The impact of government expenditure on economic growth: How sensitive to the level of development?

Previous studies generally find mixed empirical evidence on the relationship between government spending and economic growth. In this paper, we re-examine the causal relationship between government expenditure and economic growth by conducting the panel Granger causality test recently developed by (Hurlin, 2004) and (Hurlin, 2005) and by utilizing a richer panel data set which includes 182 countries that cover the period from 1950 to 2004. Our empirical results strongly support both Wagner's law and the hypothesis that government spending is helpful to economic growth regardless of how we measure the government size and economic growth. When the countries are disaggregated by income levels and the degree of corruption, our results also confirm the bi-directional causality between government activities and economic growth for the different subsamples of countries, with the exception of the low-income countries. It is suggested that the distinct feature of the low-income countries is likely owing to their inefficient governments and inferior institutions.     

Challenges in research on preferences and personality traits: Measurement,stability, and inference

This paper reviews several traditions in economic research on preferences as well as research on personality traits in personality psychology and lists challenges in both fields. We discuss challenges regarding the measurement of preferences and personality traits, challenges regarding the stability of preferences and traits, and challenges when inferring causality. Additionally, we highlight areas in which we see potential benefits from taking into account methodological approaches or insights from the respective other discipline.     

进口与大连市经济增长关系的实证分析

运用协整方法和Granger因果关系检验方法对进口与大连市经济增长的关系进行实证研究。结果表明：进口对经济增长拉动效应极强,FDI对经济增长拉动效应较强,国内投资对经济增长拉动效应较弱。存在从进口到经济增长的单向Granger因果关系。为了保增长,中国政府应重视进口。     

The effect of spillover on the Granger causality test

In this paper, we investigate the properties of the Granger causality test in stationary and stable vector autoregressive models under the presence of spillover effects, that is, causality in variance. The Wald test and the WW test (the Wald test with White's proposed heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator imposed) are analyzed. The investigation is undertaken by using Monte Carlo simulation in which two different sample sizes and six different kinds of data-generating processes are used. The results show that the Wald test over-rejects the null hypothesis both with and without the spillover effect, and that the over-rejection in the latter case is more severe in larger samples. The size properties of the WW test are satisfactory when there is spillover between the variables. Only when there is feedback in the variance is the size of the WW test slightly affected. The Wald test is shown to have higher power than the WW test when the errors follow a GARCH(1,1) process without a spillover effect. When there is a spillover, the power of both tests deteriorates, which implies that the spillover has a negative effect on the causality tests.     

A Review of Three Directed Acyclic Graphs Software Packages

This article offers a review of three software packages that estimate directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from data. The three packages, MIM, Tetrad and WinMine, can help researchers discover underlying causal structure. Although each package uses a different algorithm, the results are to some extent similar. All three packages are free and easy to use. They are likely to be of interest to researchers who do not have strong theory regarding the causal structure in their data. DAG modeling is a powerful analytic tool to consider in conjunction with, or in place of, path analysis, structural equation modeling, and other statistical techniques.     

More powerful Engle–Granger cointegration tests

The residual-based cointegration test suggested by Engle and Granger ([Co-integration and error correction: representation, estimation, and testing. Econometrica. 1987;55(2):251–276]; EG) have been used widely in the literature. This pioneering EG test is quite intuitive and easy to implement. However, despite popularity, the power property of the EG test has been be an issue. In particular, the EG test imposes implicitly the so-called common factor restriction, which can lead to significant loss of power when the signal-to-noise ratio increases. In this paper, we consider a simple modification procedure. The proposed modification is shown to improve drastically the power properties of the EG test. In contrast to the conventional EG test, the power in the modified test improves (rather than decreases) significantly as the signal-to-noise ratio increases.     

我国人口就业与不同产业经济增长的实证分析

为了协调我国人口就业与不同产业经济增长的关系,对1978～2005年期间我国的人口就业与不同产业经济增长之间进行了协整分析,得出我国人口就业与第二、第三产业经济增长之间存在长期的均衡关系;同时构建模型对我国不同产业的GDP与就业人数进行了回归分析,利用我国不同产业的GDP就业弹性,比较分析了我国不同产业对就业吸纳作用的差异;以及利用得出的结论提出保持适度的经济增长,进行产业结构调整,扩大劳务输出等政策建议是缓解和扩大我国人口就业的必然途径。     

Fertility and women's employment reconsidered: A macro-level time-series analysis for developed countries, 1960–2000

This paper examines causality and parameter instability in the long-run relationship between fertility and women's employment. This is done by a cross-national comparison of macro-level time-series data from 1960 to 2000 for France, West Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. By applying vector error correction models (a combination of Granger-causality tests with recent econometric time-series techniques) we find causality in both directions. This finding is consistent with simultaneous movements of both variables brought about by common exogenous factors such as social norms, social institutions, financial incentives, and the availability and acceptability of contraception. We find a negative and significant correlation until about the mid-1970s and an insignificant or weaker negative correlation afterwards. This result is consistent with a recent hypothesis in the demographic literature according to which changes in the institutional context, such as changes in childcare availability and attitudes towards working mothers, might have reduced the incompatibility between child-rearing and the employment of women.     

Evaluating Direct Multistep Forecasts

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the asymptotic and finite-sample properties of tests of equal forecast accuracy and encompassing applied to direct, multistep predictions from nested regression models. We first derive asymptotic distributions; these nonstandard distributions depend on the parameters of the data-generating process. We then use Monte Carlo simulations to examine finite-sample size and power. Our asymptotic approximation yields good size and power properties for some, but not all, of the tests; a bootstrap works reasonably well for all tests. The paper concludes with a reexamination of the predictive content of capacity utilization for inflation.     

工业化、城镇化与农业现代化互动关系实证研究

文章运用Granger因果关系分析、脉冲响应函数、方差分解和协整检验方法,对我国1978～2009年工业化、城镇化与农业现代化之间的互动关系进行实证分析.研究表明,我国工业化、城镇化与农业现代化三者之间在短期和长期内具有不同的相互影响关系,并且相互影响的程度存在差别.据此,提出重视农业现代化的基础性地位,促进工业化与城镇化的互动,加强城镇化与工业化对农业现代化带动作用的政策建议.