The purposes of this paper include (a) a review of the literature on the so-called African dummy; (b) an explication of the system GMM method of estimation, by which Hoeffler (2002) shows the Africa dummy to be an artifact of the application of inappropriate estimation techniques; and (c) an...

Using detailed data from three simultaneious surveys of products, traders, and exporters, this paper examines the transmission of international coffee prices through the domestic value chain in Uganda. We find that fluctuations in the international coffee price are reflected in prices paid by...

Embezzlement of resources is hampering public service delivery throughout the developing world. Research on this issue is hindered by problems of measurement. To overcome these problems we use an economic experiment to investigate the determinants of corrupt behaviour. We focus on three aspects...

In Norman (2003), the introduction of individual strategy switching costs, and thus inertia, into stochastic evolutionary coordination games was found inter alia to strengthen the mixed-strategy equilibrium as a short- to medium-run equilibrium. This paper considers the impact of such switching...

The reliability of the household consumption based (Engel curve) methodology in detecting gender bias has been called into question because it has generally failed to confirm bias even where it exists. This paper seeks to find explanations for this failure by exploiting a dataset that has...

This paper models the phenomenon of inertia driven by individual strategy switching costs in a stochastic evolutionary context. Kandori, Mailath, and Rob`s (1993) model of a finite population of agents repeatedly playing a 2x2 symmetric coordination game is extended to allow for such inertia....

This paper considers the extension of Ellison`s (2000) Radius-Modified Coradius Theorem from the uniform-mutations case to a general stochastic setting. A modified theorem is presented, with a crucial role now played by the most probable evolutionary paths between states. The form of such paths...

This paper introduces a new class of multivariate volatility models that utilizes high-frequency data.  We discuss the models' dynamics and highlight their differences from multivariate GARCH models.  We also discuss their covariance targeting specification and provide closed-form formulas...

We construct a unique panel dataset to examine how R&D and intellectual property (IP), via patents and trade marks, increase firm productivity. Knowledge has public good characteristics of non-depletability and non-excludability. Even with IP, imitation and inventing around other firm`s products...

Simple plurality election systems (commonly known as `First-Past-The-Post`) are often associated with the dominance of two political parties. Such systems tend to reward leading parties with too many seats (known as the `mechanical` effect) and provoke tactical voting, where voters switch away...