In view of the sizable increase in recorded migrant workers’ remittances to developing countries from $70 billion in 2000 to $167 in 2005, this study investigates the long-run relationship between remittances and financial services development (FSD) and control variables including exchange...

We evaluate the impact of the unilateral trade policy concession known as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on U.S. imports from eligible Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Using U.S.-SSA countries’ trade data that span the years 1991-2006, we find that AGOA has contributed to the...

In recent years, development co-operations that seek to promote trade flows between countries have continued to emerge from the notion that trade has a positive impact on economic growth. We evaluate the impact of one such initiative, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), on the...

This paper uses three classes of univariate time series techniques (ARIMA type models, switching regression models, and state-space/structural time series models) to forecast, on an ex post basis, the downturn in U.S. housing prices starting around 2006. The performance of the techniques is...

The Security and Exchange Commission revoked the uptick rule in July 2007. The revocation of the uptick rule provides us with a unique setting to investigate the impact of short-sale constraints on various short-selling strategies in a controlled environment. Comparing short-selling behaviors...

Technology differs from other features of culture in that the Boasian stance of cultural relativism seems less binding: one can argue that the technology of one society is superior or inferior to the technology of another. This comparison is possible because technological change—as described...

This paper studies how frictions, both real and financial, interact with capital tax policy in a dynamic, general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms. Comparative statics show that tax policy can have substantially different effects depending upon the frictions present. Analytical and...

Using data from the 1997-cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY-97), we examine the effects of California’s first in the nation government-mandated paid family leave program (CA-PFL) on mothers’ and fathers’ use of leave during the period surrounding child birth, and on...

The nonprofit sector contributed $20.9 billion to the Nashville regional economy in 2011, according to a BERC study for the Center for Nonprofit Management.

Using a long panel of roll call voting data, I find that “flip-flopping" senators face significant electoral costs when changing positions. In models of electoral competition, as the costs to candidates changing position approach zero, the equilibrium prediction is the convergence of...