Three dimensions of the performance of firms in Ghana’s manufacturing sector are investigated in this paper: their technology and the importance of technical and allocative efficiency. We show that the diversity of factor choices is not due to a non-homothetic technology....

Do openness to trade and higher levels of human capital growth promote faster growth? To answer that question we use a panel of countries to investigate the role of human capital and two measures of openness in determining both the level of income and its growth rate. We argue that focusing on...

This paper demonstrates how a currency board can become vulnerable to a crises in which the policymaker is forced to devalue. The model is built from two blocks: first, incomplete information about the devaluation cost faced by the policymaker; and second, unemployment persistence. Incomplete...

A vector autoregression with deterministic terms and with no restrictions to its characteristic roots is considered. Strong consistency results and also some weak convergence results are given for a number of least squares statistics. These statistics are related to the denominator matrix of the...

We examine the impact of the normality assumption, together with the weak axiom, in three related areas of general equilibrium theory. Most obviously, these properties have important implications for equilibrium comparative statics, in the context of exchange, production or (incomplete)...

This paper explores the effects of unemployment on the school enrolment decisions. A few studies that have taken up this issue in the past have produced results that are seemingly contradictory with each other. We build a model of the enrolment decision that is capable of explaining these...

This paper extends the model of Fielding (1999), which is designed to explain changes in investment in South Africa during the Apartheid period, by allowing a role for indicators of political instability and political and civil rights, as measured by Fedderke et al. (1999). The conclusions based...

At the request of the Managing Director of the IMF, a group of experts, chaired by Professor Richard Cooper of Harvard University prepared a report on the adequacy of quota formulas, including proposals for changes. The paper reviews the recommendations of the Quota Formula Review Group and...

Several models of intra-household decision making have been suggested in the literature. One important dichotomy is between non-cooperative and cooperative models (including specific models of bargaining). The other important distinction is between models that allow for caring and those that do...

We present an empirical analysis of the determinants of labour cost in OECD countries, with particular reference to the impact of labour market institutions from 1960 to 1994. The main contribution of the paper is to show that labour market regulations can explain a large part of labour cost...