During the 1970’s the United States experienced several periods of high inflation that have been at least partially attributed to positive oil price shocks. The effectiveness of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at controlling the price of oil has varied over time, as well as the responsiveness of U.S....
This paper investigates the potential welfare gains resulting from variable parking fees in the presence of heterogeneous agents. We begin by defining a modified linear city model with two lots located at separate distances from a central business district, and two types of agents with heterogeneous values of time. Agents...
We explore the limitations of the CRRA utility speci cation as applied
to cake-eating problems. We construct a set of conditions under which cake-
eating problems have no optimal solution. Furthermore, we explore how agents
choose their consumption path when an optimization problem has no solution,
and suggest a method...
A considerable amount of research and literature exists that attempt to explain the policymaking processes of central banks and, in particular, the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB). As with those studies, the purpose of this study is to explain FRB policymaking in order to understand FRB policy shifts during financial crises....
We examine the stability under learning (E-stability) of sunspot equilibria
in non-convex real business cycle models. The production technology is Cobb-
Douglas with externalities generated by factor inputs. We establish that, with a
general utility function, the well-known Benhabib-Farmer condition (Benhabib
and Farmer, 1994) – that the labor-demand curve is...
Empirical evidence indicates that environmental fluctuations have important effects on fisheries production. However, existing analytical solutions of stochastic fisheries models have been produced only under highly simplified economic and biological conditions. The main contribution of this paper is to derive under general conditions a policy function for the management of...
Increased efficiency of household energy-using appliances effectively lowers the price of the services these devices provide. Basic consumer theory predicts that ceteris paribus, these lower prices will increase usage, thus making the effect on total energy demand ambiguous. In the literature, this phenomenon
has been called the rebound effect. In...
Two essays are focused on crop choice and the growth of corn production in
the Corn Belt and surrounding areas. The first essay develops a partially
degenerate nested logit model to examine the effect of price islands and local
ethanol capacity on corn production and crop mix. The primary data...
This paper empirically examines the effects of population aging on international trade using a cross-country panel data set for a select group of 22 OECD countries. Other recent studies have examined the effects of population age on other economic variables such as growth, savings, and investment but none till now...
This dissertation consists of two essays that address behavioral economics issues.
In first chapter we analyze the effects of psychological pressure on performance using National Basketball Association (NBA) free throw data from the 2002-2003 through 2009-2010 seasons. We find evidence that players choke under pressure – they shoot on average...