The Role of Ethnicity and Language in Contingent Valuation Analysis

A bstract .   In order to satisfy legal requirements, many federal agencies must assess the potential effects of their policies on the public. This is often done through surveys, but frequently those surveys are only administered in English. This paper tests whether there are differences in survey response rates, refusals to pay, and willingness to pay (WTP) across different ethnicities and language for forest fire reduction in the State of California. The ethnicities studied were Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic (half in Spanish, half in English).
There was a statistical difference in survey response rates across all ethnicities, and no statistical difference among ethnicities for reasons of refusing to pay. The influence of ethnicity and language was tested using a logit model with ethnicity intercepts and bid slope interaction terms. The Hispanic-Spanish intercept shifter and the Hispanic-English dollar bid amount interaction terms were statistically significant and positive. There was a significant difference in the logit willingness to pay coefficients between Hispanics surveyed in Spanish with each of the other ethnicities. The annual willingness to pay of Hispanics taking the survey in Spanish was twice that of Caucasians, but no statistical difference in mean and median WTP between these two groups was found, due to large confidence intervals around each estimate. Nonetheless, the WTP of both Hispanics and Caucasians for the forest thinning program is substantial, and statistically different from zero, suggesting there may be broad support for this program in California.     

Mergers and Acquisitions: An Experimental Analysis of Synergies, Externalities and Dynamics

Mergers and acquisitions improve market efficiency by capturing synergies between firms. But takeovers also impose externalities (both positive and negative) on the remaining firms in the industry. This paper describes a new equilibrium concept designed to explain and predict takeovers in this setting. We experimentally compare the new equilibrium concept to that of competing concepts in situations without and with externalities. Moreover, we examine the predicted dynamics of takeovers and outcome implications of those dynamics. Our experimental results support the predictions of the new equilibrium concept and provide implications for further empirical tests.     

Contracting with externalities and outside options

This paper proposes a model of multilateral contracting where players are engaged in two parallel interactions: they dynamically form coalitions and play a repeated normal form game with temporary and permanent decisions. We show that when outside options are independent of the actions of other players all Markov perfect equilibrium without coordination failures are efficient, regardless of externalities created by interim actions. Otherwise, in the presence of externalities on outside options, all Markov perfect equilibrium may be inefficient. This formulation encompasses many economic models, and we analyze the distribution of coalitional gains and the dynamics of coalition formation in four illustrative applications.     

Tax smoothing with immigration in an overlapping generations economy

Immigration policy in an overlapping generations economy is politically determined in response to government spending shocks, where the government finances its spending with proportional income taxes and is subject to a balanced budget. The young cohort is always the majority and dictates policy. The equilibrium Markovian strategy allows immigrants when the spending shock is above some threshold and this implies a particular form of tax smoothing.     

A Flexible Approach to Semantic Annotation Systems for Web Content

In this paper we propose a flexible approach that supports heterogeneous requirements on systems for the semantic annotation of web content. The flexibility of the approach originates from a model based on the definition of abstract events, which captures at the logical level the main interactions occurring in a system for combined management of ontologies and web content. Application-specific semantics is then provided operationally as an assignment of handlers to these events. While the abstract events are rather coarse-grained to reduce prior commitment, preconditions on the handlers express application-specific distinctions based on contextual information associated with each specific event. Although the possibility to define completely new handlers guarantees the generality of our approach, we foster convention over configuration by providing a set of default handlers, which can be customized by filling their extension points. The use of customizable handlers, whether or not the default ones, reduces the development effort and guarantees consistent user experience despite evolving requirements. A comprehensive framework for semantic annotation of web content has been realized and will be hereafter introduced. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Backward and Forward Integration Along Global Value Chains

Review of Industrial Organization - Both backward (upstream) and forward (downstream) vertical integration strategies shape the organization of global value chains (GVCs). Yet, many studies make...     

Non-scale endogenous growth effects of subsidies for exporters

We built a general equilibrium endogenous growth model in which final goods are produced either in the relatively skilled-labour intensive exports sector or in the relatively unskilled-labour intensive domestic sector. We show that, by affecting the technological-knowledge bias, subsidies explain the simultaneous rise in the exports sector, the skill wage premium and the economic growth rate. Then, to shed light upon the causal nexus between production-related subsidies and exports, we use a Portuguese longitudinal database (1996–2003) and implement a propensity score matching approach. Empirical results seem to prove the theoretical predictions: subsidies generate the rise in the wage premium of exporters and the increase in the relative size of export sector, even if no impact of subsidies is found in the capacity of transforming domestic firms into new exporters.     

Market potential and welfare: evidence from the Iberian Peninsula

We present a methodology to quantify market potential in the context of an economic geography model. The model is then applied to the NUTS 2 regions of Portugal and Spain. Some results can be pointed out. First, the Iberian Peninsula presents a clear centre-periphery pattern. The market potential pike is situated in the region of Madrid, followed very closely by Cataluña and Pais Vasco. Also all Portuguese regions are at the bottom of the market potential rank, i.e.: Portugal is at the periphery of Spain. Second, the regional welfare index confirms market potential results. There is therefore a direct correlation between market potential and regional welfare. Third, a scenario of complete integration between the Portuguese and the Spanish economy is favourable to the most laggard regions. On the contrary, the most advanced regions of each country loose a little. However, ‘lock-in’ effects allow the most central regions to continue in the forefront of development and welfare.Received: Received: July 2004 / Accepted: January 2005, Accepted: Received: July 2004 / Accepted: January 2005, JEL Classification: C68, F12, F15, R12, R13The author is in debt to Renato Flôres and Paula Fontoura for helpful discussions during the preparation of this work. A first version of this paper was presented at the conference “Portuguese Economic Development in the European Context” organized by the Portuguese Central Bank. I am thankful to José Braga de Macedo, Pedro Duarte Neves and to all participants for very useful observations and comments. This version benefited greatly from the remarks and suggestions by Mahahisa Fujita, Alireza Naghavi and two anonymous referees. I am also in debt to José Pedro Pontes for inviting me to the “Luso-Japanese Workshop in Geographical Economics” and for encouraging me to submit this paper to this special issue of the Portuguese Economic Journal. The research conducted here was supported by a grant from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(Praxis XXI/BM/17786/98). The usual disclaimer however applies.