INFER working papers

The INFER Working Paper Series is an un-refereed publication series that covers all areas of economics. The purpose of this series is to bring early research work as quickly as possible into the public domain. Hence, the copyrights of the papers published here remain with the authors. Therefore, it is the authors' responsibility to inform INFER about any change of copyright. As a result, INFER does not accept any liability for copyright breach if INFER was not informed about copyright changes.

Authors who are interested in publishing in the Working Paper series should contact info@infer.info


Choose serie of publication in INFER publishing house:

 

List of all publications by publishing house:
INFER

pages: 1 | 2 |

next +

The Development of the Irish Private Health Insurance Market and Evidence of Selection Effects Therein

Author: Brian Turner Edward Shinnick
Vol.: 2008.1
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2008
No of pages: 29
ISBN none
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to download EUR

This paper tracks the development of the Irish private health insurance market, both in terms of its legislative background and the development of competition. Literature on adverse selection and risk selection is then reviewed. Data from two surveys of consumers are then analysed to determine whether evidence exists of adverse selection or risk selection in the Irish private health insurance market. Both of these issues are relevant in the context of the debate over risk equalisation in the market in Ireland.

Files to download:

 

Asymmetries in Heterogeneous Integrated Areas: Evidence from Intra-EU Sectoral Trade

Author: Helena Marques
Vol.: 2008.2
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2008
No of pages: 21
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to download EUR

This paper estimates gravity models for both directions of trade between the EU-15 and the CEEC-10. The two groups form a heterogeneous integrated area (EU-27) with respect to country size, income levels, relative factor endowments and a different history of economic systems. The estimation was conducted on industries with different degrees of scale economies and factor-intensities in the presence of both spatial (distance and borders) and non-spatial (Eastern enlargements and Euro membership) trade costs. The results highlight the asymmetry in intra-bloc trade when the latter is heterogeneous: country size, income, factor endowments and the various trade barriers or facilitators are found to be significant determinants of intra-EU trade but to an extent that is country and industry-specific. The results also show how this heterogeneity eliminates the equivalence between exports and imports as the dependent variable in gravity models and makes the results sensitive to the definition of the bilateral flows to be estimated.

Files to download:

 

The Impact of R&D Spillovers on Export Value: Does the Transmission Channel matter?

Author: Jan Van Hove
Vol.: 2008.3
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2008
No of pages: 34
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to download EUR

There is overwhelming evidence in the literature that open economies benefit from spillover effects from foreign R&D efforts. These effects increase in particular total factor productivity. Several transmission channels have been detected and studied intensively. Most of them are related to foreign direct investments or international trade. These real economic phenomena are themselves affected by spillovers, either indirectly through their effect on total factor productivity or directly through, for example, increased business contacts between investors, traders and producers.  In this empirical paper we study the effects of R&D spillovers on exports within the OECD. Previous evidence pointed to the crucial role of the transmission channel for such spillovers. Therefore we distinguish between trade-related and foreign-direct-investment related channels and indicators. By doing so we are able to determine the relevance and importance of each of the suggested channels and measures. We control for alternative determinants of export value by extending the well-accepted gravity model for international trade by incorporating R&D spillovers in the standard gravity specification. Our results indicate that – at least at the macro-level – the choice of the transmission channel matters. In particular we find clear evidence that imports are an important transmission channel for technological spillovers, whereas there is only weak evidence in favour of any role for foreign direct investments. Hence these findings simply that openness to trade is a better policy in order to benefit from foreign knowledge than openness to investments.

Files to download:

 

Social Energy - A New Form of Perceiving Capital in Postmodern Economy

Author: Artur Mazurkiewicz
Vol.: 2008.4
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2008
No of pages: 22
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to download EUR

The presented paper deals with the issue of social creation of knowledge in the postmodern economic order. The concept of beneficients as a core idea of this conception in connection with thermodynamic analogy in interdisciplinary problem leads to the materialistic and intellectual dual analysis of sustainable phenomenon of development and creation of knowledge. The paper discusses the possibility of a new way of development of institutional economy in the direction of knowledge economy and the change in an approach to an organisation from the traditional systemic to a cooperating community. The presented considerations are a germ of intellectual infrastructure and supporting the process of structural learning and sustainable development with artificial intelligence. It has been suggested that social energy should be considered as an alternative way of perceiving development.

Files to download:

 

Educational Thresholds and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Brazilian States

Author: Tulio A. Cravo Elias Soukiazis
Vol.: 2009.1
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2009
No of pages: 27
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to download EUR

This paper examines the convergence process in Brazil over the period of 1985-2004, giving a special attention to the role of human capital as a conditioning factor to convergence. It examines how different levels of human capital influence growth in different regions of Brazil. Different measures of human capital are used in the growth regressions and the results show that they play a significant role in explaining the growth process. The evidence indicates that different levels of human capital have different impacts on the per capita income growth, depending on the level of development of the states. Lower levels of human capital explain better the convergence among the less developed states and higher levels of human capital are more adequate among the more developed states. The impact of the relative intermediate levels of human capital on growth is stronger in all samples, suggesting the existence of threshold effect in education.

Files to download:

 

Workers’ Remittances and Growth in MENA Labor Exporting Countries

Author: Sufian Eltayeb Mohamed
Vol.: 2009.10
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2009
No of pages: 19
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to download EUR

This paper presents an empirical examination of effects of workers’ remittance on economic growth in a sample of 7 remittance-receiving MENA countries. In order to empirically analyze the impact of remittances we estimate growth equations using a set of 7 MENA labor exporting countries during the period 1975-2006. A standard growth models are estimated using both fixed-effects and random effects models. The empirical results show the support of the fixed –effects method as the random effects model is rejected in statistical tests. The results show the support for the view that remittances have a positive impact on growth both directly and indirectly through their interactions with financial and institutional channels.

Files to download:

 

IMMIGRATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN A FORMER EMIGRANT COUNTRY: THE CASE OF SPAIN

Author: José-Ignacio Antón Rafael Muñoz de Bustillo Miguel Carrera
Vol.: 2009.2
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2009
No of pages: 20
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price free to download EUR

This article analyses the immigrant-native wage differentials in Spain, which only recently has become a host country. The paper exploits the Earnings Structure Survey 2006, which is the first nationally representative sample of both foreign and Spanish employees. Using the Machado-Mata econometric procedure, wage differentials between locals and foreigners are decomposed into the gap related to characteristics and the one due to different returns on endowments (i.e., discrimination). We find that, in absolute terms, the latter component grows across wage distribution, reflecting the existence of a kind of glass ceiling consistent with the evidence of over-education found by previous research.

Files to download:

 

Determinants of Export Specialization in ICT Products: A Cross-Country Analysis

Author: Klimis Vogiatzoglou
Vol.: 2009.3
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2009
No of pages: 22
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to Download EUR

In this paper the determinants of ICT export specialization are investigated with a panel- econometric analysis, which includes 28 countries. ICT exports are broken down into three broad ICT product groups (electronic data processing machines, integrated circuits and electronic components, and telecommunications equipment), and the determinants are examined for each of the above product categories. Our results indicate that technology factors, such as Research & Development expenditure and human capital constitute significant determinants. However, other deterministic factors, related to more recent trade theories, seem to be relatively more important.

Files to download:

 

Forecasting Romanian Financial System Stability using a Stochastic Simulation Model

Author: Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu
Vol.: 2009.4
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2009
No of pages: 22
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price Free to Download EUR

The aim of this paper is to develop an aggregate stability index for the Romanian financial system, which is meant to enhance the set of analysis used by authorities to assess the financial system stability. The index takes into consideration indicators related to financial system development, vulnerability, soundness and also indicators which characterise the international economic climate. Another purpose of our study is to forecast the financial stability level, using a stochastic simulation model. The outcome of the study shows an improvement of the Romanian financial system stability during the period 1999-2007. The constructed aggregate index captures the financial turbulences periods like 1998-1999 Romanian banking crisis and 2007 subprime crisis. The forecasted values of the index show a deterioration of financial stability in 2009, influenced by the estimated decline of the financial and economic activity.

Files to download:

 

The demand for football tickets depending on the number of clubs in a city – Empirical evidence from Germany –

Author: Markus Breuer
Vol.: 2009.5
Publishing house: INFER
Place: London
year: 2009
No of pages: 18
ISBN n/a
category INFER Working Papers
price free todownlad EUR

The demand for football tickets in European top-leagues has been subject of several studies within the last years e. g. in France, England and Germany. These papers focussed mainly on single matches and the significance of factors like uncertainty, performance of the clubs or date and time of a competition. In contrast this paper tries to build up a simple model to estimate the average number of visitors in the course of a whole season. Moreover the market entrance of a second club is considered. While in stage one an old-established club represents a regional monopolist, in stage two another club qualifies itself for playing in the first division what breaks up the old monopolistic position. Finally the model assumptions are compared to empirical findings from Germany and its major league.

Files to download:

 

pages: 1 | 2 |

next +

 



News


2010-07-05

Publications in LAP

INFER Series in Applied Economics

Designer Replica Handbags


2010-06-19

Upcoming Workshops

 

Call for Papers

 

International Workshop on
Recent Issues in Economic Geography
2-3 December 2010, Leuven (Belgium)

jointly organized by the
Leuven Centre for Irish Studies, K.U.Leuven
and the
International Network for Economic Research (INFER)

This workshop brings together international economists on recent topics in economic geography. It provides an opportunity to discuss related research in a relaxed atmosphere. The workshop accepts papers in the field of economic geography, broadly defined, including regional, trade and growth issues. Researchers are invited to submit both empirical and theoretical papers that are consistent with the workshop’s special topic.
In particular, we welcome papers from the following fields:
- Location decisions of multinationals
- Spatial tax competition
- Growth and its spatial implications
- The impact of geography on international trade
- Dynamics of urban and regional development
- The organization of the value chain
- Spatial implications for the labour market
- Organizing industrial spaces

Keynote Speakers
We are happy to welcome the following internationally distinguished keynote speakers:
- Prof. Dr. Marius Brülhart (University of Lausanne)
- Prof. Dr. Ron Davies (University College Dublin)

Organization
The workshop is jointly organized by the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies and the International Network for Economic Research (INFER).
The Leuven Centre for Irish Studies is a research centre that was recently set up at the Catholic University of Leuven, with the support of the Irish government. It is located in the historical (and recently renovated) Irish College in Leuven. The Economics Division of the Centre focuses on economic issues related to small open economies. In particular the Centre’s research deals with international trade, foreign direct investments, innovation, labour market issues etc. The Leuven Centre for Irish Studies cooperates with many other research departments of the Catholic University of Leuven, as well as with several international research partners, in particular in Ireland. (www.irishstudies.kuleuven.be) For more information regarding the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies please contact the research director Jan Van Hove: jan.vanhove@econ.kuleuven.be .
INFER is a non-profit international scientific organization that stimulates research and research networking in all fields of economics through international workshops and conferences. Website: www.infer-research.net
Submission of Papers
Only full papers may be submitted, preferably in pdf-format. Papers should be submitted to Karolien De Bruyne by e-mail: karolien.debruyne@econ.kuleuven.be

Deadline for paper submission is October 5, 2010.

Authors are allowed to submit more than one paper. All submitted papers will be peer reviewed according to a high-quality and fast referee process. By the middle of October, authors will be notified whether their paper is accepted for presentation at the workshop.

Paper presenters are expected to discuss one other paper during the workshop. The discussant assignments will be made by the workshop organizers at a later date. As the workshop intends to build a network in this research area, participation is welcome even without paper contributions.

More information under www.infer-research.net/Leuven

 

INFER Workshop on
Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy:
Economics, Innovation, Competition and Social Change
22-23 October, 2010

Organized by

INFER International Network for Economic Research
and
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Babeº-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania


Workshop Objectives
This INFER workshop provides an opportunity for all economists interested to exchange ideas, to create links in research and to meet fellows in related subject. Researchers are invited to submit theoretical and applied papers broadly consistent with the topic of the workshop “Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy: Economics, Innovation, Competition and Social Change”. This workshop is organised by the Competition Theory and Policy and the Bounded Rationality working group.

We welcome papers from the following fields:
- Economic Policies and Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship practices and Business Models
- Regional development and Emergent markets challenges
- Corporate entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Credit Crunch and Entrepreneurship
- Market Structure and Business Models

The workshop is open to anybody involved in these research areas, including both young and
experienced researchers, Ph.D. students, post-doctoral researchers, and professionals from
business, government and non-governmental institutions.

Keynote speakers will be invited to speak on this year’s topic.

Workshop organizing comitee

Christian Richter (Kingston University), c.richter@kingston.ac.uk
Prof. Dumitru Matiº, (Babeº-Bolyai University), dmatiº@econ.ubbcluj.ro
Borza Anca, (Babeº-Bolyai University), anca.borza@econ.ubbcluj.ro
Supuran Roxana, (Babeº-Bolyai University), roxana.supuran@econ.ubbcluj.ro
Bordean Ovidiu, (Babeº-Bolyai University), ovidiu.bordean@econ.ubbcluj.ro

Participants
The workshop is open to anybody involved in economic issues related with the topic, including both young and experienced researchers from academics and research institutes, post-doctoral students, and professionals from business, government and non-governmental institutions.
Submission of Papers
Only full papers may be submitted. All papers should be submitted electronically to the workshop organizers, as doc or pdf files (preferably pdf):
Christian Richter at c.richter@kingston.ac.uk
Supuran Roxana at roxana.supuran@econ.ubbcluj.ro
Bordean Ovidiu at ovidiu.bordean@econ.ubbcluj.ro

Deadline for paper submission is June 5, 2010.

All papers must include a cover page with the following information:
• An abstract of up to 500 words, with JEL classification and no more than 5 key words;
• Authors’ full name, affiliation;
• Contact details for corresponding author, such as address, phone, and e-mail.

Papers must be in English and should not exceed 25 pages (A4 or letter) including all references, tables and appendix. The text should be formatted in Times New Roman 14pt with 1.2 line space and 2.5 cm (1 inch) margin on each side. Footnotes should be formatted in 12pt with 1.2 line space. Please avoid colors in graphs and pages in landscape.
All papers will be peer reviewed.

Authors of accepted papers will be notified no later than: July 5, 2010.

Paper presenters are expected to discuss one other paper during the workshop. The discussant assignments will be made by the workshop organizers at a later date.

Location

The workshop will be held at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Babeº-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, street Theodor Mihali no.58-60, postal code 400591 (university campus).

Cluj-Napoca lies approximately 440 km north-west of Bucharest, in the valley of Somesul Mic River. The city used to be the capital of the historical province of Transylvania and is one of the most important, academic, cultural and an industrial center in Romania today.The origin of the Transylvanian University dates back to the 16th century with a Jesuit College and its history was profoundly linked with the history of our country. It was set up as a Romanian University 88 years ago, in November 1919. The university takes part in international networks: the European University Association, the International Association of Universities as well as in regional networks- the Danube Rectors’Conference and the Association of Carpathian University. The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration is one of the most modern and dynamic faculties of the “Babeº-Bolyai” University. For more details visit website: www.ubbcluj.ro. 

Further information under http://www.infer-research.net/workshops.php?id=15

 

Call for Papers

International Workshop on
Negative Nominal Interest Rates: History and current proposals

16th of July, 2010, at the University of Muenster, Muenster (Westphalia), Germany
Organized by
INFER – International Network for Economic Research
CAWM – Centrum für angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung Münster (Centre for Applied Economic Research) 

This workshop provides an opportunity for all those interested in the subject of negative nominal interest rates to discuss their research and to exchange ideas. Researchers are invited to submit both empirical and theoretical papers that are broadly consistent with the workshop’s special topic.

The workshop is open to anybody involved in these research areas, including both young and experienced researchers, Ph.D. students, post-doctoral researchers, and professionals from business, government and non-governmental institutions. A selection of papers will be published in a workshop volume and/or a special issue in one of INFER’s co-operating journals.

Paper Submission
We welcome any historical, theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented papers that deal with negative interest rates and their implications. Abstracts (of no more than 200 words) and papers should be submitted electronically (word doc or pdf format) NLT
31st of May, 2010
at the following email address:
infer@insiwo.de
The front page should indicate the authors’ full name, affiliation, address, phone/fax, and e-mail for correspondence and JEL classification. Abstracts and papers must be in English. Papers should not exceed 25 pages (A4 or letter) including all references, tables, etc.
Authors are allowed to submit more than one paper. All submitted papers will be peer reviewed according to a high-quality and fast referee process. Within two weeks after submission, but not later that 15th of June 2010, you will receive an e-mail indicating whether your paper is accepted for presentation during the workshop or not.
Paper presenters are expected to discuss one other paper during the workshop. The discussant assignments will be made by the workshop organizers at a later date. As the workshop intends to build a network in this research area, participation is welcome even without paper contributions.

Registration and Registration Fee
The registration fee for presenting and non-presenting participants will be:
• INFER members/institutional members: 60 EUR
• Non-members: 120 EUR
Please note: the annual membership fee for private INFER members is 25 EUR only (institutional INFER members 200 EUR). You are invited to become a member!

The registration fee includes all lunches, drinks etc. during the workshop. It doesn’t include travel and accommodation expenses. All workshop participants have to register for the workshop. Please note that paper submission is not regarded as a registration.

Please register on the INFER website (www.infer-research.net). Payment can be done via PayPal on the website. Note that you can use the same website to become an INFER member. You will also receive a confirmation email

Deadline for registration and payment: 15th of July, 2010.
In case of registrations after 15th of July, the fees will be increased by 50%.

Location
The workshop will be held at the
CAWM (Centrum für angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung)
University of Muenster,
Am Stadtgraben 9,
48143 Münster, Germany.

The conference will be held at the University of Muenster, Germany. Münster is a city full of history and full of stories; it is a city which has remained young at heart for more than 1200 years. High-tech and traditional trade, baroque noble residences and modern architecture, a historic city centre and progressive urban development are not opposites in Münster, but merely features of a lively city more than half of whose inhabitants are younger than 30 years of age. As the so-called "desktop" of Westphalia, Münster is an important location for the coordination of business, administration, science, culture and the social life of the region.

Further information
Questions about local organization issues may be directed to the local conference organizers
• Cordelius Ilgmann: infer@insiwo.de
• Ulrich van Suntum: vansuntum@insiwo.de
Questions about INFER may be directed to the INFER Board through:
info@infer.info

Designer Replica Handbags


2010-02-02

INFER Working Papers

Recent Publications

  • Working Paper 2009.5: Markus Breuer: The demand for football tickets depending on the number of clubs in a city - Empirical evidence from Germany
  • Working Paper 2009.6: d’Artis Kancs and Pavel Ciaian: The Factor Content of Heterogeneous Firm Trade
  • Working Paper 2009.7: d’Artis Kancs: Structural Estimation of Variety Gains from Trade Integration in Asia 
  • Working Paper 2009.8: John Ryan: China and the Global Roles of Currencies
  • Working Paper 2009.9: John Ryan: United Kingdom Eurozone Entry Scenarios Evaluated
  • Working Paper 2009.10: Sufian Eltayeb Mohamed: Workers’ Remittances and Growth in MENA Labor Exporting Countries
  • Working Paper 2010.1: Mario Cunha and Christian Richter: Modelling the Cyclical Behaviour of Wine Production in the Douro Region Using a Time-Varying Parameters Approach
  • Working Paper 2010.2: Bousrih Jihene: Degree of Openness and Inflation Targeting Policy: Model of a Small Open Economy
Designer Replica Handbags

read more +