Reliable measures of obesity are essential in order to develop effective policies to tackle the costs of obesity. We examine what, if anything, we can learn about obesity rates using self-reported BMI once we allow for possible measurement error. Existing approaches that correct for...

This paper examines the short-term dynamics, macroeconomic sensitivities, and longer-term trends in the variances and covariances of national equity market index daily returns for eleven countries in the Euro currency zone. We modify Colacito, Engle and Ghysel?s Mixed Data Sampling Dynamic...

Many studies of labour market dynamics use survey data so it is valuable to know about the quality of the data collected. This paper investigates job transitions in Ireland over the period 1995 to 2001, using the Living in Ireland Survey, the Irish component of the European Community Household...

The recent dramatic rise in house prices in Dublin has been regularly discussed in the media. An obvious question is whether the seemingly ever-increasing house prices are driven by market fundamentals or by speculation? While the observed increase in house prices is due to excess demand for...

This paper examines the determinants of the decision to relocate activities abroad for firms that are located in 29 OECD countries. Our theoretical model suggests that firm heterogeneity plays a crucial role for the link between employment protection and relocation. Stricter employment...

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: This study seeks to test the outcome and substitution agency models of dividends at different stages of the corporate life-cycle. Research Findings/Insights: In a sample of 220 firms from 21 emerging market countries, I show that the outcome...

Using a sample of 686 investable firms from 26 emerging market countries, I show that equity market liberalizations do not result in an increase in externally-financed growth rates for participating firms. In fact, I find to the contrary. The average firm appears to rely less and not more on...

Using the IFC investable measure to designate firms as either investable or non-investable prior to cross-listing, I show that Level 2/3 cross-listing firms that were previously non-investable enjoy the largest “cross-listing premia”. Since previously non-investable firms are likely to...

This paper suggests that IV estimators, utilizing irrelevant but persistent instruments mai produce reliable inferences, in small samples, in cases where the endogenous variables contaii autoregressive roots near unity. In such cases, these estimators appear to outperform IV estimator: with...

This paper examines a one-shot game where two symmetric incumbents are faced with possible entry into an industry, where firms may differ in the efficiency of R&D in reducing marginal production costs. The decision facing the incumbents is whether to compete at the R&D stage or to form a RJV....