Persistence of Output Fluctuations Under Different Exchange Rate Regimes

In a recent paper, Giugale and Korobow (2000) present evidence that suggests that the time required by output to return to trend following a financial shock is faster under a flexible exchange rate regime than under a fixed exchange rate. In this paper, we use vector autoregression models to measure the persistence properties of output for a number of countries in the Asia–Pacific region. Our results suggest that output persistence is not uniquely related to a country's choice of exchange rate regime. The two countries in our sample with the least persistent output following a financial shock are Australia, where the exchange rate is fully flexible, and Hong Kong, where it is rigidly fixed via a currency board.     

Opportunities to reduce road traffic injury: new insights from the study of urban areas

Abstract

Over the past four decades considerable efforts have been taken to mitigate the growing burden of road injury. With increasing urbanisation along with global mobility that demands not only safe but equitable, efficient and clean (reduced carbon footprint) transport, the responses to dealing with the burgeoning road traffic injury in low- and middle-income countries has become increasingly complex. In this paper, we apply unique methods to identify important strategies that could be implemented to reduce road traffic injury in the Asia-Pacific region; a region comprising large middle-income countries (China and India) that are currently in the throes of rapid motorisation. Using a convolutional neural network approach, we clustered countries containing a total of 1632 cities from around the world into groups based on urban characteristics related to road and public transport infrastructure. We then analysed 20 countries (containing 689 cities) from the Asia-Pacific region and assessed the global burden of disease attributed to road traffic injury and these various urban characteristics. This study demonstrates the utility of employing image recognition methods to discover new insights that afford urban and transport planning opportunities to mitigate road traffic injury at a regional and global scale.     

The swing voter's curse with adversarial preferences

We analyze voting behavior in a large electorate in which voters have adversarial state-contingent preferences with incomplete information about the state of the world. We show that one type of voter can suffer from the swing voter's curse à la Feddersen and Pesendorfer [The swing voter's curse, Amer. Econ. Rev. 86 (1996) 408-424], and go on to characterize the symmetric Nash equilibria of this model under different parameter values. We prove that unlike settings with nonadversarial preferences, there are equilibria in which in one state of the world, a minority-preferred candidate almost surely wins the election and thus the election may fail to correctly aggregate information. Indeed, we show that the fraction of the electorate dissatisfied with the result can be as large as .     

Investigating regional house price convergence in the United States: Evidence from a pair-wise approach

In this paper we examine long-run house price convergence across US states using a novel econometric approach advocated by Pesaran (2007) and Pesaran et al. (2009). Our empirical modelling strategy employs a probabilistic test statistic for convergence based on the percentage of unit root rejections among all state house price differentials. Using a sieve bootstrap procedure, we construct confidence intervals and find evidence in favour of convergence. We also conclude that speed of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium is inversely related to distance.     

Are supply chain management theories culturally constrained? An empirical assessment

Culture plays an increasingly important role in supply chain management as many manufacturing firms have linkages to suppliers and customers from various countries. In this paper we propose treating culture as an explanatory variable to test the assumption that existing theories are universally applicable. The primary research question was: Do purchasing theories built on samples from mainly North American companies with Anglo-Saxon cultures apply in other cultural contexts? We developed and tested a model where top management??s view of the purchasing function affects purchasing practices and manufacturing performance. The statistical results provide evidence that the engagement and efficacy of purchasing practices is highly dependent on culture. This finding has significant implications from the perspective of decision making in international supply chain management. Specifically, top managers across multiple cultures could decide to structure and evaluate the purchasing function similarly, but these decisions could lead to different practices and different outcomes depending on the culture.