This paper considers the macroeconomic determinants of migrants' remittances to their countries of origin. In contrast to some previous analyses, we find, using data for Egypt, that both exchange ...rate and interest rate differentials are important in attracting remittance flows through official channels. We also find that imports financed through remittance earnings have a very high income elasticity which suggests either that these imports are consumer durables and luxury goods or that they are undertaken by higher income groups.
An important issue in applications of multifactor models of asset returns is the appropriate number of factors. Most extant tests for the number of factors are valid only for strict factor models, in ...which diversifiable returns are uncorrelated across assets. In this paper we develop a test statistic to determine the number of factors in an approximate factor model of asset returns, which does not require that diversifiable components of returns be uncorrelated across assets. We find evidence for one to six pervasive factors in the cross-section of New York Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange stock returns.
When Inequalities Diverge Wolfson, Michael C.
The American economic review,
05/1994, Letnik:
84, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A significant innovation in discussions of income inequality is the addition, since the early 1980s, of the disappearing middle class. This concept is typically equated with the concept of increased ...income inequality. However, such an equation entails a fundamental conceptual error. Levy and Murnane (1992) recognize, correctly, that polarization (another name for the phenomenon of the disappearing middle class) is not like the usual notion of inequality. However, they continue to use conventional scalar measures of inequaltiy to assess the extent and trend in polarization. It is argued that this is a problem, first on theoretical and then on empirical grounds. The issue is addressed in detail.
Using the March Current Population Surveys and the 1960 census, this article describes earnings and employment changes for married couples in different types of households stratified by the husband's ...hourly wage. While declines in male employment and earnings have been greatest for low-wage men, employment and earnings gains have been largest for wives of middle- and high-wage men. These findings cast doubt on the notion that married women have increased their labor supply in the recent decades to compensate for the disappointing earnings growth of their husbands.
We examine a system of Unemployment Insurance Saving Accounts (UISAs) as an alternative to the traditional unemployment insurance system. Individuals are required to save up to 4 percent of wages in ...special accounts and to draw unemployment compensation from these accounts instead of taking state unemployment insurance benefits. If the accounts are exhausted, the government lends money to the account. Positive accounts earn the return on commercial paper and negative accounts are charged that rate. Positive UISA balances are converted into retirement income or bequeathed if the individual dies before retirement age. Negative account balances are forgiven at retirement age. Money taken by an unemployed individual from a UISA with a positive balance reduces the individual's personal wealth by an equal amount. In this case, individuals fully internalize the cost of unemployment compensation. UISAs provide the same protection to the unemployed as the current UI system but with less of the adverse incentives. The key empirical question is whether accounts based on a moderate saving rate can finance a significant share of unemployment payments or whether the concentration of unemployment among a relatively small number of individuals implies that the UISA balances would typically be negative, forcing individuals to rely on government benefits with the same adverse effects that characterize the current UI system. To resolve this issue we use the Panel Study on Income Dynamics to simulate the UISA system over a 25 year historic period. Our analysis indicates that almost all individuals have positive UISA balances and therefore remain sensitive to the cost of unemployment compensation. Even among individuals who experience unemployment, most have positive account balances at the end of their unemployment spell. Although about half of the benefit dollars would go to individuals whose accounts are negative at the end of their working life, less than one-third of the benefits go to individuals who also have negative account balances when unemployed. These facts suggest a substantial potential improvement in the incentives of the unemployed. The cost to taxpayers of forgiving the negative balances is substantially less than half of the taxpayer cost of the current UI system. Our analysis of the distribution of lifetime UISA payments and taxes of household heads shows the top quintile gaining a small cumulative amount while those in the bottom quintile lose a very small cumulative amount. Other quintiles are small net gainers.
In the present work, the phenomenon of roc - samizdat in the Soviet Union and its successor states in the period between 1967 and 1994 is considered in terms of discourse analysis. In the first part ...of the thesis the used discourse analytical instruments are presented, in the second part the same is applied to selected texts. The rok-samizdat represents a form of samizdat, which, as will be shown in the present work, is thematically focused on the field of (rock) music.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird das Phänomen des rok - samizdat in der Sowjetunion und deren Nachfolgestaaten in der Periode zwischen 1967 und 1994 diskursanalytisch betrachtet. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wird das verwendete diskursanalytische Instrumentarium dargestellt, im zweiten Teil wird selbiges auf ausgewählte Texte angewendet. Der rok-samizdat stellt eine Form des samizdat dar, der, wie im Laufe der vorliegenden Arbeit gezeigt werden soll, thematisch schwerpunktmäßig auf den Bereich der (Rock-) Musik beschränkt ist.
This paper develops a multivariate error-correction model to test the causality between exports and growth in 15 Asian countries, 1967-91. The underlying series are tested as non-stationary in levels ...but stationary in first differences. The causal factors are cointegrated in five of these countries only. Causality test results indicate that export expansion causes growth in two-third of these countries, corrected for simultaneity between the causal factors. A country with a large public sector, higher level of economic development, and which is less vulnerable to external economic shocks is more likely to reap the benefits of export promotion strategies. The causal inferences are fairly stable over the sample period.
The ambiguity of the title is intended. Smith's rent gap theory is difficult to operationalize, and the authors propose tests for three of its aspects: to observe the presence or otherwise of a 'rent ...valley', to observe the coincidence of a rent gap with a period of gentrification, and to observe capital switching to inner-city alterations and additions. However, when the tests are applied to 1967 - 91 Melbourne data, they are somewhat testing for the theory itself: there are certainly rent gaps, but they are unevenly distributed over space and time, not consistently associated with periods of gentrification but rather with more complex shifts at the level of demand, and to be viewed as just a minor phenomenon of the broader processes of continual spatial restructuring.
The effects of life-course, employment and labor market characteristics on the probability of pension participation and on type of pension coverage are estimated for two cohorts of working women in ...middle and late life, respectively. The National Longitudinal Surveys of Mature and Young Women are used to differentiate the relative importance of life course and diverse structural factors on worker pension participation and employer coverage patterns. The defined contribution plan is argued to be an indicator of the changing employment relationship which is relieving employers of pension liability and increasing workers' responsibilities for retirement saving. Probit regressions are used to estimate the relative risks for nonparticipation in any pension among these working women. Multinominal logistic models, controlling for selectivity, estimate cohort processes in workers' access to employer-provided pension types. The results reveal the relative importance for middle-aged and older women of life course and structural variables that reflect life stage and changing employment relationships. Younger cohorts appear to be relatively more vulnerable to the changing employment contract given their greater dependence on defined contribution plans and the conflict between family and market contingencies.
PDF
