Optimal Unemployment Insurance


Book Description

Designing a good unemployment insurance scheme is a delicate matter. In a system with no or little insurance, households may be subject to a high income risk, whereas excessively generous unemployment insurance systems are known to lead to high unemployment rates and are costly both from a fiscal perspective and for society as a whole. Andreas Pollak investigates what an optimal unemployment insurance system would look like, i.e. a system that constitutes the best possible compromise between income security and incentives to work. Using theoretical economic models and complex numerical simulations, he studies the effects of benefit levels and payment durations on unemployment and welfare. As the models allow for considerable heterogeneity of households, including a history-dependent labor productivity, it is possible to analyze how certain policies affect individuals in a specific age, wealth or skill group. The most important aspect of an unemployment insurance system turns out to be the benefits paid to the long-term unemployed. If this parameter is chosen too high, a large number of households may get caught in a long spell of unemployment with little chance of finding work again. Based on the predictions in these models, the so-called "Hartz IV" labor market reform recently adopted in Germany should have highly favorable effects on the unemployment rates and welfare in the long run.




Handbook of Behavioral Economics - Foundations and Applications 1


Book Description

Handbook of Behavioral Economics: Foundations and Applications presents the concepts and tools of behavioral economics. Its authors are all economists who share a belief that the objective of behavioral economics is to enrich, rather than to destroy or replace, standard economics. They provide authoritative perspectives on the value to economic inquiry of insights gained from psychology. Specific chapters in this first volume cover reference-dependent preferences, asset markets, household finance, corporate finance, public economics, industrial organization, and structural behavioural economics. This Handbook provides authoritative summaries by experts in respective subfields regarding where behavioral economics has been; what it has so far accomplished; and its promise for the future. This taking-stock is just what Behavioral Economics needs at this stage of its so-far successful career. - Helps academic and non-academic economists understand recent, rapid changes in theoretical and empirical advances within behavioral economics - Designed for economists already convinced of the benefits of behavioral economics and mainstream economists who feel threatened by new developments in behavioral economics - Written for those who wish to become quickly acquainted with behavioral economics




Solving the Reemployment Puzzle


Book Description

This book is about the interrelationships between research, policy, and programs that have dealt with the problems faced by experienced, Unemployed workers over the past 25 years. Much of its focus is on a series of social sci ence experiments that were conducted during the late 1980s and early 1990s.




Regression Discontinuity Designs


Book Description

Volume 38 of Advances in Econometrics collects twelve innovative and thought-provoking contributions to the literature on Regression Discontinuity designs, covering a wide range of methodological and practical topics such as identification, interpretation, implementation, falsification testing, estimation and inference.







Road Engineering for Development


Book Description

Developing countries in the tropics have different natural conditions and different institutional and financial situations to industrialized countries. However, most textbooks on highway engineering are based on experience from industrialized countries with temperate climates, and deal only with specific problems. Road Engineering for Development (published as Highway and Traffic Engineering in Developing Countries in its first edition) provides a comprehensive description of the planning, design, construction and maintenance of roads in developing countries. It covers a wide range of technical and non-technical problems that may confront road engineers working in this area. The technical content of the book has been fully updated and current development issues are focused on. Designed as a fundamental text for civil engineering students this book also offers a broad, practical view of the subject for practising engineers. It has been written with the assistance of a number of world-renowned specialist professional engineers with many years experience in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Central America.




Econometric Evaluation of Labour Market Policies


Book Description

Empirical measurement of impacts of active labour market programmes has started to become a central task of economic researchers. New improved econometric methods have been developed that will probably influence future empirical work in various other fields of economics as well. This volume contains a selection of original papers from leading experts, among them James J. Heckman, Noble Prize Winner 2000 in economics, addressing these econometric issues at the theoretical and empirical level. The theoretical part contains papers on tight bounds of average treatment effects, instrumental variables estimators, impact measurement with multiple programme options and statistical profiling. The empirical part provides the reader with econometric evaluations of active labour market programmes in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Slovak Republic and Sweden.




Competition Law and Economic Inequality


Book Description

The gap between the rich and poor is widening across the globe. This book explores whether this major societal challenge of our time can be addressed by the means of competition law. The primary goal of today's competition law is to ensure that market power does not lead to an inefficient production of goods and services. Nevertheless, even such efficiency-oriented curbing of market power may arguably contribute to the reduction of differences in how much people own and earn. Furthermore, many competition law regimes do take into account distributive considerations too. The chapters investigate the relationship between competition law and economic (in)equality from philosophical, historical, and economic perspectives. Their inquiries concern the conceptual foundations of competition law and doctrinal frameworks of individual jurisdictions, as well as specific problems and markets. As such, the book provides a novel and comprehensive overview of whether and how competition law can contribute to more equality in both developed and developing countries. The book is a must-read for researchers, public officials, judges, and practitioners within the competition law community. It will also appeal to anyone more broadly interested in issues of inequality and economic policy.




The MIT Dictionary of Modern Economics, fourth edition


Book Description

an up-to-date authoritative reference designed primarily for students of economics but invaluable also to students of business and other social sciences and ideal for anyone who wants a brief explanation of an economic concept or institution The MIT Dictionary of Modern Economics is an up-to-date, authoritative reference designed primarily for students of business and other social sciences and ideal for anyone who wants a brief explanation of an economic concept or institution. In this fourth edition one entry in ten has been revised and one entry in twenty is new. Whereas the third edition increased the coverage of American institutions, this edition breaks new ground by including entries considered important from an Eastern European perspective. It also supplies comparative statistics on major economic variables for selected countries, describes the origins of widely used acronyms, and includes bibliographic references at the end of featured entries. The dictionary answers in a clear and concise way the enduring questions, which economists have considered for two centuries or more, as well as the issues of the moment, such as economic change in Europe, the problems of pollution, or the prospects for greater freedom of trade. With close to 2,800 entries it is comprehensive in its coverage of theory, national and international institutions, schools of thought, and important economists, including recent Nobel Prize winners. The dictionary was compiled initially by an experienced team of economists at Aberdeen University in the United Kingdom, and new authors have been recruited to provide international expertise, reflecting changes in the structure of the international economy. This fourth edition was prepared by John Cairns, Robert Elliott, Ian McAvinchey, and Robert Shaw, all of the Economics Department, University of Aberdeen.




Health Econometrics


Book Description

This volume covers a wide range of existing and emerging topics in applied health economics, including behavioural economics, medical care risk, social insurance, discrete choice models, cost-effectiveness analysis, health and immigration, and more.