Excessive Volatility in Capital Flows: A Pigouvian Taxation Approach

This paper analyzes prudential controls on capital flows to emerging markets from the perspective of a Pigouvian tax that addresses externalities associated with the deleveraging cycle. It presents a model in which restricting capital inflows during boom times reduces the potential outflows during busts. This mitigates the feedback effects of deleveraging episodes, when tightening financial constraints on borrowers and collapsing prices for collateral assets have mutually reinforcing effects. In our model, capital controls reduce macroeconomic volatility and increase standard measures of consumer welfare.capital flows, deleveraging episodes, emerging market economies, Pigouvian tax

Undervaluation through foreign reserve accumulation : static losses, dynamic gains

This paper shows that real exchange rate undervaluation through the accumulation of foreign reserves may improve welfare in economies with learning-by-investing externalities that arise disproportionately from the tradable sector. In the presence of targeting problems or when policy choices are restricted by multilateral agreements, first-best policies such as subsidies to capital accumulation, or subsidies to tradable production are not feasible. A neo-mercantilist policy of foreign reserve accumulation"outsources"the targeting problem or overcomes the multilateral restrictions by providing loans to foreigners that can only be used to buy up domestic tradable goods. This raises the relative price of tradable versus non-tradable goods (i.e. undervalues the real exchange rate) at the static cost of temporarily reducing tradable absorption in the domestic economy. However, since the tradable sector generates greater learning-by-investing externalities, it leads to dynamic gains in the form of higher growth. The net welfare effects of reserve accumulation depend on the balance between the static losses from lower tradable absorption versus the dynamic gains from higher growth.Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets

Managing Credit Booms and Busts: A Pigouvian Taxation Approach

We study a dynamic model in which the interaction between debt ac- cumulation and asset prices magni es credit booms and busts. We find that borrowers do not internalize these feedback e¤ects and therefore suf- fer from excessively large booms and busts in both credit flows and asset prices. We show that a Pigouvian tax on borrowing may induce borrowers to internalize these externalities and increase welfare. We calibrate the model by reference to (i) the US small and medium-sized enterprise sector and (ii) the household sector, and nd the optimal tax to be countercycli- cal in both cases, dropping to zero in busts and rising to approximately half a percentage point of the amount of debt outstanding during booms.boom-bust cycles;financial crises;systemic externalities;macro-prudential regulation;precautionary savings

Managing Credit Booms and Busts: A Pigouvian Taxation Approach

We study a dynamic model in which the interaction between debt accumulation and asset prices magnifies credit booms and busts. We find that borrowers do not internalize these feedback effects and therefore suffer from excessively large booms and busts in both credit flows and asset prices. We show that a Pigouvian tax on borrowing may induce borrowers to internalize these externalities and increase welfare. We calibrate the model with reference to (1) the US small and medium-sized enterprise sector and (2) the household sector and find the optimal tax to be countercyclical in both cases, dropping to zero in busts and rising to approximately half a percentage point of the amount of debt outstanding during booms.boom-bust cycles, financial crises, systemic externalities, macroprudential regulation, precautionary savings

Broadband Spectrum Survey Measurements for Cognitive Radio Applications

It is well known that the existing spectrum licensing system results in a gross under-utilization of the frequency spectrum. Spectrum background measurements – spectrum surveys – provide useful data for spectrum regulation, planning or finding frequency niches for spectrum sharing. Dynamic spectrum sharing as a main goal of cognitive radio (CR) is the modern option on how to optimize usage of the frequency spectrum. A spectrum survey measurement system is introduced with results obtained from a variety of markedly different scenarios allowing us, unlike other studies, to focus on wideband and fast spectrum scans. The sensitivity of the receiver is no worse than -113 dBm in the whole band. The utilization of the frequency spectrum is analyzed to prove its under-utilization and to show spectrum sharing opportunities. This was shown to be true in the frequency band higher than 2.5 GHz. A comparison with other spectrum survey campaigns is provided

An econometric method of correcting for unit nonresponse bias in surveys

Past approaches to correcting for unit nonresponse in sample surveys by re-weighting the data assume that the problem is ignorable within arbitrary subgroups of the population. Theory and evidence suggest that this assumption is unlikely to hold, and that household characteristics such as income systematically affect survey compliance. The authors show that this leaves a bias in the re-weighted data and they propose a method of correcting for this bias. The geographic structure of nonresponse rates allows them to identify a micro compliancefunction, which they then use to re-weight the unit-record data. An example is given for the U.S. Current Population Surveys, 1998-2004. The authors find, and correct for, a strong household income effect on response probabilities.Statistical&Mathematical Sciences,Economic Theory&Research,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Science Education,Environmental Economics&Policies

Family relations and the experience of loneliness among older adults in Eastern Europe

Journal ArticleIn this paper I conceptualize and analyze the determinants of loneliness among older adults in Russia and Bulgaria, two former communist societies experiencing myriad and challenging transitions - economically, demographically, and socially. Using the Generations and Gender Survey (2004) I conduct an OLS regression analysis of loneliness among heads of household age 60 and older. I focus attention on family structural correlated of loneliness -specifically on how marital status, and the numbers and co-residence status of children and grandchildren relate to the experience of loneliness in late adulthood. The analyses reveal that in Russia and Bulgaria loneliness is quite commonplace, especially among elderly men, and rises with age. Loneliness is found to correlate positively not only with widowhood, small family size and limited extended family relations (i.e., those with grandchildren), but also with economic deprivation and poor health. The analysis also reveal that Russian and Bulgarian women express significantly less loneliness than their male counterparts; explanations for this gender gap are tied to men's and women's different orientations to the family and household in the post-Soviet era

“We’re the girls of the pansy parade”: Historicizing Winnipeg’s Queer Subcultures, 1930s-1970

As a work of queer history this article historicizes same-sex desire in Winnipeg from the 1930s through the late 1960s. This research asks provocative questions about how the nature of place (a major prairie capital city) and space (commercial venues, public parks, and private homes) permitted, constructed, and constrained queer activities. Beginning with the earliest oral history recollections of Depression-era same-sex activity, this article charts the changes caused by the Second World War, more liberalized liquor laws in the 1950s, and the expanding economy in the 1960s. Ultimately, it illustrates that Winnipeg functioned as a "queer capital" for residents of Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario, and, less frequently, parts of Saskatchewan. Reframing the city of Winnipeg through a queer lens offers a novel addition to our history of this well-known city; it makes an important contribution to the national and international literature of queer urban development; and, finally, it offers a prairie perspective on the formation of social spaces and identities prior to the establishment of dedicated, local gay and lesbian organizations. Œuvre inspirée de l'histoire queer, le présent article historicise le désir pour les personnes du m'me sexe du Winnipeg des années 1930 jusqu'à celui de la fin des années 1960. Cette recherche pose des questions percutantes, se demandant comment la nature du lieu (une grande capitale des Prairies) et de l'espace (endroits commerciaux, parcs publics et maisons privées) a permis, construit et g'né les activités queer. S'appuyant d'abord sur les premiers récits tirés de l'histoire orale de l'activité homosexuelle au temps de la dépression, cet article retrace les changements qu'ont provoqués la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, l'assouplissement des lois sur les boissons alcoolisées dans les années 1950 et l'essor économique des années 1960. Il en arrive à la conclusion que Winnipeg faisait alors office de > pour les résidents du Manitoba, du Nord-Ouest de l'Ontario et, dans une moindre mesure, de certaines parties de la Saskatchewan. Recadrer la ville de Winnipeg en l'examinant sous la loupe de l'identité queer jette un nouvel éclairage sur l'histoire que nous avons de cette ville bien connue. En effet, non seulement cela enrichit-il grandement la littérature nationale et internationale sur le développement urbain queer, mais permet également d'examiner dans la perspective des Prairies la formation d'espaces sociaux et d'identités sociales avant l'établissement d'organismes locaux voués à la cause des gais et lesbiennes

Systemic risk-taking: amplification effects, externalities, and regulatory responses

This paper analyzes the efficiency of risk-taking decisions in an economy that is prone to systemic risk, captured by financial amplification effects that occur in response to strong adverse shocks. It shows that decentralized agents who have unconstrained access to a complete set of Arrow securities choose to expose themselves to such risk to a socially inefficient extent because of pecuniary externalities that are triggered during financial amplification. The paper develops an externality pricing kernel that quantifies the state-contingent magnitude of such externalities and provides welfaretheoretic foundations for macro-prudential policy measures to correct the distortion. Furthermore, it derives conditions under which agents employ ex-ante risk markets to fully undo any expected government bailout. Finally, it finds that constrained market participants face socially insufficient incentives to raise more capital during episodes of financial amplification. JEL Classification: E44, G13, G18, D62, H23bailout neutrality, externality pricing kernel, financial amplification, macroprudential regulation, systemic externalities, systemic risk