#2005-076D "Inflation Dynamics: A Cross-Country Investigation"
by Pengfei Wang, and Yi Wen
December 2005
Revised July 2006

We document that "persistent and lagged" inflation (with respect to output) is a world-wide phenomenon in that these short-run inflation dynamics are highly synchronized across countries. In particular, the average cross-country correlation of inflation is significantly and systematically stronger than that of output, while the cross-country correlation of money growth is essentially zero. More...

PUBLISHED: Journal of Monetary Economics, October 2007, 54(7), pp. 2004-31

#2005-075B "Small Caps in International Equity Portfolios: The Effects of Variance Risk"
by Massimo Guidolin, and Giovanna Nicodano
December 2005
Revised August 2007

We show that predictable covariances between means and variances of stock returns may have a first order effect on portfolio composition. In an international asset menu that includes both European and North American small capitalization equity indices, we find that a three-state, heteroskedastic regime switching VAR model is required to provide a good fit to weekly return data and to accurately predict the dynamics in the joint density of returns. More...

FORTHCOMING: Annals of Finance

#2005-074C "Policy Evaluation in the Presence of Outsourcing: Global Competitiveness versus Political Feasibility"
by Subhayu Bandyopadhyay, and Howard J. Wall
December 2005
Revised January 2007

We analyze the effects of outsourcing in the presence of a minimum wage by presenting a general-equilibrium model with an oligopolistic export sector and a competitive import-competing sector. More...

PUBLISHED: Economics and Politics, July 2007, 19(2), pp. 219-34

#2005-073B "Market Timing with Aggregate and Idiosyncratic Stock Volatilities"
by Hui Guo, and Jason Higbee
December 2005
Revised 2006

Guo and Savickas [2005] show that aggregate stock market volatility and average idiosyncratic stock volatility jointly forecast stock returns. In this paper, we quantify the economic significance of their results from the perspective of a portfolio manager. That is, we evaluate the performance, e.g., the Sharpe ratio and Jensen's alpha, of a meanvariance manager who tries to time the market based on those two variables. More...

FORTHCOMING: Journal of Portfolio Management

#2005-072C "Information and Drug Prices: Evidence from the Medicare Discount Drug Card Program"
by Emin M. Dinlersoz, Rubén Hernández-Murillo, Han Li, and Roger Sherman
November 2005
Revised December 2006

In early 2004, the U.S. Government initiated the Medicare Discount Drug Card Program (MDDCP), which created a market for drug cards that allowed elderly and handicapped subscribers to obtain discounts on their prescription drug purchases. More...

#2005-071A "The Practice Boundaries of Advanced Practice Nurses: An Economic and Legal Analysis"
by Michael J. Dueker, Stephen J. Spurr, Ada K. Jacox, and David E. Kalist
November 2005

The purpose of this study is to examine the causes and effects of State regulation that determines the extent of professional independence of advanced practice nurses (APNs). We analyze determinants of these regulations in panel data across States. More...

PUBLISHED: Journal of Regulatory Economics, May 2005, 27(3), pp. 309-30

#2005-070E "Information Shares in the U.S. Treasury Market"
by Bruce Mizrach, and Christopher J. Neely
November 2005
Revised October 2007

This paper characterizes the tatonnement of high-frequency returns from U.S. Treasury spot and futures markets. In particular, we highlight the previously neglected role of the futures markets in price discovery. More...

FORTHCOMING: Journal of Banking and Finance

#2005-069E "Ethnic Networks and U.S. Exports"
by Subhayu Bandyopadhyay, Cletus C. Coughlin, and Howard J. Wall
October 2005
Revised January 2006

This paper provides new estimates of the effects of ethnic networks on U.S. exports. More...

PUBLISHED: Review of International Economics, February 2008, 16(1), pp. 199-213

#2005-068B "Heterogeneous Firms, Productivity, and Poverty Traps"
by Levon Barseghyan, and Riccardo DiCecio
October 2005
Revised December 2006

We present a model of endogenous total factor productivity which generates poverty traps. More...

#2005-067A "Productivity Measurement and Monetary Policymaking During the 1990s"
by Richard G. Anderson, and Kevin L. Kliesen
October 2005

The acceleration of productivity growth during the latter half of the 1990s was both the defining economic event of the decade and a major topic of debate among Federal Reserve policymakers. A key aspect of the debate was the conflict between incoming aggregate data, which initially suggested little productivity gain, and anecdotal firm-level evidence which hinted at an acceleration. More...