Milkshake Prices, International Reserves, and the Mexican Peso

Menu prices from 13 international restaurant franchises that operate in both El Paso and Ciudad Juarez are utilized to examine the behavior over time of the peso/dollar exchange rate. Parametric and non-parametric tests indicate that the price ratio alone provides a biased estimator of the exchange rate. In addition to the multi-product price ratio, the empirical analysis also incorporates interst rate prity and balance of payment variables. The combination of unique microeconomic sample data with national macroeconomic variables illustrates one manner in which border economies provide information regarding the interplay of financial markets between Mexico and the United States

Milkshake Prices, International Reserves, and the Mexican Peso

Menu prices from 13 international restaurant franchises that operate in both El Paso and Ciudad Juarez are utilized to examine the behavior over time of the peso/dollar exchange rate. Parametric and non-parametric tests indicate that the price ratio alone provides a biased estimator of the exchange rate. In addition to the multi-product price ratio, the empirical analysis also incorporates interst rate prity and balance of payment variables. The combination of unique microeconomic sample data with national macroeconomic variables illustrates one manner in which border economies provide information regarding the interplay of financial markets between Mexico and the United States.Prices; exchange rates; border economics

Inflationary pressure determinants in México

An ongoing and difficult policy issue confronting monetary .authorities in many developing economies is how to maintain stable prices. Unstable prices create uncertainty, lower investment, and raise costs of doing business, thus lowering rates of growth. As a result, when a country, it is necessary to understand its particular inflationary dynamics. This paper develops a standard monetary inflation model and augments it to include imported inputs and labor costs in a theoretically plausible manner. Implications for implementing an empirical version of the model are also discussed.

Educational attainment and border income performance

Texas border areas face a variety of economic challenges. In today's labor markets, income performance depends increasingly on productivity, which is primarily a function of educational attainment. To examine the extent to which education influences border region incomes, a cross-section econometric model is estimated using county-level information. Data are drawn from the 1990 census for all 254 counties in Texas. Empirical results indicate that per capita income is influenced by educational, demographic, and geographic factors. Regression output is similar, but not identical, to estimates obtained for other regions of the country. Model simulation results indicate that border counties lost nearly $3.6 billion in personal income in 1990 due to below-average high school graduation rates.Education

Secondary education: its impact on border education

Employment (Economic theory)

Garbage and Recycling in Communities with Curbside Recycling and Unit-Based Pricing

This paper estimates the impact of a user fee and a curbside recycling program on garbage and recycling amounts, allowing for the possibility of endogenous policy choices. Previous estimates of the effects of these policies could be biased if unobserved variables such as local preference for the environment jointly impact the probability of implementing these policies and the levels of garbage and recycling collected in the community. A simple sequential model of local policymaking is estimated using original data gathered from a large cross-section of communities with user fees, combined with an even larger cross-section of towns without user fees but with and without curbside recycling programs. The combined data set is larger and more comprehensive than any used in previous studies. Without correction for endogenous policy, the price per unit of garbage collection has a negative effect on garbage and a positive cross-price effect on recycling. When we correct for endogenous policy, then the effect of the user fee on garbage increases, and the significance of the cross-price effect on recycling disappears.

"Household Responses for Pricing Garbage by the Bag,"

This paper estimates household reaction to the implementation of unit-pricing for the collection of residential garbage. We gather original data on weight and volume of weekly garbage and recycling of 75 households in Charlottesville, Virginia, both before and after the start of a program that requires an eighty-cent sticker on each bag of garbage. This data set is the first of its kind. We estimate household demands for the collection of garbage and recyclable material, the effect on density of household garbage, and the amount of illegal dumping by households. We also estimate the probability that a household chooses each method available to reduce its garbage. In response to the implementation of this unit-pricing program, we find that households (1) reduced the weight of their garbage by 14%, (2) reduced the volume of garbage by 37% and (3) increased the weight of their recyclable materials by 16%. We estimate that additional illegal -- or at least suspicious -- disposal accounts for 0.42 pounds per person per week, or 28% of the reduction in garbage observed at the curb.

How a Fee Per-Unit Garbage Affects Aggregate Recycling in a Model with Heterogeneous Households

This paper develops a utility maximizing model of household choice among garbage disposal, recycling, and littering. The impact of a user fee for garbage collection is modelled for heterogeneous households with different preferences for recycling. The model explains (1) why some households participate in curbside recycling programs even in the absence of a user fee, (2) why other households do not participate, even in the presence of a user fee, and (3) why some households choose to litter when others do not. Household choices are aggregated to determine the effect of a user fee on the community-wide quantities of garbage, recycling, and litter. We show how an increase in the user fee can decrease aggregate recycling.

Borderplex Economic Growth: Chicken, Egg, or Scrambled?

Regional debates over which metropoitan economy is the dominant growth pole in multi-city areas can be intense. Such discourse is frequently voiced with regard to economic expansion in the El Paso, Texas, USA - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico borderplex economy. To date, no empirical analyses have been carried out to address that question. Granger causality tests are applied to various cross-border data to shed light on that question and others regarding the nature of regional growth in this international setting.Border economic growth, applied econometrics, population, employment

Borderplex Population Modeling

Although numerous studies have examined international migratory flows from Mexico to the United States, none have previously done so at the metropolitan level. This study utilizes time series data to econometrically model population change for El Paso, Texas, USA and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, including net domestioc and net international migration for both cities. Results obtained indicate that such an approach may be applicable to other border city pairs elsewhere.Border region, population, migration, applied econometrics