Artificial neural network modeling has recently attracted much attention as a new technique for estimation and forecasting in economics and finance. The chief advantages of this new approach are that such models can usually find a solution for very complex problems, and that they are free from...

Oil price shocks impact the global economy, but the effects are not alike across the countries. While higher oil prices are beneficial to oil-exporting countries, they are harmful to economic performance of oil-importing countries. The opposite is also true for the lower oil prices. Nonetheless,...

This study investigates the effects of an oil boom on manufacturing plants performance. First, we derive several predictions using a model of heterogeneous firms. Second, we test these predictions on a plant level dataset using the Canadian Annual Survey of Manufacturers for 2000-2010. We...

Asymmetry has been well documented in the business cycle literature. The asymmetric business cycle suggests that major macroeconomic series, such as a country's unemployment rate, are non-linear and, therefore, the use of linear models to explain their behavior and forecast their future values...

Fuel subsidies lead to economic distortions including excess consumption because of changes in relative prices. They also create an incentive for smuggling to neighbouring countries where price differentials are significant. Notwithstanding myriad studies on various economic impacts of fuel...

Oil price shocks impact the global economy, but the effects are not alike across the countries. While higher oil prices are beneficial to oil-exporting countries, they are harmful to economic performance of oil-importing countries. The opposite is also true for the lower oil prices. Nonetheless,...

It is widely believed that government intervention and especially public spending is required to overcome the market failure in providing public goods such as environmental quality. Nevertheless, the extent to which the fiscal environmental policy contributes to an improvement in environment is...

Recent developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have affected all economic activities across the world. Although there is ample evidence for the direct impact of ICT on productivity, the spillover effect of ICT has so far not been sufficiently investigated, especially in...