We revisit the problem of calculating the exact distribution of optimal investments in a mean variance world under multivariate normality. The context we consider is where problems in optimisation are addressed through the use of Monte-Carlo simulation. Our findings give clear insight as to when...

As the Chinese Communist Party has loosened its grip in a more market-oriented economy, why have membership and the economic benefits of joining risen? We use three national household surveys over 11 years to answer this question for wages in urban China. Individual demand for Party membership...

It is commonly claimed that the South African labor market is unusually inflexible owing to the strength of the country's unions and the system of centralized collective bargaining. One sign of labor market inflexibility is low responsiveness of wages to local unemployment. Analyzing data from...

This paper develops an e±cient method for estimating the discrete mix- tures of normal family based on the continuous empirical characteristic function (CECF). An iterated estimation procedure based on the closed form objective distance function is proposed to improve the estimation effciency....

This paper extends the stochastic conditional duration model by imposing mixtures of bivariate normal distributions on the innovations of the observation and latent equations of the duration process. This extension allows the model not only to capture the asymmetric behavior of the expected...

The conventional approach of economists to the measurement of poverty is to use measures of income or consumption. This has been challenged by those who favour broader criteria, such as fulfilment of 'basic needs' and the 'capabilities' to be and to do things of intrinsic worth. This paper asks:...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the exact properties of Sharpe's ratio when prices are log-normal. Depending on the definition of returns, different expressions are formed for unbiased estimators of Sharpe's ratio.

Why are villages that are geographically so close together economically so far apart? This question is examined using a survey of 1000 households in seven villages in Hebei province, China. An answer is developed in terms of factor immobility and processes of cumulative causation. Although a...

Rapid economic growth and radical structural transformation pose a challenge to official statisticians as they seek to encompass new economic activities and phenomena. The accuracy of official statistics is liable to come into question. Urban unemployment in China is a good example. This paper...