Research in Economics最新文献

This paper aims to show that there is a great interest for countries to rely on Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a tool for financing the economy, especially in times of debt. First, we conceptualize through game theory a better risk management between the public and private sectors in case of co-investment. Second, building on Iossa and Martimort (2009), we demonstrate that PPPs investments produce greater economic and social gains than pure public investments by providing incentives and transferring risks to the private sector. The implications of the model are diverse: financing the provision of public infrastructure through PPPs allows for sharing the associated risks, improves the quality and reduce the costs of the provision of public goods. The model has been empirically tested on 14 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period $1990$–$2017$. The impact of PPP investments is significantly higher than that of pure public investments. The evidence also shows that the positive impact of PPP investments strengthens economic growth as the public debt grows to a point where there is no longer any significant pro growth impact.

China’s one child policy stands among the most consequential actions ever taken by a government to regulate the basic structure and fundamental nature of the family unit. Scholars and policy analysts have long recognized its likely effects with respect to the aging of Chinese society. In recent years they have also become more aware of the implications of the gender imbalance the policies have produced, in particular as they pertain to the formation of marriages. This paper analyzes the selection of surplus men into marriage by means of a model that explicitly accounts for earnings and wealth. Its central focus is the extent to which relatively scarce brides marry men with comparatively strong economic prospects in terms of earnings or wealth. Results of this study, based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, provide evidence that marriage in the age of the one child policy is indeed selective of men who are relatively high earners. This result is robust to a series of alternative specifications of the model.

This paper empirically tests the income trap phenomenon by analyzing the convergence rate of a growth model that incorporates corruption explicitly as a rent extraction out of capital accumulation. Our model shows that the countries are ‘trapped’ in a middle-income group because they are corrupt. Since they failed to have a less corrupt economy, then they would be less productive and do not have the sufficient and necessary capital to develop. By applying a simultaneous equations dynamic panel data model to 76 middle-income economies from 1998 to 2020 and using the iterated GLS estimation method, the results show that countries with high corruption (i.e., negative control of corruption index) are closer to their own steady state than countries with low corruption (i.e., positive control of corruption index) are. This implies the existence of a middle-income trap, which we define in this paper, for some of the countries in the middle-income group. We find the adverse effect of corruption on real GDP per capita in these economies, and in determining the different steady states among middle-income countries.

This paper studies the media coverage of the antitrust proceedings completed by the Italian Antitrust Authority between 1994 and 2019. The empirical analysis considers the news on antitrust investigations published in the top Italian newspapers by circulation. The data reveal that the newspapers favor the conclusion (against the start) of proceedings, antitrust cases regarding immaterial services and investigations that establish a violation of antitrust law. In addition, the probability of media coverage increases if foreign firms are involved in cartel proceedings. While the press equally covers cartels and abuses, the imposition of unfair conditions is the most mentioned antitrust offense. These results are important for the public dimension of antitrust law and antitrust enforcement. An unbiased media coverage of antitrust enforcement can in fact foster the crucial collaboration of third parties in reporting alleged antitrust infringements. In addition, policymakers can draw crucial information from completed antitrust investigations and consider the possible regulation, deregulation or re-regulation of industries and companies frequently involved in the antitrust cases.

In this paper, I show that the decomposition of intergenerational persistence indicators into their structural and positional components offers a clearer understanding of the determinants of heterogeneity in subnational mobility rates. This constitutes a departure from the current consensus in estimating mobility rates at the subnational level in economics. Applying this approach to the Mexican case, I show no significant differences in positional mobility across the country's regions. This contrasts with the existing results, particularly regarding intergenerational mobility in the country's southern region.

Empirical work examining the role of monetary policy on environmental issues are rather scarce. This study examines how inflation targeting (IT) relates to environmental pollution in samples of 22 Developed Market Economies (DMEs) and 25 Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) over the period 1980–2017. Using a parametric approach (two-step system-generalized method of moments), we find that IT significantly reduces emissions of polluting gases, specifically carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), methane (CH₄), and total greenhouse gases (GHG) in DMEs and EMEs. In order to take into account, the existence of a potential self-selection bias in the adoption of IT, we subsequently resorted to a non-parametric approach, namely propensity score matching. The results confirm those obtained in the parametric approach. Then, using structural equation modeling, we find that IT reduces environmental pollution mainly through the financial instability channel. In addition, based on the insights from the recent literature, we test the moderating role of financial development and financial stability. The results indicate that these variables reduce the “green effect” of IT. Ultimately, our findings provide an interesting empirical basis for policymakers to help them build a sound macroeconomic and financial framework that promotes more environmentally friendly financial behaviors.

Using the property rights approach, I investigate how two vertical chains consisting of an upstream and downstream firm choose to integrate when competing in a duopoly market. This shows that whether a vertical chain chooses to integrate depends on the relative sizes of two strategic effects on quantity and investment. If the negative effect of decreasing investments is larger (smaller) than the positive effect of alleviating an intense quantity competition, vertical separation (integration) is chosen. I illustrate that vertical separation or integration appears in equilibrium depending on the degrees of market competitiveness and investment effectiveness.

This paper develops a uniform-quadratic cheap-talk setting of Crawford add Sobel (1982), in which the sender may be uninformed and cares about his reputation for competence (that is, for being informed). We establish the existence of a partition equilibrium with two messages and show how this equilibrium is affected when we change the exogenous parameters: the sender’s bias, the initial belief that the sender is competent and the sender’s reputational concerns. We also show that if the reputational concerns are high enough and the sender’s initial reputation is extremely low or extremely high, there exists a fully informative equilibrium in which the competent sender perfectly reveals the state. Possible extensions of the setup are discussed. One possible application of our model might be the interaction between media provider and the public.

I estimate a transition probability matrix associated with a two-state Markov process of emerging market economies (EMEs) volatility. The different states of EMEs volatility, generate switches in central bank preferences between approximated constant relative risk aversion and increasing relative risk aversion expected utility. Therefore, I construct and propose constrained portfolio selection frameworks with skewness, for the currency composition of FX reserves over different EMEs volatility states for Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa. These EMEs have constituted as part of the “Fragile Five”. Thus, I propose progressive risk management procedures for these EMEs. These portfolio selection frameworks satisfy Pratt–Arrow measures of risk aversion and are constrained by each country’s currency composition of foreign debt. Using different methods of computing expected FX reserves returns, traditional strategic FX reserve assets and different maturity structures, I simulate optimal FX reserve weights for each EME and validate my proposal.