17,306 research outputs found

    Heterogeneous Productivity in Voluntary Public Good Provision: An Experimental Analysis

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    This article experimentally examines voluntary contributions when group members' marginal returns to the public good vary. The experiment implements two marginal return types, low and high, and uses the information that members have about the heterogeneity to identify the applied contribution norm. If agents are aware of the heterogeneity, contributions increase in general. However, high types contribute more than low types when contributions can be linked to the type of the donor but contribute less otherwise. Low types, on the other hand, contribute more than high types when group members are aware of the heterogeneity but contributions cannot be linked to types. Our results underline the importance of the information structure when persons with different abilities contribute to a joint project, as in the context of teamwork or charitable giving.public goods, voluntary contribution mechanism, heterogeneity, information, norms

    Heterogeneous Productivity in Voluntary Public Good Provision: an Experimental Analysis

    Get PDF
    This article experimentally examines voluntary contributions when group membersā€™ marginal returns to the public good vary. The experiment implements two marginal return types, low and high, and uses the information that members have about the heterogeneity to identify the applied contribution norm. We find that norms vary with the information environment. If agents are aware of the heterogeneity, contributions increase in general. However, high types contribute more than low types when contributions can be linked to the type of the donor but contribute less otherwise. Low types, on the other hand, contributes more than high types when group members are aware of the heterogeneity but contributions cannot be linked to types. Our results underline the importance of the information structure when persons with different abilities contribute to a joint project, as in the context of teamwork or charitable giving.Public Goods, Voluntary contribution mechanism, Heterogeneity, Information, Norms

    The Foundations of the Economics of Innovation

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    During the last forty years, economics of innovation has emerged as a distinct area of enquiry at the crossing of the economics of growth, industrial organization, regional economics and the theory of the firm, becoming a well identified area of competence in economics specializing not only in the analysis of the effects of the introduction of new technologies, but also and mainly in understanding technological change as an endogenous process. As the result of the interpretation, elaboration and evolution of different fields of analysis in economie theory, innovation is viewed as a complex, path dependent process characterized by the interdependence and interaction of a variety of heterogeneous agents, able to learn and react creatively with subjective and procedural rationality.

    Dividend and Capital Gains Taxation in a Cross-Section of Firms

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    I reconsider the effect of capital income taxation on firm size and firm growth by embedding the nucleus theory of firm development of Sinn (1991) into a framework of monopolistic competition with new firm creation. In a turnover of firms, firm destruction is counterbalanced by a permanent creation of new firms. Young firms are set up using an initial capital infusion of new equity and undergo an intermediate stage of internal growth until they finally reach a steady payout stage. The cross-section then contains firms of all ages and development stages. Dividend and capital gains tax have important effects on initial firm size and growth but also on the creation of new firms and thus on diversity in the economy. First, a differential treatment of dividends and capital gains introduces a distortion in the allocation of capital across firms. Second, dividend as well as capital gains tax are anticipated at the start-up stage of firms. While leaving the firm specific capital stock unaffected, the capitalisation is shown to depress firm creation and aggregate capital accumulation.capital income taxation, investment, firm creation, aggregate production.

    A survey of announcement effects on foreign exchange volatility and jumps

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    This article reviews, evaluates, and links research that studies foreign exchange volatility reaction to macro announcements. Scheduled and unscheduled news typically raises volatility for about an hour and often causes price discontinuities or jumps. News contributes substantially to volatility but other factors contribute even more to periodic volatility. The same types of news that affect returnsā€”payrolls, trade balance, and interest rate shocksā€”are also the most likely to affect volatility, and U.S. news tends to produce more volatility than foreign news. Recent research has linked news to volatility through the formerā€™s effect on order flow. Empirical research has confirmed the predictions of microstructure theory on how volatility might depend on a number of factors: the precision of the information in the news, the state of the business cycle, and the heterogeneity of tradersā€™ beliefs.Foreign exchange

    Energy Supply and the Sustainability of Endogenous Growth

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    The paper provides an introduction to energy and, respective resource use within the framework of endogenous growth models. We provide an overview of different modeling approaches as well as intuition with respect to the results obtained. We consider the source problem, i.e. the supply of energy, as well as the sink problem, i.e. pollution generated by the consumption of energy resources. The introduction to the theoretical framework shortly discusses the use of neoclassical versus endogenous growth models and also points to the implications of the different types of endogenous growth approaches. We additionally give an introduction to CGE-models that include energy use and present an example of a numerical solvable model in detail. The paper closes with a look at possible future research.endogenous growth, energy, resources, pollution, CGE-models

    The Dynamics of Growth and Distribution in a Spatially Heterogeneous World

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    This paper tries to reconcile growth and geographical economics by dealing directly with capital accumulation through time and space and by seeing growth convergence and spatial agglomeration as jointly generated by dynamic processes displaying pattern formation. It presents a centralized economy in which a Bergson-Samuelson- Millian central planner finds a flow of optimal distributions of consumption, subject to a spatial-temporal capital accumulation budget constraint. The main conclusions are: first, if the behavioral parameters are symmetric, but there is an asymmetric distribution of the capital stock, then the long run asymptotic distribution will be spatially homogeneous; second, if there is homogeneous distribution of the capital stock, but there is an asymmetric shock in any parameter, then the economy will converge towards a spatially heterogeneous asymptotic state; third, spatially heterogeneous asymptotic states will only emerge exogenously, not endogenously; fourth, the spatial propagation mechanism can give birth, when the production function is close to linear, to a Turing instability, which implies that for some parameter values, a conditionally stable spacetime distribution should display spatial pattern formation.Optimal growth and distribution; Spatial growth; Optimal control of partial differential equations; Traveling waves; Fourier transforms; Turing instability.

    On the impact of trade on industrial structures : The role of entry cost heterogeneity

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    entrepreneurship, trade liberalization, externality, heterogeneity, stability

    Monetary policy in a non-representative agent economy: A survey

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    It is well-known that central bank policies affect not only macroeconomic aggregates, but also their distribution across economic agents. Similarly, a number of papers demonstrated that heterogeneity of agents may matter for the transmission of monetary policy on macro variables. Despite this, the mainstream monetary economics literature has so far been dominated by dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with representative agents. This article aims to tilt this imbalance towards heterogeneous agents setups by surveying the main positive and normative findings of this line of the literature, and suggesting areas in which these models could be implemented. In particular, we review studies that analyze the heterogeneity of (i) householdsā€™ income, (ii) householdsā€™ preferences, (iii) consumersā€™ age, (iv) expectations, and (v) firmsā€™ productivity and financial position. We highlight the results on issues that, by construction, cannot be investigated in a representative agent framework and discuss important papers modifying the findings from the representative agent literature.Heterogeneous Agents; Monetary Policy
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