infonet-economy

The demarcation between debt and equity is a long-standing core constituent of company and taxation law the world over. However, its sustainability for national and international taxation regimes is increasingly the subject of doubt. Domestic and international proposals for reform are directed towards either rendering the classification of financial instruments as equity or debt...

This paper investigates regional differences in the perception of corruption and informal practices among Ukrainian firms. Using two different data sets from Ukraine we show that perceived corruption differs significantly across regions, even when taking into account the size, industry, workforce composition, and other characteristics of the firms based on propensity score matching....

This paper analyzes the reaction of the S&P 500 returns to changes in implied volatility given by the VIX index, using a daily data sample from 1990 to 2012. We found that in normal regimes increases (declines) in the expected market volatility result in lower (higher) subsequent stock market returns. Thus, investors enter into selling positions upon a perception of increased...

The nonparametric identification of the local average treatment effect (LATE) hinges on the satisfaction of three instrumental variable assumptions: (1) unconfounded assignment of the instrument, (2) no average direct effect of the instrument on the outcome within compliance types (exclusion restriction), and (3) weak monotonicity of the treatment in the instrument. While (1) often...

In 2009, The Economist noted that "Atlas felt a sense of déjà vu": in the wake of the economic crisis and the market interventions by the US government, the novels by Ayn Rand (1905-1982) experienced an actual renaissance and would keep making news thanks to the Tea Party movement as well as due to high-profile US politicians like Paul Ryan, who had to explain the extent of...

The purpose of this article is to structure the extant knowledge on the determinants of microinsurance demand in a manner that achieves several outcomes. First is to offer a specific economic structure to the review through use of Outreville's insurance demand framework. Second is to identify key questions that arise out of structuring the material in this way. In particular, we...