When modeling discriminatory trade policies -- such as targeted embargoes, selective quotas, targeted export or import subsidies, or preferential trading agreements -- failure to explicitly include assumptions about arbitraging behavior may yield to misleading results. Quadratic programming...

To be used effectively, market knowledge and information must be structured and represented in ways that are parsimonious and conducive to efficient managerial decision making. This manuscript proposes a new latent structure spatial model for the representation of market information that meets...

This paper presents the methodology of Markov chain Monte Carlos (MCMC) to statistical inference in Ecometrics. MCMC theory is reviewed and some relevant pratical aspects associated with convergence of the chain are discussed. The most common forms of MCMC using Gibbs sampling and the...

This paper compares legislative dynamics under all procedures in which the Council of Ministers votes by qualified majority (QMV). We make five major points. First, the EU governments have sought to reduce the democratic deficit by increasing the powers of the European Parliament since 1987,...

Many scholars contend that senators defer to the president on appointments to executive branch positions. Others assert that presidential appointments are highly constrained by senatorial `folkways'. Still others argue that the bureaucracy is essentially uncontrollable via political...

Empirical analyses of research and development find strong evidence that these activities tend to cluster geographically. Clusters are thought to emerge from the presence of localized positive externalities. This paper presents a model of this clustering behaviour. We find that phase changes in...

A common feature of the legislative process in several American legislatures - especially the US House - is the referral of legislation to multiple committees. Multiple referral calls into question traditional interpretations of committee power and thus warrants careful theoretical analysis....

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether civilian disability pensions have been used as an antipoverty measure in Italy. We applied a classic panel analysis, followed by a two step GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) analysis in which we introduced the spatial variable, to Italian...