Economic motives are not the only reasons for committing a (small) crime. People consider social norms and perceptions of fairness before judging a situation and acting upon it. If someone takes a bundle of printing paper from the office for private use at home, then a colleague who sees this...

In econometrics, as a rule, the same data set is used to select the model and, conditional on the selected model, to forecast.However, one typically reports the properties of the (conditional) forecast, ignoring the fact that its properties are affected by the model selection (pretesting).This...

Violations of social norms can be costly to society and they are, in the case of large crimes, followed by prosecution. Minor misbehaviors — small crimes — do not usually result in legal proceedings. Although the economic consequences of a single small crime can be low, such crimes generate...

Empirical growth research faces a high degree of model uncertainty. Apart from the neoclassical growth model, many new (endogenous) growth models have been proposed. This causes a lack of robustness of the parameter estimates and makes the determination of the key determinants of growth...

This note proposes the Burr utility function. Burr utility is a flexible two-parameter family that behaves approximately power-like (CRRA) remote from the origin, while exhibiting exponential-like (CARA) features near the origin. It thus avoids the extreme behavior of the power family near the...

We present a Bayesian estimation method applied to an extended set of national accounts data and estimates of approximately 2500 variables. The method is based on conventional national accounts frameworks as compiled by countries in Central America, in particular Guatemala, and on concepts that...