This paper examines the ability of the slope of the yield curve to serve as a predictor of regional recessions. The ability of interest rate spreads to predict recessions has received considerable attention at the aggregate level. This paper offers evidence on the usefulness of rate spreads in...

Research on food consumption and expenditures usually employs the use of unitarymodels that do not account for type of family financial structure. This research presentstwo collective models of household behavior, conditional and unconditional models,which were used in the analysis of the...

Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages have been widely proposed to combat the U.S. obesity crisis. Most previous work has found the effects of a SSB tax to be small to moderate. We address three limitations. First, we incorporate the supply side via a stochastic equilibrium displacement model....

In this paper we show how political uncertainty may impede economic growth by reducing public investment in the formation of human capital, and how this negative effect of political uncertainty can be offset by a government contract. We present a model of growth with accumulation of human...

In this paper we show how political uncertainty may impede economic growth by reducing public investment in the formation of human capital, and how this negative effect of political uncertainty can be offset by a government contract. We present a model of growth with accumulation of human...

The increased prevalence of childhood obesity is a major concern for society. Thisstudy aims at exploring the influence of the parents (especially parental time allocationchoices) on children’s obesity-related health outcomes and examining the potentialdifferences between the...

In recent years, increasing attention has turned toward the effect of health information or health knowledge on nutrient intake. In determining the effect of health information on nutrient demand, researchers face the estimation problem of dealing with the endogeneity of health information...

The USDA recently redirected the Market Access Program (MAP) to allocate all branded products export promotion funds to small firms and cooperatives. The redirection was, in part, a response to reports by the General Accounting Office that were critical of past allocations of export promotion...

The current obesity crisis in the United States is generating numerous alternative policy options for combating the problem. One alternative that has been widely proposed is an excise or sales tax on sugar-sweetened non-alcoholic beverages. This literature started out within a very simple...

The increased prevalence of childhood obesity is a major concern for society. This study aims at exploring the influence of the parents (especially parental time allocation choices) on children’s obesity-related health outcomes and examining the potential differences between the fathers’ and...