Electoral competition can have a significant influence on government decisions regarding public spending. In this paper I examine whether the move to multiparty elections in many African countries in the last ten years has been associated with a clear change in priorities for public spending on...

In the application of autoregressive models the order of the model is often estimated using either a sequence of likelihood ratio tests or a likelihood based information criterion. The consistency of such procedures has been discussed extensively under the assumption that the characteristic...

This paper examines the comparative statics of Walrasian economies with excess demand functions which obey the weak axiom. We show that in these economies there is a precise sense in which goods that are in excess supply (demand) after some perturbation will experience a fall (rise) in its...

We consider forecasting using a combination, when no model coincides with a non-constant data generation process (DGP). Practical experience suggests that combining forecasts adds value, and can even dominate the best individual device. We show why this can occur when forecasting models are...

Using two economic experiments I investigate how a sample of rural communities in Zimbabwe approach social dilemmas. When provided with an opportunity to impose sanctions in the context of a public goods game, fourteen out of eighteen communities achieved higher levels of cooperation. In...

We show that Grandmonts (1992) model of demand heterogeneity can be a model of heterogeneity in the complementary or sign-balancing sense. By this we mean that heterogeneity has the following form: given a change in price, agents respond heterogenously - some by increasing their expenditure...

This paper reviews and puts in context some of our recent work on stochastic volatility modelling for financial economics. Here our main focus is on: (i)the relationship between subordination and stochastic volatility, (ii) OU based volatility models, (iii) exact option pricing, (iv) realised...

In this paper we examine the productivity of indigenous soil and water conservation investments in the Boukombe region in Northwest Benin, using an in-depth survey among 101 farmers on farm inputs, outputs, and SWC investments. We show that positive effects of SWC investments are only observed...

Unemployment in South Africa is so widespread that it demands an explanation. This paper examines two questions about South African unemployment. Firstly, why do the unemployed not enter the informal sector, as is common in other developing countries? Secondly, why do the unemployed not enter...

Creditors of a distressed borrower face a coordination problem. Even if the fundamentals are sound, fear of premature foreclosure by others may lead to pre-emptive action, undermining the project. Recognition of this problem lies behind corporate bankruptcy provisions across the world, and it...