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Economics Comps Papers

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  • Kedmey, Dan
    19 May 2005
    This study examines the impact of financial liberalization upon stock market volatility in nine emerging market economies. We construct a model of volatility that includes a unique proxy variable for liberalization. The regressions yield mixed results for the relationship betweem liberalization and volatility: in one case, liberalization causes volatility to decrease and in two cases, liberalization causes volatility to increase.
  • Shrestha, Sanjiv
    25 February 2005
    This paper analyzes the impact that intrastate and interstate bank branching reforms had on real economic growth. Aggregate state level data were collected from 1970 to 1997 and analyzed using a fixed effects model. The models focus on two possible channels - quantity and quality of the banking sector - through which the banking reforms may have contributed to growth. In order to specifically study these two channels, two sets of two-part regression models were used. The first part looks at the impact of the reforms on quality and quantity of banking, and the second part looks at the impact of these on economic growth. The findings suggest that the banking reforms made a positive and significant impact on state level growth by improving banking quality and not by increasing the quantity of banking. Economies that deregulated both intrastate and interstate branching restrictions prior to 1990 received a growth push of about .46 percentage points. This growth push decreased to about .13 percentage points for those that deregulated after 1990. Approximately four-fifths of the growth push came from intrastate branching reform and the rest came from interstate branching reforms. The results also suggest that the growth push due to the branching reforms lasted for at least five years.
  • Weston, Jake
    25 February 2005
    The private provision of public goods represents an important issue within discussions of economic decisions. Historically, economists believed that private agents could not succeed in privately supplying public goods at an efficient level due to incentives for free-riding. New theories and economic experiments developed within the last thirty years, however, have brought that conclusion into question. Now, economists recognize that under certain conditions, private agents have the potential to supply public goods without government intervention. This paper uses an empirical investigation of Neighborhood Watch participation in the city of Chicago to analyze what demographic factor, if any, influence the private supply of public goods. This paper finds surprising evidence that population characteristics like group heterogeneity do not play a measurable role in determining Neighborhood Watch involvement. Instead, this paper finds evidence that variables measuring the duration of interaction between residents and the costs and benefits of Neighborhood Watch program better explain variations in participation.
  • Wong, Siew Hui (Anthony)
    25 February 2005
    The repeal of Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 led to the substantial consolidation of the financial services industry. This study examines the costs and benefits of such a deregulation through examining the effects of the entry of universal banks into the corporate debt securities market. Examining debt securities issuances in the United States from 1999 to 2004, I present the case that universal banks possess different underwriting technologies from investment banks that enable them to underwrite debt securities at lower yield spread and lower gross spread. This provides them with competitive advantage and helps them to quickly gain significant market share from investment banks that have dominated the industry for the past century. However, my research also finds evidence of potential conflict of interest from establishment of banking relationships between universal banks and other firms. This calls for supervision and implementation of stricter firewalls from the regulatory body.