This paper explores a relatively new methodology, the directional distance function method, to analyse productivity growth. The method allows us to explicitly evaluate the role that undesirable outputs of the economy, such as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, have on the frontier...

Stochastic Dominance techniques are adapted and employed to study the extent and progress of Polarization, Welfare and Poverty of 101 nations over the period 1970-1995. The adaptations provide methods of comparing mass relocation by evaluating various degrees of right and left separation between...

We construct a model of rent-maximizing behaviour by a single seller of timber in the absence of a formal market, deriving the stochastic implications of rent maximization for timber prices (stumpage rates) when other input and output (lumber) prices are random. Subsequently, we examine the...

Under the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), European Union (EU) Member States commit themselves to avoid excessive deficits over 3% of GDP and to pursue the medium-term objective of budgetary positions close to balance or in surplus. The SGP also provides regulation for...

In this paper, we investigate empirically the impact of exchange rate volatility on real international trade flows utilizing a 13-country data set of monthly bilateral real exports for 1980-1998. We compute one-month-ahead exchange rate volatility from the intra-monthly variations in the...

A prominent test of long-run monetary neutrality (LRMN) involves regressing long-horizon output growth on long-horizon money growth. We obtain limited support for LRMN with this test in long-annual Australian, Canadian, UK and US samples. Although empirical confidence intervals yield evidence in...

We revisit Fair's (1978) 'theory of extramarital affairs' using robust nonparametric methods developed for the analysis of categorical data. We find evidence suggesting that the number of years married is not a relevant predictor of the propensity to engage in extramarital affairs having...