Importing Credible Monetary Policy: A Way for Transition Economies to Fight Inflation?

In the 1990s, transition economies were rearranging their monetary regimes. This paper compares the chosen regimes based on the level of discretionary power and the ability to control inflation. Results show that non-discretionary regimes produce lower and more stable inflation.

Non-discretionary monetary policy: The answer for transition economies?

It is a well-established fact that monetary institutions help shape the macroeconomic environment of countries by stabilizing prices. In the early 1990s, transition economies had the opportunity to rearrange their monetary institutions to better achieve low levels of inflation. Those economies had several prominent monetary arrangements to choose from, such as sovereign central banks or currency boards. This paper surveys the monetary institutions currently in place in several transition economies and compares them based on their ability to control inflation. More specifically, we intend to test whether the transition economies have better inflation performance when they import the monetary policy of a credible central bank. --Transition economies,currency board,European monetary union

Entrepreneurship and State Public Policy

Many state and local governments have focused on enacting policies to promote entrepreneurship in an effort to enhance economic growth. This paper will test the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and state economic freedom in a Granger causality framework. We build a panel data set of freedom scores and entrepreneurial activity measures within the fifty US states from 1981 to 2003, and our results show that, as a whole, economic freedom causes entrepreneurship. However, we find evidence that once entrepreneurs are in place, they increase the size of government spending, which is contradictory to economic freedom.entrepreneurship, public Policy, economic freedom

An Efficiency Comparison of City Managers and Elected Mayors

Previous research has concluded that there are no efficiency differences between elected mayor-council (EMC) and council-manager (CM) city governments. However, the CM form has recently surpassed the EMC form to become the most popular U.S. city government. This paper provides an alternative method of testing the relative efficiency of the two forms of government. Relying on capitalization theory of local public goods, I develop a hedonic price model for Ohio metropolitan home sales. Results show that houses within a CM city have a pricing premium that can be attributed to the relative efficiency of the CM government.city manager, government efficiency, local public goods, hedonic, capitalization

Do Border Crossings Contribute to Underage Motor-Vehicle Fatalities?

Currently, Michigan residents can avoid the national drinking age of 21 by crossing into Ontario where the drinking age is 19. This paper explores the impact that border crossings, connecting areas with different minimum legal drinking ages (MLDA), have on motor-vehicle fatalities. We analyze border crossings connecting Michigan to Ontario, as well as to its surrounding states in the period in which Michigan’s MLDA was raised to 21. Using a “differences-in-differences-in-differences” approach we find that the MLDA change did not contribute to increased underage fatalities in border crossing counties.

Essays on political constraints, incentives, and individual economic behavior

This dissertation is a collection of papers that features applications of public choice theory to the relationship between political constraints, incentives, and individual economic behavior. The first chapter introduces the two meanings of political constraints---(i) constraints self-imposed on the political process and (ii) constraints created by the political process; reviews the public choice literature on political constraints and incentives; and outlines the research agenda for the dissertation. Chapter 2 examines the possible inefficiencies that may be produced by politicians pursuing their own self interests by comparing two forms of city government. More specifically, comparisons are made between professionally trained city managers and popularly elected mayors, and results show that city managers have a relative efficiency advantage over elected mayors. Chapter 3 analyzes how minimum drinking age laws influence drinking behavior by examining the incentive for underage U.S. citizens to cross international border crossings to avoid the nationally uniform 21-year-old drinking age. Results show that the occurrence of alcohol-related motor-vehicle fatalities, the most serious outcome of mixing drinking and driving, increases as proximity to the nearest border crossing decreases. Chapter 4 enhances the reported link between entrepreneurship and economic growth, tests the causal relationship between venture funding and entrepreneurial activity, and ultimately reveals which policies create a good environment for entrepreneurship. Results show that entrepreneurial activity draws venture funding to an area, and not vice versa. Therefore, the results suggest that enacting policies consistent with economic freedom, such as low taxes, low regulations, and secure property rights that provide a good environment for attracting or developing individual entrepreneurs, are the appropriate economic development policies. Chapter 5 summarizes the major findings of the research chapters, reviews the importance of the major findings, and proposes areas of future research

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives