Earnings dynamics of men and women in Finland: permanent inequality versus earnings instability

I decompose the earnings variance of Finnish male and female workers into its permanent and transitory components using the approach of Baker (J Labor Econ,15:338–375, 1997) and Haider (J Labor Econ, 19:799–836, 2001) in the spirit of scientific replication. I find that the increasing earnings inequality of men and women is driven by both the transitory and permanent components of earnings. In addition, I find considerable differences in the earnings dynamics of men and women, that have been largely neglected in previous studies of earnings dynamics. The inequality among men is dominated by the permanent component. Conversely, permanent and transitory components are of comparable magnitudes to women. As a corollary, men experience more stable income paths but display larger permanent earnings differences. Women, on the other hand, face more unstable earnings profiles but show smaller permanent differences in earnings.     

Using the gravity equation to differentiate among alternative theories of trade

The simple gravity equation explains a great deal about the data on bilateral trade flows and is consistent with several theoretical models of trade. We argue that alternative theories nevertheless predict subtle differences in key parameter values, depending on whether goods are homogeneous or differentiated and whether or not there are barriers to entry. Our empirical work for differentiated goods delivers results consistent with the theoretical predictions of the monopolistic-competition model, or a reciprocal-dumping model with free entry. Homogeneous goods are described by a model with national (Armington) product differentiation or by a reciprocal-dumping model with barriers to entry. JEL Classification: F10, F12
Equation de gravité et différenciation entre diverses théories du commerce international. La simple équation de gravité fournit une bonne part d'explication des flux de commerce bilatéraux et donne des résultats compatibles avec plusieurs modèles de commerce international. Les auteurs suggèrent que les diverses théories prédisent néanmoins des différences subtiles dans les valeurs de paramètres clés, selon que les biens sont homogènes ou différenciés, et qu'il y a barrières ou non à l'entrée. Le travail empirique des auteurs livre des résultats compatibles avec les prévisions théoriques du modèle de concurrence monopolistique ou du modèle de dumping réciproque avec entrée libre. On décrit les flux de biens homogènes à l'aide d'un modèle de différenciation nationale de produit à la Armington ou par un modèle de dumping réciproque avec barrières à l'entrée.     

The effect of sporting success and management failure on attendance demand in the Bundesliga: a revealed and stated preference travel cost approach

This study examines the private consumption benefits of sports attendance using revealed and stated preference data from 28 Football Bundesliga teams across three divisions. Survey respondents were presented with positive (sporting success) and negative (management failure) scenarios and asked for the number of game trips if each scenario occurred. The results of a pooled random effects Poisson model show that travel costs and ticket price have a significant negative effect on the number of home game trips. The weighted consumer surplus per game trip including travel costs and ticket prices is €345. Consumer surplus per game trip was found to change by €41 (first division) and €98 (second and third division) if the positive scenario occurred and by €39 if the negative scenario occurred.     

Investor protection and analysts’ cash flow forecasts around the world

We find that analysts are more likely to provide cash flow forecasts in countries with weak investor protection. This finding is consistent with our hypothesis that market participants demand (and analysts supply) cash flow information when weak investor protection results in earnings that are less likely to reflect underlying economic performance. Our results suggest that information intermediaries respond to market-based incentives to attenuate the adverse effects of country-level institutional factors on earnings’ usefulness. These findings contribute to the literature by shedding light on the institutional determinants of analysts’ research activities, and on the nature of the financial information they generate.     

Interdependence and the location of economic activities

This paper deals with the ability of a decentralized price system to sustain an optimal assignment of activities assuming complete interdependence among them. There are two goods, each of which is used in its own production and in the production of the other, along with land. An infinitely elastic final demand exists for both goods at given market prices, and either good may be imported. It is demonstrated that a decentralized price system will sustain an optimal allocation of land, and that a nonoptimal allocation of land will not be sustained.     

Sources of Sectoral Growth in an Economy Wide Context: The Case of U.S. Agriculture

Growth in U.S. agriculture is linked to the non-farm economy through domestic terms of trade and factor market adjustments. With almost stable input growth, the relatively large contributions from growth in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) are passed on to intermediate and final consumers in the form of declining real prices for primary farm products. The resulting net growth in the real value of farm output (GDP) is relatively low (0.25% per annum). The decomposition of TFP suggests that public agricultural stock of knowledge and infrastructure are robustly associated with TFP growth, while spill-overs from private agricultural and economy wide research and development (R and D) are positive but, relatively small.