This thesis deals with the subject of nonparametric methods, focusing on application to economic issues. Chapter 2 introduces the basic nonparametric methods underlying the applications in the subsequent chapters. In Chapter 3 we propose some basic standards to improve the use and reporting of nonparametric methods in the statistics and economics literature for the purpose of accuracy and reproducibility. We make recommendations on four aspects of the application of nonparametric methods: computational practice, published reporting, numerical accuracy, and visualization. In Chapter 4 we investigate the effect of life-cycle factors and other demographic characteristics on income inequality in the UK. Two conditional inequality measures are derived from estimating the cumulative distribution function of household income, conditional upon a broad set of explanatory variables. Estimation of the distribution is carried out using a semiparametric approach. The proposed inequality estimators are easily interpretable and are shown to be consistent. Our results indicate the importance of interfamily differences in the analysis of income distribution. In addition, our estimation procedure uncovers higher-order properties of the income distribution and non-linearities of its moments that cannot be captured by means of a "standard" parametric approach. Several features of the conditional distribution of income are highlighted. Chapter 5 we reexamine the relationship between openness to trade and the environment, controlling for economic development, in order to identify the presence of multiple regimes in the cross-country pollution-economic relationship. We first identify the presence of multiple regimes by using specification tests which entertain a single regime model as the null hypothesis. Then we develop an easily interpretable measure, based on an original application of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, of the impact on the environment due to differences in regimes. Finally we apply a nonparametric recursive partitioning algorithm to endogenously identify various regimes. Our conclusions are threefold. First, we reject the null hypothesis that all countries obey a common linear model. Second, we find that quantitatively regime differences can have a significant impact. Thirdly, by using regression tree analysis we find subsets of countries which appear to possess very different environmental/economic relationships. In Chapter 6 investigate the existence of the so called environmental kuznets curve (EKC), the inverted-U shaped relationship between income and pollution, using nonparametric regression and a threshold regression methods. We find support for threshold models that lead to different reduced-form relationships between environmental quality and economic activity when early stages of economic growth are contrasted with later stages, There is no evidence of a common inverted U-shaped environment/economy relationship that all country follow as they grow. We also find that changes that might benefit the environment occur at much higher levels of income than those implied by standard models. Our findings support models in which improvements are a consequence of the deliberate introduction of policies addressing environmental concerns. Moreover, we find evidence that countries with low-income levels have a far greater variability in emissions per capita than high-income countries. This has the implication that it may be more difficult to predict emission levels for low-income countries approaching the turning point. A summary of the main findings and further research directions are presented in Chapter 7 and in Chapter 8, respectively.

This thesis proposes and describes construction of an industrially disaggregated macroeconomic model of the interwar British economy. It then demonstrates aspects of its feasibility in terms of available and potentially available data. The proposed model is both dynamic (incorporating delayed reaction) and multisectorial (based on an input-output model). To date there is only one other such model for the United Kingdom, and no such model is available for a historical period. Such a model would accommodate historical analysis, economic experimentation, and various types of model optimisation. Before demonstrating the feasibility of constructing such a model, a selection of key historical issues is considered. These illustrate the tendency of historians to analyse economic developments with reference to industry-specific detail. This tendency makes a multisectoral model vital to the analysis of the period on historians' own terms. A second chapter than describes the major facilities of such a model in order to suggest that its flexibility ought to appeal to economists in their own right. This description also provides an occasion to enumerate the data needs of such a model. In the remaining chapters two aspects of feasibility are considered. The availability or potential availability of time series that are compatible with an input-output model is the first aspect. The second is that these data are compatible with the one particular input-output model that is available. Industrially disaggregated time series for consumer spending and for fixed investment are provided, and the development of similar series for exports and government spending is discussed as well. Other industrially disaggregated series such as those dealing with factor incomes and factor adjustment have long been available. The major findings are that there is sufficient detail in underlying estimates to adapt existing time series into the required final demand time series, and that the 1935 values of these series agree well with corresponding values that appear on the periphery of the input-output model constructed by Tibor Barna.

No description available.

This study presents a quantitative analysis of one of the main forces in an economy, disaggregated short term profits, and of the process whereby the system adjusts itself to the temporary equilibrium indicated by such forces, a generalised tatonnement. Quarterly ten-equation econometric models explaining industry behaviour and profits are developed from a basic industry model for ten mutually exclusive and exhaustive industries. These models are connected with each other and with the whole by a number of linkages and by being embedded in a skeletal economy model. The system is solved at two levels. Firstly the industry models are solved individually for given values of the linking variables; the results are used to choose between alternative specifications of the models and to assess the adequacy of the formulation adopted. Secondly the whole system is solved iteratively by solving the industry models for some given trial values of the linking variables, using these solutions to derive new trial values, and repeating the process until these values converge; the results are used to assess the efficacy of the tatonnement process. The results indicate that the models proposed are good predictors of disaggregated short term profits and that the tatonnement process used produces rapid convergence to a consistent equilibrium. It is also suggested from the discrepancy between the tatonnement (quasi-competitive) and actual (imperfectly competitive) solutions that the capitalist system is inefficient in that it produces too much.

Use of economic evaluation to aid decision making is widespread and has increased in the UK especially since the introduction of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Cost utility analysis, a form of economic evaluation, allows comparison of interventions within and between disease areas by using outcome measures that combine length and quality of life into a single summary measure, conventionally the quality adjusted life year (QALY). Generic preference based health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures have been developed for adults for this purpose, but research in paediatric populations is more limited. A review of the literature of generic paediatric quality of life measures showed that no preference based measure existed which used children to develop the descriptive system. There was also very little methodological guidance on key issues in the development of new measures and no evidence was found on whether children share similar HRQoL frameworks across age. This thesis presents work which has developed a new preference based paediatric HRQoL measure designed for use in economic evaluation. The descriptive system was developed from interviews with over 70 children in order to determine what dimensions of HRQoL were included. These were then used as the basis for developing the descriptive system by undertaking further analysis and empirical fieldwork with children. This descriptive system was piloted with children with schools and hospital and the results used to refine the descriptive system to be suitable for valuation. Preference weights were obtained by valuing a sample of health states with the UK general population and then modelling to obtain values for all the health states defined by the descriptive system. The results demonstrated that it is feasible to value this descriptive system and the new measure is starting to be used in health care evaluation studies worldwide.

This dissertation describes the results of a research project which was undertaken at Loughborough University of Technology. The basic objectives of the research project were: (1) to investigate the management elements required for organising the development of an Economic Data Bank (EDB), with particular emphasis on the requirements of a developing nation; (2) to investigate the sociological, political and technical implications associated with organising the development of an EDB in a developing nation. A theoretical framework was established for this study. This was dene after an extensive search and review of literature was performed in the areas of data and data base management systems, management information systems, and computer technology in general.

This thesis revisits the issue of business cycle synchronisation in the Euro area by utilising time-series models that may overcome some of the drawbacks in the existing literature. Two major contributions are made to the existing literature of evaluating cycle synchronisation. First, instead of identifying turning points from individual macroeconomic timeseries, as carried out in most studies, this thesis obtains turning points from multivariate information. It is hoped that including more variables containing business cycle information in the dating process may produce more accurate turning points and, in turn, improve the accuracy of measuring cycle correlation. In doing so, both parametric and non-parametric business cycle dating procedures are used. These include the quarterly Bry-Boschan (BBQ) algorithm, a single dynamic factor model and the Markov switching dynamic factor model. Second, unlike the traditional approach that measures growth cycle synchronisation in the euro area by calculating pairwise cycle correlations, this thesis analyses the degree of growth cycle co-movement within a multivariate setting by using a VAR model with cointegration.

This work consists of four seemingly independent research tasks, using the British Household Panel Survey. Firstly, we endeavour to ascertain the impact of personal characteristics on the concept of Job Mobility with respect to Hour Constraints. Descriptive evidence suggests that almost 40% of British employees are not happy with their working hours. Whether this fact can stimulate job mobility is of our primary interest. We then focus on job satisfaction in attempt to isolate those parameters that can have a decisive effect on it. We exploit a series of subjectively measured covariates in order to tackle unobserved heterogeneity and handle the issue of interpersonal judgements in a more consistent way. Additionally, we estimate job satisfaction profiles to see if the pattern of job satisfaction is different between those employees who changed job and those who did not. The third empirical chapter examines the issues of earnings profiles between the private and the public sector. We argue that the motivational basis for choosing either sector is fundamentally different and this fact should have an impact on the relevant earnings profiles. Public sector workers are expected to exchange a flatter earnings profile for non-pecuniary aspects of their job, including the satisfaction with the work it self. Finally, we look at the probability of becoming self-employed, conditional upon the receipt of a windfall and the consideration of social capital variables. We want to see if the inclusion of the latter can have any impact on the predicting power of windfalls, given that recent research highlighted the relationship between social capital variables and the probability of receiving a windfall.

Subjective well-being (SWB) benefits individuals as well as society as a whole. The relevant research has covered many aspects of life. However, as one of the most important way of seeking happiness in modern consumer culture, people’s actual consumption behavior of hedonic products has not been linked to well-being and well studied. Following the two principles crucial to understanding well-being, this thesis investigates this relationship from two perspectives—well-being is both the outcome and the cause of beneficial hedonic product consumption. But the thesis starts from solving a question left from early research on how subjective cognition interacts with objective circumstances to affect well-being. Specifically, this thesis addresses the following research issues: • RI 1: How much satisfaction with objective circumstances within life domains mediates the relationship between corresponding objective circumstances and SWB? • RI 2: How much does hedonic consumption affect SWB, and how much is the relationship mediated by people’s satisfaction with their relevant life domains? • RI 3: How does SWB affects hedonic consumption; and does it have differential impacts on hedonic service consumption versus hedonic durable consumption, and why? This thesis takes advantage of a large national panel survey with more than 15,000 consumers to investigate these research issues. The findings for the first research issue show that the mediating effect of subjective satisfaction is complicated and domain specific. Satisfaction with the house completely mediates the effect of housing on well-being, while satisfaction with health and leisure life only partially mediate the effects of physical health and engaging in leisure activities on well-being respectively. Moreover, income, having a supportive partner, job type and job pay has no effect on well-being, and satisfaction with these circumstances affects well-being independently. The findings for the second research issue were that leisure consumption promotes well-being completely through the mediating effect of satisfaction with the use of leisure time, social life, and health. That is, spending on hedonic products to achieve mere pleasure is not the major source of well-being; rather, hedonic consumption for building enduring personal resources in various life domains (e.g., physical healthsocial connections), and being satisfied with these life domains in turn leads to well-being. In addition, frequency of engaging in low-cost leisure activities positively affects satisfaction with the use of leisure time, social life and health, which may indicate that consumption of low-cost hedonic products are primary sources of satisfaction associated with the relevant life domains as well as well-being. The findings for the third research issue provide evidence that well-being plays a key role in predicting hedonic service consumption: High well-being consumers more frequently consume highly rewarding, low-cost hedonic services, and they spend more on these services to build their physical health, social connectedness, and intellectual skills. However, this relationship does not exist in the context of hedonic durable consumption. High well-being consumers more frequently buy low-cost hedonic durables for their intrinsic fun, but they do not tend to spend more on these less rewarding products, possibly because of their poor association with long-term happiness. The main contribution of this research is the development and quantification of the bidirectional relationship between consumers’ well-being and their actual consumption. This relationship is one of the first rigorously researched step towards understanding the important confluence of two crucial concerns of well-being and consumption in modern society. This thesis has both theoretical and practical implications in the area of well-being and consumer behavior. The relationship was built from theory and empirical research and provides a foundation for further research on other consumer products and in other culture

The objectives of the study were to determine the importance of average income levels for health and compare relationships with past and present income; to examine the effects of occasional and sustained poverty on health and inequalities in health; to consider the importance of persistence of income level for health and the influence of changes in income on health; and to examine the role of socioeconomic circumstances in the income, change and health relationship.  Data on adult individuals were derived from the British Household Panel Survey 1991-2000. Relationships with general, physical and mental health, and physical and social functioning were analysed, using measures such as self rated general health, General Health questionnaire (GHQ12), limiting illness, and Short Form 36 physical functioning, social functioning and mental health. Measures of income level and change and poverty experience over 10 years were developed and applied. A socioeconomic model of health was adopted to consider the role of initial health and childhood socioeconomic circumstances, smoking, social networks and community influences, socioeconomic position and living and working conditions in the income and health relationship. Average income levels were strongly associated with health, a relationship more important for health than past or present income. Poverty was associated with health by length of poverty experience. Health inequalities were largest between those in sustained poverty and the most affluent. The persistence of income level was important for health. Changes in income over ten years were associated with health and functional status, although relationships between rises and falls in income over shorter periods were less certain. Socioeconomic factors only partially explained income inequalities in health. Relationships between poverty, income and health are more fully understood through analysis of panel data, where the significance of poverty and income level over time and the magnitude of health inequalities become apparent.