infonet-economy

The goal of this paper is to introduce and illustrate a new approach to the stability analysis of sample-paths of nonlinear stochastic economic models with non-stationary components. We place our study within the mathematical theory of random dynamical systems and apply the concept of a random fixed point which is tailor-made for the study of the long-term behavior of sample-paths in...

Die Studie untersucht die Eigenschaften der Unternehmen, die als Erste in einen sich neu oeffnenden Markt investieren. Fuer den ersten Investor bestehen gewisse Vorteile (first-mover-advantages), die einen moeglichst fruehen Eintritt in den Markt nahe legen. Andererseits fuehrt die politische und wirtschaftliche Unsicherheit in Osteuropa zu einem Anreiz, die Investitionsentscheidung...

We show that concerns for fairness may have dramatic consequences for the optimal provision of incentives in a moral hazard context. Incentive contracts that are optimal when there are only selfish actors become inferior when some agents are concerned about fairness. Conversely, contracts that are doomed to fail when there are only selfish actors provide powerful incentives and...

We present results of a negative binomial model on the determinants of the number of days of absence in a given year for a sample of 2049 workers drawn from three factories. We find evidence of the terms of the remuneration contract being important and we offer an interpretation of the differential effect of the company sickpay scheme on the behaviour of workers contracted to work...

This article is concerned with the analysis of correlated count data. A class of models is proposed in which the correlation among the counts is represented by correlated latent effects. Special cases of the model are discussed and a tuned and efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to estimate the model under both multivariate normal and multivariate-t assumptions...

This paper presents a model with flexible wages in which unemployment of low-skilled labor is possible in equilibrium, whereas high-skilled workers are fully employed. Thus, the model can explain why even in countries with flexible labor markets and full employment of skilled labor an employment problem exists at the bottom of the skill spectrum. The model is used to evaluate the...

This contribution purports to come up with reform proposals that promise to improve the benefit-cost ratio in health from the point of view of taxpayers and (potential) patients. It starts by noting that a high and increasing share of health care expenditure in the GDP does not per se indicate a need for reform. Rather, the guiding idea is that decisions in the health care sector...