1,721,000 research outputs found
Notes on an Endogenous Growth Model with two Capital Stocks II: The Stochastic Case
Full text linkThis paper extends the class of stochastic AK growth models with a closed-form solution to the case where there are two capital goods in the model. To be precise, we consider the Uzawa-Lucas model of endogenous growth with human and physical capital. The extension holds, even if an external effect in the use of human capital in goods production occurs. Using the “guess and verify” method, we determine the value function of the social planner in the centralized economy and the value function of the representative agent in the decentralized case. We show that the introduction of income taxes on wages and of a subsidy on physical capital earnings is able to help the decentralized economy in reaching the social optimum, while keeping the policy maker’s budget balanced. Then the time series implications of the model’s solution are derived. In Appendix to the paper the uniqueness of the value functions is proved by using an alternative method.closed-form solution, value function, saddle path stability, endogenous growth
Paternal Uncertainty and the Economics of Mating, Marriage, and Parental Investment in Children
Full text linkWe develop a theoretical model of mating behavior and parental investment in children under asymmetry in kin recognition between men and women that provides a microfoundation for the institution of marriage. In the model, men and women derive utility from consumption and reproductive success, which is a function of the number and quality of own offspring. Because of paternal uncertainty, men unlike women may err in investing resources in offspring that is not biologically theirs. As a socially sanctioned commitment device among partners, the institution of marriage reduces this risk by restraining promiscuity in society. Both women and men are shown to benefit from lower levels of paternal uncertainty, as does average child quality because of increased parental investments. As an analytical framework, the model is suitable to study a number of societal, economic, and technological changes in their effects on marriage patterns. A combination of factors is argued to underlie the demise of marriage.Mating, Paternal Uncertainty, Parental Investment, Marriage
Uncertain Paternity, Mating Market Failure, and the Institution of Marriage
Full text linkThis paper provides a first microeconomic foundation for the institution of marriage. Based on a model of reproduction, mating, and parental investment in children, we argue that marriage serves the purpose of attenuating the risk of mating market failure that arises from incomplete information on individual paternity. Raising the costs of mating to individuals, marriage circumscribes female infidelity and mate poaching among men, which reduces average levels of paternal uncertainty in society. A direct gain in male utility, the latter induces men to invest more in their putative offspring, a fact that benefits women because of the public good nature of children. Able to realize Pareto improvements, marriage as an institution is hence explained as the result of a societal consensus on the need to organize and structure mating behavior and reproduction in society for the benefit of paternal certainty and biparental investment in offspring.Marriage, Mating, Paternal Uncertainty, Parental Investment.
Simultaneous Causality in International Trade
Full text linkThis paper proposes estimating causalities in bilateral international trade in simultaneous systems, including domestic and foreign GDP as well as mutual trade flows. Conventional macroeconomic theory mainly follows partial approaches like import functions or export-led growth. Focusing on the US relations with Euroland and Canada, cointegration analyses however reveal, that the system dynamics, and so both im- and exports, are simply governed by US GDP shocks. In conclusion, exploring sources and effects of international trade should be seen as an inherently empirical task.Import, Export, Causality, Cointegration.
Relational Contracts and Job Design
Full text linkThis paper analyzes the problem of optimal job design when there is only one contractible and imperfect performance measure for all tasks whose contribution to firm value is non-veritable. I find that task splitting is optimal when relational contracts based on firm value are not feasible. By contrast, if an agent who performs a given set of tasks receives an implicit bonus, the principal always benefits from assigning an additional task to this agent.job design, multi-tasking, relational contracts
Ideology Without Ideologists
Full text linkGenerally, Democrats do not increase military spending, and Republicans do not raise welfare payments. Mostly, ruling politicians stick to the manifesto of their party. The current paper provides a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon that does not assume politicians or voters to be ideologists. I explore an environment where both voters and politicians always prefer the policy that is adequate to the world state but contradicts the party manifesto over the policy that is in line with the manifesto but not adequate. I find that nevertheless, the inefficient manifesto-driven policy will often result from their interaction. Besides, I show that a high degree of agreement between the politician in office, his party basis and the voter makes efficient, informed policy rare or even impossible. But if homogeneity of convictions within parties is high, swing voter behavior can solve the problem.Information transmission, signalling, ideology, intra-party politics, political opinion.
Explicit characterization of the super-replication strategy in financial markets with partial transaction costs
Full text linkWe consider a continuous time multivariate financial market with proportional transaction costs and study the problem of finding the minimal initial capital needed to hedge, without risk, European-type contingent claims. The model is similar to the one considered in Bouchard and Touzi (2000) except that some of the assets can be exchanged freely, i.e. without paying transaction costs. This is the so-called non-effcient friction case. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such a model is considered in a continuous time setting. In this context, we generalize the result of the above paper and prove that the super-replication price is given by the cost of the cheapest hedging strategy in which the number of non-freely exchangeable assets is kept constant over time.Transaction costs, hedging options, viscosity solutions
Integrable e-lements for Statistics Education
Full text linkWithout doubt modern education in statistics must involve practical, computer-based data analysis but the question arises whether and how computational elements should be integrated into the canon of methodological education. Should the student see and study high-level programming code right at the beginning of his or her studies? Which technology can be presented during class and which computational elements can re-occur (at increasing level of complexity) during the different courses? In this paper we address these questions and discuss where e-techniques have their limits in statistics education.electronic books, hypertext, e-supported teaching, statistical software
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
