Quantitative easing and median income: a state-level analysis

Due to the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve engaged in unconventional monetary policy (QE) to fight the effects of the economic downturn. Literature asserts that QE did have impacts on economic growth and helped alleviate the effects of the recession. Recently, critics have asserted that the benefits of QE may not have been equally distributed across households. In this paper, we build a state-level dataset to investigate the dynamics of QE measures and median income across the U.S states. The findings indicate that, for the period 2008 to 2014, there is statistical evidence that increases in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet correspond with higher nominal median income. However, once we adjust for inflation, the results become statistically insignificant and the impact of QE on median income becomes almost zero.     

Cost-based access regulation and collusion in a differentiated duopoly

This paper revisits the conventional doctrine that “it is easier to collude among equals”, applied in the context of vertically related markets. In a differentiated duopoly model, we study how cost-based access price regulation may hinder the sustainability of tacit collusion.     

The Legacy of Knut Wicksell to Capital Theory

Wicksell's contributions to capital theory focused on stationary states in four distinct models intended to account for the time dimension of production in market economies. We now have a better understanding of the true challenges because of two developments: a full theory of intertemporal general equilibria and a methodology for comparative analysis as explained by Hicks. In Wicksell's equilibria, the real interest rate turns out to be equal to the marginal productivity of the volume of social capital, a concept that Wicksell could not master and hence avoided. Challenges remain, particularly regarding the best way to account for complementarities and substitutions over time.     

The impact of infectious diseases on hotel occupancy rate based on independent component analysis

The recent global outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1), or the more commonly known as swine flu, has negatively affected the tourism and hospitality industries in many countries. This article reports a study that applied independent component analysis, a novel statistical technique, to separate the dominant factors which determine the levels of hotel occupancy rates in Hong Kong. Empirical findings would provide useful insights on how the dynamic lodging demand reacts to epidemics based on the severity and duration of the events.