Essays in International Economics.

This dissertation analyzes how trade openness affects a country’s set of policy instruments in times of economic crises. Exploiting variations across Estonian firms trading with different mar- kets, the first chapter shows that firms’ output substantially reacts to exchange rate movements in both their export and import market. Still, the estimated trade elasticity implies that monetary policy is equally effective in closed and open economies because traded and non-traded sectors expand by equal amounts following a monetary expansion. The second chapter shifts the focus on fiscal policy and examines the effects of austerity on economic performance since the Great Recession. In a panel of 29 mostly European countries it shows that reductions in government purchases larger than that implied by reduced-form forecasting regressions are statistically associated with lower real per GDP and lower inflation. The implied multiplier is greater than 1, which shows that fiscal policy has strong domestic effects even in small and open economies. A multi-country DSGE model calibrated to the European economies replicates the qualitative features of the observed patterns, but falls short quantitatively of the multiplier on government purchases. The last chapter analyzes macroeconomic policies to promote mergers and acquisitions (M&As). A tractable model is developed to study the role of M&As during financial crises characterized by tighter bank lending standards. It suggests that cross-border M&As can be particularly beneficial because they help to tap foreign capital markets, while domestic M&As have a much smaller effect because domestic acquirers themselves face liquidity constraints. Being open can therefore be a virtue during times of tight domestic credit markets.PhDEconomicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133370/1/proechri_1.pd

The Use of Soil Micromorphology at Sylvester Manor

Soil micromorphology is a vibrant sub-discipline of archaeology that studies sediment fabric, color, composition, shape, layering, and sorting using intact soil cores and thin sections. This technique takes into account the dynamic relationship between people and the world in which they live, and has contributed useful archaeological data to the Sylvester Manor Project. This paper constructs a landscape history for portions of the South and West lawns using soil cores and thin sections. Results reveal how Sylvester Manor’s lawn, Midden, and Brick and Mortar Layer were composed, as well as how they were changed over time by plant and animal activity. These results have been used to better excavate and interpret the archaeological record of Sylvester Manor. This article provides an excellent example of how soil micromorphology can be used by historical archaeologists to more fully understand the archaeology of the modern world

Washington\u27s Equal Rights Amendment: It Says What It Means and It Means What It Says

This Comment begins with a discussion of the ERA\u27s legislative history and the legislature\u27s attempt to bring state statutes into compliance with the ERA upon its passage. Next, judicial interpretations of the new constitutional guarantee are compared to the interpretation of the Washington Constitution\u27s privileges and immunities clause. Finally, the Comment compares Washington\u27s standard of review with a similar standard used by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and argues that the Washington Supreme Court should adopt the absolute standard applied by the Pennsylvania courts

Washington\u27s Equal Rights Amendment: It Says What It Means and It Means What It Says

This Comment begins with a discussion of the ERA\u27s legislative history and the legislature\u27s attempt to bring state statutes into compliance with the ERA upon its passage. Next, judicial interpretations of the new constitutional guarantee are compared to the interpretation of the Washington Constitution\u27s privileges and immunities clause. Finally, the Comment compares Washington\u27s standard of review with a similar standard used by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and argues that the Washington Supreme Court should adopt the absolute standard applied by the Pennsylvania courts

Survival of the fittest: Corporate control and the cleansing effect of financial crises

How does the market for corporate control reallocate firm ownership in response to adverse aggregate financial shocks? To answer this question, we develop a tractable model of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) where firms facing different degrees of financial constraints acquire ownership of illiquid domestic firms. We show that acquisitions by financially constrained acquirers, on average, involve higher ownership stakes and post-acquisition survival rates when faced with adverse aggregate financial shocks, in comparison to acquisitions by unconstrained firms. This effect operates through two margins: An intensive margin (dominant for constrained acquirers) that works through a higher average productivity of acquirer-target matches, and an extensive margin (dominant for unconstrained acquirers) that operates thorough an increase in the proportion of fire-sale acquisitions in the economy. We provide evidence supportive of the predictions of the model in a large data set of M&As in emerging market economies. Our theoretical results provide insight into our novel empirical findings of a change in the degree of control acquired by and a convergence of survival rates between domestic and foreign acquisitions during financial crises, and point to the existence of a "cleansing effect" in the market for corporate assets

HANSON’S AUTOMATED MARKET MAKER

From Hanson’s “market scoring rule,” we derive all the necessary formulae to implement a corresponding automated market maker for a prediction market.  The market maker has many desirable qualities and always stands ready to trade, thus providing liquidity to markets.  The formulae cover all transactions for buying and selling market contracts.  In addition, we address practical concerns like how to correctly treat rounding errors and how to prevent errors that allow traders to cheat the market, and provide a practical numerical example.  We have used Hanson's automated market maker to run many markets at Microsoft

Development of silicon nitride and cermet resistors for use in a binary counter, metal insulator field effect transistor circuit Final report, 1 Dec. 1966 - 31 Mar. 1968

Silicon nitride and cermet resistors for binary counter metal insulator field effect transistor circui

Acquirers and Financial Constraints - Theory and Evidence from Emerging Markets

Financial crises in emerging market economies induce diverging patterns of ownership stakes and subsequent divestiture rates among domestic and foreign acquirers. We rationalize these empirical findings in a tractable model where domestic acquirers are subject to borrowing constraints. In contrast to standard fire-sale effects operating for acquisitions by foreign acquirers, acquisition patterns of domestic firms are shaped by a novel counteracting selection effect, resulting in larger acquired stakes and more persistent ownership. We present empirical evidence consistent with the model’s predictions using a large dataset of domestic and cross-border emerging market acquisitions over 1990–2007. The estimated contribution of selection effects is quantitatively significant, leading to 12% increases in stakes, 25% increases in full acquisitions, and 30% declines in divestiture rates among crisis-time domestic acquisitions. Our results demonstrate how financial crises can have both short- and long-run effects through the market for corporate control, by changing the set of acquirers and how long acquirers keep ownership

Does Austerity Go Along With Internal Devaluations?

Cuts to government spending rather than increases in consumption taxes are statistically associated with internal devaluations in the euro area during the period 2010-2014. Countries that cut spending experienced a decline in nominal wages, rising net exports, a fall in the relative price of non-tradables and a shift of consumption towards non-tradables. We show that these patterns are generally consistent with a neoclassical small open economy model with GHH preferences. The main remaining discrepancy between model and data is a missing terms of trade response in the data: Export prices did not decline in austere countries (nor did import prices), giving rise to asymmetric expenditure switching: Current account improvements are solely driven by falls in imports rather than increasing exports.SFI-L