This paper develops a novel statistic for firm efficiency called efficiency depth that allows for statistical inference in case of errors-in-variables. We derive statistical tests that require minimal statistical assumptions; neither the sample distribution nor the noise level is required. An empirical illustration for European banks illustrates that – despite the minimal assumptionsthe tests c...

this paper identifies characteristics of business cycles in iran, applying hodrick-prescott (hp) and band-pass (bp) filters. using seasonal and anual data for 1970-2003, it is found that oil income is the key driving factor of business cycles in the iranian economy. furthermore, it is indicated that iran's economy has experienced seven business cycles during this period, in which the econo...

An important characteristic of the economic development in Europe and North America during the last few decades is a fast expansion of the business-service sector. The present paper aims at modeling the location dynamics of three categories of firms: (i) knowledge-intensive business-service firms, (ii) ordinary business-service firms and other firms, where the latter form the rest of the econom...

In economic theory, various determinants are considered to explore their effects on trade patterns. Accordingly, business cycles indicate turbulences in economic activities. Business cycles and their fluctuations cause a change in demand for goods and services from the other country then it can affect trade flows. In this study, by using a gravity model, we study the effects of business cycles ...

This paper studies the information content of some Ifo indicators. In particular, we investigate whether two Ifo indicators, one on the current business situation, the other on current production development, provide information on revisions of German industrial production. A new feature of our analysis is the construction and use of a real-time dataset. We conclude that the Ifo indicators play...

Multiresolution wavelet analysis is a natural way to decompose economic time series into components of various frequencies: long-run trend, business-cycle component, and high frequency noise. This paper illustrates the method on real GNP and inflation. The business-cycle component of the wavelet-filtered series closely resembles the series filtered by the approximate bandpass filter (Baxter and...

This paper considers the Greenspan/Summers/IMF (GSI) argument that the Asian way of doing business was the deep cause of the Asian crisis. The IMF reform programme for the crisis-affected Asian countries suggested they should abandon the Asian business model and adopt the US corporate model. The main findings are: a) contrary to GSI doctrine, poor corporate governance and lack of competition ar...

JEL Classification Code(s): J 31, J 71) "Perceptions of Discrimination, Effort to Obtain Psychological Balance, and Relative Wages: Can We Infer a Happiness Gradient?" There is a substantial literature that finds a linkage between happiness and relative economic well being as measured by earnings or wages. There is also a well documented racial gap in wages. One explanation for this is disparat...

In designing of production systems, economic and social goals can be combined, if ergonomics is integrated into the design process. More than 50 years of ergonomics research and practice have resulted in a large number of ergonomics standards for designing physical and organizational work environments. This paper gives an overview of the 174 international ISO and European CEN standards in this ...

The paper discusses China's post-reform regional economic growth imbalance relative to input disparity in technology, physical and human capital. Financial sources and types of ownership are used to construct physical capital. Technology is measured by innovation investment, and human capital is constructed from schooling years per capita. The results show that domestic bank loans and foreign-o...