Bayesian econometric methods have enjoyed an increase in popularity in recent years. Econometricians, empirical economists, and policymakers are increasingly making use of Bayesian methods. This handbook is a single source for researchers and policymakers wanting to learn about Bayesian methods in specialized fields, and for graduate students seeking to make the final step from textbook learning to the research frontier. It contains contributions by leading Bayesians on the latest developments in their specific fields of expertise. The volume provides broad coverage of the application of Bayesian econometrics in the major fields of economics and related disciplines, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, finance, and marketing. It reviews the state of the art in Bayesian econometric methodology, with chapters on posterior simulation and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, Bayesian nonparametric techniques, and the specialized tools used by Bayesian time series econometricians such as state space models and particle filtering. It also includes chapters on Bayesian principles and methodology.

Contract theory, which emphasizes the importance of unverifiable actions and private information, has been a highly active field of research in microeconomics in the last decades. This thesis is divided into two parts. Part I consists of three chapters that study contract-theoretic models which are motivated by the classic procurement problem of a principal who wants an agent to deliver a certain good or service. In such models it is typically assumed that decision makers are interested in their own monetary payoffs only. Moreover, they have unlimited cognitive abilities and behave in a perfectly rational way. Yet, in practice people often do not behave this way. While empirical research is very difficult in contract theory, laboratory experiments have recently turned out to be an important source of data. In Part II, three experimental studies are presented that investigate contract-theoretic problems brought up in Part I.

This book proposes a method for calculating China's debt based on a quantitative econometric analysis. This is conducted by measuring the relationship between China's debt size and economic growth. The conclusion that is reached is as follows: China's current debt has already exceeded the inflection point, and that means that it is now having an adverse effect on its economic performance. The book also focuses on China's debt problems as a whole, highlighting debt issues faced by different entities and industries, as well as the ratio and structure of the virtual and real economies. The contents are presented in three major principles: theory, oriented,data, and oriented policy.

This book analyzes the highly contentious payday lending industry, presenting valuable new data collected during Canada's recent regulatory reviews and demonstrating its relevance to payday lending conversations taking place worldwide. The authors treat the industry with a balanced hand by establishing its importance as an example of financialization and acknowledging the complex impact of payday lending services on low-income and credit-constrained clients. Up-to-date data from an interdisciplinary mix of financial, econometric, legal, behavioral economic, and socioeconomic sources-all in the context of an established Canadian industry-provide both proponents and opponents of payday lending with valuable evidence for their discussions of how much regulation is required to minimize harmful consequences. These insights from Canada expand a US-centric conversation and provide a key resource for the growing list of countries in which the industry is present, from the UK and Poland to South Africa and Australia.

With so much emphasis on calls (especially covered calls) many traders overlook the tremendous hedging and profit potential of the put. The Amazing Put demonstrates the many strategies based on the put option, including the risk hedge, a long put (often a long-term, or LEAPS put) that freezes market risk at the put's strike (minus its premium); and the short uncovered put, which has market risk identical to the covered call. The author methodically lays out the case for using puts wisely, both as a cash generator with low risk, and as a risk hedge to reduce or eliminate market risk in equity positions. Every options trader will benefit from exploring these strategies, and novices will gain a starting point in developing a program to enhance their stock portfolio. Michael C. Thomsett is a market expert, author, speaker, and coach. His many books include Stock Market Math, Candlestick Charting, and Options, Tenth Edition.

Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process affects various welfare services provided by the public sector, and the ensuing implications thereof. Ultimately, this book seeks to understand if it is conceivable for digital advancement to result in the creation of private/non-governmental alternatives to welfare services, possibly in a manner that transcends national boundaries. This study also investigates the possible ramifications of technological development for the public sector and the Western welfare society at large. This book takes its point of departure from the 2016 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report that targets specific public service areas in which government needs to adopt new strategies not to fall behind. Specifically, this report emphasizes the focus on digitalization of health care/social care, education, and protection services, including the use of assistive technologies referred to as "digital welfare." Hence, this book explores the factors potentially leading to whether state actors could be overrun by other non-governmental actors, disrupting the current status quo of welfare services. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching, and controversial take on society at large and how various aspects of the public sector can be, and are, affected by the ongoing digitalization process in a way that is not covered by extant literature on the market. This book takes its point of departure in Sweden given the fact that Sweden is one of the most digitalized countries in Europe, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), making it a pertinent research case. However, as digitalization transcends national borders, large parts of the subject matter take on an international angle. This includes cases from several other countries around Europe as well as the United States.

In this book, sociologists, philosophers, and economists investigate the conceptual issues around the performativity of economics over a variety of disciplinary contexts and provide new case studies illuminating this phenomenon. In featuring the latest contributions to the performativity debate the book revives discussion of the fundamental questions: What precise meaning can we attribute to the notion of performativity? What empirical evidence can help us recognize economics as performative? And what consequences does performativity have for contemporary societies? The contributions demonstrate how performativity can serve as a powerful conceptual resource in dealing with economic knowledge, as an inspiring framework for investigating performative practices, and as an engine of discovery for thinking of the economic proper.

The goal of this publication is to provide basic tools of differential topology to study systems of nonlinear equations, and to apply them to the analysis of general equilibrium models with complete and incomplete markets. The main content of general equilibrium analysis is to study existence, (local) uniqueness and efficiency of equilibria. To study existence Differential Topology and General Equilibrium with Complete and Incomplete Markets combines two features. As a first step, first order conditions (of agents' maximization problems) and market clearing conditions, instead of aggregate excess demand functions, are used. As a second step, a homotopy argument, stated and proved in relatively elementary manner, is applied to that "extended systemof equations. Local uniqueness and smooth dependence of the endogenous variables from the exogenous ones are studied using a version of a so called parametric transversality theorem. In a standard general equilibrium model, all equilibria are efficient, but that is not the case if some imperfection, like incomplete markets, asymmetric information, strategic interaction, is added. Then, for almost all economies, equilibria are inefficient, and an outside institution can Pareto improve upon the market outcome. Those results are proved showing that a well-chosen system of equations has no solutions.
The target audience of Differential Topology and General Equilibrium with Complete and Incomplete Markets consists of researchers interested in economic theory. The needed background is multivariate analysis, basic linear algebra and basic general topology.

This is a thorough exploration of the models and methods of financial econometrics by one of the world's leading financial econometricians and is for students in economics, finance, statistics, mathematics, and engineering who are interested in financial applications. Based on courses taught around the world, the up-to-date content covers developments in econometrics and finance over the last twenty years while ensuring a solid grounding in the fundamental principles of the field. Care has been taken to link theory and application to provide real-world context for students. Worked exercises and empirical examples have also been included to make sure complicated concepts are solidly explained and understood.

This book draws on financial, economic, and management theory in its exploration of the theory underlying risk and risk management at both micro- and macroeconomic levels. It has a particular reference to the public financial sector. Chapters investigate the elimination of currency risk in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as well as the changes that credit ratings undergo due to the influence of credit spreads. Featuring contributions on important topics such as public safety and the internet, intellectual capital, bank regulatory risk in the EU, the financial distress of public sector entities, and systemic risk in the insurance sector, it also explores innovative and emerging issues in the European tax gap in personal income taxes and VAT carousel fraud in selected European countries. Discussion of the complex nature of risk management in public administration will appeal to public officials, policy-makers, academics and researchers alike.

This book provides an introductory theoretical foundation of the ethics embedded in Islamic economics and finance, and it shows how this ethical framework could pave the way to economic and social justice. It demonstrates how Islamic finance-a risk-sharing and asset-backed finance-has embedded universal values, ethical rules, and virtues, and how these qualities may be applied to a supposedly value-neutral social science to influence policy-making. This book argues that ethical and responsible finance, such as Islamic finance, could lead the efforts to achieve sustainable economic development. Iqbal and Mirakhor then conduct a comparative analysis of Islamic and conventional financial systems and present Islamic finance as an alternative that can address today's growing problems of inequality, social injustice, financial repression, unethical leadership, and lack of opportunity to share prosperity.

Truett and Truett's Eighth Edition shows how to use economic analysis to solve problems and make effective decisions in the complex world of business. The highly successful problem-solving approach, clear and accurate presentation of economic theory, and outstanding cases combine to make the best presentation of managerial economics yet.
* Walks readers step by step through specific types of problems, including elasticity calculations, cost minimization, and profit maximization.
* Shows how real-world firms have addressed issues discussed in the book.
* Emphasizes the global aspects of managerial economics and its application in the international marketplace.

This monograph studies multi-member households or, more generally, socio-economic groups from a purely theoretical perspective and within a general equilibrium framework, in contrast to a sizeable empirical literature. The approach is based on the belief that households, their composition, decisions and behavior within a competitive market economy deserve thorough examination. The authors set out to link the formation, composition, decision-making, and stability of households. They develop general equilibrium models of pure exchange economies in which households can have several, typically heterogeneous members and act as collective decision-making units on the one hand and as competitive market participants on the other hand. Moreover, the more advanced models combine traditional exchange (markets for commodities) and matching (markets for people or partners) and develop implications for welfare, social structures, and economic policy. In the field of family economics, Hans Haller and Hans Gersbach have pioneered a 'market' approach that applies the tools of general equilibrium theory to the analysis of household behavior. This very interesting book presents an overview of their methods and results. This is an inspiring work. Pierre-Andre Chiappori, Columbia University, USA The sophisticated, insightful and challenging analysis presented in this book extends the theory of the multi-person household along an important but relatively neglected dimension, that of general equilibrium theory. It also challenges GE theorists themselves to follow Paul Samuelson in taking seriously the real attributes of that fundamental building block, the household, as a social group whose decisions may not satisfy the standard axioms of individual choice. This synthesis and extension of their earlier work by Gersbach and Haller will prove to be a seminal contribution in its field. Ray Rees, LMU Munich, Germany

This book offers a practical guide to Agent Based economic modeling, adopting a "learning by doing" approach to help the reader master the fundamental tools needed to create and analyze Agent Based models. After providing them with a basic "toolkit" for Agent Based modeling, it present and discusses didactic models of real financial and economic systems in detail. While stressing the main features and advantages of the bottom-up perspective inherent to this approach, the book also highlights the logic and practical steps that characterize the model building procedure. A detailed description of the underlying codes, developed using R and C, is also provided. In addition, each didactic model is accompanied by exercises and applications designed to promote active learning on the part of the reader. Following the same approach, the book also presents several complementary tools required for the analysis and validation of the models, such as sensitivity experiments, calibration exercises, economic network and statistical distributions analysis. By the end of the book, the reader will have gained a deeper understanding of the Agent Based methodology and be prepared to use the fundamental techniques required to start developing their own economic models. Accordingly, "Economics with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents" will be of particular interest to graduate and postgraduate students, as well as to academic institutions and lecturers interested in including an overview of the AB approach to economic modeling in their courses.

This book focuses on the factors that support the strengths of international airlines in general and the Asian airline carriers in particular. Defining the quality of human capital as the level of education and the competence of airline employees, it analyzes the efficiency of 39 airlines in various regions, both in terms of production and cost structures. It argues that, despite Asia's well-developed and globally competitive manufacturing sector, aided by open market practices, its overall service sector still lags far behind more advanced economies. As this does not stop Asia-based carriers from generally being more efficient than their counterparts in Europe and North America, the book investigates how competitiveness analysis of the airline industry can help Asian policymakers better prepare for the liberalization of the service sector, given how crucial this aspect is for the future growth of the Asia-Pacific region. Efficiency and Competitiveness of International Airlines offers a valuable resource for policymakers, airline employees, and researchers and students of microeconomics.

Financial economics is a fascinating topic where ideas from economics, mathematics and, most recently, psychology are combined to understand financial markets. This book gives a concise introduction into this field and includes for the first time recent results from behavioral finance that help to understand many puzzles in traditional finance. The book is tailor made for master and PhD students and includes tests and exercises that enable the students to keep track of their progress. Parts of the book can also be used on a bachelor level. Researchers will find it particularly useful as a source for recent results in behavioral finance and decision theory.

This book employs different parametric and non-parametric panel data models which have been used in history of developed panel data efficiency measurement literature. It assesses the differences of models based on characteristics and efficiency scores measurement using a systematic sensitivity analysis of the results. On the whole twelve parametric and four nonparametric models were studied. Parametric models are classified in four groups in terms of the assumptions made on the temporal behavior of inefficiency. A common issue among all the parametric models is that inefficiency is individual producer-specific. This is consistent with the notion of measuring the efficiency of decision-making units. Non-parametric models are divided into partial and full frontier models. A main contribution of this volume is that it helps to understand differences between parametric and non-parametric models. On empirical part of the volume, technical efficiency of two agricultural strategic crops (cotton and sugar beet) in different provinces of the Iran are analyzed. Using different models, the most efficient and inefficient provinces in cotton and sugar beet production of Iran are recognized.

This book covers microeconomic theory at the Master's and Ph.D levels for students in business schools and economics departments. It concisely covers major mainstream microeconomic theories today, including neoclassical microeconomics, game theory, information economics, and contract theory. The revamped, 3rd edition of "Microeconomic Theory" offers faculty, graduate and upper undergraduate students with a comprehensive curriculum solution.

Presenting the dynamic laws of economic quantities, this book tackles one of the core difficulties of current economic theory: that of transforming abstract equations of equilibrium into precise dynamic rules. The theoretical framework of neoclassical micro theory has historically prohibited its development into a quantitative science. Estola identifies the main weaknesses of this framework as follows: 1) Static optimization does not allow for the modelling of time-dependent production and consumption flows; 2) The assumption of optimal behaviours forecloses any understanding of changes in economic quantities, as none will change its optimal behaviour. The author of this title assumes that economic units tend to better their situation where possible. The book demonstrates how this approach leads to an analogous framework in economics to the Newtonian framework in physics. The 'forces' acting upon economic quantities, which either cause adjustment toward an equilibrium state or keep the system in motion with time, are defined such that the neoclassical framework corresponds to a 'zero-force' situation. Introducing a system of measurement units for economic phenomena, Estola applies this throughout, and thereby illuminates a way for microeconomics to meet the minimum requirements of quantitative analysis.

This book analyzes the consequences that would arise if Germany's means-tested unemployment benefits were replaced with an unconditional basic income. The basic income scheme introduced is based on a negative income tax and calibrated to be both financially feasible and compatible with current constitutional legislation. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) the author examines the impact of the reform on the household labor supply as well as on both poverty and inequality measures. It is shown that by applying reasonable values for both the basic income and the implied marginal tax rate imposed on earned incomes, efficiency gains can be reconciled with generally accepted value statements. Furthermore, as the proposal includes a universal basic income for families, child poverty could be reduced considerably. The estimates are based on the discrete choice approach to labor supply.

The concept of institutions has become increasingly important in the analysis of both social cohesion and economic change. Institutions and Economic Change reflects the shift of perspective from the allocation of scarce resources to the creation, distribution and use of new resources, especially knowledge. It presents theories of the relationship between institutions and economic change as well as their application in fields such as innovation, the firm, technical change, markets and economic systems. The overall theme of the book focuses on the relationship between institutions and change within the economy, specifically, the roles of learning, knowledge, trust and norms. These issues are addressed from institutional and evolutionary perspectives by an internationally acclaimed group of scholars, including Benjamin Coriat, Giovanni Dosi, Geoffrey Hodgson, Jan Kregel, and Bart Nooteboom. The first section expands these themes, and outlines prospects for future theoretical developments. The second and third parts examine innovation and firms, theoretical and empirical studies of technological change and perspectives on the firm and the relations between firms. In the final part, the authors discuss the economic role of moral norms, a challenge to the idea of optimal allocation of resources in economic equilibrium and evaluate the variety of capitalist economic systems. This innovative book will appeal to economic scholars and students interested in the theory of the firm, economic change, innovation and evolutionary and institutional economics.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and unique introduction to modern microeconomics. It adopts an integrative approach, positioning the main findings of economics in a broader context. It critically reflects on theories from a philosophical standpoint and compares them to approaches found in the social sciences, while at the same time highlighting the implications for the design of legal systems and business practices. Intended for undergraduate students, the book presents brief examples and comprehensive case studies to help them grasp the real-world implications of the theories. As such, it is suitable for an applied, yet technically precise approach to teaching microeconomics, as well as for a critical review of the economic mainstream. Starting from the question as to why and how societies organize economic activity, it analyzes the potential and limitations of various types of market with regard to alleviating scarcity and achieving distributive objectives, from an institutional perspective. This second edition systematically expands on decision theory by including chapters on traditional decision theory under risk and uncertainty, and on behavioral economics, as well as a chapter presenting findings from the neurosciences, evolutionary psychology, and narrative psychology. Furthermore, there are theoretical additions, along with updated case studies and examples - from trade wars to pandemics and the climate crisis. A new edition of the companion workbook features a wealth of exercises, ranging from basic multiple-choice questions to challenging mathematical problems and case studies, is also available.

The team of authors see this book as a contribution to lifting the standard of debate and towards restarting in-depth comparative research. Concentrates on the seven countries which between them (excluding South Africa) account for 60 per cent of total manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa. The contributors look at the role of manufacturing and industry in the development of these countries, arguing that future prosperity could be enhanced by a three-pronged approach to industrialisation. Published in association with the ODI

Firms are a ubiquitous feature of the economic landscape, with much of the activity undertaken within an economy taking place within their boundaries. Given the size of the contribution made by firms to economic activity, employment and growth, having a theoretical understanding of the nature and structure of firms is crucial for understanding how an economy functions. The Theory of the Firm firstly offers a brief overview of the past, consisting of a concise discussion of the classical view of production, followed by an outline of the development of the neoclassical - or 'textbook' - approach to firm level production. Secondly, the 'present' of the theory of the firm is discussed in three sections. The first section considers the post-1970 theory of the firm literature per se, while the second section scrutinises the relationship between the three most prominent of the modern sets of theories: the reference point, property rights and transaction cost approaches. The third section looks at the theory of privatisation. The unique aspects of this book includes its discussions of the post-1970 contributions to the theory of the firm; the integration of the theory of the entrepreneur with the theory of the firm; and the theory of privatisation. This volume offers an intuitive introduction to the theories of the firm as well as simple formal models of the most important contributions to the literature. It also outlines the historical evolution of the traditional and modern theories of the firm. This book is of great interest to those who study history of economic thought, industrial economics and organizational studies.