An assessment of the Europe agreements’ effects on bilateral trade, GDP, and welfare

The so-called Europe Agreements had been enacted in the 1990s to initiate the integration of goods markets between the 15 EU incumbent economies as of 1995 and 10 potential entrants located in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper evaluates the trade, GDP, and welfare effects of these agreements by means of structural analysis of a bilateral trade flow model. The results support three conclusions. First, the agreements exerted significant positive effects on goods trade between the EU15 incumbents and the CEEC and, at the same time, they induced trade redirection from other countries. Second, EU15 GDP responded by an increase of much less than 1% while that in the 10 CEEC increased by several percent in response to the agreements. Third, the effects on welfare were moderate in the EU15 but amounted to more double-digit percentage changes in the involved CEEC.     

Reciprocity: theory and facts

The importance of reciprocity is not new in economics. Contractual market exchanges and long-run interactions are both situations based on self-interested reciprocal behaviour. However, reciprocity is not only a behaviour but also a motive that sometimes appears to be inconsistent with self-interest. This fact produces a tension between those who try to explain reciprocal behaviour within the standard framework and those who aim at enlarging it with the introduction of additional behavioural principles. This special issue collects a selection of papers presented at the International Conference “Reciprocity. Theory and facts” were the two perspectives were compared and discussed. In this Introduction note we provide first a broad view of the role of reciprocity in economics and then a quick introduction to each of the contributions enclosed in this special issue.     

Commodity Prices and the Terms of Trade

On combining national terms-of-trade data for developing countries with world prices of internationally traded primary commodities, it is found that variation in the world prices of three or fewer key exported commodities account for 50% or more of the annual variation in the terms of trade of a typical developing country. A considerable fraction of the variation is specific to a particular commodity and, given that the overall importance of primary commodities differs across developing countries, it is possible to account for much of the heterogeneity across them. It is concluded that commodity price fluctuations should be central features of two related literatures: studies of business cycle transmission across developing and industrialized nations, and empirical work aimed at constructing perpetual claims on developing country incomes as suggested by Shiller in 1995.     

Structural Operations and Net Migration Across European Union Member Countries

This paper analyzes the effects of international transfers to finance infrastructure on net migration flows among countries within the EU. A new economic geography model is employed with common pool financed infrastructure investments to derive a set of empirically testable hypotheses about the effects of transfer payments to finance infrastructure investments on migration. A significant effect of structural fund expenditures is identified on the bilateral net migration of workers among the EU member countries. On average, a one percentage point increase in the expenditures on structural funds (in per cent of gross domestic product (GDP)) leads to a reduction in the measure of bilateral net migration by about 0.4–0.8%.     

Internal validity in discrete choice experiments: varying the position of the price attribute

This article presents an analysis of internal validity in discrete choice experiments. Prior studies have analysed the importance of the order of attributes within a multiple choice context, but few have specifically analysed the importance of the location of the price attribute. The internal validity was analysed while considering variations in the position of the price attribute in the choice cards. Results show differences in the estimates of willingness to pay according to the price-location version used: at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the choice card.     

Returns to education in professional football

After three years in college, football players face a trade-off between spending more time in college and pursuing a career in the National Football League (NFL). We analyze the salaries for rookies in the NFL and instrument the endogenous decision to enter the professional market with the month of birth (relative age effect). A player enjoys a 6 percent higher starting salary in the NFL for each additional year with the college team. The returns to education in professional sports are sizable and similar to returns to formal education.     

Calories,obesity and health in OECD countries

Theoretical models suggest that decisions about diet, weight and health status are endogenous within a utility maximization framework. In this article, we model these behavioural relationships in a fixed-effect panel setting using a simultaneous equation system, with a view to determining whether economic variables can explain the trends in calorie consumption, obesity and health in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and the large differences among the countries. The empirical model shows that progress in medical treatment and health expenditure mitigates mortality from diet-related diseases, despite rising obesity rates. While the model accounts for endogeneity and serial correlation, results are affected by data limitations.     

A structural time series approach to modelling multiple and resurgent meat scares in Italy

This paper exploits a structural time series approach to model the time pattern of multiple and resurgent food scares and their direct and cross-product impacts on consumer response. A structural time series Almost Ideal Demand System (STS-AIDS) is embedded in a vector error correction framework to allow for dynamic effects (VEC-STS-AIDS). Italian aggregate household data on meat demand is used to assess the time-varying impact of a resurgent BSE crisis (1996 and 2000) and the 1999 Dioxin crisis. The VEC-STS-AIDS model monitors the short-run impacts and performs satisfactorily in terms of residuals diagnostics, overcoming the major problems encountered by the customary vector error correction approach.     

Evaluating corruption under the application of the SOCIO-economic development desgrowth index (Ð-index): the case of Guatemala

Getting a clear sense of the intensity and dynamics of corruption in a society or country is a critical platform for economic growth and development. This paper sets out to bring clarity to the study of corruption through an alternative approach. It examines and demonstrates how corruption can be evaluated by basically hinging it on the socio-economic development deaccumulation that any country can experience in different historical periods. The paper presents the socio-economic development desgrowth index (Ð-index), a new indicator with a complete set of mathematical tools that capture and calculate all the aspects that encompass corruption within a system or country. The paper successfully applied the (Ð-index) to X-ray the successive administrations of Guatemala from 1986 to year 2016 from where we convincingly observed the highs and lows in the corruption dynamics of Guatemala.     

The quantitative and qualitative evolution of the social security research

This article examines the evolution of social security research from a theoretical and empirical perspective. This is done through an extensive review and analysis of publications from the Journal of International Social Security Review published by Wiley within a 50-year period (1967–2017). It was observed that at a different period in time, the social security research focused on different national and international issues that invoked different social welfare programs and pension systems approach (public or private) to facilitate the explanation of its final socio-economic impact into different social groups in the same country or region respectively.