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作者：Drazen, Allan; Limao, Nuno
作者单位：University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
摘要：When two policies are available to achieve the same goal why is the relatively inefficient one often observed? We address this question in the context of policies used to redistribute income towards special interest groups (SIGs) where in the first stage the constraints on policy instruments are chosen and in the second the government bargains with SIGs over the level of the available policies. Restrictions on the use of efficient policies and the use of inefficient ones reduce the surplus ove...
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作者：Erosa, Andres; Cabrillana, Ana Hidalgo
作者单位：University of Toronto; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
摘要：We develop a theory of capital-market imperfections to study how the ability to enforce contracts affects resource allocation across entrepreneurs of different productivities, and across industries with different needs for external financing. The theory implies that countries with a poor ability to enforce contracts are characterized by the use of inefficient technologies, low aggregate TFP, large differences in labor productivity across industries, and large employment shares in industries wi...
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作者：Aronsson, Thomas
作者单位：Umea University
摘要：This article contributes to the theory of social accounting. As such, it tries to extend earlier literature on the welfare equivalence of the comprehensive net national product in two main directions, both of which refer to the public sector. One is by considering welfare measurement problems associated with public good provision and redistributive policy, respectively, when the public revenues are raised by distortionary taxes. The other is by addressing the consequences of a federation-like ...
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作者：Levinson, Arik; Taylor, M. Scott
作者单位：Georgetown University; University of Calgary
摘要：We use theory and empirics to examine the effect of environmental regulations on trade flows. A simple model demonstrates how unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, and aggregation issues bias standard measurements of this relationship. A reduced-form estimate of the model, using data on U.S. regulations and trade with Canada and Mexico for 130 manufacturing industries from 1977 to 1986, indicates that industries whose abatement costs increased most experienced the largest increases in net imp...
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作者：Duclos, Jean-Yves; Makdissi, Paul; Wodon, Quentin
作者单位：Laval University; University of Ottawa
摘要：This article proposes graphical methods to determine whether commodity tax changes are socially improving, in the sense of improving social welfare or decreasing poverty for large classes of social welfare and poverty indices. It also shows how estimators of critical poverty lines and economic efficiency ratios can be used to characterize socially improving tax reforms. The methodology is illustrated using Mexican data.
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作者：Fan, C. Simon; Stark, Oded
作者单位：University of Bonn; Lingnan University; University of Klagenfurt; University of Vienna; University of Warsaw; Warsaw School of Economics
摘要：Upon introducing heterogeneity and dynamics into a model of the demand for children, a problem of optimal population is defined and analyzed. It is shown that from the perspective of social welfare, better-educated individuals produce too few children while less-educated individuals produce too many children and all individuals invest too little in the education of their children. The impact of several policy tools geared at addressing the population problem is investigated, in particular how ...
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作者：Bernal, Raquel
作者单位：Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)
摘要：This article develops and estimates a dynamic model of employment and child care decisions of women after childbirth to evaluate the effects of these choices on children's cognitive ability. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate it. Results indicate that the effects of maternal employment and child care on children's ability are negative and sizable. Having a mother that works full-time and uses child care during one year is associated with a reduction in abili...
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作者：Mills, David C., Jr.
作者单位：Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
摘要：This article evaluates the efficiency of a requirement that private issuers redeem inside money on demand at par in a random-matching model of money where the issuers of inside money are imperfectly monitored. I find that for sufficiently imperfect monitoring, a par redemption requirement leads to lower social welfare than if private money were redeemed at a discount. A central message of the article is that if inside money and outside money are not perfect. substitutes, a par redemption requi...
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作者：Karayalcin, Cem
作者单位：State University System of Florida; Florida International University
摘要：The great divergence between 'Europe and the rest of the world occurred relatively recently. What enabled Europe, with all its laggards, to dominate the previously successful Eastern economies? This article emphasizes one important mechanism, highlighting the contrast between the European states system and Eastern empires. Political competition for a mobile tax base in a states system forces rulers to provide relatively more secure property rights. By effectively limiting the exit options of t...
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作者：Blau, David M.; Gilleskie, Donna B.
作者单位：University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey, we estimate preference and expectations parameters of a structural model of the employment and medical care decisions of older men in order to evaluate the role of health insurance. The budget constraint incorporates detailed cost-sharing characteristics of private health insurance and Medicare as well as rules and requirements associated with Social Security and private pensions. Simulations imply that changes in health insurance, including ac...
