An Application of a New Test of Prima Facie Causality to Livestock Markets

A new methodology of inference testing is posited and applied to the issue of causality in livestock markets. This methodology is distinct from that of Granger-Sims. It involves a procedure that is independent of the scale of measurement of the variables, robust with respect to the distribution of the disturbances, capable of discovering relatively weak causal relationships and computationally simple.
Les auteurs décrivent une nouvelle méthode d'analyse par inférence appliquée à la question de causalité sur les marchés des bestiaux. Cette méthode se distingue de la méthode Granger-Sims en cela qu'elle est indépendante de l'échelle de mesure des variables et qu'elle n'est pas sensible à la distribution des erreurs. En outre, elle est capable de déceler des relations causales relativement faibles, et enfin elle est facile à calculer.     

Can Cultural Competency Speak to the Race Disparities in Methadone Dosage Levels?

Although national methadone treatment trends have improved substantially from 1988 to 2001, current research has found that African Americans still receive lower dosages of methadone treatment than their white and Hispanic counterparts, which has significant public health concerns. We sought to empirically examine whether the degree of cultural competency within an outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) organization has influence on the methadone dosage levels received by African Americans in 1995 and in 2005. The 1995 and 2005 National Drug Abuse Treatment System Survey (NDATSS) provided a nationally-representative, stratified sample of 618 and 566 OSAT organizations, respectively, of which 121 and 140 affiliated methadone maintenance treatment programs, respectively, were analyzed. The organizations’ director and clinical supervisor were surveyed. Fixed-effects linear regression models were fitted with measures of cultural competency, client, and organizational characteristics to assess methadone dosage levels. Culturally-competent units have smaller numbers of methadone clients, greater percentages of clients who receive methadone dosages of less than 40 mg/d, smaller percentages of clients who receive methadone dosages of 80 mg/d or more, and provide a larger number of therapeutic and ancillary services during treatment than non-culturally-competent units. OSAT units with more African Americans are significantly more likely to have clients who receive dosages of less than 40 mg/d and are significantly less likely to have clients who receive dosages of 80 mg/d or more. There is no racial difference among culturally-competent unit clients who receive dosages of less than 40 mg/d, between 40 and 59 mg/d, between 60 and 79 mg/d, and 80 mg/d or more. However, among non-culturally-competent units, a racial difference exists among African Americans and other clients who receive these various dosage levels. Research indicating that African Americans receive lower dosages of methadone than their White and Hispanic counterparts may now be explained by whether these clients receive treatment in culturally competent organizations, rather than solely by arguments related to organizational differences in resources, experience and training of staff, staff bias and/or racism. Culturally competent organizations may seek a method of treatment that dissuades “replacing one drug for another,” while simultaneously treating the root cause of the addiction through the provision of comprehensive therapeutic and ancillary support services. Further research is needed to determine if cultural competency results in better substance abuse treatment outcomes for African Americans.     

Mortgage Loans to Nonoccupants as an Indicator of Racial Redlining

Where racial redlining prevents potential residents of a neighborhood from obtaining mortgage loans, a greater number of houses will be sold to investors and a greter number of residents will rent homes owned by such investors. It may be possible, therefore, to measure the extent of redlining by using HMDA data on loans made to nonoccupants. This study models the flow of mortgage credit to nonoccupants in nine MSAs, using traditional economic and demographic variables and variables describing the racial composition of the neighborhood. The percentage of the census tract population that is black has a small but statistically significant coefficient in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Nashville, and the Hispanic population variable is statistically significant in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Albuquerque. The model explains a high percentage of the variation in mortgage lending to nonoccupants across census tracts and is robust with respect to alternative formulations of the dependent va riable, and the independent variables have the hypothesized signs.     

Wealth Effects and Consumption: A Panel VAR Approach

We provide new evidence on the comparison between the stock and housing wealth effects on consumption. Using a panel VAR approach applied to OECD data, we find evidence that the stock market wealth effect is generally the larger. However, with regard to the evolution of asset wealth effects over time, our findings show that the housing wealth effect has outweighed the share market wealth effect in the last decade. We further find that asset wealth has asymmetric effects on consumption, with stronger and more persistent effects from positive asset wealth shocks. Our results have important monetary policy implications for both stock and real estate markets, and offer timely insights into the desirability of current proposals to reduce house price volatility, such as through macro prudential regulations.     

Does home market size matter for the pattern of trade?

Does home market size matter for the pattern of trade? Krugman started the literature, showing it does matter. Davis overturned his result, arguing that an assumption of convenience—transport costs only for the differentiated goods—conveniently obtained the result. Here we relax another persistent assumption of convenience—two industry types differentiated only by the degree of scale economies—and find that market size reemerges as a relevant force in determining industrial structure.