We investigate the dynamics of stochastic convergence of the original Euro Area countries for inflation rates, nominal interest rates, and real interest rates. We test for convergence relative to Germany, taken as the benchmark for core EU standards, using monthly data over the period January...

We test the assumption of conditional symmetry used to identify and estimate parameters in regression models with endogenous regressors without making any distributional assumptions. The specification test proposed here is computationally tractable, does not require nonparametric smoothing, and...

The boundaries of the firm and the ownership of the firm have been two of the main themes of the economics of organization over the past several decades. In this paper, I develop a general multi-party framework that integrates the ownership of the firm into the property-rights approach to the...

This article studies the accumulation and intergenerational transmission of wealth in early-modern Ottoman Anatolia by employing data from probate estate inventories (terekes) as found in the court records (sicils) of eighteenth-century Kastamonu, a town located in northern Anatolia. Extracting...

In this paper we use the nonparametric approach of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to obtain Pareto-Koopmans measures of technical efficiency of individual states in India over the years 1970-71 through 2000-01 in a multi-output, multi-input model of agricultural production. The Pareto-Koopmans...

Under the standard economic model of torts, punitive damages correct for imperfect detection. Incorporating litigation costs into the model provides a justification for punitive damage caps. At the optimum, caps balance deterrence against the cost of litigation. Empirical testing of the model is...

This paper considers tests for structural breaks in linear models when the regressors and the serially dependent error process are unstable. The set of models contains various economic circumstances such as the structural breaks in the regressors and/or the error variance, and a linear trend...

This paper examines markets, firms, and the law as alternative institutional arrangements for organizing transactions that involve transaction-specific investments and uncertain performance. The analysis is the logical extension of Coase's seminal examination of the market-firm boundary on one...

Modern-day piracy on the high seas once again poses a serious threat to international shipping. This paper develops an economic of model of piracy that emphasizes the strategic interaction between pirates (offenders) and shippers (victims), a factor not previously studied in the law enforcement...

Over more than six decades following Independence, industry in West Bengal has steadily gone downhill. Usually the Left Front government effectively controlled by the Marxist Communist Party (CPM), that has ruled the state for the past 34 years until its recent defeat in the state assembly...