18.1 In the previous chapter on the economic approach to index numbers, it was implicitly assumed that the economy behaved as if there were a single representative consumer. In the present chapter, the economic approach is extended to an economy with many household groups or many regions. In the algebra below, an arbitrary number of households,H say, is considered. In principle, each household ...

The current tax system is counterproductive and biased against saving and investment. The tax system imposes large losses on the economy that reduce the economic welfare of households and businesses. The current level of taxation imposes additional costs of about 40 cents at the margin for each dollar collected in revenue. A reduction in the burden imposed by the tax system would make a signifi...

Since mid-2008, the UK economy has faced an unprecedented series of large adverse shocks that have led companies and households to become more uncertain about future economic prospects. These shocks include one of the United Kingdom’s largest ever financial crises, continuing headwinds from the euro-area debt crisis and the implementation of the Government’s fiscal consolidation programme. The ...

This study examines optimal public policy in a product cycle model where R&D firms innovate and imitate and households face nondiversifiable risk. The government controls product cycles by two policy instruments: patent length, i.e. the expected time an innovation is imitated, and patent width, i.e. the innovator’s profit after a successful imitation relative to that before. The main results ar...

In October 2007, long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were distributed in 59 of the 111 districts in Madagascar as part of a nationwide child survival campaign. A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted six months post-campaign to evaluate net ownership, use and equity. Here, we examined the effects of socioeconomic factors on LLIN ownership and usage in districts with and withou...

Survey based measures of inflation expectations are not informationally efficient yet carry important information about future inflation. This paper explores the economic significance of informational inefficiencies of survey expectations. A model selection algorithm is applied to the inflation expectations of households and professionals using a large panel of macroeconomic data. The expectati...

Reports of the effects of the global economic crisis continue to dominate the headlines. In the United States, large drops in the housing market and a glut of risky mortgages have led to a spate of foreclosures. Many households have seen their retirement savings depleted as stock values have plummeted. Rising unemployment threatens the economic security of a growing number of families. How are ...

Ecotourism is widely promoted as a conservation tool and actively practiced in protected areas worldwide. Theoretically, support for conservation from the various types of stakeholder inside and outside protected areas is maximized if stakeholders benefit proportionally to the opportunity costs they bear. The disproportional benefit distribution among stakeholders can erode their support for or...

Few data are available from middle income countries regarding economic circumstances of households in which older people live. Many such settings have experienced rapid demographic, social and economic change, alongside increasing pension coverage. Population-based household surveys in rural and urban catchment areas in Peru, Mexico and China. Participating households were selected from all hou...

The study examined the food security status and the socioeconomic effects of climate change on rural farming households in Delta State, Nigeria. The main objective of the study was to determine the food security status of the rural farming households in the state while the specific objective was to determine the socio-economic effects of climate change on rural farming households in the state. ...