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1500 questions
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4 answers
What are some good repositories for economic data
Economic data is a very broad concept. It can include discrete preference relation data-sets as well as extensive time series data.
But it is important that theories are tested against data, and the earlier this happens in the development of an…
Jamzy
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Has monopoly theory incorporated network effects as a source of monopoly?
I studied industrial organization for my Econ. Ph.D. four decades ago. At that time industrial organization had no way to incorporate 'network effects' into monopoly theory. With the advent of social media (especially Facebook) since then…
Andrew
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12
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Why are cost functions often assumed to be convex in microeconomics?
Why are cost functions typically assumed to be convex in producer theory of (introductory) microeconomics?
For me this goes against the intuition of economies of scale. There are fixed costs (FC) which contribute to concavity of the cost function.…
Richard Hardy
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What is the difference between "aggregation" and a "representative agent?"
What is the difference between "aggregation" and a "representative agent?" I'm sorry if I'm not entirely clear on this question, but that's why I ask. It seems to me as if a representative agent is defined as a situation in which a competitive…
jmbejara
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$1.25 PPP per day poverty threshold - What precisely does it mean?
As Wikipedia states:
In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity (PPP).
(Update: In 2015, this was updated to $\$1.90$ at 2015 PPP.)
Wikipedia cites Ravallion, Chen, & Sangraula. "Dollar a Day…
user18
12
votes
5 answers
What is the reasoning behind the sharp fall of oil prices starting in mid 2014?
Things I have considered:
Poor economic conditions around the world could have caused an unpredicted decrease in demand. The resulting surplus has begun driving prices down.
This could be exacerbated by a decade of record-high prices that spurred…
123
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Is there a folk theorem for repeated games on networks?
Games on networks have been studied extensively, however, I was not able to find a folk theorem for games on networks. Is there one or can it be derived from an already existing folk theorem?
With games on networks I mean games in which the payoff…
The Almighty Bob
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12
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6 answers
References to learn continuous-time dynamic programming
Does anyone know of good references to learn continuous-time dynamic programming? The references don't have to be books. They could be links to online resources as well. Links to clear, concise discussions of even just the basics would be helpful.
jmbejara
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5 answers
Why is the Cobb-Douglas production function so popular?
As relatively novice quantitative analyst/ Cost analyst, Ive been asked to estimate the level of a given organizations productivity more than once, and then forecast for the next couple of periods. The place I work at is a relatively small…
EconJohn
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Why are high/rising property values considered a good thing?
Increasing prices for housing are pretty much universally treated as positive in the news and in political discourse: newspapers run headlines like "Good news: Home values are up" and talk about "housing recoveries" when home prices go up and…
tparker
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2 answers
Are there any states that don't have debt?
I've not been able to find any states that don't have debt to other states. This, to me at least, seems really strange. Are there any nation states that are not in debt to other states, if so which ones, and if not why can't everyone just settle…
Zell Faze
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2 answers
Depreciation and second-hand markets for bicycles
Probably the answer to this question is "business as usual", but I've observed of late that the market for bicycles is pretty weird.
You can buy a brand new factory-produced bicycle in the US (I'm really only talking about the US here) for anywhere…
Hot Licks
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How could the Euro zone be broken up in an ordered way?
Let’s assume that the members of Euro zone all agreed that it would end in 18 months time with each country getting its own currency.
What process could be put in place to allow this to happen without causing of lots instability?
Ian Ringrose
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What are estimates of the elasticity of demand for credit with respect to interest rates?
When interest rates go up one percent (not one percentage point), what happens to demand for credit? I've only been able to find two papers in this area:
Gross and Souleles (2001) study credit cards and find -1.3%
Follain and Dunsky (1997) study…
BKay
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12
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4 answers
Does the US stock market tend to rise after natural disasters?
It seems counter intuitive that markets would rise after a huge disaster that probably affects multiple industries like oil or produce.
For example, can someone explain why the US markets actually rose in the days following hurricane Harvey?
Edit:…
The_MN_MechE
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