The effect of land use regulation on housing and land prices

This paper investigates the effects of land use regulation restrictiveness on house and vacant land prices. In contrast to prior studies, the index of restrictiveness is treated as an endogenous variable and estimated effects are allowed to vary by market setting. Using data on more than 100 Florida cities, greater regulation restrictiveness is found to increase house price and decrease land price. Evidence is also provided showing that more restrictiveness increases the size of newly constructed homes.     

A Comparison of Pay‐As‐Bid and Market‐Clearing Price Bidding Processes in Electric Utility Auctions

As the electric utility industry moves to Regional Transmission Organizations, there are more opportunities for merchant plants in selling wholesale energy to electric utilities. Two alternative bidding regimes are considered: (i) pay‐as‐bid and (ii) pay with market‐clearing bid. With stochastic price‐sensitive demand, we show that pay‐as‐bid has greater average price, but lower price variance than does market‐clearing price. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertical Networks and US Auto Parts Exports: Is Japan Different?

In a model where upstream network insiders conduct relationship-specific investment, downstream firms have an incentive to transact within networks. Evidence from US auto parts exports to 26 auto-producing countries supports key predictions of the model. Greater production scale for assemblers lowers imported parts per car. Vertical networks matter in two ways. First, although Japan's average import levels are not unusually low, non-Japanese suppliers have relatively low market penetration for parts categories where vertical keiretsu are prominent in Japan. Second, US-owned assembly abroad and foreign-owned parts production in the US both stimulate parts exports.     

Manufacture for donation: driving bottom‐line performance through contributions to run strategy optimisation

Manufacturers have idle/open capacity as an inherent part of the manfacturing process. The focus of the paper is to analyse if, as capacity becomes available, it is more financially advantageous to use this capacity to make product for donation, or other nonprofit discount markets, than to leave the production line idle. The conclusion will highlight the opportunity for raising corporate efficiency through incorporating manufacture for donation as a component in run strategy optimisation. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Panel data estimates of the effects of different types of crime on housing prices

One of the most studied effects of crime is the impact that neighborhood crime has on housing values. A major drawback of these studies is that, although crime is undoubtedly endogenous in property value models because of either simultaneity, omitted variables or measurement error, the vast majority of studies treat crime measures as exogenous independent variables. We exploit a unique nine-year crime panel at the neighborhood level to estimate models that properly address the endogeneity of crime and allow us to overcome other specification errors that have plagued previous studies. Of the seven different types of crime we investigate, only robbery and aggravated assault crimes (per acre) exert a meaningful influence upon neighborhood housing values.     

The Behaviour of Banking Stocks During the Financial Crisis and Recessions. Evidence from Changes‐in‐Changes Panel Data Estimations

This paper examines the impact of the financial crisis and economic recessions on bank shares compared to the overall stock market index for 18 OECD countries from 1993 to 2015. The empirical methodology utilizes the changes‐in‐changes approach. We compare and contrast the returns of the banking stock price index (treatment group) in each country with their general stock price index (control group), which experiences smaller changes. Our results suggest that bank returns on average perform significantly worse than that of the general stock price index during recessions. In addition, we also find significantly greater volatility in bank share returns.     

Overseas Investment and Firm Exports

A firm can serve overseas customers by exporting or by producing in the foreign market. Thus, ceteris paribus , one might expect increases in overseas investment to displace exports. However, most empirical work has found a positive relation between the two variables. The authors use a panel dataset containing 25 years' of data on 932 Japanese manufacturing firms to investigate the effect direct investment abroad has on exports. For the full sample of firms, complementarity is found. The relationship, however, varies across firms. Those that are unlikely to ship intermediates to overseas production affiliates exhibit substitution.     

How remote is the offshoring threat?

Advances in communication technology make it possible for workers in India to supply business services to head offices located anywhere. This has the potential to put high-wage workers in direct competition with much lower paid Indian workers. Service trade, however, like goods trade, is subject to strong distance effects, implying that the remote supply of services remains limited. We investigate this proposition by deriving a gravity-like equation for service trade and estimating it for a large sample of countries and different categories of service trade. We find that distance costs are high but are declining over time. Our estimates suggest that delivery costs create a significant advantage for local workers relative to competing workers in distant countries.     

Distribution and development in a model of misgovernance

This paper presents an analysis of bureaucratic corruption, income inequality and economic development. The analysis is based on a dynamic general equilibrium model in which bureaucrats are appointed by the government to implement a redistributive programme of taxes and subsidies designed to benefit the poor. Corruption is reflected in bribery and tax evasion as bureaucrats conspire with the rich in providing false information to the government. In accordance with empirical evidence, the model predicts a positive relationship between corruption and inequality, and a negative relationship between corruption and development.