This study investigates the impact of federal budget deficits on both short-term and long­-term interest rates from 1971 to 1984 within an open IS-IM model that includes net international capital inflows. Two time periods are examined using quarterly data: 1971.4 to 1984.4 and 1979.4 to 1984.4....

This research examines capacity utilization as a measure of economic slack in the US economy. Many macroeconomists have questioned the use of capacity utilization as a measure of economics slack on several fronts. The first issue revolves around the definition and accuracy of measurement of the...

This study extends the literature on relative price dispersion by addressing two questions that have remained largely unanswered: (a) What is the impact on relative price dispersion of the variance of the uncertain relationship between money and prices? (b) Is there evidence across industries of...

The present paper examines the impact that budget deficits exercise on economic growth in the United States. Using a simple growth model that includes a variety of public policy variables, we provide Instrumental Variables (IV) estimates that indicate growth in the United States over time. The...

This study empirically identifies factors that influenced geographic differentials in the bank closing rate in the United States over the period 1982 through 1990. Given the presence of censored data, the model adopts the tobit estimation procedure. The bank closing rate in a state is found to...

This brief note develops a pedagogically useful new (albeit still rudimentary) way of teaching the free-rider concept. This simple approach applies the familiar tools of indifference curve analysis to the topic at hand. Since so many students of economics are well versed in indifference curves,...

It has been well documented in the literature that ethnicity matters significantly in the determination of self-employment rates. In particular, African-American self-employment rates lag far behind rates for other racial groups. Similarly, the literature also provides evidence of the long lived...

In this paper, we explore the relationship between ethnic fractionalization and social capital. First, we test for time differences in the impact of ethnic fractionalization on social capital using U.S. data from 1990, 1997, and 2005. Subsequently, we examine the data for evidence of the con...

Past research on the determinants of self-employment in the United States has emphasized the importance of ethnicity. In particular, self-employment rates for Blacks lag far behind those of other racial groups for comparable individuals. This research examines two related issues: Does the dummy...

This research examines the relationship between the economic status of an immigrant's home country and the probability of self-employment in the US. We find that immigrants from developing countries on average have lower self-employment probabilities relative to immigrants from developed...