wheat from chaff meta analysis as quantitative literature review abstract this paper presents and develops a quantitative method of literature reviewing and evaluating empirical research meta regression analysis or mra economics is theory driven yet we must learn empirically if economics is to advance mra offers a more objective statistical method to summarize our empirical knowledge and to explain the wide study to study variation in economic research mra is used to assess the evidence for ricardian equivalence and its findings are contrasted to those of conventional narrative review furthermore mra establishes a platform from which to distinguish genuine empirical effect from the exploitable specification error that infests applied econometrics

armington elasticities for energy policy modeling evidence from four european countries elasticities of substitution among imports and competing domestic production armington elasticities play an important role in computable general equilibrium cge assessments of energy and climate policy this paper provides estimates of armington elasticities for 15 commodity groups in four european countries since armington elasticities are found to be rather low on average researchers may want to reconsider the device of using high values of armington elasticities in cge models to avoid unrealistic competitiveness effects or emission leakage rates associated with energy or carbon taxes or other forms of energy related regulation estimated elasticities tend to be higher in the case of machinery and other investment goods than in the case of primary products ores and chemicals as well as consumer goods

market imperative and cluster evolution in china evidence from shunde drawing upon the notion of lock in in evolutionary economic geography perspective and concept of market imperative in global production network 2 0 theory this study explores the role of market im

model averaging and its use in economics the method of model averaging has become an important tool to deal with model uncertainty for example in situations where a large amount of different theories exist as are common in economics model averaging is a natural and formal response to model uncertainty in a bayesian framework and most of the paper deals with bayesian model averaging the important role of the prior assumptions in these bayesian procedures is highlighted in addition frequentist model averaging methods are also discussed numerical methods to implement these methods are explained and i point the reader to some freely available computational resources the main focus is on uncertainty regarding the choice of covariates in normal linear regression models but the paper also covers other more challenging settings with particular emphasis on sampling models commonly used in economics applications of model averaging in economics are reviewed and discussed in a wide range of areas among which growth economics production modelling finance and forecasting macroeconomic quantities

european community enlargement and world trade in fruits and vegetables world trade models for the product classes fresh fruits dried fruits processed fruits fresh vegetables and processed vegetables are estimated and used to project the impact on export prices and trade patterns likely to arise after the european economic community enlargement with greece portugal and spain the results indicate that current world trends in import demands and export supplies if continued and in the absence of enlargement will cause marked declines of export prices for four of the above product categories except dried fruits the enlargement will not significantly modify these price projections but it will divert a significant part of european community imports of these products to the three new member countries on 1 january 1981 greece became the tenth country to join the european community ec spain and portugal have also applied for full ec membership and negotiations are underway with an anticipated date of both spanish and portuguese accession of 1986 agriculture has loomed large in the enlargement negotiations with spain greece and portugal sgp given that the national product in these three countries depends much more on agriculture than in the average country of the former ec nine within agriculture

estimating the armington elasticity the importance of study design and publication bias abstract a key parameter in international economics is the elasticity of substitution between domestic and foreign goods also called the armington elasticity yet estimates vary widely we collect 3524 reported estimates of the elasticity construct 32 variables that reflect the context in which researchers obtain their estimates and examine what drives the heterogeneity in the results to account for model uncertainty we employ bayesian and frequentist model averaging to correct for publication bias we use newly developed non linear techniques our main results are threefold first there is publication bias against small and statistically insignificant elasticities second differences in results are best explained by differences in data aggregation frequency size and dimension third the elasticity implied by the literature after accounting for both publication bias and study quality lies in the range 2 5 5 1 with a median of 3 8

cluster versus firm specific factors in the development of dynamic capabilities in the pharmaceutical industry in ireland a study of responses to changes in environmental protection regulations hilliard r and jacobson d cluster versus firm specific factors in the development of dynamic capabilities in the pharmaceutical industry in ireland a study of responses to changes in environmental protection regulations regional studies this paper uses the evolutionary economic theory of the firm to examine the response of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms to changes in environmental regulations quantitative indicators of firms learning and problem solving are developed using data reported to the irish environmental protection agency epa these are used to look at differences in capability between firms that are part of a pharmaceutical agglomeration and firms that are stand alone analysis shows that spatial proximity may be a factor in firms ability to implement both cleaner technology and the mandated managerial processes but that the strength of problem solving routines is also associated with firm specific capabilities hilliard r et jacobson d les facteurs specifiques aux grappes par r

global models applied to agricultural and trade policies a review and assessment the continuing process of global integration bears implications for farmers and related supplying and processing industries in all parts of the world but also for the rest of the world economy an assessment of agricultural and trade policy impacts is bound to be complex and is often supported by quantitative modeling analysis this article provides an assessment of the present state of applied modelling in the area of trade and agricultural policies we provide in this paper a comparative assessment of alternative modelling approaches considering a total of 16 partial equilibrium and general equilibrium models the assessment includes theoretical modelling foundations datasets employed and institutional aspects such as model maintenance and dissemination of results a typology of models is provided by structuring the assessment along a clear set of evaluation criteria

trade liberalization and agricultural chemical use united states and mexico to anticipate the likely effects of recent trade agreements with mexico on the environment and food safety this paper examines changes in agricultural chemical use econometric estimation and simulation suggest that the combined effects of the north american free trade agreement nafta economic growth research investment and farm policy are expected to increase chemical usage substantially in the united states and undoubtedly lead to greater groundwater contamination in mexico the expected effects are a substantial increase in fertilizer use but a decrease in pesticide use increases in private research investment are expected to increase the use of both types of chemicals but increases in public research investment in the united states are not

bank competition and financial stability much ado about nothing the theoretical literature gives conflicting predictions on how bank competition should affect financial stability and dozens of researchers have attempted to evaluate the relationship empirically we collect 598 estimates of the competition stability nexus reported in 31 studies and analyze the literature using meta analysis methods we control for 35 aspects of study design and employ bayesian model averaging to tackle the resulting model uncertainty our findings suggest that the definition of financial stability and bank competition used by researchers influences their results in a systematic way the choice of data estimation methodology and control variables also affects the reported coefficient we find evidence for moderate publication bias taken together the estimates reported in the literature suggest little interplay between competition and stability even when corrected for publication bias and potential misspecifications this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

the price stabilization effects of the eu entry price scheme for fruit and vegetables the paper assesses the stabilization effects of the eu import regime for fresh fruit and vegetables based on the entry price system the analysis is carried out on the eu prices of tomatoes and lemons and those of imports from some of the main competing countries on the eu domestic markets morocco argentina and turkey it is based on the estimation of a threshold vector autoregressive econometric model that is shown capable of taking the workings of the import regime into account the model shows that prices behave differently when import prices are above below the trigger entry price this paper allowed to highlight the cases for which the isolation effect of eps seems reached and the resulting stabilization effects

the effects of trade policies for fresh fruit and vegetables of the european union abstract this paper examines the economic effects of the trade policies for fresh fruit and vegetables adopted by the european union eu after the uruguay round agreement on agriculture uraa the new import regimes are based on entry prices that in effect work as minimum prices at the same time the eu has signed trade preference agreements particularly with southern mediterranean countries that are important suppliers of fruit and vegetables to the eu the management of the import regime is a balance between two conflicting objectives to support internal producers and to preserve trade flows from preferred countries on the side of export subsidies to handle the reduction commitments under the uraa the eu has introduced rationing trough tender procedures the analysis shows that such subsidies do not seem able to boost the exports of eligible products therefore eu policy makers should ask whether the eu should continue to offer such subsidies

explaining armington what determines substitutability between home and foreign goods for decades trade economists have modeled imperfect substitution between home and foreign goods in consumption often called the armington assumption with little analysis of what explains the wide variation in these substitution elasticities across sectors using a varying coefficients model the authors estimate armington elasticities between u s domestic and foreign goods across over one hundred industrial sectors from 1980 to 1988 and examine the role of product industry political and home bias factors as determinants they find strong support that the presence of foreign owned affiliates affects armington elasticities in important ways and some support that entry barriers and union presence have an effect

the semiflexible almost ideal demand system abstract the concept of a semiflexible functional form is applied to the almost ideal ai demand system this yields a demand model that is more parsimonious than standard ones while preserving a degree of flexibility that satisfies the curvature property of concavity of the underlying expenditure function at least locally and that preserves the desirable properties of the ai model aggregation across consumers and nonlinearity of the engel curves the model is illustrated with an application to a relatively large demand system emphasizing food consumption

remittances and economic growth a meta analysis abstract expatriate workers remittances represent an important source of financing for low and middle income countries no consensus however has yet emerged regarding the effect of remittances on economic growth in a quantitative survey of 538 estimates reported in 95 studies we find that approximately 40 of the studies report a positive effect 40 report no effect and 20 report a negative effect our results indicate publication bias in favor of positive effects correcting for the bias using recently developed techniques we find that the mean effect of remittances on growth is still positive but economically small nevertheless our results uncover noticeable regional differences remittances are growth enhancing in asia but not in africa studies that do not control for alternative sources of external finance such as foreign aid and foreign direct investment mismeasure the effect of remittances finally time series studies and studies ignoring endogeneity issues report systematically larger effects of remittances on growth

an ex ante model for estimating the impact on trade flows of a country s accession to a customs union this paper presents a structural ex ante model to study the trade creation and trade diversion effects associated with a country s accession to a customs union the model extends previous studies by introducing explicitly product differentiation and exports in the determination of trade creation and trade diversion unlike the traditional vinerian analysis where the role of exports is neglected the model handles the effects of the elimination of the common external tariff facing home exports the model is then applied to portugal s accession to the european community and estimates of trade substitution elasticities are presented for 26 sectors finally these elasticities are used along with other parameter estimates to classify sectors according to whether they would give rise to trade creation or trade diversion

the impact of operating in multiple value chains for upgrading the case of the brazilian furniture and footwear industries summary exporting has been upheld as the golden standard for industrial upgrading however research using the value chain approach shows that upgrading for developing country firms is often limited to the lowest value added activities based on comparative research carried out in two brazilian clusters furniture and footwear industries this paper shows that domestic and regional value chains can offer greater upgrading opportunities providing space for activities of higher value added better remunerated and difficult to replicate notably design marketing and branding moreover this study highlights that many firms simultaneously serve multiple value chains multichain and that multichain firms have better upgrading prospects than those primarily exporting via global value chains

seasonal protection of f v imports in the eu impacts of the entry price system the measures of border protection applied by the european union eu to imports of fruits and vegetables fv are complex and usually not well represented in trade models not only because of the range of instruments still constraining trade but also because of product differentiation and seasonality in these products this article assesses the impact of eliminating entry price ep constraints applied to a group of fv products the proposed model is of a partial equilibrium nature and takes seasonality into account we have applied the model to imports of tomatoes cucumbers clementines and table grapes trade impacts of eliminating ep are significant for particular origins during specific seasons most notably for moroccan tomatoes the volumes and prices of products originating in the eu experience moderate reductions

habit formation in consumption a meta analysis abstract we examine 597 estimates of habit formation reported in 81 published studies the mean reported strength of habit formation equals 0 4 but the estimates vary widely both within and across studies we use bayesian and frequentist model averaging to assign a pattern to this variance while taking into account model uncertainty studies employing macro data report consistently larger estimates than micro studies 0 6 vs 0 1 on average the difference remains 0 5 when we control for 30 factors that reflect the context in which researchers obtain their estimates such as data frequency geographical coverage variable definition estimation approach and publication characteristics we also find that evidence for habits strengthens when researchers use lower data frequencies employ log linear approximation of the euler equation and utilize open economy dsge models moreover estimates of habits differ systematically across countries

the eu entry price system for fresh fruits and vegetables paper tiger or powerful market barrier abstract the eu protects eu growers of 15 kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables against international competition by the entry price system eps which is designed to restrict imports below the product specific politically designated entry price level this study investigates the relevance of the eps per product and country of origin we develop two indicators for the effectiveness of the eps which serve as variables in a cluster analysis identifying four classes differing in the relevance of the eps the relevance of the eps is found to be heterogeneous among products as well as countries of origin it is highest for artichokes courgettes cucumbers lemons plums and tomatoes the influence of the eps on apples clementines and pears is significantly lower and of least relevance for apricots mandarins oranges peaches and nectarines and table grapes the eps has the greatest effect on countries which neighbour the eu whereas it is of minor importance for exports from far away countries with the exception of china and south africa

the impact of the gatt agreement on eu fruit and vegetable policy abstract this paper examines the eu s plans for implementing the uruguay round gatt agreement on agriculture with respect to fresh fruits and vegetables it considers the import access export subsidy and domestic support commitments in particular the eu has decided to retain a minimum import price regime for fresh fruits and vegetables the new entry price system displacing the old reference price system is to apply on a consignment basis the entry price and reference price systems are compared and some conclusions drawn about the likely impact of entry prices on potential third country suppliers of the eu market