Vassar College Digital Library

Vassar Scholarship

Vassar Scholarship, the institutional repository formerly known as Digital Window, reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community.  It provides access to a variety of collections, including senior theses and projects across a wide range of disciplines.

A classroom experiment on exchange rate determination with purchasing power parity

Publication Date
2007-February-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

We develop a classroom experiment on exchange rate determination appropriate for undergraduate courses in macroeconomics and international economics. Students represent citizens from different countries and need to obtain currency to purchase goods. By participating in a sealed bid auction to...

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Did the colonial powers pick the economic winners?

Publication Date
2007-September-01
Document Type
Authors
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This paper proposes a new instrument for institutional quality—the salary of colonial governors—to investigate whether variations in the quality of British colonial rule continue to have an impact on the economic performance of former colonies. Governors' salaries provide a good...

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Do fringe benefits cause layoffs?

Publication Date
1990-October-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

It is commonly believed that firms prefer layoffs to worksharing, in part, because layoffs economize on fringe benefit costs. We find that when labor markets are characterized by optimal implicit contracts, layoffs will never occur in equilibrium, regardless of the...

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Stabilizing the international financial system and financing development: an analysis of the Tobin tax

Publication Date
2007-December-01
Document Type
Authors
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This paper analyzes the feasibility of an international tax on currency transaction, also known as "Tobin Tax", from an economic and juridical point of view. The claim that such a tax would curb short term speculators, thus stabilizing the foreign...

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Stabilizing the international financial system and financing development: an analysis of the Tobin tax

Publication Date
2007-December-01
Document Type
Authors
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This paper analyzes the feasibility of an international tax on currency transaction, also known as "Tobin Tax", from an economic and juridical point of view. The claim that such a tax would curb short term speculators, thus stabilizing the foreign...

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Unproductive expenditure in manufacturing

Publication Date
1990-August-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

A behavioral model is developed to explain the magnitude of surplus and the division of surplus into unproductive and profit for oligopoly firms in the manufacturing sector of advanced capitalist economies. Particular attention is focused upon the determinants of interfirm...

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