Using a randomized evaluation in Kenya, we measure health impacts of spring protection, an investment that improves source water quality. We also estimate households' valuation of spring protection and simulate the welfare impacts of alternatives to the current system of common property rights in water, which limits incentives for private investment. Spring infrastructure investments reduce fec...

This paper tries to explain the declining level of public investment in OECD countries. The theoretical framework hints to the relevance of a number of demand and supply factors – ranging from the yield of public investment to institutions like the EU deficit limits. The econometric results indicate that the decline is largely due to two developments: First to the pile-up of public debt since t...

We use Monte Carlo simulations and real data to assess the performance of methods dealing with measurement error in investment equations. Our experiments show that fixed effects, error heteroscedasticity, and data skewness severely affect the performance and reliability of methods found in the literature. Estimators that use higher-order moments return biased coefficients for (both) mismeasured...

Modern portfolio theory(MPT) addresses the problem of determining the optimum allocation of investment resources among a set of candidate assets. In the original mean-variance approach of Markowitz, volatility is taken as a proxy for risk, conflating uncertainty with risk. There have been many subsequent attempts to alleviate that weakness which, typically, combine utility and risk. We present ...

We develop an economic model that relaxes assumptions in Property Rights Theory to allow for investment in innovation that can benefit both client and vendor in an IT outsourcing relationship. Our model offers an explanation for the empirically observed heterogeneity in asset ownership structure. We find that optimal ownership structure can vary due to the different incentives of the client and...

This paper compares and contrasts the determinants of outward foreign direct investment from the People’s republic of China (PrC) with those of outward foreign direct investment from Japan, republic of Korea, and Taipei,China. The paper examines descriptively and econometrically the motives and factors behind the investment abroad from these four Asian economies. The hypotheses being tested inc...

This research shows that a portfolio of wheat varieties could enhance profitability and reduce risk over the selection of a single variety for Kansas wheat producers. Many Kansas wheat farmers select varieties solely based on published average yields. This study uses portfolio theory from business investment analysis to find the optimal, yield-maximizing and riskminimizing combination of wheat ...