We apply a unit root test that allows for heteroskedasticity and two structural breaks to daily data for natural gas spot and futures prices. In contrast to previous findings, the main result is that natural gas spot and futures prices are mean reverting. More generally, the results emphasize...

Developments in applied econometrics, particularly with regard to unit root tests and cointegration tests, have motivated a rich empirical literature on energy economics over the last decade. This study reviews recent developments in time series econometrics applications in the energy economics...

We investigate wage inequality by migrant status across white collar and blue collar occupations in Australia. We use the reweighting and recentered influence function regression methods proposed by Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009) to decompose wage differentials across its distribution....

A significant obstacle to studying business cycle properties of job polarization has been the presence of inconsistencies in aggregate employment data for different occupation groups. In order to overcome this problem, we construct aggregate hours series using the method of 'conversion factors',...

This paper explores the relationship between job polarization and interindustry wage differentials. Using the U.S. Census and EU KLEMS data, we find that the progress of job polarization between 1980 and 2009 was more evident in industries that initially paid a high wage premium to workers than...

We conduct a real effort experiment in which performance is not monitored and participants are paid according to their reported performance. Participants are paid according to a piece rate and a winner-take-all tournament and then select between the two schemes before performing the task one...

Previous studies indicate that microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have different operational strategies to MFIs in South Asia (SA). Given the recent emphasis placed on the feasibility of MFIs to achieve the dual goals of outreach and sustainability...

This paper examines how availability of microfinance influences households' borrowing from informal sources in village economies. It uses a unique household level panel data set, which spans more than two decades (1987-2008), from rural villages in Bangladesh. We find that households' access to...

This paper develops a set of three models to study the optimal tax-subsidy regime in an economy characterised by two deviations from the perfect competition model – negative externality from pollution by the "dirty" industry, and increasing returns in the "clean" industry. Its main conclusions...