From Neolithic Revolution to industrialization By Angus C. Chu and Rongxin Xu Forthcoming in Macroeconomic Dynamics Abstract: This study develops a Malthusian model for the evolution of human society from hunting-gathering to agriculture and from agriculture to industrial production. Human society evolves across these stages as the population grows. However, under endogenous population growth, the population may stop growing at any stage. If it fails to reach the first threshold, the population remains as hunter-gatherers. If it reaches the first threshold, an agricultural society emerges. Then, if the population fails to reach the industrial threshold, it remains in an agricultural [...]

Effects of subsidies on growth and welfare in a quality-ladder model with elastic labor By Ruiyang Hu, Yibai Yang and Zhijie Zheng. Forthcoming in Journal of Public Economic Theory Abstract: This paper develops a quality-ladder growth model with elastic labor supply and distortionary taxes to analyze the effects of different subsidy instruments: subsidies to the production of final goods, subsidies to the purchase of intermediate goods, and subsidies to research and development (R&D). Moreover, the model is calibrated to the US data to compare the growth and welfare implications of these subsidies. The main results are as follows. First, we [...]

Racial and Income-Based Affirmative Action in Higher Education Admissions: Lessons from the Brazilian Experience By Rodrigo Zeidan, Silvio Luiz de Almeida, Inácio Bó and Neil Lewis Forthcoming in Journal of Economic Surveys Abstract: This survey article provides insights regarding the future of affirmative action by analyzing the implementation methods and the empirical evidence on the use of placement quotas in the Brazilian higher education system. All federal universities have required income and racial-based quotas in Brazil since 2012. Affirmative action in federal universities is uniformly applied across the country, which makes evaluating its effects particularly valuable. Affirmative action improves the outcomes [...]

Natural Selection and Neanderthal Extinction in a Malthusian Economy By Angus C. CHU Published in Journal of Population Economics Abstract: Why are Homo sapiens the only human species living on this planet? Homo sapiens have lived on this planet for about 300,000 years. During most of their existence, early modern humans shared this planet with other archaic humans, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. Why did the other archaic humans become extinct? To explore this question, this study develops a Malthusian model with natural selection of human species to explore how population dynamics of one group of humans may cause the extinction of another group. [...]

A Time-Varying Network for Cryptocurrencies By Li Gu, Wolfgang Karl Härdle & Yubo Tao Published in Journal of Business & Economic Statistics Abstract: Cryptocurrencies return cross-predictability and technological similarity yield information on risk propagation and market segmentation. To investigate these effects, we build a time-varying network for cryptocurrencies, based on the evolution of return cross-predictability and technological similarities. We develop a dynamic covariate-assisted spectral clustering method to consistently estimate the latent community structure of cryptocurrencies network that accounts for both sets of information. We demonstrate that investors can achieve better risk diversification by investing in cryptocurrencies from different communities. A cross-sectional [...]

Profit Sharing with a Contest Among Agents BY Chong Wang, Mingli Zheng Published in Managerial and Decision Economics. Abstract: We consider how an internal competition in the form of a contest among agents can be combined with profit sharing in team production. The principal can choose to share between the principal and the agents as well as the sharing rule with a competitive contest among the agents. We show that under some conditions, a pure strategy equilibrium of profit sharing exists. In equilibrium, internal sharing involves a contest that is more competitive than proportional sharing, and the principal can get [...]

Regression-Adjusted Estimation of Quantile Treatment Effects under Covariate-Adaptive Randomizations By Liang Jiang, Peter C.B. Phillips, Yubo Tao and Yichong Zhang. Forthcoming in <Journal of Econometrics>. Abstract: Datasets from field experiments with covariate-adaptive randomizations (CARs) usually contain extra covariates in addition to the strata indicators. We propose to incorporate these additional covariates via auxiliary regressions in the estimation and inference of unconditional quantile treatment effects (QTEs) under CARs. We establish the consistency and limit distribution of the regression-adjusted QTE estimator and prove that the use of multiplier bootstrap inference is non-conservative under CARs. The auxiliary regression may be estimated parametrically, nonparametrically, [...]

Financialization and Commodity Markets Serial Dependence By Zhi Da, Ke Tang, Yubo Tao and Liyan Yang Forthcoming in Management Science For further information, please click here.

By Chi Shing Chan, Fung Kwan and Ka Chon Lei Journal of Asian Economics, 81 (2022) 101501. For further information, please click here.

By Angus C. Chu, Pietro Peretto and Xilin Wang Journal of Development Economics, forthcoming. For further information, please click here.