Theory: This paper reformulates diversionary theory to take into account the effect of domestic structures on the propensity of leaders to use foreign policy to manipulate domestic politics. Hypotheses: The structure of domestic political institutions and levels of policy resources condition the willingness of leaders to use conflict involvement to manipulate domestic audiences. Method: Probit ...

The increasing proportion of immigrants in the population of many countries has raised concerns about the ‘absorption capacity’ of the labour market, and fuelled extensive empirical research in countries that attract migrants. In previous papers we synthesized the conclusions of this empirical literature by means of meta -analyses of the impact of immigration on wages and employment of native-b...

The lack of access to formal credit at affordable cost (effective interest) is the most critical constraint faced by the rural entrepreneurs to get involved in productive profitable business activities. This study explores the causes behind the widespread existence of informal credits as investment capital for small house-based business. Based on a primary survey on house based industrial owner...

The present paper provides first microlevel (indirect) empirical evidence on changes in the determinants of firm profitability, the role of fixed and sunk costs, as well as the nature of competition for a transition economy. We estimate size thresholds required to support different numbers of firms for four retail and professional service industries in a large number of geographic markets in Sl...

Sometimes the maximum likelihood estimation procedure for the probit model fails. There may be two reasons: the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) just does not exist or computer overflow error occurs during the computation of the cumulative distribution function (cdf). For example, the approximation explosive effect due to an inaccurate computation of the cdf for a large value of the argument o...

A mixed probit model was applied to survey data toanalyze consumers’ wilingness to buy apples with cosmetic damage caused by the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) disease complex. The analysis finds consumers will pay a premium for organic production methods and for apples with low amounts of SBFS damage. Behavioral variables such as experience in growing fruit significantly affect the willingne...

This paper studies the importance of employer-specific determinants in escaping low earnings in Germany. To address the initial conditions problem and the endogeneity of employer retention, we model (intra-firm) low-pay transitions using a multivariate Probit model that accounts for selection into low-wage employment and non-random employer drop-out. Using data from the LIAB Linked Employer–Emp...

In the present paper a mixed approach is proposed for the simulta neously estimation of regression and correlation structure parameters in multivariate probit models using generalized estimating equations for the former and pseudo score equations for the latter The nite sample proper ties of the corresponding estimators are compared to estimators proposed by Qu Williams Beck and Medendorp and Q...

The relationship between income and subjective well-being (SWB) is investigated using eight waves of the British Household Panel Survey and an estimation strategy that allows us to relax some assumptions typically made in the literature. First, we use a random effects generalized ordered probit model to investigate whether income effects are heterogeneous across SWB categories, and, second, we ...

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...