This paper considers estimation situations where identification, endogeneity and non-spherical regression error problems are present. Instead of always using GMM despite weak instruments to solve the endogeneity, it is possible to first check whether endogeneity is serious enough to cause...

One of the main reasons for dollarization is the erosion of money's function as a store of value as the Currency Substitution view suggests. It has not been uncommon for countries with high inflationary processes to have high dollarization ratios and banking system that faces important...

Using formal statistical tests, we detect (i) significant volatility increases for various types of capital flows for a period of changes in business cycle comovement among the G7 countries, and (ii) mixed evidence of changes in covariances and correlations with a set of macroeconomic variables.

Skyscrapers in Manhattan must be anchored to bedrock to prevent (possibly uneven) settling; this can potentially increase construction costs if the bedrock lies deep below the surface. The conventional wisdom holds that Manhattan developed two business centers—downtown and...

Background: A number of social programs are targeted at persons with psychiatric diagnosis with the intention of reducing poverty. Previous studies have shown that persons with psychiatric conditions are more likely to be poor and face disparities in education and employment outcomes. A better...

During the last decade, inequality and poverty fell sharply in many Latin American countries; a period in which voters chose left-leaning leaders in ten countries including about half the region's population. Are these two developments related? Using data for 18 Latin American countries and...

This paper adds to the literature on the financial markets' reaction to government interventions during the 2007-2009 financial crisis by analyzing the response of US firms' credit default swap spreads to key government actions. We find that the government measures taken to stabilize both the...

We provide empirical estimates of the risk-sharing and redistributive properties of the German federal fiscal system based on data from 1970 until 2006, with special attention to the effects of German unification. We find that tax revenue sharing between the states and the federal government and...

We study the public goods problem associated with vaccinations. The externality created by an infection is composed of two parts, the probability of infection and the marginal infections generated if infected. We argue that the key component in a successful vaccination strategy is the second of...

We describe the second-moment properties of the components of international capital flows and their relationship to business cycle variables for 22 industrial and emerging countries. Inward flows are procyclical. Outward and net flows are countercyclical for most industrial and emerging...