Using personnel data, we compare worker productivity under a relative incentive scheme -where pay is based on individual productivity relative to the average productivity of the group- to productivity under piece rates. We find that productivity is at least 50% higher under piece rates. Further...

We examine the impact of R&D intensity and agency costs on the value of firms across 13 economies. We find that R&D adds value while high agency costs reduce value. R&D adds value, however, even when agency costs are high. We show that in those firms where agency costs are high and R&D intensity...

We define a segregation ordering as a ranking of cities from most segregated to least segregated. \ We propose a set of basic properties that any reasonable segregation ordering should have. \ We then fully characterize the class of segregation orderings that satisfy these basic properties. \ We...

We compare auction revenues from discriminatory auctions and uniform price auctions in the case of the Korean treasury bonds auction market. For this purpose, we employ detailed bidder level data for each of 16 discriminatory auctions recently carried out in Korea. We first theoretically recover...

The measurement of income inequality plays a pivotal role in the assessment of economic welfare and the design and implementation of social policies. A primary input of such measurement is data provided by household surveys. It is a well-documented fact that in these surveys some variables are...

Abstract Applying a Stochastic Production Frontier to sector-level data within manufacturing sector in India, this paper examines Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth during 1979-80 to 1997-98. The analysis focuses on the trend of technical progress (TP) and Technical Efficiency Change (TEC)....

This paper analyzes the development and effects of intra-provincial regional disparities in China between 1989 and 2001. A decomposition analysis shows that intraprovincial disparities contribute significantly to total regional inequality. In the second part of the paper, the impact of the...

We develop an intuitive and easily implemented procedure to recover comparability over time of statistics computed using databases made incomparable by changes in survey design. Our methodology can be adopted whenever the statistic of interest satisfies a certain simple moment condition. The...

We examine Granger causality among the exchange rates of eight East Asian economies prior to the Asian crisis. We adopt as our general model Engle and Gau’s (1997) “official band†model, and use daily bilateral US dollar exchange rate data during January 1991-July 1997. Our...

Using 20-year panel data, this paper tests Japanese companies' sequential decisions: (1) to invest abroad or not and (2) if so, what ownership strategy for that local company to be employed. In addition to transaction advantage emphasized by traditional studies on FDI, the focus is the role of...