Manchester School最新文献

During the development process inter alia convergence or divergence among the people vis-à-vis convergence or divergence of well-defined groups in the dimensions of well-being is rather common in any society. The relative strength of improvement or deterioration of the members across the groups from one to the next generation de facto determines this convergence or divergence of the groups in some specific dimension. To put it another way, we may explain the convergence or divergence of the groups in some specific dimension by examining the relative strength of upward and downward mobility of the members of these groups from one to the next generations in the respective dimension. From this point of view, one previous study proposes two summary measures of the persistence of between-group inequality. We employ these summary measures on Indian data to investigate the persistence of occupational inequality across social groups non-parametrically. However, before using these summary measures we examine the structural properties of these measures by using a set of axiomatic properties.

In this paper, we investigate the impact of partial vertical cross-ownership on optimal R&D knowledge disclosure in a vertically mixed market with an upstream firm supplying competing downstream public and private firms. The results show that under vertical separation and forward cross-ownership, the downstream public firm fully discloses its R&D knowledge, whereas the downstream private firm does not disclose its R&D knowledge. Under backward cross-ownership, both downstream public and private firms fully disclose their information. Furthermore, we find that the upstream firm and the downstream private firm favor backward cross-ownership. Finally, we find that privatization policies lead to higher social welfare, but their impact on R&D knowledge disclosure varies among different downstream firms.

This study develops a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model calibrated to the US economy to investigate the effects of government investment on macroeconomic variables and social welfare. The analysis focuses on the role of the gap between the announced size and actual implementation. In general, government investment shocks bring positive results for output in the short- and long-run, although they may cause consumption crowding out in the short-run. However, anticipated government investment lowers the consumption crowding-out effect. Higher levels of implementation relative to the announced investment positively impact output and consumption in the medium- and long-run. The benefits to the economy are greater when the productivity of public capital is higher. Moreover, the study uncovers a trade-off between social welfare and the government multiplier: Full or over-implementation of public investment results in significant social welfare gains without compromising the benefits in terms of the government multiplier.

This study examines a vertical structure model where an integrated firm sells intermediate goods to downstream firms and produces final goods while a rival firm holds partial passive ownership (PPO) of the integrated firm. We investigate the effects of vertical separation with a split-off under a downstream PPO when the integrated firm competes with both the rival firm and downstream firms in the final goods market. We find that separation decreases input price and final goods production by the split-offed firm while increases consumer surplus and domestic welfare if the downstream firms are competitive, or when the degree of PPO is not sufficiently low. We also demonstrate that a split-off under downstream PPO is more profitable but socially undesirable than the other separation types, including split-off under upstream PPO and spin-off. Finally, we provide some discussions on the variant scenarios and show that our main findings are robust.

We use a change in Iceland's education system as a natural experiment to measure the effect of years spent in upper-secondary school on subsequent first-year outcomes at university. The duration of Iceland's upper-secondary education was shortened by 1 year through compression of the curriculum. We find that shorter upper-secondary education, 3 years instead of the previous four, leads to first-year university students completing fewer credits, getting a lower average grade in completed courses, and being more likely to drop out. We find that this negative effect of the reform disproportionately affected the academic performance of male students and those who previously demonstrated weaker academic abilities, thus increasing academic disparities.

This paper has examined whether the Duty-Free and Quota-Free (DFQF) market access preference schemes provided by Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to Least developed countries (LDCs) have been instrumental in reducing income inequality and poverty in these countries. The analysis has used the entropy balancing method over an unbalanced panel dataset of 36 LDCs (treatment group) and 19 countries in the control group, with data spanning the period 1997–2018. The feasible generalized least squares, the within fixed effects and the Seemingly Unrelated Regression estimators have been employed to address empirically the question. The analysis has established that the DFQF schemes have genuinely been instrumental in reducing income inequality and poverty in LDCs, including to a greater extent in non-African LDCs than in African LDCs. These findings confirm the importance of the DFQF schemes for LDCs.

This paper constructs a competitive trade model involving countries in two distinct time zone locations. Our results suggest that geographical distance positively impact service trade, in contrast to its harmful nature for goods trade. These results are not in line with the traditional gravity arguments of international trade. Our model also reveals an intriguing relationship: an increase in distance between trading nations results in higher skilled wages and lower rent in case of service trade, while goods trade yields the opposite effect. We then connect distance with delaying cost and find the effects of delaying cost on trade and factor prices. We further extend our basic model to introduce informal sector and government manufacturing sector. Despite these additions, the consistency in the effects of distance on factor prices and output persists.