We highlight how detrending within Structural Vector Autoregressions (SVAR) is directly linked to the shock identification. Consequences of trend misspecification are investigated using a prototypical Real Business Cycle model as the Data Generating Process. Decomposing the different sources of...

We set out a model of production and appropriation involving many players, who differ with respect to both resource endowments and productivities. We write down the model in a novel way that permits our analysis to avoid the proliferation of dimensions associated with the best response function...

The effect of bank capital on lending is a critical determinant of the linkage between financial conditions and real activity, and has received especial attention in the recent financial crisis. We use panel-regression techniques—following Bernanke and Lown (1991) and Hancock and Wilcox (1993,...

Movements in a nation's terms of trade are widely viewed as important for the understanding the sources of business cycle fluctuations, the dynamics of the trade balance and economic welfare. Backus, Kehoe and Kydland (1994) emphasize the role of productivity movements in a two-country, two-good...

To match the NBER business cycle features it is necessary to employ Gen- eralised dynamic categorical (GDC) models that impose certain phase re- strictions and permit multiple indexes. Theory suggests additional shape re- strictions in the form of monotonicity and boundedness of certain...

The Panzar-Rosse model has been widely applied to assess competitive conduct, often in specifications controlling for firm scale or using a price equation. We show that neither a price equation nor a scaled revenue function yields a valid measure for competitive conduct. Moreover, even an...

By recognising the cash flow characteristics of personal taxes on dividends Auerbach, Bradford and King find they reduce the current value of a firm’s equity without affecting the marginal cost of capital funded from retained earnings. This paper draws on work by Boadway and Bruce to show why...

There is considerable variability in numerical estimates of the marginal social cost of public funds (MCF) due to differences in demand-supply elasticities, differences in the welfare measures of changes in the excess burden of taxation, and differences in the conceptual measure of the MCF used....

Our objective is to estimate the average treatment effect (ATE) of education on earnings for African men in South Africa. Estimation of the ATE in our data is difficult because of omitted ability bias and a high degree of sample selection due to low labor force participation. Manski and Pepper...

Do markets in less-developed countries abate consequences of climate stress? Rainfall is an important factor in rice production in Indonesia. This paper uses changes in regional rice prices across the 19 residencies in less-developed Java to assess how rice markets responded to variations in...