We exploit an exogenous increase in General Educational Development (GED) testing requirements to determine whether raising the difficulty of the test causes students to finish high school rather than drop out and GED certify. We find that a six point decrease in GED pass rates induces a 1.3...

Consequences of path-dependent supply side hysteresis on the market equilibrium are illustrated. Supply is only a subsystem of the entire market with its forcing variable (price) being endogenous from the perspective of the entire market. This results in feedbacks on the equilibrium of price and...

This paper studies the relation between discrete-time and continuoustime principal-agent models. We derive the continuous-time model as a limit of discretetime models with ever shorter periods and show that optimal incentive schemes in the discrete-time models approximate the optimal incentive...

This paper addresses parameter estimation of spatial regression models incorporating spatial lag. These models are very important in spatial econometrics, where spatial interaction and structure are introduced into regression analysis. Because of spatial interactions, observations are not truly...

Consider the problem of a government that wants to control its debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio, while taking into consideration the evolution of the inflation rate of the country. The uncontrolled inflation rate follows an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamics and affects the growth rate of the...

We construct the first algorithm for the perfect foresight solution of otherwise linear models with occasionally binding constraints, with fixed terminal conditions, that is guaranteed to return a solution in finite time, if one exists. We also provide a proof of the inescapability of the "curse...

This study develops an easy forecasting model using prefectural data in Japan. The Markov chain known as a stochastic model corresponds to the vector auto-regressive (VAR) model of the first order. If the transition probability matrix can be appropriately estimated, the forecasting model using...

This paper demonstrates the existence of a finite set of equilibria in the case of the indeterminacy of linear rational expectations models. The number of equilibria corresponds to the number of ways to select n eigenvectors among a larger set of eigenvectors related to stable eigenvalues. A...

In this paper the issue of mathematical programming and optimization has being revisited. The theory of optimization deals with the development of models and methods that determine optimal solutions to mathematical problems defined. Mathematical model must be some function of any solution that...

Except for special cases, passport option s do not have closed-form solutions. Here we show how to derive approximate solutions using finite element methods. We also show that finite elements offer advantages in computing the hedge parameters.