The Falsification of Four Popular Hypotheses About the Asian Crisis

Various claims have been made about the causes of the Asian crisis and its spread. Here, we use data on the behaviour of capital flows during the crisis to test the strong forms of four such hypotheses, that portfolio investors and hedge funds played a dominant role in initiating and/or spreading the crisis; that moral hazard kept efficient markets from predicting the crisis; and, finally, the common lender hypothesis of Kaminsky and Reinhart. In the process we also test implications of the Calvo-Mendoza model of rational investor ignorance. All are falsified as monocausal explanations. For example, portfolio investments that could not have been subject to substantial moral hazard continued to flow into Asia until very shortly before the crisis. Likewise, banks were a much larger source of capital outflows during the crisis than were portfolio investors. While falsified in their strongest forms, several of these hypotheses in less strong forms should play a role in a more nuanced analysis. It is necessary to move past simple single-factor approaches in order to produce a more complete, synthetic explanation of this episode.     

Neighbors and the evolution of the comparative advantage of nations: Evidence of international knowledge diffusion?

The literature on knowledge diffusion shows that knowledge decays strongly with distance. In this paper we document that the probability that a product is added to a country's export basket is, on average, 65% larger if a neighboring country is a successful exporter of that same product. For existing products, growth of exports in a country is 1.5% higher per annum if it has a neighbor with comparative advantage in these products. While these results could be driven by a common third factor that escapes our controls, they align with our expectations of the localized character of knowledge diffusion.     

Capital-induced labor migration in a spatial Solow model

Journal of Economics - In this work we consider labor mobility in the spatial Solow model for economic growth. Besides considering that labor diffuses from regions with higher density to regions...     

Alternative Demand for University Outreach Services from Georgia's Golf Industry

Recent technological advancements have influenced farmers' growing demand for private information suppliers, a service traditionally monopolized by public outreach programs of land grant educational institutions. This waning appeal for university extension services creates pressure for these institutions to explore other market segments to broaden their audience coverage. This study demonstrates a potential market niche in Georgia's golf industry for university outreach services. Binomial logistic regression results indicate that significant demand ( a ) is negatively influenced by golf facility size; ( b ) is directly related to the level of industry experience of the golf superintendents; and ( c ) could come from facilities that require assistance in growth-, pest-, and employment-related concerns.     

National Policy of Tourism in Brazil From Municipalisation to Regionalization

The decade of 1980 has been a time of changes to the world and also in Brazil. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the globalization are phenomena which marked the late 20th century. Brazil was part of this scenario as it went through structural changes, including Real Plan, which brought stability along with the possibility of growth and development. Tourism is enveloped by neoliberalism as a way of attracting investments, investors, better infrastructures, and changing the country＇s image. As far as Brazilian public policies of tourism are concerned, there are two points that constitute the objective of this present work： to analyze the national Program of Municipalisation of Tourism （PMNT） and the Program of Regionalization of Tourism （PRT） considering the context of post-democratization in Brazil and its influences on the organization of national tourism. This analysis has been focused on the content of constitutional documents which have oriented tourism public policy, as well as authors who investigate this theme. From a conceptual map, the relations between political context and the moment when documents were elaborated have been built up. By the end of this work it will be possible to point out the prevalence of the neoliberal model, along with the interest of market agents over Brazilian touristic context.