Abstract Historically, forecasters have failed to predict cyclical turning points and the forecasting record in this regard has not improved. This suggests that we should focus on what should be an easier task, recognizing recessions as they occur. We present a new approach that will enable us...

This paper questions whether the spread between long and short-term interests rates is a good cyclical indicator of US economic activity. Probit regressions using the term spread as an independent variable are used to forecast the probability of a recession and the forecasts are evaluated. Using...

Vaccination provides indirect benefits to the unvaccinated. Despite its important policy implications, there is little analytical or empirical work to quantify this externality, nor is it incorporated in a number of cost-benefit studies of vaccine programs. We use a standard epidemiological...

While it is widely alleged that economists do not like or use questionnaire surveys, the facts are considerably more complicated. Economists make extensive use of survey information on such things as prices and employment, and the use of 'contingent valuation' surveys has exploded recently. The...

This study presents three tests of efficiency of the NFL betting market for the years 1994-2000. First, it tests for weak-form informational efficiency of the betting market. Then it examines whether the market incorporates objective information such as power scores and stadium characteristics...