Strategic Similarity and Emergent Conventions: Evidence from Similar Stag Hunt Games

This paper reports evidence on the origin of convention in laboratory cohorts confronting similar but not identical strategic situations repeatedly. The experiment preserves the action space of the game, while randomly perturbing the payoffs and scrambling the action labels in an effort to blunt the salience of retrospective selection principles. Hence, the similarity between stage games is reduced to certain strategic details, like efficiency, security, and risk dominance. Nevertheless, we do observe conventions emerging in half of the laboratory cohorts. When a convention emerges subjects's behavior conforms to the selection principles of efficiency rather than security or risk dominance. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, C78, C92, D83.     

Pigouvian Taxes: A Strategic Approach

This paper analyzes the problem of designing mechanisms to implement efficient solutions in economies with externalities. We provide two simple mechanisms implementing the Pigouvian Social Choice Correspondence in environments in which coalitions can or cannot be formed.     

The brain drain, ‘educated unemployment’, human capital formation,and economic betterment1

Extending both the ‘harmful brain drain’ literature and the ‘beneficial brain gain’ literature, this paper analyzes both the negative and the positive impact of migration by skilled individuals in a unified framework. The paper extends the received literature on the ‘harmful brain drain’ by showing that in the short run, international migration can result in ‘educated unemployment’ and overeducation in developing countries, as well as a brain drain from these countries. A simulation suggests that the costs of ‘educated unemployment’ and overeducation can amount to significant losses for the individuals concerned, who may constitute a substantial proportion of the educated individuals. Adopting a dynamic framework, it is then shown that due to the positive externality effect of the prevailing, economy‐wide endowment of human capital on the formation of human capital, a relaxation in migration policy in both the current period and the preceding period can facilitate ‘take‐off’ of a developing country in the current period. Thus, it is suggested that while the migration of some educated individuals may reduce the social welfare of those who stay behind in the short run, it improves it in the long run.     

Editorial

Small Business Economics -     

Foreign Direct Investment,Economic Growth,and the Human Capital Threshold: Evidence from US States*

The United States has experienced a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) in recent years. While foreign firms bring immediate benefits of high‐paying jobs, data limitations have prevented detailed study on FDI's long‐term effects on the states receiving it. By creating a new stock measure of FDI based on employment, we are able to capture these long‐term effects. Results demonstrate that FDI has a greater impact on per capita output growth than domestic investment for US states that meet a minimum human capital threshold. Ironically, the most active states in the recruitment of FDI tend to fall below this threshold.     

The leontief question: A Cobb-Douglas approach to simulating the U.S. income distribution in Autarky

Zusammenfassung Leontiefs Frage: Ein Cobb-Douglas Verfahren zur Simulierung der U.S.-Einkommensverteilung bei Autarkie. - Die Frage, die Leontief 1956 in seinem klassischen Artikel über die komparativen Vorteile der USA stellte, war, wie sich die Einkommensverteilung bei Autarkie von derjenigen bei internationalem Handel unterscheide. Normalerweise ist es notwendig, ein Modell des allgemeinen Gleichgewichts mit prohibitiven Z?llen zu simulieren, um zur Einkommensverteilung bei Autarkie zu gelangen. In diesem Artikel wird jedoch gezeigt, da\ in einer Volkswirtschaft, die dadurch charakterisiert ist, da\ die Konsumentenpr?ferenzen und die sektoralen Produktionsfunktionen vom Cobb-Douglas-Typ sind, der Zustand der Autarkie durch eine einfache Matrix-Multiplikation simuliert werden kann. Die Faktoranteile bei Autarkie werden als unabh?ngig vom Faktorangebot abgeleitet. Das Paradoxon wird best?tigt, wenn Kapital und Arbeit homogen sind, w?hrend eine Disaggregation die Ergebnisse erheblich beeintr?chtigt.

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Résumé La question de Leontief: Une approche Cobb-Douglas à simuler la distribution de revenu des Etats Unis en autarcie. - La question posée par Leontief dans son article classique en 1956 sur l’avantage comparatif est, comment la distribution de revenu sous l’autarcie se compare avec celle d’une économie ouverte. Généralement, il est nécessaire de simuler un modèle d’équilibre général avec des droits de douane prohibitifs pour obtenir une distribution de revenu autarcique. Cependant, les auteurs démontrent que, dans une économie caractérisée par des préférences des consommateurs et par des fonctions de production sectorales de type Cobb-Douglas, l’autarcie peut être simulée par une simple multiplication de matrice. Les portions des facteurs autarciques sont dérivées comme être indépendantes de l’offre des facteurs. Le paradoxe se confirme si le capital et la main d’oeuvre sont homogènes, mais une désagrégation affecte le résultat gravement.

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Resumen La pregunta de Leontief: un modelo Cobb-Douglas para simulaciones de la distribución del ingreso en los EEUU bajo autarquía. - La pregunta que Leontief formuló en su artículo clásico (1956) sobre las ventajas comparativas de los EEU fué, en que se diferencia la distribución del ingreso bajo autarqufa de la que prevalece bajo comercio internacional. En general es necesario simular un modelo de equilibrio general con aranceles prohibitivos para obtener la distribución del ingreso bajo autarqufa. Nosotros, empero, demostramos que en una economfa caracterizada por preferencias de los consumidores y funciones de producción sectoriales del tipo Cobb-Douglas la situación bajo autarqufa puede ser simulada através de una simple multiplicación de matrices. Las cuotas correspondientes a los factores bajo autarquía se derivan como si hieran ofertas independientes de factures. La paradoja se confirma para capital y trabajo homogéneos, pero los resultados son muy sensibles al nivel de desagregación.

     

STRUCTURAL SHIFTS IN UK UNEMPLOYMENT 1979–2005: THE TWIN IMPACTS OF FINANCIAL DEREGULATION AND COMPUTERIZATION

This paper analyses UK unemployment in the period 1979–2005. Structural breaks are identified endogenously and they coincide with key institutional changes associated with financial deregulation and computerization in the New Economy. A vector error correction model is estimated and it confirms that computerization and financial deregulation have had counteracting impacts on UK unemployment. The results are consistent with three hypotheses: technological advances associated with computerization have moderated inflationary struggles between firms and insiders by increasing total factor productivity; financial deregulation has generated financial fragility fostering rises in unemployment; financial deregulation and computerization together have been associated with shifts from manufacturing towards services, fostering structural unemployment.