John L. Scott
Scholars and laymen assert that media attention is an important element in both an
individual terrorist incident and in the ongoing struggle against terrorists. Thus far, economists'
only concrete policy recommendation is that governments should maximize media coverage of
negotiations in order to trade zero cost media attention for expensive ransom (Islam and Shahin,
1989). This policy recommendation is supported by work that suggests that media attention does
not encourage future terrorism (Nelson and Scott, 1992). We apply the technique of Granger
causality to a more complete data set than previous researchers have used. We find that media
attention Granger causes terrorism. Our results temper the conclusions of earlier work, bringing
the prescription of maximizing media attention into question. (D74, D83, K42)
Yong U. Glasure and Massoud Metghalchi
Weekly and monthly samples of MSCI equity price indexes from Datastream
International are used to illustrate that samples with less frequency contain less and/or different
information about the causal relations among equity price indexes of and the degree of
integration of the EU stock markets. Our results of the Granger causality tests indicate that the
weekly sample contained more information about the short-run dynamic and long-run causal
relations compared to that of the monthly sample, but the causal relationships among price
indexes were quite different between the two samples of different frequency. Findings of this
paper do not support Hardouvelis, Malliaropulos and Priestley’s (2006) conclusion of full
integration of the EU stock markets during the 1990s. (G14)
Christopher Kauffman and Jean Gauger
This study investigates monetary impacts within the regional
economies of the
United States. It provides updated evidence on regional impacts and
examines how impacts have
changed over time. Using vector autoregression (VAR) methods, impacts
are investigated for the
overall period (1959-2003), and two sub-periods, 1959-1979 and
1980-2003. The study finds
that regional economies do respond differently to monetary shocks.
Evidence also indicates that
these effects have changed over time; pre-1980 patterns no longer apply
in many key regions. Notable in the results are the much-moderated
period two impacts and shifting across region's
ranking as "stronger/weaker than average" impacts. (JEL E0, E5, R11)
Michael Zimmer
Researchers and policy makers have long been concerned with the earnings
disadvantage of workers with disabilities. This paper examines the wage disparity as a
manifestation of returns to workers’ human capital. To the extent that disability measures a
physical condition that places constraints on workers’ productivity, it should be more disruptive
in occupations that require physical ability or exertion and less in those that demand cognitive or
technical skills. It is well documented that, in the 1980’s, the demand for labor began to shift
rapidly in favor of occupations that rely on skill biased technologies. The central proposition in
this paper, referred to as the human capital hypothesis, is that workers whose skills place them in
the lowest range of the wage distribution tend to possess the smallest endowments of technology-
using skill, and hence experience the largest shortfall in wages. Estimates of a model of hourly
earnings, using quantile regression and based on samples of males from the Current Population
Survey for 1988 through 2005, offer support for the human capital hypothesis. (J14, J24, J31,
J38)
Kathleen Arano and Carl Parker
The likelihood of working while in school for college students has been increasing
particularly as the cost of education has also been rising. This paper estimates the effect of
student work on academic performance. The study uses a statistical procedure to account for the
possibility that the number of hours worked is endogenous when modeling academic
performance. The results indicate that student employment has a negative effect on academic
performance for freshmen, but for upper classmen, the negative effect only occurs after working
longer hours. The negative effect is weakest for juniors, followed by seniors and sophomores. (J2,
I2)