Freeze and Phase IV

At head of cover title: Economic stabilization program

Phase IV announcement.

At head of cover title: Economic stabilization program.

Historical working papers on the economic stabilization program, August 15, 1971, to April 30, 1974 /

Accompanied by "Data appendix." (723 p.) Published: [Washington : U.S. Govt. print off., 1974?]

Theory of markets.

Includes bibliography.

O desafio do aproveitamento de águas pluviais

Pretende-se com este trabalho avaliar a importância dos sistemas de aproveitamento de água da chuva como medida contributiva para a sustentabilidade dos recursos hídricos, a par do alerta para os preços praticados em Portugal, que comprometem a viabilidade deste tipo de sistema. Será também dada especial atenção à vulnerabilidade a que os referidos sistemas estão sujeitos, imposta pelos meses de Verão, onde os consumos de água são substancialmente maiores, mas durante os quais normalmente não ocorre precipitação. Após uma primeira componente teórica, determinar-se-á numa fase posterior o consumo anual de água registado numa moradia em Guimarães, e comparar-se-ão os resultados dos investimentos num sistema de aproveitamento de água da chuva em Portugal e na Dinamarca. Ampliando o âmbito para um edifício de escritórios e um edifício escolar, registar-se-á a rentabilidade do sistema. Essa rentabilidade, referindo-se ao número de anos em que o investimento é amortizado, é determinada numa folha de cálculo a partir da conjugação do valor investido com o valor que, anualmente, se consegue poupar com o uso da água da chuva. Concluir-se-á que o factor que verdadeiramente compromete a diferença entre o investimento e a poupança, reside no baixo valor do metro cúbico de água que, em média, se paga em Portugal. O estudo realizado nesta Dissertação revela que um valor mais alto para o preço da água, traduzir-se-ia numa menor diferença entre o investimento e a poupança, do qual resultava um período de retorno significativamente mais baixo. Além disso, os sistemas de aproveitamento de água da chuva são vulneráveis a diversas dificuldades, como as condições meteorológicas, que se traduzem na falta de precipitação nos meses de Verão onde a procura de água é muito superior.

Monetary Policy, Stock Price Misalignments and Macroeconomic Instability

Perhaps the most fundamental prediction of financial theory is that the expected returns on financial assets are determined by the amount of risk contained in their payoffs. Assets with a riskier payoff pattern should provide higher expected returns than assets that are otherwise similar but provide payoffs that contain less risk. Financial theory also predicts that not all types of risks should be compensated with higher expected returns. It is well-known that the asset-specific risk can be diversified away, whereas the systematic component of risk that affects all assets remains even in large portfolios. Thus, the asset-specific risk that the investor can easily get rid of by diversification should not lead to higher expected returns, and only the shared movement of individual asset returns – the sensitivity of these assets to a set of systematic risk factors – should matter for asset pricing. It is within this framework that this thesis is situated. The first essay proposes a new systematic risk factor, hypothesized to be correlated with changes in investor risk aversion, which manages to explain a large fraction of the return variation in the cross-section of stock returns. The second and third essays investigate the pricing of asset-specific risk, uncorrelated with commonly used risk factors, in the cross-section of stock returns. The three essays mentioned above use stock market data from the U.S. The fourth essay presents a new total return stock market index for the Finnish stock market beginning from the opening of the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 1912 and ending in 1969 when other total return indices become available. Because a total return stock market index for the period prior to 1970 has not been available before, academics and stock market participants have not known the historical return that stock market investors in Finland could have achieved on their investments. The new stock market index presented in essay 4 makes it possible, for the first time, to calculate the historical average return on the Finnish stock market and to conduct further studies that require long time-series of data.

Domestic policy responses to the food price crisis: The case of Bolivia

In face of the global food crisis of 2007-2008, severe concerns arose about how developing countries would be affected by the extreme short-term fluctuations in international commodity prices. We examine the effects of the crisis on Bolivia, one of the poorest countries of the Americas. We focus on the effectiveness of the domestic policy interventions in preventing spillovers of the development of international food prices to domestic markets. Using a cointegration model, we study price interdependencies of wheat flour, sunflower oil and poultry. The analysis suggests that the policy measures taken had little effect on food security during the food crisis. Throughout the entire period, perfect price transmission between the Bolivian poultry and sunflower oil markets and the respective international reference markets existed. Bolivian prices were determined by international prices and the policy interventions in the markets of these two commodities were not found to have had an effect. The government's large-scale wheat flour imports did not shield Bolivian consumers from the shocks of international prices.

Impact on Policy Responses to Food Price Crisis and Rural Food Security in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka policy responses have direct impacts on rural dwellers. Over 80% of Sri Lanka’s population live in rural areas and 90% of them represent low income dwellers. Their production system may be hampered by fragmented landholding, poor economics of scale, low investment levels resulting from poor financial services as well as inappropriate or limited technology. They are vulnerable to price hikes of basic foods and food security issues due to fragmented landholding and poor financial services. Policy measures to reduce the transmission of higher international prices in domestic markets exist to protect the food security of the vulnerable population. This paper will discuss the food policy and strategies implemented by the government and outside to the above facts this paper also describes the effectiveness of the policies forwarded by the government. The objective of this study is to analyse the impact of policy responses to the food price crisis and rural food security in Sri Lanka. Outside of the above facts this study also treats the impact of policies and decisions on the nutritional condition of rural dwellers. Furthermore this study is to analyse the fluctuation of buying power with the price hikes and the relation of above facts with issues like malnutrition. This paper discusses why policy makers should pay greater attention to rural dwellers and describes the multiple pathways through which food price increases have on rural people. It also provides evidence of the impact of this crisis in particular, through hidden hunger, and discusses how current policy responses should adjust and improve to protect the rural dwellers in the short and long term.

Revenue-neutral tax policy under price uncertainty

The firm's response to revenue-neutral taxation is investigated under price uncertainty. Revenue-neutral policies adjust simultaneously the marginal tax rate and the level of exemptions while keeping expected tax receipts constant. Nonincreasing absolute risk aversion is sufficient to sign the firm's response: a reduction in the marginal rate causes the firm to contract output. Implications are established for the equilibrium level of treasury receipts.

Budget constrained tax policy under price uncertainty: implications for supply control

Tax policies that constrain net transfers between the farm sector and the fisc are modeled under price uncertainty. Increasing the level of tax on profits causes the firm to expand output. Implications are derived for supply control and the distributions of profits and net receipts at the fisc.

Government policy under price uncertainty: a source of volatility in illegal immigration

In this paper we provide an alternative explanation for why illegal immigration can exhibit substantial fluctuation. We develop a model economy in which migrants make decisions in the face of uncertain border enforcement and lump-sum transfers from the host country. The uncertainty is extrinsic in nature, a sunspot, and arises as a result of ambiguity regarding the commodity price of money. Migrants are restricted from participating in state-contingent insurance markets in the host country, whereas host country natives are not. Volatility in migration flows stems from two distinct sources: the tension between transfers inducing migration and enforcement discouraging it and secondly the existence of a sunspot. Finally, we examine the impact of a change in tax/transfer policies by the government on migration.