Harris-Todaro migration-mechanism and the optimum development of the urban sector

"A time-minimization problem of attaining a full-employment state is solved in a dual economy model where the rural-urban migration mechanism is of [the] Harris-Todaro type. The optimum solution may appear as a policy of urban development at the most rapid rate."     

Technological progress and factor substitution in the U.S. Textile industry, 1949–1974

Using the translog dual cost function approach, we estimate the elasticity of substitution and the nature of technical change in the U.S. textile industry. A significant extension on the existing studies on this topic is the incorporation of learning by doing as a source of technical change. Our results confirm earlier findings of limited substitution possibilities between capital and labour and that factor argumenting technical change is labour saving and capital using in the Hicksian sense. But this augmentation takes placeboth due to time and learning and further that bias due to the two factors is in the opposite direction.     

Does corruption affect income inequality and poverty?

This paper provides evidence that high and rising corruption increases income inequality and poverty. An increase of one standard deviation in corruption increases the Gini coefficient of income inequality by about 11 points and income growth of the poor by about 5 percentage points per year. These findings are robust to use of different instruments for corruption and other sensitivity analyses. The paper discusses several channels through which corruption may affect income inequality and poverty. An important implication of these findings is that policies that reduce corruption will most likely reduce income inequality and poverty as well. Received: March 2, 2000 / Accepted: September 20, 2001     

The economic determinants of interest rate option smiles

We address three questions relating to the interest rate options market: What is the shape of the smile? What are the economic determinants of the shape of the smile? Do these determinants have predictive power for the future shape of the smile and vice versa? We investigate these issues using daily bid and ask prices of euro (€) interest rate caps/floors. We find a clear smile pattern in interest rate options. The shape of the smile varies over time and is affected in a dynamic manner by yield curve variables and the future uncertainty in the interest rate markets; it also has information about future aggregate default risk. Our findings are useful for the pricing, hedging and risk management of these derivatives.     

Incumbents and protectionism: The political economy of foreign entry liberalization

This paper investigates the influence of incumbent firms on the decision to allow foreign direct investment into an industry. Using data from India's economic reforms, the results show that firms in concentrated industries are more successful at preventing foreign entry, state-owned firms are more successful at stopping foreign entry than privately-owned firms, and profitable state-owned firms are more successful at stopping foreign entry than unprofitable state-owned firms. The pattern of foreign entry liberalization supports the private interest view of policy implementation and suggests that it may be necessary to reduce the influence of state-owned firms to optimally enact reforms.     

Empirical comparison of hazard models in predicting SMEs failure

This study aims to shed light on the debate concerning the choice between discrete-time and continuous-time hazard models in making bankruptcy or any binary prediction using interval censored data. Building on the theoretical suggestions from various disciplines, we empirically compare widely used discrete-time hazard models (with logit and clog-log links) and the continuous-time Cox Proportional Hazards (CPH) model in predicting bankruptcy and financial distress of the United States Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Consistent with the theoretical arguments, we report that discrete-time hazard models are superior to the continuous-time CPH model in making binary predictions using interval censored data. Moreover, hazard models developed using a failure definition based jointly on bankruptcy laws and firms’ financial health exhibit superior goodness of fit and classification measures, in comparison to models that employ a failure definition based either on bankruptcy laws or firms’ financial health alone.     

Stochastic comparisons of multivariate reversed frailty model

Multivariate frailty approaches are most commonly used to define distributions of random vectors, which represent lifetimes of individuals or components and stochastically compare them in terms of various multivariate orders. In this paper, we study a multivariate shared reversed frailty model and a general multivariate reversed frailty mixture model, and derive sufficient conditions for some of the stochastic orderings to hold among the random vectors. We also consider a particular case of a general multivariate mixture model in which the baseline distribution function is represented in terms of a copula and study stochastic comparisons (stochastic and lower orthant order) among the two random vectors.     

The growing popularity of spiritual brands: What drives purchase intent?

In this study, we investigate the reason for the growing popularity of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) household products branded, promoted and sold in India by local spiritual leaders. We find that religiosity and normative community pressure are important purchase drivers for such products. Surprisingly, pragmatism in the presence of normative pressure also contributes to demand. We argue that self-identity theory provides a contextualized explanation in association with social identity theory to explain the influence of normative pressure on increased demand. The results of the study suggest that integrating social and self-identity theories provides a fuller insight into consumer behaviour in a complex social context.     

Research output and economic growth in G7 countries: new evidence from asymmetric panel causality testing

Recent studies have shown increasing interest on the relationship between research output and economic growth. The study of such a relationship is not only of theoretical interest, but it can also influence specific policies to improve the quality, and probably the quantity of research output. This article has studied this relationship in G7 countries using the asymmetric panel causality test of Hatemi-J (2011). Our results show that only the UK shows a causal relationship from the output of research to real GDP. However, when the signs of variations are taken into account, there is an asymmetric causality running from negative research output shocks to negative real GDP shocks.     

Consumers’ Behavioral Intentions Toward Self-Service Technology in the Emerging Markets

ABSTRACT

Self-service technologies (SSTs) allow customers to offer their own service encounters via the interaction of electronic service interfaces or machines rather than by interacting with a firm's service personnel. This lack of personal interaction generates doubts and queries in the minds of the people, especially those unaware or less aware of these technology-based services. Such a situation is quite prevalent in the developing nations (like India), where still a large number of people are apprehensive about using the latest technologies. In this regard, the present study aims to develop an integrated model designed to predict and explain the various factors that influence customers’ behavioral intentions to use or not to use one particular SST (i.e., ATM services). The study finds that bank customers are less innovative and less optimistic to try out new technologies. Usefulness of the technology helps in developing positive attitude toward the technology, which in turn affects customers' intentions to use that technology.