This paper investigates the effect of unionization on the flow of research and development (R&D) investment and import competition in US manufacturing industries. If the unions adopt a myopic strategy, they may attempt to maximize current rents, even if it reduces strategic R&D necessary to...

This study examines, for the period 1963-1995, the impact of federal budget deficits in the US on interest rates at commercial banks. Interest rates at banks have been largely neglected in the deficit/interest rate literature for the US. Moreover, the deficit/interest rate literature for the US...

This study examines, for the period 1963-1995, the impact of federal budget deficits in the US on mortgage interest rates at commercial banks. Interest rates at banks have been largely neglected in the deficit/interest rate literature for the US. Moreover, the deficit/interest rate literature...

The impact of property taxes on the cost of livings are examined. Using county data for the state of Florida, the instrumental variable (IV) heteroscedasticity-corrected results indicate that the per capita property tax exercises a positive and significant impact on the cost of living.

The Ricardian equivalent theory is examined by dichotemizing the total US federal budget deficit into its structural (exogeneous) and cyclical (endogeneous) components. The former is hypothesized to be the expected, planned deficit, whereas the latter is viewed as the unpredictable, unplanned,...

This study examines, for the period 1964-95, the impact of structural federal budget deficits in the US on interest rates at savings and loan institutions (S&Ls). Interest rates at S&Ls have largely been neglected in the deficit/interest rate literature. Moreover, the deficit/interest rate...

The study investigates the impact of budget deficits on ex post real long-term interest rates over the 1973-1995 period, thereby addressing an interest rate measure and time period, i.e. beyond the mid-to late-1980s, that have received only limited attention in the literature. The instrumented...

Using semi-annual data, this study empirically finds that, over the 1965-91 period, the rate of return on thrift (S&L) assets is an increasing function of the S&L mortgage rate, the tangible capital/asset ratio, and energy prices, whereas it is a decreasing function of the cost of deposits and...

This study investigates factors influencing the bank failure rate in the United States over the period 1970 to 2007. The bank failure rate was found to be an increasing function of the unemployment rate, the average cost of funds, volatility of the S&P 500 Stock Index, and charge-offs as a...

Motivated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s call to nations to resist protectionism and keep markets open to competition in the midst of the current world economic crisis, this study empirically investigates the impact of trade freedom (TF) on recent per...