The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between fertility rates and the economy in Venezuela. In particular, it looks at the extreme fluctuations in oil revenues, Venezuelaâs main source of income, in the 1970s and their impact on fertility. It uses the 1998 National...

These papers analyze two issues in resource economics that are currently debated in academic and policy arenas: global warming and overcompliant behavior amongst regulated sources of water pollution.The first paper examines the evidence for global warming in particular, the published estimates...

The Internet has a loosely hierarchical structure. At the top of the hierarchy are the backbones, also called Internet Access Providers (hereafter IAPs). The second layer of the hierarchy is comprised of Internet Service Providers (hereafter ISPs). At the bottom of the hierarchy are the end...

We introduce a spatial cost topology in thenetwork formation model analyzed by Jackson andWolinsky, Journal of Economic Theory 71 (1996), 44--74. This cost topology mightrepresent geographical, social, or individualdifferences. It describes variable costs ofestablishing social network...

Over the last twenty years or so the Dynamic Volatility literature has produced a wealth of univariateand multivariate GARCH type models. While the univariate models have been relativelysuccessful in empirical studies, they suffer from a number ofweaknesses, such as unverifiable...

The dissertation examines advancements in the methods and techniques used in the field of econometrics. These advancements include: (i) a re-examination of the underlying statistical foundations of statistical models with binary dependent variables. (ii) using feed-forward backpropagation...

Experimental observations have shown that economic agents behave in ways different from the maximization of any utility function. Herbert Simon sought to deal with this by positing that individuals do not maximize, but rather satisfice. This was a radical departure from the traditional economic...

This paper focuses on the practice of serial correlation correcting of the Linear Regression Model (LRM) by modeling the error. Simple Monte Carlo experiments are used to demonstrate the following points regarding this practice. First, the common factor restrictions implicitly imposed on the...

The problem of statistical model specification was initially raised by R.A. Fisher who understood it as an informed selection whose adequacy is testable a posteriori. This, however, raised the problem of how to blend substantive subject matter with statistical information in empirical modeling,...

The unit root revolution in time series modeling has created substantial interest in non-stationarity and its implications for empirical modeling. Beyond the original interest in trend vs.di¤erence non-stationarity, there has been renewed interest in testing and modeling structuralbreaks. The...