LABOR MARKET DISCRIMINATION AND CAPITAL: THE EFFECTS OF FAN DISCRIMINATION ON STADIUM AND ARENA CONSTRUCTION

We investigate the possibility that labor market discrimination affects capital. Previous research indicates that discrimination affects wages and employment in labor markets. However, the effects of discrimination on other inputs to production are not known. We develop a model of the optimal capital stock in the presence of customer discrimination and test this model using data on sports facility construction. The empirical evidence suggests that teams in cities with a larger white population and more racial segregation put less capital in place, confirming the predictions of the model about the effect of customer discrimination on capital inputs. (JEL J7, D24, L83)     

Macroeconomic adjustment and private manufacturing investment in Turkey: a time-series analysis

Despite the drastic switch to market-based policies and outward orientation in Turkey during the 1980s, private investment in manufacturing industry has still not revived after seventeen years of structural adjustment. This paper examines the main determinants of private investment in the manufacturing sector and the impacts of structural adjustment (particularly financial liberalisation as an integral part of the reform) on it. The results show that liberalisation policies in financial markets appear to have positive effects by reducing the stringency of quantity constraints on investment while the high interest rates resulting from financial liberalisation had no significant impact on investment. Macroeconomic instability, proxied by the variability of the inflation rate, seems to have discouraged investment in manufacturing.     

Public sector price controls and electoral cycles

Public enterprise prices are important policy instruments in developing economies. This is why public sector price polices constitute a key element of stabilization programmes implemented in these economies. However, this significance is not specific to stabilization episodes. First, this study questions whether an opportunistic politician can manipulate public prices to win elections. It analyses the impact of such price controls on budget deficits and the repercussions of alternative financing mechanisms of these deficits on the inflation rate and voters’ behaviour. It is shown that electoral inflation cycles are obtained under domestic debt financing, whereas money financing does not permit such a manipulative policy. Second, by focusing on data of the Turkish economy for the 1987(1)–2003(12) period, empirical evidence for such manipulative policies is given.     

Time variation in Okun’s law in Sweden

In this article we estimate an Okun’s law relationship for Sweden using a model with time-varying parameters. Employing quarterly data from 1982 to 2014, results indicate that the GDP growth needed to keep the unemployment rate unchanged in the long rung has fallen considerably over the last 10 years.     

Financial development and governance relationships

In any country, financial development has a huge influence on country’s economic developments. Financial development strengthens financial stability of countries and enhances deep and broad access to capital and financial services by improving efficiency of financial markets and effectiveness of financial intermediation. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationships between various aspects (pillars) of financial development and dimensions of governance for countries listed in the Financial Development Index of the World Economic Forum. The Index provides a score for the breadth, depth and efficiency of 62 of the world’s leading financial markets. The study utilized the data from the World Economic Forum presented in the financial development report (2012) and attempted to model the relationships between various pillars of financial development and dimensions of governance by structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology. The study used the Worldwide Governance Indicators for year 2012 of the World Bank as the measure of governance. According to the SEM results, there seems to be a significant positive relationship between governance and financial development. Thus, as governance is enhanced, we may expect financial development to strengthen as well.     

Assessing consumer logistics functions in grocery shopping: Evidence from an emerging market

Abstract

Consumer logistics (CL), focuses on the role of consumers in the logistical processing of goods for the purpose of consumption from point of acquisition to the point of disposal. The objective of this study is to test and validate the CL scale as introduced by Bahn, Granzin, and Tokman for grocery shopping in a previously unexplored country setting, namely in Turkey. Our findings show in contrast to Bahn et al. only six CL functions: information search, transportation management and materials handling, storage management & inventory needs assessment, contingent inventory operations & product acquisition, intra-household communication, and interdependent transportation operations. These six CL functions are more applicable for an emerging market, such as Turkey. These findings are consistent across the different socio-demographic characteristics in our sample.