Keynes on inflation and exchange rates

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

Some policy implications of bank participation in small business administration lending programs

This study examines the relationship of bank participation in SBA guaranteed lending programs to bank characteristics and market demographic characteristics. Band SBA lending is related to per capita income in the bank's market area, membership in a bank holding company, the loan-deposit ratio of the bank, the percent business loans of the bank, and the total assets of the bank. In markets of 50,000 or less, greater SBA lending is associated with lower per capita income levels. Accordingly, it appears that the economic development function of bank SBA lending is linked to a greater extent with market areas of less than 50,000.     

Retail Leasing: The Determinants of Shopping Center Rents

The determinants of lease rentals are of fundamental importance to real estate researchers and practitioners. Retail leases are unique in that they typically have two rental components: a base rent and an "overage" rent equal to a percentage of the tenant's gross sales above some threshold level. In this paper, we develop and test a simple cash flow model of retail lease valuation that predicts that base rents are lower with higher percentage rent rates and are higher with greater threshold levels of sales. Using a sample of shopping center leases, regression analysis indicates that these tradeoffs are observed in the market.     

Testing a DSGE Model of the EU Using Indirect Inference

We use the method of indirect inference, using the bootstrap, to test the Smets and Wouters model of the EU against a VAR auxiliary equation describing their data. We find that their model generates excessive variance compared with the data. But their model fits the dynamic facts quite well if the errors have the properties assumed by SW but scaled down. We compare a New Classical version of the model which also performs reasonably if error properties are chosen using New Classical priors (notably excluding shocks to preferences). Both versions have (different) difficulties fitting the data if the actual error properties are used. A model combining rigid and flexible-wage/price sectors, with a weight of around 5% on the rigid sector, does best in fitting the data.     

Ten Years of the PHD Conference in Economics and Business

Since its commencement in 1987, the PhD Conference in Economics and Business has become an important annual event in Australian Economics. This paper presents an overview of the last ten years of the conference regarding the students involved, their topics and backgrounds, as well as some information on the nature of PhD studies. The experience of these students reveals some key factors that seem to lead to successful research outcomes.     

Capacity utilization and depreciation-in-use

In this paper, the effect capacity utilization has on the depreciation of capital goods is studied, starting from a quadratic approximation to a normalized short-run cost function. Expressions for the optimal rate of capacity utilization, the demands for labour and energy, and for investment are obtained. Investment is a function of past capital stock, expected future capital stock, expected future relative prices and expected future depreciation rates. Expectations are modelled via instruments. The model is tested using US total manufacturing quarterly data. Depreciation dependent upon usage is found to be both statistically and economically significant.