We examine the relation between firm value and managerial incentives in a sample of 1,487 U.S. firms in 1992-1997, for which the separation of ownership and control is complete. Unlike previous studies, we employ a measure of relative performance which compares a firm’s actual...

Commodity export price uncertainty is typically measured as the standard deviation of the terms of trade, but this approach encounters at least three objections. First, terms of trade indices are unsuitable as proxies for commodity price movements per se. Secondly, the shortness of terms of...

Overseers’ vested interests played an important role in shaping local poor relief provision under the Old Poor Law. In the industrial town of Bolton the Relief Order books for the 1820s reveal an unusual emphasis upon the payment of paupers’ rent by the parish. This...

Broadly and narrowly measured unemployment rates differ very markedly in certain countries, and the measure chosen to be the ‘official’ unemployment rate affects perceptions about the extent of the problem. The appropriate measure of the unemployment rate depends on...

We model the interaction between two economies where banks exhibit both adverse selection and moral hazard and bank regulators try to resolve these problems. We find that liberalising bank capital flows between economies reduces total welfare by reducing the average size and efficiency of the...

This paper addresses the problem of estimating the aggregate international demand schedule for emerging market (EM) securities as an asset class. The standard ‘push-pull’ model of capital flows is modified by reference to recent work on portfolio choice in the context...

In recent years, a large body of empirical work has focused on measuring and explaining socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes and health service use. In any effort to address these questions, analysts must confront the issue of how to measure socioeconomic status. In developing...

This paper argues that all historical data series should be accompanied by formal estimates of their margins of error. We discuss the nature of errors in data series and review earlier attempts to assess their reliability. We show how overall margins of error may be calculated for historical...

If foreign aid undermines institutional development, aid recipients can exhibit the symptoms of `dependence` â۠a short-run benefit from aid, but increasing need for aid that is damaging in the long run. We show that this high-aid/weak-institutions state can be an equilibrium outcome...

The paper explores some interactions between production environment and health maintenance by workers in developing countries. We argue that rural occupations, being less highly specialized than occupations in urban areas, offer members of rural households a range of productive activities...