The Effect of Inflation on Growth - Evidence from a Panel of Transition Countries

The paper examines the effect of inflation on growth in transition countries. It presents panel data evidence for 13 transition countries over the 1990-2003 period; it uses a fixed effects panel approach to account for possible bias from correlations among the unobserved effects and the observed country heterogeniety. The results find a strong, robust, negative effect on growth of inflation or its standard deviation, and one that appears to decline in magnitude as the inflation rate increases, as seen for OECD countries. And the results include a role for a normalized money demand in affecting growth, as well as for a convergence variable, a trade variable and a government share variable. And robustness of the baseline single equation model is examined by expanding this into a three equation simultaneous system of output growth, inflation and money demand that allows for possible simultaneity bias in the baseline model.growth, transition, panel data, inflation, money demand, endogeneity

Inflation, Financial Development and Growth in Transition Countries

The paper presents panel data evidence for 13 transition countries on inflation, financial development and growth. It contributes to the growth literature by showing that the transition countries conform to developed country evidence in particular with the strong negative effect of inflation on growth. It also contributes more evidence to the debate on the role of financial development. Once inflation and the investment rate are included in the model, a key measure of financial development no longer has a positive effect on growth, as some recent literature has found.Transition, panel data, inflation, investment rate, financial depth, endogeneity

Inflation, Financial Development and Endogenous Growth

The paper extends the literature on financial development, inflation, and growth by using the idea that both the rates of return on physical and human capital affect growth. This leads to the introduction of the investment rate into the model, as a proxy for the return to physical capital, along with the inflation rate as a variable affecting the return to human capital. As a result financial development plays a different role from the typical growth-enhancing effect found pervasively in the literature. Instead the results suggest a new hypothesis linking financial development to the nature of the effect of inflation on growth.Investment rate, return on capital, panel data, fixed effects

The Interaction of Inflation and Financial Development with Endogenous Growth

A cash-in-advance, endogenous growth, economy defines financial development within a banking sector production function as the degree of scale economies for normalized capital and labor. Less financially developed economies have smaller such returns to scale, and can be credit constrained endogenously by a steeply sloping marginal cost of credit supply. The degree of scale economies uniquely determines the marginal cost curvature and the unit cost of financial intermedition, which is expressed in terms of an interest differential. The interest differential result allows for calibration of the finance production function using industry data. A hypothesis of how financial development interacts with inflation and growth is tested, using fixed effects panel estimation with endogeneity tests, dynamic panel estimation, and an extended use of multiple inflation rate splines in estimation of the growth rateInflation, financial development, growth, panel data

Modelling Charitable Donations: A Latent Class Panel Approach

Abstract: We apply a latent class tobit framework to the analysis of charitable donations at the household level where the latent class aspect of the model splits households into two groups, which we subsequently interpret as "low" donators and "high" donators. Then the tobit part of the model explores the determinants of the amount donated by each household conditional on being in that class. We consider both total donations and also separately religious donations. Our findings, which are based on US panel data, suggest that price and labour income elasticities differ substantially across the two classes. The inverse price effect is most pronounced for the "low" donators group for both total and religious donations. The labour income elasticity switches direction of influence upon charitable donations across the two latent classes with a negative influence for the "high" donators group and a positive influence for the "low" donators group, for the case of total donations to charity, a pattern which is reversed in the case of solely religious donations.Charity, Donations, Latent Class, Panel Data, Tobit

Who are the Self-employed? A New Approach

Whilst the individual supply-side characteristics of the self-employed are well documented, the literature has largely neglected (or mis-specified) demand-side aspects. Our econometric framework, based on the parameterised DOGEV model, allows us to separately, and simultaneously, model supply and demand-side influences. We show that whilst individual characteristics are important determinants of type of employment contract held, there are important contract-specific factors influencing the contract an individual is employed under. Our results suggest that workers may be "captive" to particular types of employment because of the sectors in which they work, the number of hours they prefer to work and their ethnicity.self-employment, captivity

Who are the Self-employed? A New Approach

Modelling the incidence of self-employment has traditionally proved problematic. Whilst the individual supply side characteristics of the self-employed are well documented, the literature has largely neglected (or misspecified) demand side aspects. In this paper we present results from an econometric framework that allows us to separately, and simultaneously, model the supply and demand side characteristics that determine employment outcomes. We show that whilst individual characteristics are important determinants of the type of employment contract that individuals hold, there are also important contract specific factors that influence the nature of the contract an individual is employed under. Our results suggest that workers may be "captive" to a particular type of employment because of the sector in which they work, the number of hours they prefer to work and their ethnicity. The results are based on a new estimator, the parameterised DOGEV model, which allows for ordering and correlation in the observed alternatives, and for captivity within an observed alternative.Self-employment, captivity.

Modelling Charitable Donations to an Unexpected Natural Disaster: Evidence from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Using household-level data, we explore the relationship between donations to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and other charitable donations. The empirical evidence suggests that donations specifically for the victims of the tsunami are positively associated with the amount previously donated to other charitable causes, which accords with complementary rather than substitution effects. This relationship exists when we decompose overall charitable donations into different types of philanthropy, with charitable contributions to caring, needy and religious organizations having the largest positive association with donations to the victims of the tsunami. When we explore the impact of donations to the victims of the tsunami on future donations to charity, however, our findings suggest an inverse relationship with the largest inverse association with donations to needy and caring organizations.charity, donations, system tobit, tobit

Long-Run Effects of BSE on Meat Consumption

This paper considers the long-run effects of BSE on meat consumption in the United Kingdom using data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. We estimate a dynamic AIDS demand system of household food consumption, with long-run effects captured via an adstock index of adverse media coverage. The results suggest that there are long-run impacts on meat consumption that extend well beyond the period of the scare. In addition, press articles with pictures have a greater, and more long-lasting effect, on long-run consumption than articles with words alone.Food health scares, Adstock, BSE, demand systems, meat demand

Default resolution and access to fresh credit in an emerging market

We examine loan defaults by firms and identify the factors that influence both the default resolution process and firms' access to fresh credit after firms exit default. Using a dataset of all commercial loans made in Pakistan from 2006 to 2013, we find an important role for collateral. Collateral expedites both the default resolution process and access to fresh credit after exiting default. Higher interest rates increase the default duration. Relationships with multiple lenders as well as those with multiple branches of one lender are associated with obtaining fresh credit at the post default stage