Obesity is epidemic in the U.S, and there is an imperative need to identify policy tools that may help fight this epidemic. A recent paper in the economics literature finds an inverse relationship between gasoline prices and obesity-risk --- suggesting that increased gasoline prices via higher...

This paper explains some practical experiences on service sector growth as well as its contribution to the economy throughout the world. In rich countries, service contributions are comparatively higher than that in poor countries. But service sector growth rates are higher in the poor countries...

Our society faces many risks that affect human life. Cost-benefit analysis is a very popular project-evaluation tool for reducing these social risks. The government has to set projects or regulations whose benefits will outweigh costs. It is quite easy to evaluate costs but how to evaluate the...

This empirical study seeks to identify determinants of the underground economy in the U.S. in the form of aggregate federal personal income tax evasion over the period 1975-2008, with a specific focus upon the net impact of higher federal income tax rates on personal income tax evasion. In this...

This paper evaluates the degree of the pass-through effect of the oil price shock to six CPI sub-indices in the US. We report substantially weaker pass-through effects in less energy-intensive sectors compared with those in more energy-intensive sectors. We attempt to find an explanation for...

This research shows the pay gap between public entities in Ecuador. We use the information of Annex Relation Unit of the Internal Revenue Service and the Civil Registry for 2008 and 2009. The study makes a Mincerian model and an analysis by quintiles to find and compare the wage gap between...

The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of competition, both internal and external, and of the business cycle on monopolistic markups in the Polish economy. The results show that there are significant markups in several sectors of the economy which complies with earlier estimations by the...

Empirical research has called for intensive use of disaggregated data. One of the most heavily used data set in studying the corporate behavior and performance in China is Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database. As we will show, this data set suffers from data matching problems as well as...

As a generalization of k-out-of-n:F and consecutive k-out-of-n:F systems, the consecutive k-within-m-out-of-n:F system consists of n linearly ordered components such that the system fails iff there are m consecutive components which include among them at least k failed components. In this...

The methodology and uses of Monte-Carlo simulation technique are presented as applied to the analysis and assessment of risk in the evaluation of investment projects. The importance of risk analysis in investment appraisal is highlighted and the stages in the process introduced. The results...