Public capital maintenance and congestion: Long-run growth and fiscal policies

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2008 Elsevier B.V.In this paper we study an endogenous growth model, in which public maintenance expenditures affect the depreciation rate of public capital and the latter is subject to congestion. We find that economies with low congestion in public infrastructure will require a threshold level of public capital maintenance for ongoing growth. We also examine the fiscal implications of public capital maintenance policies and we find that the composition of public capital expenditures under congestion is a crucial determinant of optimal and growth-maximizing fiscal policies. The government can affect the return of public capital by re-allocating public expenditures between ‘new’ public investment and maintenance and hence avoid excessive taxation that is required under increasing congestion

Looking far in the past:Revisiting the growth-returns nexus with non-parametric tests

In this paper we reexamine the linkages between output growth and real stock price changes for the G7 countries using a battery of non-parametric procedures to account for the impact of long-lagged observations. We find that correlation between growth and returns is detected at larger horizons than those typically employed in parametric studies. The major feedbacks emerge from stock price changes to growth within the first 6 to 12 months, but we show that significant feedbacks may last for up to two or three years. Our evidence also suggests that the correlation patterns differ substantially between the countries at hand when the sectoral share indices are considered.real stock price changes, output growth, long-run covariance matrix

Export pricing at the firm level with panel data

This chapter reviews the growing empirical literature that explores the determinants of export prices at the firm level. It first presents evidence from empirical studies that link firm export pricing to destination characteristics (‘gravity-type’ models). The main implications of channels that can generate price differentiation, namely quality customization, variable markups and exchange rate pass-through, and financial frictions are then explored. A newly compiled panel dataset from Greek exporting firms is used to present evidence from regressions with export price as the dependent variable and show how the main economic hypotheses derived in theoretical models are nested in empirical specifications

Do Democracies Have Higher Current Account Deficits?

In this paper we argue that democracies tend to run (larger)current account deficits than autocracies. Our argument is based on the different incentives faced by democratic and autocratic leaders. The main theoretical hypothesis are tested on a dataset that consists of 121 countries over the period 1980-2012, using five year averages and a fixed effects panel data model. The empirical findings suggest that autocracies run lower current account deficits than democracies. Special focus is given in the issue of endogeneity by estimating an IV Fixed Effects model, using as instruments of Democracy the share of Christian adherents in each country and also the level of democracy in neighboring countries. These results are found to be robust across alternative empirical specifications

Interest rate convergence, capital controls, risk premia and foreign exchange market efficiency in the EMS

This paper examines interest rate convergence between Germany and the other EMS countries. We argue that earlier tests of convergence based on cointegration are not informative, because cointegration only implies that a linear combination of interest rates is stationary. We show that a conclusive judgment about convergence can be made if interest rate differentials exhibit a trend towards zero during the period when convergence occurred, and if the cointegrating vector has unit coefficients. We then establish that convergence has taken place in the ‘’hard” EMS period. We also attempt to identify the sources of nonstationarities in interest differentials by examining the existence of stochastic or deterministic trends in the expected rate of depreciation and in the risk premium. Finally, the possibility of market inefficiencies is discussed

Heterogeneous traders and the unbiasedness hypothesis Explaining the Mark/Dollar bias

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Testing for PPP and UIP in FIML framework Some evidence for Germany and Japan

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Persistence in real variables under alternative exchange rate regimes

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Interest rate convergence, capital controls, risk premia and foreign exchange market efficiency in the EMS

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3597.3859(LBS-CEF-DP--17-95) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo