In this paper we use a general procedure to detect structural breaks at unknown points in time which allows for different orders of integration and deterministic components in each subsample (see Gil-Alana, 2006). First, we extend it to the non-linear case, and show by means of Monte Carlo...

We model entry by entrepreneurs into new markets in developing economies with regulatory barriers in the form of licence fees and bureaucratic delay. Because laissez faire leads to ‘excessive’ entry, a licence fee can increase welfare by discouraging entry. However, in the presence of a...

This paper examines whether, in addition to standard unit root and cointegration tests,panel approaches also produce test statistics behaving erratically when applied to PPP. We show that if appropriate tests (which are robust to cross-sectional dependence and more powerful) are used, any...

In the absence of any official measures of old age poverty, this paper uses National Sample Survey household-level data to investigate the extent and nature of living standards and incidence of poverty among elderly in sixteen major states in India. We construct both individual and...

Monthly seasonally unadjusted data can exhibit roots with possibly fractional orders of integration, corresponding to the monthly but also to the quarterly and to the long-run or trending components of the series. In this paper we use a procedure which is suitable to test simultaneously for the...

This discussion paper finds that since 2002 compulsory annuities no longer provide an actuarially fair pension. Hence annuities are a poor investment giving returns of less than 85% in present value terms. The paper uses a database of annuity rates collected from MoneyFacts monthly reports since...

In an endogenous growth model with two public services with differing productivities, this paper analytically characterises optimal fiscal policy for a decentralised economy, whereby the optimal values of the growth rate, tax rate and expenditure shares on the two public goods are linked...

China is a relatively young country now, but about to undergo a remarkable demographic transformation in the near future. Despite foreseeable dramatic demographic changes, the current retirement system in China is badly structured, and not able to cope with the rapid ageing population in this...

Pension fund assets have been accumulated rapidly during the past decades, and it is evident that this trend will continue. An immediate problem arising from the rapid accumulation of such a large volume of assets across countries is how to invest them. Pension funds differ from other...

Literacy rates continue to be strikingly low among women and low caste population compared to the general population not only in any Indian state, but more so in the worst performing ones. The present paper offers an explanation of this disparate development in terms of the hypothesis of elite...