Eastern Economic Journal最新文献

This research investigates the over-time stability of the aggregate US healthcare expenditure (HCE)-GDP relationship, focusing on periods of healthcare reforms. The most consequential reforms-Medicaid/Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA)-are challenging to study because they occur near the ends of the available data. Using annual national- and state-level data and a battery of structural break tests, we find the HCE-GDP relationship to be overwhelmingly stable. An ancillary analysis around the 2006 Massachusetts healthcare reform, which avoids the confounding effects of the Great Recession and the staggered rollout of the ACA, likewise finds no change.

This study examines the duration of fixed exchange rate regimes to determine the factors that impact the probability of an exit from a peg. Using de facto exchange rate regime classification, we find that duration of a peg is non-monotonic. The results of the semi-parametric proportional hazard model highlight that GDP growth and openness decrease the probability of an exit from a peg, while growing unemployment and increasing claims on government increase the likelihood of abandoning a peg. The negative impact of economic growth on the hazard rate is robust when we use marginal risk analysis and net foreign assets and inflation are found to influence the pegged regime duration.

This article presents the first report of basic assessment method findings from the 2020 national quinquennial survey on teaching and assessment methods in college economics. Focused on the methods used in the same four types of economics courses surveyed since 1995, the authors find that the primary assessment method in introductory courses remains multiple-choice examinations, with their average weight in determining students' grades increasing since 2010. Intermediate theory, statistics and econometrics, and other upper-division field economics courses rely primarily on short-answer exam questions for determining students' grades. Overall, the authors report notable changes in assessing learning in college economics, with a more balanced approach to using different assessment methods in upper-division economics courses as compared to other economics courses.

This study investigates how geographic and linguistic characteristics of immigrants’ origin countries affect the spillover effect on trade with third party countries. The results provide clear evidence of an inter-ethnic spillover effect and, within it, separately identify the role of spoken language, official language, and geographic proximity of the origin country to the trading partner. We also distinguish the ethnic spillover effect from the inter-ethnic spillover effect by focusing on the role of native tongue. Lastly, we document a trade diversion effect by immigrants who are neither geographically nor linguistically close to the trading partner country.

Although the superstar effect has been documented in sports tournaments, there are few empirical tests outside sports. We estimate the impact of superstars in a classroom. We find that college students in a classroom with superior academic performers earn grades about 1% lower than when they are in classrooms without such outliers. Outliers at the bottom end of the distribution are also harmful. Since high achievers perform worse in the presence of outliers at both the top and low end of the academic distribution, we argue that the manipulation of incentives is the mechanism behind our estimated effect.

This study examines the impact of government payment arrears accumulation on the stability of the banking industry, taking into account the role played by institutional quality in 17 selected SSA countries. The study employed a panel threshold regression model using data from World Bank and International Monetary Fund databases between 2005 and 2018. The key finding from the analysis indicates that arrears accumulation adversely affects banking sector stability, but with institutional quality, the effect is reduced. As a result, public policy should aim at clearing arrears and improving the quality of institutions.