This paper investigates the linkages between trade policy and economic growth in a panel of 57 countries, between 1970 and 1989. We develop a new measure of trade policy openness, based on the policy component of trade shares. This is used in a simultaneous equations system aimed at identifying...

Debt relief is unlikely to stimulate investment and growth in the nations being considered for debt relief under the highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) initiative. This is because the HIPCs do not suffer from debt overhang. The principal obstacle to investment and growth in the HIPCs is a...

The stock market appreciates by an average of 60 percent in real dollar terms when countries announce debt relief agreements under the Brady Plan. In contrast, there is no significant increase in market value for a control group of countries that do not sign agreements. The results persist after...

We empirically investigate the demand for tied goods sold through competing retail channels. Tied good pricing strategies commonly involve a low price on the initial purchase (i.e. the primary good) to drive adoption, and a substantial markup on aftermarket goods to capture value. However, if...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between firm resources and performance. We divide firm resources into two types: primary resources and support resources. Primary resources include technological assets and reconfiguration capabilities, which directly contribute to a...

Application of the Coase Theorem to marital bargaining suggests that shifting from a consent divorce regime to no-fault unilateral divorce laws should not affect divorce rates. Each iteration of the empirical literature examining the evolution of divorce rates across US states has yielded...

We analyze a multiproduct duopoly and ask whether firms should offer general purpose products or tailor their offerings to fit specific consumer needs. There are two effects of offering a targeted product: (i) if a consumer's favorite product is offered, her utility increases because there is a...

Over the past thirty years changes in divorce law have significantly increased access to divorce. The different timing of divorce law reform across states provides a useful quasi-experiment with which to examine the effects of this change. We analyze state panel data to estimate changes in...

From a variant of Kuhn's triangulation we derive a discrete version of the Global Newton Method that yields an epsilon-equilibrium of an N-player game and then sequentially reduces epsilon toward zero to obtain any desired precision or the best precision for any number of iterations.

We show that hedonic price indexes may be biased when not all product characteristics are observed. We derive two primary sources of bias. The first is a classical selection problem that arises due to changes over time in the values of unobserved characteristics. The second comes from changes in...