This paper develops a modelling framework within which questions of fiscal federalism can be handled. Regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) models form one good approach for examining such questions. However, conventional regional CGE models contain little, if any, theory relating to...

This paper analyzes the effect on earnings of the matching of English language skills to occupational requirements. It uses data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database and a “Realized Matches” procedure to quantify expected levels of English skills in each of over 500...

Sheila Dow has been critical of mainstream economic theories, especially general equilibrium, for reflecting a ‘Cartesian mode of thought’ where dualistic categories are utilised to formally determine precise theoretical outcomes which, she contends, are poorly linked to reality. Instead,...

We examine the direction of causality between growth and democratization for the high performing Asian economies using a new time-series technique called autoregressive distributive lag. We find that for all eight of such economies, the direction of causality runs consistently from...

Fiscal decentralisation is a complex theoretical and practical issue. The literature is currently divided on whether there is a positive or negative relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth, and it appears that this is in large part due to inconsistent measures of fiscal...

In this paper, we consider a dynamic New Keynesian model of the small open economy in the light of bounded rationality. This entails private agents and the central bank updating their beliefs about the laws of motion of inflation, the output gap and real exchange rate, when forming their optimal...

When attempting to identify empirical regularities in consumption patterns, their tremendous diversity across countries represents both a major opportunity and challenge. For example, consumers in rich countries devote less than 20 percent of their budget to food, while this rises to more than...

Interpreting the own-price elasticity of demand for alcohol literature is difficult. While numerous studies have been conducted, the point estimates reported vary dramatically. Some studies suggest the demand for alcohol is price inelastic, others suggest it is price elastic. This paper presents...

This paper analyses differences in the wealth of nations by comparing PPP-based cross-country incomes from the Penn Table with those derived from prevailing exchange rates. Using the Balassa (1964)-Samuelson (1964) productivity bias framework, we introduce the “international poverty line”...