Investment Spending in Australia: Further Study and Interpretation*

Recent work in macro theory suggests that aggregate 'demand' policies have direct supply-side effects in the short run, if Lucas's standard specification of the nonlinear adjustment costs for capital is generalized In this paper, we estimate an investment equation (involving Tobin's valuation ratio and Australian data) which nests three hypotheses: Lucas's standard specification of adjustment costs, a simple generalization which permits labour to be involved in the installation of capital and a model which allows for liquidity constraints. The results support the suggested alternative formulation of the q-theory     

ECONOMIC VALUATION OF ACID DEPOSITION DAMAGES

This paper summarizes estimates of the monetary value of the physical damages that acid deposition causes in the United States. These estimates were developed for the Interim Assessment of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) but were not included in the final version of the assessment report. This paper describes this research and discusses why these estimates received so little support within the NAPAP. It outlines the role of economics in the current Integrated Assessment and discusses the extent to which lessons learned earlier have been integrated into the current assessment.     

The marketing of love: how attachment styles affect romantic consumption journeys

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science - The experience of romantic love is closely interlocked with consumption journeys—yet how and why consumers engage in romantic consumption is not...     

Statistical inference on regression with spatial dependence

Central limit theorems are developed for instrumental variables estimates of linear and semiparametric partly linear regression models for spatial data. General forms of spatial dependence and heterogeneity in explanatory variables and unobservable disturbances are permitted. We discuss estimation of the variance matrix, including estimates that are robust to disturbance heteroscedasticity and/or dependence. A Monte Carlo study of finite-sample performance is included. In an empirical example, the estimates and robust and non-robust standard errors are computed from Indian regional data, following tests for spatial correlation in disturbances, and nonparametric regression fitting. Some final comments discuss modifications and extensions.     

WHY THE COMPOSITE INDEX OF LEADING INDICATORS DOES NOT LEAD

This paper assesses the real-time performance of the Commerce Department's composite index of leading indicators. The authors find that the composite leading index has failed to provide reliable advance warning of cyclical turning points. One reason for this failure is that the leading index's transition from expansion to contraction generally is not very sharp. Consequently, discerning real-time cyclical peaks in the index is difficult. Transitions from contraction to expansion on average are sharp. However, cyclical troughs in the leading index often precede cyclical troughs in the economy by only a few months. Thus, even timely recognition of troughs in the leading index fails to provide advance warning of turnarounds in the general level of economic activity .     

Privatization,industrial policy and governing the transitions

Conclusions When one looks with a clear head at the nearly mind-boggling range of pros and cons regarding the wisdom of pursuing an industrial policy, one cannot escape infusing some degree of sentiment into what should be a dispassionate debate. Mine is for exploring the positive contribution that centralizing organs can render not only to transition policies but also to operating a market-based economy into which the sociopolitical sentiment finds its reflection to the extent existing political institutions allow. Industrial policy as part and parcel of good economic governancecan under some conditions play a constructive role in creating conditions that are conducive to generating more effective resource allocation. This role should be an evolving one, with the state disengaging from detailed management or efforts aimed at steering management in a particular direction as the changes incumbent on transforming the PETs into viable market-based structures gradually solidify. This observation applies with even greater force to the conceptualization, formulation, and implementation of transformation policies with or without targeted international economic assistance.     

The future of in-store technology

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science - This paper introduces a conceptual framework for understanding new and futuristic in-store technology infusions. First, we develop a...