This paper studies the political influence of individual firms on Congressional decisions to suspend tariffs on U.S. imports of intermediate goods. We develop a model in which firms influence the government by transmitting information about the value of protection, via costless messages...

The paper identifies those elements in the configuration of fiscal parameters confronting the country that give cause for concern, and examines whether the fiscal reform measures taken address these adequately. [Working Paper No. 15].

This case study explores the driving force of the productivity growth in Cambodia, one of the least developed countries. Quantitative and qualitative studies were used to analyze the source and impact of the input factors on the nation¡¯s productivity growth. For a quantitative study, a small...

In 2008 the world’s attention was focused on the global food crisis and, as consequence, on the global food security. By mid-2009, commodity prices have dropped sensitively, nevertheless most of them still remain at or above past trend levels. Fluctuations in prices are not rare in...

The down-and-out call option approach was used to analyse contractor financial risk under shorter-term debt structures. The maximum likelihood method was applied to estimate contractor default barriers and probabilities implied by stock prices series and actual debt maturities calculated from...

Sovereign investment grade status is often associated with lower spreads in international markets. Using a panel framework for 35 emerging markets between 1997 and 2010, thispaper finds that investment grade status reduces spreads by 36 percent, above and beyond what is implied by macroeconomic...

The aim of this paper is to show that measures on tail dependence can be estimated in a convenient way by regression analysis. This yields the same estimates as the non-parametric method within the multivariate Extreme Value Theory framework. The advantage of the regression approach is contained...

We study regression-based estimators for beta representations of dynamic asset pricing models with affine and exponentially affine pricing kernel specifications. These estimators extend static cross-sectional asset pricing estimators to settings where prices of risk vary with observed state...

In this paper we analyze the portfolio that was selected from the Zagreb Stock Exchange and also try to assess its risks and its future offerings that are relevant in making the decisions about investments. Through the work we will explain the importance of diversification and how the very...