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Among the many demand specifications in the literature, the Rotterdam model and the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) have particularly long histories, have been highly developed, and are often applied in consumer demand systems modeling. Using Monte Carlo techniques, we seek to determine which model performs better in terms of its ability to recover the true elasticities of demand. We derive the correct formulae for the AIDS models elasticities, when the Törnqvist or two modified versions of the Stone index are used to linearize the model. The resulting linearized AIDS are compared to the full AIDS.
This guide provides a critical review of the economics literature on the
desirability and the effects of unbundling the local loop. Firstly, we discuss recent
contributions, which aim to quantify the effect of unbundling regulations on the
development of broadband services. Secondly, we review the literature on the potential
impact of unbundling on investment and innovation incentives. Finally, we conclude this
paper by offering some suggestions for further research.
We investigate interlinkages and contagion risks in the Dutch interbank market. Based on several data sources, including the answers of banks to a questionnaire, we estimate the exposures in the interbank market at bank level. Next, we perform a scenario analysis to measure contagion risks. We find that the bankruptcy of one of the large banks will put a considerable burden on the other banks, but will not lead to a complete collapse of the interbank market. The contagion effects of the failure of a smaller bank are limited. The exposures to foreign counterparties are large and warrant further research. An important contribution of this paper is that we show, using survey data, that the entropy estimation using large exposures data as applied in many previous papers gives an adequate approximation of the actual linkages between banks. ...
This paper proposes that the resurgence of geographic factors in the study of uneven development is not due simply to the recurrent nature of intellectual fashions, nor necessarily because arguments that rely on geographic factors are less simplistic than before, nor because they avoid racialist, imperialistic, and deterministic forms they sometimes took in the past. Rather, this paper argues that geographic factors have been turned to once again because they are an indispensable part of explanation, playing a special role that has not been properly understood, a role especially crucial for the explanation of the inherently spatial questions that development studies seek to
address.
The paper is made up of two sections and an appendix.
The first section discusses why geographic factors are necessary for explanations of uneven develop...
This paper re-examines the link between firm size and exports in order to study the proposal that consists of increasing the firm size to raise exports as a way out of the current economic crisis. The elasticity of export propensity (percentage of exported sales) with respect to firm size depends on several firm characteristics. The new theories of international trade emphasize the firm heterogeneity as the theoretical basis of this behaviour. In the context of such heterogeneity, this paper uses the quantile regression methodology to analyze the effect of firm size on export propensity of the firms, confirming the existence of a positive relationship that becomes less important as export propensity increases. The traditional estimate of this elasticity on the average of the export propensities distribution underestimates the effect in...
In this paper I try to give answers to some of the questions and problems that arise in relation to point in time (PIT) and through the cycle (TTC) rating philosophies. One of the most confusing of these is the definition of the two approaches that, as I argue, should be based on the scope of information behind the systems. Through a simple model I demonstrate that the results of quantitative analyses can be very sensitive to the definitions and, additionally, the stress concept applied. I analyze the role played by the rating philosophies in capital requirements calculations and stress tests, and touch on their implications on the pro-cyclicality of credit risk capital regulation.
We analyze the tax evasion problem with social interaction among the taxpayers.
If the authority commits to a fixed auditing probability, a positive
share of cheating is obtained in equilibrium. This stands in contrast to the
existing literature, which yields full compliance of audited taxpayers who are
rational and thus do not need to interact. When the authority adjusts the auditing
probability every period, cycling in cheating-auditing occurs. Thus, the
real life phenomenon of compliance fluctuations is explained within the model
rather than by exogenous parameter shifts. Our analysis can also be applied
to crime, safety regulations, employment and environmental protection, as well
as other compliance problems.
Qualification and occupation-based measures of skilled labour are constructed to explain the skill premium – the wage of skilled labour relative to unskilled labour in New Zealand. The data exhibit a more rapid growth in the supply of skilled labour than the skill premium, and a very large increase in the real minimum wage over the period from 1986 to 2005. We estimate the rate of increase in the relative demand for skills and the elasticity of substitution. The data are consistent with skill shortages and a skill-bias technical change. We examine the effects of the minimum wage, capital complementarity, and the exchange rate on the skill premium. We also test whether the demand for skills and the elasticity of substitution varied across industries and over time.
In the years before the global financial crisis of 2008--2010, Qatar experienced a huge build-up of liquidity surplus in the banking system, mainly driven by surging net capital inflows. This paper identifies various sources of interbank liquidity in Qatar and discusses the various implications of structural primary liquidity surplus for the money market in particular and the economy at large. The paper attempts to evaluate the Qatar Central Bank policy making and conduct during the pre- and post-crisis periods within a framework of the Austrian monetary overinvestment theories, and concludes that the central bank had forcibly committed several forced monetary policy mistakes, which resulted in a breakdown in the interest rate channel of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. This led to the inability of the central bank to contro...
This paper documents the 2003 Merged Model for Vietnam. The initialization and calibration of the model is based on a financial 2003 SAM framework and an auxiliary 2002-3 data set. The recursive nature of the solution of the Merged Model is discussed with reference to the four main sectors of the model, including (i) the goods market and private sector budget, (ii) the government budget, (iii) the money market, and (iv) the balance of payments, and the initialization and solution of individual (exogenous and endogenous) variables is outlined. In addition, the calibration of parameter values is presented and the validity of the calibrated model parameters for the creation of future economic projections is discussed with reference to historical time series data. Similarly, benchmark growth paths for the four (intermediate target) focal v...
