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Do gasoline prices converge in a unified Europe with non-harmonized tax rates?
(2005)KOF Working PapersThe paper presents univariate and panel unit root tests for gasoline and oil price convergence over the last decade. We test for the absolute versus relative version of the LOOP and estimate the speed of convergence as well as its development over time. Our results show that the absolute version of the LOOP cannot be supported. Constant price differences between countries remain, caused mainly by existing tax differences. The relative ...Working Paper -
Agency and communicaton in IMF conditional lending: Theory and empirical evidence
(2009)KOF Working PapersWe focus on the role that the transmission of information between a multilateral (the IMF) and a country has for the optimal design of conditional reforms. Our model predicts that when agency problems are especially severe, and/or IMF information is valuable, a centralized control is indeed optimal. To the contrary, when local knowledge is more important than the agency bias we expect delegation to dominate. Controlling for economic and ...Working Paper -
The impact of international organizations on the environment
(2006)KOF Working PapersWhen analyzing the impact of international organizations on the environment, two main issues arise. First, we have to quantify the participation of the organizations on countries they deal with. Second, the environmental impact of this involvement has to be measured. This paper attempts to do this. We employ panel data to empirically analyze whether and to what extent the presence of IMF, World Bank, regional Multilateral Development ...Working Paper -
Power to the People? The Impact of Decentralization on Governance
(2006)KOF Working PapersThe paper analyzes the impact of decentralization on governance employing four indicators of governance and five measures of decentralization. Depending on data availability, crosssections for a maximum of 129 countries are estimated. Results for a panel of about 70 countries over the period 1984-2001 are also presented. The results show that decentralization – measured as the share of sub-national employment, revenues or, respectively, ...Working Paper -
Formal Institutions and Subjective Well-Being: Revisiting the Cross-Country Evidence
(2008)KOF Working PapersA long tradition in economics explores the association between the quality of formal institutions and economic performance. The literature on the relationship between such institutions and happiness is, however, rather limited. In this paper, we revisit the findings from recent cross-country studies on the institutions-happiness association. Our findings suggest that the conclusions reached by previous studies are fairly sensitive to the ...Working Paper -
Cross-Country Determinants of Life Satisfaction: Exploring Different Determinants across Groups in Society
(2006)KOF Working PapersThis paper explores a wide range of cross-country determinants of life satisfaction exploiting a database of 90,000 observations in 70 countries. We distinguish four groups of aggregate variables as potential determinants of satisfaction: political, economic, institutional, and human development and culture. We use ordered probit to investigate the importance of these variables on individual life satisfaction and test the robustness of ...Working Paper -
Student Flows and Migration: An Empirical Analysis
(2006)KOF Working PapersUsing panel data for 78 countries of origin we examine the impact of student flows to the United States on subsequent migration there over the period 1971-2001. What we find is that the stock of foreign students is an important predictor of subsequent migration. This holds true whether or not the lagged endogenous variable is included. The relationship is robust to the inclusion of time and country dummies, and remains when we account for ...Working Paper -
Does Membership in International Organizations Increase Governments’ Credibility? Testing the Effects of Delegating Powers
(2008)KOF Working PapersThis paper analyzes whether nation-state governments can increase their credibility by becoming members of international organizations. Credibility is an important asset because it determines the real interest rate and is expected to have an important impact on investment and growth. It is hypothesized that the degree of delegation to international organizations can improve the credibility of nation-state governments. This hypothesis is ...Working Paper -
Greasing the Wheels of Entrepreneurship? The Impact of Regulations and Corruption on Firm Entry
(2007)KOF Working PapersThe paper investigates whether the impact of regulations on entrepreneurship depends on corruption. We first test whether regulations robustly deter firm entry into the markets. Our results show that some regulations are indeed important determinants of entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, more procedures required to start a business and larger minimum capital requirements are detrimental to entrepreneurship. Second, we test whether ...Working Paper -
Does US Aid Buy UN General Assembly Votes? A Disaggregated Analysis
(2006)KOF Working PapersUsing panel data for 143 countries over the period 1973-2002, this paper empirically analyzes the influence of US aid on voting patterns in the UN General Assembly. We use disaggregated aid data to account for the fact that various forms of aid may differ in their ability to induce political support by recipients. We obtain strong evidence that US aid buys voting compliance in the Assembly. More specifically, our results suggest that ...Working Paper