This paper advocates computable general equilibrium (CGE) models as an analytical framework that is suitable for assessing the impacts of policy interference on the three dimensions of Sustainable Development, i.e. environmental quality, economic performance and equity. Methodological extensions of standard CGE models are illustrated that may strengthen the role of CGE models in measuring polic...

We study the effects of government spending by using a structural, large dimensional, dynamic factor model. We find that the government spending shock is non-fundamental for the variables commonly used in the structural VAR literature, so that its impulse response functions cannot be consistently estimated by means of a VAR. Government spending raises both consumption and investment, with no ev...

This paper explores how language policy affects the socio-economic development of nation states through two channels: the individual’s exposure to and (in reference to an individual’s mother tongue) linguistic distance from the official language. In a cross-country framework the paper first establishes a robust and sizeable negative relationship between an official language that is distant from...

Abstract I n this paper, the behavior of the real oil price and OPEC and non-OPEC oil production during 1973-2013 are modelled. Interactions among OPEC, non-OPEC oil production, global oil consumption, and the real price of crude oil are estimated using a Structural VAR model (SVAR). After providing evidence for the structural breaks in oil price in 1996, the results indicate that, ac...

A new class of computational methods, referred to as decomposition methods, has been developed for predicting failure probability of structural and mechanical systems subject to random loads, material properties, and geometry. The methods involve a novel function decomposition that facilitates univariate and bivariate approximations of a general multivariate function, response surface generatio...

We extend the protection for sale framework by modelling non tariff barriers. Explicitly introducing partial rent capturing leads to a testable specification that bridges the gap between the theoretical Grossman and Helpman (1994) model and its empirical implementation, where coverage ratios have been used to measure protection. Our econometric analysis supports the augmented specification and ...