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32. Business Combinations Desk Book
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Department of Defense (DoD) research, development, and acquisition policies, funding and program decisions, have a major impact on competition and industry transformation. DoD assessments of proposed business combinations (generally, domestic and foreign firm mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures) must complement such policies and decisions to sustain credible competition in an evolving industrial environment.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Development, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
33. How do Canadian Hours Worked Respond to a Technology Shock?
- Author:
- Robert J. Vigfusson, Lawrence J. Christiano, and Martin Eichenbaum
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- This paper investigates the response of hours worked to a permanent technology shock. Based on annual data from Canada, we argue that hours worked rise after a positive technology shock. We obtain a similar result using annual data from the United States. These results contradict a large literature that claims that a positive technology shock causes hours worked to fall. We find that the different results are due to the literature making a specification error in the statistical model of per capital hours worked. Finally, we present results that Canadian monetary policy has accommodated technology shocks.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Canada and North America
34. Precautionary Savings and the Wealth Distribution with Illiquid Durables
- Author:
- Joseph W. Gruber and Robert F. Martin
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- We study the role an illiquid durable consumption good plays in determining the level of precautionary savings and the distribution of wealth in a standard Aiyagari model (i.e. a model with heterogeneous agents, idiosyncratic uncertainty, and borrowing constraints). Transactions costs induce an inaction region over which the durable stock and the associated user cost are not adjusted in response to changes in income, increasing, on average, the volatility of non-durable consumption. The volatility of total consumption is then a function of the share of the durable good in the utility function and the width of the inaction region. We are particularly interested in parameterizations which increase the precautionary motive for saving through an increase in "committed expenditure risk." We find, for an empirically relevant share of durable consumption and for all transaction costs below an upper threshold, that the level of precautionary savings is increasing in the transaction costs. Transaction costs have only a modest impact on the degree of wealth dispersion, as measured by the Gini index, as the associated increase in savings is close to linear in wealth. While we are unable to match the dispersion of wealth in the data, we increase the dispersion over a single asset model (Gini index of .71 for financial assets and .37 for total wealth) and we are able to match the relative dispersion of financial to durable assets, i.e. we find financial assets much more unequal than durable assets. We also match the ratio of housing wealth to total wealth for the median agent. We calibrate the model to data from the PSID, the CES, and the SCF.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
35. Productivity, Investment, and Current Accounts: Reassessing the Evidence
- Author:
- Jaime Marquez
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- The most widely accepted explanation for the inverse association between private investments and current accounts [Glick and Rogoff, 1995] rests on data for manufactures through 1990. Is this consensus robust to revisions to the national accounts and the expansion of information technologies since 1990? To address this question I replicate their results and I find that post 1990 developments eliminate the support for such a conclusion. I also implement alternative formulations and find, again, a lack of empirical support for their findings. Thus I examine the role of measurement errors and focus on the treatment of the manufacturing sector as representative of the whole economy and the exclusion of the contribution of capital when measuring productivity. Correcting these two measurement errors restores to Glick and Rogoff's conclusion its original strength.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
36. International Comparisons of Productivity Growth: The Role of Information Technology and Regulatory Practices
- Author:
- Christopher Gust and Jaime Marquez
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- While information technologies (IT) are credited with the recent acceleration in productivity in the United States, many other industrial countries have not experienced a pickup in productivity growth. To explain this productivity divergence, we use panel data from 1992 to 1999 for 13 industrial countries and find that this divergence is driven in part by differences in both the production and adoption of information technologies. Based on this finding, we proceed to investigate what factors might play a role in explaining differences in IT adoption. Our results support the view that burdensome regulatory environments and in particular regulations affecting labor market practices have impeded the adoption of information technologies and slowed productivity growth in a number of industrial countries. We then develop a theoretical model with vintage capital and labor to evaluate the effect of more stringent labor market regulations on a firm's decision to adopt new technologies. We establish conditions under which a tax on firing workers delays the adoption of IT technology. These conditions occur when technological change is skill-biased and a firm must upgrade the quality of its workforce through labor turnover. The resulting delay in adopting IT technology then has negative implications for economy-wide productivity and is largely consistent with our empirical results.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
37. The Defense Science Board Summer Study on Defense Science and Technology
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Technology has been and must continue to be a key enabler of military advantage, both in conflict and in situations where conflict is close at hand. Over the years, the Department of Defense (DoD) science and technology progrme has discovered, invented, harnessed, and demonstrated such enabling technologies. As industry becomes more global, as scientific endeavors in other countries become more competitive, and as affordable technology increasingly issues from commercial sources, the DoD science and technology program needs to continue to meet challenges and exploit opportunities that arise. The Defense Science Board 2001 Summer Study task force has asked to examine three aspects of the DoD science and technology program: How the Department's S investment should be spend. The level of investment in science and technology. How the military can realize the most value from this investment.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
38. Annual Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress, MAR 2002
- Publication Date:
- 03-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Section 2504 of title 10, United States Code, requires that the Secretary of Defense submit an annual report to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives, by March 1st of each year. The report is to include:”(1) A description of the departmental guidance prepared pursuant to section 2506 of this title.(2) A description of the methods and analyses being undertaken by the Department of Defense alone or in cooperation with other Federal agencies, to identify and address concerns regarding technological and industrial capabilities of the national technology and industrial base.(3) A description of the assessments prepared pursuant to section 2505 of this title and other analyses used in developing the budget submission of the Department of Defense for the next fiscal year.(4) Identification of each program designed to sustain specific essential technological and industrial capabilities and processes of the national technology and industrial base.” This report contains the required information.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Economics, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
39. Workshop on Information Technology in Africa
- Publication Date:
- 10-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- The last 20 years have been characterized by rapid improvements in information technology and have com e to be regarded as the “Information Revolution.” The Information Revolution is changing the speed at which information is communicated, the facility with which calculations can be conducted in real time, and the costs and speed of observation of physical phenomena. Applications of IT in transportation mean that people and goods can be moved m o re efficiently; applications to the production process mean that goods and services can be produced m o re efficiently.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Government, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Africa
40. Report on Biological Warfare Defense: Vaccine Research Development Programs
- Publication Date:
- 07-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Section 218 of the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Public Law (PL) 106-398 (at Appendix A) requires the submission of a report to the congressional defense committees on the acquisition of biological defense vaccines for the Department of Defense (DoD). As required by section 218, PL 106-398, this report addresses: 1) the implications of relying on the commercial sector to meet the DoD's biological defense vaccine requirements; 2) a design for a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) vaccine production facility; 3) preliminary cost estimates and schedule for the facility; 4) consultation with the Surgeon General on the utility of such a facility for the production of vaccines for the civilian sector and the impact of civilian production on meeting Armed Forces needs and facility operating costs; and 5) the impact of international vaccine requirements and the production of vaccines to meet those requirements on meeting Armed Forces needs and facility operating costs.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States