factor that may dictate frugal consumers’ willingness to discontinue usage of their products; impression management. Three studies demonstrate that when the marketplace's opinion of an owned product is negative (e.g., inferior value), then the well-accepted frugality-usage intentions relationship diminishes. This effect is due in part to the undesirable image that owning such a product portrays, that of a consumer who makes poor choices. By examining what can initiate the end-stages of consumption for frugal consumers, this study broadens our understanding of anticonsumption lifestyles postpurchase, exploring factors beyond functionality, and obsolescence that influence decisions to continue or discontinue using products consumers already own.