The literature that tests for U-shaped relationships using panel data, such as those between pollution and income or inequality and growth, reports widely divergent (parametric and non-parametric) empirical findings. We explain why lack of identification lies at the root of these differences. To...

We use a semi-parametric method to decompose the difference in male and female wage densities into two parts-one explained by characteristics and one which is attributable to differences in returns to characteristics. We demonstrate that one learns substantially more about the gender wage gap in...

The literature that tests for U-shaped relationships using panel data, such as those between pollution and income or inequality and growth, reports widely divergent (parametric and non-parametric) empirical findings. We explain why lack of identification lies at the root of these differences. To...

We examine the effects of trade policy changes on the evolution of plant productivity. Plant level productivities are estimated for the 1983-96 period following the procedure of Olley and Pakes (1996). Industry averages indicate that productivity gains are largest in import competing industries...

This discussion paper resulted in a publication in the <I>Journal of Environmental Economics & Management</I>, 2009, 58, 27-42.<P> The literature that tests for U-shaped relationships using panel data, such as those between pollution and income or inequality and growth, reports widely divergent...</p></i>

The literature that tests for U-shaped relationships using panel data, such as those between pollution and income or inequality and growth, reports widely divergent (parametric and non-parametric) empirical findings. We explain why lack of identification lies at the root of these differences. To...

The impact of trade liberalization on productivity and economic growth has received considerable attention in recent policy debate. Besides the theory, there is also a large body of empirical literature on the impact of trade policy reforms on productivity growth. We contribute to this...

In this paper we use two alternative approaches to study the extent of gender wage discrimination in Portugal. Both methods involve the estimation of wage equations for males and females and the Blinder [1973] and Oaxaca [1973] decomposition. However, to take into account possible sample...

Does after-school care provision promote mothers’ employment and balance the allocation of paid work among parents of schoolchildren? We address this question by exploiting variation in cantonal (state) regulations of after-school care provision in Switzerland. To establish exogeneity of...

The classical Hill estimator of a positive extreme value index (EVI) can be regarded as the logarithm of the geometric mean, or equivalently the logarithm of the mean of order p=0, of a set of adequate statistics. A simple generalisation of the Hill estimator is now proposed, considering a more...