If we are to define development as an increase in the freedoms people enjoy, then we may move beyond structural adjustments and foreign investment as means to create wealth in Ecuador and Latin America. Although not conclusively documented one way or the other [13], microlending is a promising path towards development from this perspective. At the very least, microlending offers...
This paper addresses the validity of certification and insider selling hypotheses within the context of new issues. Comparisons of venture capital backed and non venture-backed issues with similar offering characteristics show that issuers with venture capital affiliation are more underpriced than non venture-backed IPOs and insider selling results in decreased underpricing...
If we are to define development as an increase in the freedoms people enjoy, then we may move beyond structural adjustments and foreign investment as means to create wealth in Ecuador and Latin America. Although not conclusively documented one way or the other [13], microlending is a promising path towards development from this perspective. At the very least, microlending offers...
This paper attempts to address two issues. First, is how to objectively measure carbon dioxide emissions from the generation of electricity that uses predominantly coal. Second, is how to incorporate these ‘environmental’ variables into an efficiency model. Using a technique called Data Enveloping Analysis (DEA) a non-parametric piecewise surface (or frontier) over the data is...
This paper analyzes the effect that regulatory inputs or expenditures for labor, materials, and capital have on productivity for three industries (blast furnaces and steel mills, alkalies and chlorine, and petroleum refining). Data is examined from 1973 to 1994 and the growth rate of total factor productivity (TFP) is considered. The pattern of pollution abatement expenditures...
The best means to understand the effects of the tariff-rate quota system on production and consumption of sugar is by creating an economic model. By analyzing the most recent figures concerning consumption, importation, production, and tariff-rate quotas, an economic model of the sugar market of the United States can be produced. From this model, the effects of the removal of the...
In this research I attempt to model and investigate the housing decisions of Spanish-speaking migrants. I use methods developed by Bajari and Kahn (2002) to obtain willingness to pay measurements for the migrant groups in samples drawn from three major California cities. I then apply these results to several hypotheses that attempt to describe current migration patterns of...
In the very recent past, the economics of the household and the economics of development appear to be edging toward a new convergence of concern around the nature and use of assets. However, these two literatures of economics continue to exist in separate spheres. I draw from both bodies of literature in order to examine gender differences in asset portfolios. I find systematic...
Previous research finds that customer racial discrimination decreases the price of a non-white baseball player’s card but does not decrease the price of a non-white basketball player’s card. This paper seeks to examine if racial minority or league minority affects the value of a trading card. Using disaggregated player performance data from 1977 we explore this question with...
This paper attempts to address two issues. First, is how to objectively measure carbon dioxide emissions from the generation of electricity that uses predominantly coal. Second, is how to incorporate these ‘environmental’ variables into an efficiency model. Using a technique called Data Enveloping Analysis (DEA) a non-parametric piecewise surface (or frontier) over the data is...
Neoclassical economic game theory predicts that a player’s goal is to maximize her income regardless of others. In playing the Ultimatum Game this means that Allocators will allocate the minimum amount and the Responders will accept that amount because something is better than nothing. Economics students behave differently because they self-select into that field already thinking...
Though fifty years is a tremendous time horizon for the forecasting of any trend involving the complex interactions of billions of people and billions of hectares of intricate planetary ecosystems, the analytic methodology of economics is the most capable toolbox available for such forecasting. At the center of such a forecast are two complex functions, supply and demand...
Canada is a nation of immigrants. Decades of open and compassionate immigration policies have earned Canada a solid reputation abroad in this regard. However, as long as there has been immigration in this country, concerns have existed over the impact of immigration on the labour market and, more importantly, the role that discrimination plays regarding income differentials. This...
This paper studies the effect of English language deficiency on the wage rates of Mexican immigrants. Using a sample of 81,059 labor market male Mexican Immigrants taken from Census PUMS data, I find that the direct effect of English language deficiency on earnings is virtually nonexistent for immigrants with low education and experience levels. The results show that only...
This paper analyses the success of the Lebanese banking system during the Lebanese civil war, which lasted from 1975 until 1989. As the rest of the economy plunged into recession due to intense warfare and governmental collapse, the bankers and their clients continued to cooperate across battle lines in the loaning business. The argument of the paper is that the linkage of social...
The aim of this paper is twofold: to show the positive growth effect on economies through steady stock market growth, and to analyze the performance of India’s stock markets over the last decade on national growth. I start out in Section I with economic analyses of the high correlation between stock market indicators and the development of all financial institutions. Studies...
This paper will revisit the economic question “is buying art profitable?” facing any potential investor by focusing specifically on the market for prints. The answer will account for both pecuniary and aesthetic benefits. Previous inquiry into the returns of investments in art and their methodologies is first reviewed. Then a framework for measuring utility from prints from...
The debate concerning the legalisation of marijuana is intensifying. As the price of marijuana would most likely decrease following legalisation, the law of demand implies that consumption would rise. But by how much? This paper analyses the effect of legalisation on consumption by using data from a specifically-conducted survey of first year students at The University of Western...
The purpose of this paper is to put the economic and social importance of Indian gambling on and off the reservation into perspective. Because the economic and social effects of Indian gaming are additive, one cannot form a coherent picture of the net impact of gaming without measuring both the economic and social effects (Cornell et al., 1998). Because gambling has impacts...
The usage of mobile phones has dramatically increased in the past decade, narrowing the boundaries of size, space, and time. It is this “death of distance” that will be the single most important economic force shaping all of society over the next half century. The economic prosperity of the United States has contributed to the increase in this “luxury” telecommunication device...
This research study assumes that people will be better off if there is greater equality of income, if per capita income increases, and if they have better access to education and health care through which they can lead a more fulfilling life. The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of...
In my study, I plan to analyze voucher privatization in the Czech Republic. This process is best characterized as decision making under both risk and uncertainty, where the thousands of individuals who initially received vouchers were operating under near total uncertainty while larger institutional investors who later seized control of the vouchers were operating under...
This paper discusses the effects of the changes in economic policies and important events, between 1990 and 1992, on the values of an economic sector's equity in Peru. I use event studies to explain the differences in returns during the event window in the main economic sectors in Peru including mining, beer, banking and industrial sector. Four key events are analyzed: The...
Rawls notes that the question of justice between generations “subjects any ethical theory to severe if not impossible tests.” (A Theory of Justice (TOJ), p. 251) and the difference principle Rawls argues for in A Theory of Justice is inapplicable to the problem of justice between generations. Specifically, the fact that there “is no way for later generations to help the least...
Neoclassical economic game theory predicts that a player’s goal is to maximize her income regardless of others. In playing the Ultimatum Game this means that Allocators will allocate the minimum amount and the Responders will accept that amount because something is better than nothing. Economics students behave differently because they self-select into that field already thinking...