infonet-economy

This paper proposes a robust estimator for a general class of linear latent variable models (GLLVM) (Moustaki and Knott 2000, Bartholomew and Knott 1999). It is based on a weighted score function that is simple to implement numerically and is made consistent using the basic idea of indirect inference. The need of a robust estimator for these models is motivated by the study of the…

The effects of active labour market policies (ALMP) on individual employment chances and earnings are evaluated by nonparametric instrumental variables based on Swiss administrative data with detailed re-gional information. Using an exogenous variation in the participation probabilities across fairly autono-mous regional units (cantons) generated by the federal government, we…

In the context of the negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), it has been proposed that signatories agree to enact and enforce a national law against private anti-competitive practices. This paper assesses the feasibility and desirability of such an initiative. The paper starts by documenting and discussing the experience with national anti-cartel enforcement in…

To establish a benchmark, the cross border mergers and acquisitions wave of the late 1990s is compared to its predecessor in the late 1980s. It is found to be at least five times larger (in real terms), to involve firms from more OECD nations, and to include many more service sector transactions. However, in comparison to the size of national stock market capitalizations, foreign…

This note describes eleven policy recommendations that were stimulated by discussions at the above roundtable. The opinions expressed here are my own and need not reflect those of any other participant at the roundtable or, indeed, any official agencies or civil society organisations present. The policy recommendations discussed here may be of interest given the Department of Trade…

It is often argued that the quid pro quo for accepting WTO commitments on national trade barriers and other policies is improved access to foreign markets. In this study disaggregated information on exports by two developing countries (Bulgaria and Ecuador) and on the trade barriers of the Quad industrialised countries is employed to evaluate two hypotheses concerning the benefits of…

The Third Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) was held in Seoul, Korea, on April 21-22, 2004. An ICN panel on Improving the Effectiveness of Competition Advocacy was presented the day before the Annual Conference during the Seoul Competition Forum 2004. The Conference was opened by Dr. Chul-kyu Kang, Chairman, Korea Fair Trade Commission and host of the…

Discussion paper#### Optimal bandwidth choice for matching estimators and their finite sample properties are examined. An approximation to their MSE is derived, as a basis for a plug-in bandwidth selector. In small samples, this approximation is not very accurate, though. Alternatively, conventional cross-validation bandwidth selection is considered and performs rather well. Compared…