This paper investigates the influence of type of roadway, weather conditions and other factors on motorcycle helmet use rates in Iowa. Using data from six statewide roadside observational surveys of motorcycle helmet use, a bivariate probit model is estimated. The applied methodological approach allows for potentially interrelated choices of motorcycle helmet use by drivers and passengers to be...

In this paper it is shown that using the maximum likelihood ML prin ciple for the estimation of multivariate probit models leads to consistent and normally distributed pseudo maximum likelihood regression parame ter estimators PML estimators even if the true correlation structure of the responses is misspeci ed As a consequence e g the PML estimator of the random e ects probit model may be used...

Using newly available data at the firm level, this study provides convincing evidence of the importance of financial constraints in explaining the timing of innovations in the German services sector. Based on a dynamic model of firms‘ optimal R&D behavior under financial constraints, we estimate various versions of an econometric specification of the model with dichotomous innovation data by us...

Several empirical studies have documented that the signs of excess stock returns are, to some extent, predictable. In this paper, we consider the predictive ability of the binary dependent dynamic probit model in predicting the direction of monthly excess stock returns. The recession forecast obtained from the model for a binary recession indicator appears to be the most useful predictive varia...

This study investigates the politico-economic determinants of the crowding-in effects of public investments in a cross-section of 25 developing countries for the 1975-2000 period using multivariate probit analysis. The estimation results show that public fixed capital investments may crowd in private investments, but this still depends on the developments in the economic, political, and legal e...

This study investigates firm survival and employment growth of start-ups by unemployed people in East and West Germany as promoted by the Work Support Act (so called bridging allowances). In 1994, the services provided were improved considerably, which led to a sharp increase in the number of start-ups by the unemployed. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of newly founded firms from th...

We examine how online commenting is affected by different degrees of commenters’ identifiability: 1) real name accounts on social networking sites (or “real name-SNS accounts”; e.g., Facebook); 2) pseudonym accounts on social networking sites (or “pseudonym-SNS account”; e.g., Twitter); 3) pseudonymous accounts outside social networking sites (or “non-SNS accounts”; e.g., an online newspaper we...

The study was conducted to address the issue of consumers’ willingness to pay for inclusion of cassava flour in bread in Lagos State. The data were collected randomly from a sample of 300 respondents in the state through the use of a well structured questionnaire. The contingent valuation method was adopted to estimate both the mean willingness to pay of consumers and the factors that affect th...