Resource misallocation can lower aggregate total factor productivity (TFP).We use microdata on manufacturing establishments to quantify the potential extent of misallocation in China and India versus the United States. We measure sizable gaps in marginal products of labor and capital across...

In international comparative studies on academic achievement, the distinction between private government-dependent schools and private-independent schools has been proven particularly important for understanding the differences in the effectiveness of the private and public school sectors....

This article makes a bridge between the theory of optimal auditing and the scoring methodology in an asymmetric information setting. Our application is meant for insurance claims fraud, but it can be applied to many other activities that use the scoring approach. Fraud signals are classified...

This study empirically investigates the causal relationship between mineral exploration and environmental pollution in Nigeria with specific focus on natural gas and crude oil in Niger Delta region. The model of Granger causality tests was used. Quarterly data covering 2008 and 2009 were used in...

Notably, the 20th century was dominated by the legacy of devastating global wars, colonial struggles, and ideological conflicts as well as effort s to establish international systems that would foster global peace and prosperity. Yet, insecurity and corruption not only remain, they have become...

The study is an empirical evaluation of specific criminal activities. The relationship of criminal activities with inflation, unemployment, investment, education and health are examined through an annual data set from 1980 to 2007. To test the order of integration, Augmented Dickey Fuller test...

The Black Scholes Model (BSM) is one of the most important concepts in modern financial theory both in terms of approach and applicability. The BSM is considered the standard model for valuing options; a model of price variation over time of financial instruments such as stocks that can, among...

This paper demonstrates how the transformation of the taxi industry is an example of Coase’s Theorem in practice. The Coase Theorem, as postulated by Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase (1991), is one of the simplest yet profound ideas in economics. The recent advent of new mobile app entrants in the...

In the very popular FOX TV reality show, American Idol, the judges, who are presumably experts in evaluating singing effort, have no voting power when the field is narrowed to the top twenty-four contestants. It is only the votes of viewers that count. In the 2007 season of the show, Simon...

The aim of this paper was to verify if reminders of money influence the tendency to spend one’s resources on kin and friends. Previous research on the mere exposure to money concentrated only on behaviors directed at anonymous partners. However, in such situation the reciprocity rule is of...