This essay assesses the relationship between farm size and productivity. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to derive efficiency measures. Smaller farms are found to have higher net farm income per hectare, and to be more technically efficient, than larger farms. JEL Classifications: Q12, O12

We compare the behavior of car mechanics and college students as sellers in experimental credence goods markets. Finding largely similar behavior, we note much more overtreatment by car mechanics, probably due to decision heuristics they learned in their professional training. JEL classifications: C91, D82, C72

This paper evaluates the hypothesis that during the 2008-2009 collapse in international trade, imports of higher quality goods experienced larger reductions compared to low-quality imports, using data on U.S. imports disaggregated by HS-10 product category and source country. We find little, if any, robust econometric evidence in support of this hypothesis. JEL Classifications: F41, F42

Fraud is an ancient crime and one that annually causes hundreds of billions of dollars in losses. We examine the behavioral patterns over time of different types of frauds, which illustrate cyclical frequencies. We develop an evolutionary theory that suggests cyclic behavior in frauds should be common. JEL classifications: D92, L15, P17

We investigate how the relative contribution of external factors to stock price movements varies with the degree of financial development. We find that financial development makes stock markets more susceptible to external influences (both financial and macroeconomic). Interestingly, this effect is present even after having accounted for capital controls and international trade effects. JEL Cla...

An identity links the rate of economic growth, the speed of poverty reduction and changes in the distribution of income during some time period in a given country. A few authors used that identity to understand the causes for observed changes in poverty and to identify the exact role of economic growth in poverty reduction. Yet, many empirical cross-country studies of the relationship between g...

Recently, computer simulation, particularly agent-based modeling, has grown in popularity as a method to uncover macro patterns and developments that emerge from simple micro behavior. The present paper combines both techniques by using protocol analysis to uncover player strategies in an experiment and encoding those strategies in an agent-based computer simulation. In particular, Keynes’ (193...

We present a simple theoretical framework that integrates the notion of the natural or neutral interest rate, liquidity preference theory, and the monetary policy practice by modern central banks. We claim that this theory explains the conditions under which an economy will experience an aggregate demand deficiency problem within a modern institutional setting. Contrary to the predictions of th...

This note considers Tobin’s average Q in a framework where firms finance investment by equities and debt. The determination of its long-run equilibrium value Qo is based on positing equality of the loan rate and, adjusted for a risk premium, the return on equities. Qo can thus be characterized as a ratio of two rates representing the somewhat modified interest costs and profits of the firms. Th...

The model presented in this paper distinguishes an industrial and an agricultural sector within a developing economy. Environmental degradation results from the overexploitation of a renewable resource due to a common pool externality, which causes agricultural productivity to decline. The model considers a di erentiated peasantry where land ownership and savings behaviour di er across income c...