This paper assesses the performance of a number of long-term interest rate forecast approaches, namely time series models, structural economic models, expert forecasts and combinations thereof. The predictive performance of these approaches is compared using out of sample forecast errors, where a random walk forecast acts as benchmark. It is found that for five major OECD countries, namely Unit...

Development economists often analyse the performance of particular sectors of the economy, yet they have largely ignored that of one of the most important sectors, namely, the public sector, the performance of which is demonstrably poor. They are also continually giving recommendations to the Indonesian government as to what constitutes sound economic policy, whereas there is abundant evidence ...

Does Local Business Ownership Insulate Cities from Economic Shocks? * We assess a prominent argument for local economic policies that favor locally-owned businesses – namely, that locally-owned firms are more likely to internalize the costs to the community of decisions to reduce employment and hence help to insulate cities from adverse economic shocks. We test this argument by examining how es...

Socio-economic inequalities in adult and child health in Australia have been an issue of national concern. While a large body of data has discussed adult health, there have been relatively few Australian reports of socio-economic inequalities in child health. This occurs in a context where there have been increases in the proportion of Australian children living in poverty and where there has b...

Economic development in Uttarakhand, a state in India has accelerated in the last decade however; the progress is largely confined to the plains. The study attempts to analyze district level economic disparities in Uttarakhand. The six key economic development variables namely, per capita income, infrastructure, health, education, industrial employment and tourism have been examined and modeled...

Developing countries have increasingly opened their economies to trade. Research about trade policy in developed countries focuses on a bottom-up process by identifying economic preferences of domestic groups. We know less about developing countries. We analyze how economic and political variables influenced Costa Rican voters in a referendum on CAFTA, an international trade agreement. We find ...

China is a vast and overpopulated country in the eastern Asia whose energy security and supply is the most important factor of economic growth and consequently, economic, social and political security. By the past decades, its leaders have understood the key role of economic growth and development in the economic and political security of china. Thus, they have put all their concentration on th...

Developing countries have increasingly opened their economies to trade. Research about trade policy in developed countries focuses on a bottom-up process by identifying economic preferences of domestic groups. We know less about developing countries. We analyze how economic and political variables influenced Costa Rican voters in a referendum on CAFTA-DR, an international trade agreement. We fi...