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on Arab World |
| By: | Sumru Altug (Koc University and Centre for Economic Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | Is çevrimlerinin tanim ve özelliklerinin arastirilmasi modern makroekonomi kuraminda önemli bir yer tutmaktadir. Bu çalismamizda Türkiye’de ve yükselen piyasa ekonomilerinde is çevrimlerinin gerek ampirik gerekse teorik yönden ele alip ilk olarak tarih ve süre araliklarinin belirlenmesi için kullanilan yöntemleri ve Türkiye açisindan uygulamalarini inceleyecegiz. Ikincisi, Türkiye gibi diger yükselen piyasa ekonomilerinde yasanan is çevrimlerinin ayirtedici özelliklerini (stylized facts) ve kaynaklarini ele alacagiz. Bu baglamda yükselen piyasa ekonomilerideki iktisadi dalgalanmalari Reel Is Çevrim modelleri çerçevesinde soklar ve aktarim mekanizmalari açisindan inceleyecegiz. Trend büyümedeki meydana gelen soklarin ve özellikle kriz dönemlerinde ortaya çikan faiz soklarinin önemini arastiracagiz. The analysis of business cycles and their characteristics constitutes an important area of research in the modern economics literature. In this study, we will examine business cycles in Turkey and in emerging market economies both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective. First, we will discuss the methods used for determining business cycle turning points and their applications in the context of Turkey. Second, we will consider the stylized facts of business cycles and their determinants for emerging market economies. Specifically, we will analyze the shocks and propagation mechanisms of business cycles in emerging market economies based on Real Business Cycle modeling, and investigate the importance of shocks to trend growth and the role of interest rate shocks, especially during crisis periods. |
| Keywords: | Yükselen piyasa ekonomileri, iktisadi dalgalanmalarin tarih ve süre araliklarinin belirlenmesi, soklarin kaynagi, kalici ve geçici soklar, faiz soklari |
| JEL: | E32 F32 F41 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yil:wpaper:0015&r=ara |
| By: | Selim, Tarek; Salem, Sherif |
| Abstract: | We study students placement in Egyptian colleges under the current demand/supply placement mechanism implemented in Egypt (e-mechanism). We show that the e-mechanism is not Pareto efficient nor strategy proof and, moreover, it can not be improved to accommodate Pareto efficiency nor strategy proofness. The final conclusion is that it is better, from an efficiency point of view, to adopt a matching algorithm, like the Gale-Shapley mechanism, in students placement. |
| Keywords: | Student placement; Gale-Shapley mechanism; e-mechanism; Egypt |
| JEL: | C78 D71 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17596&r=ara |
| By: | Anil Markandya (University of Bath and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); S. Arnold (University of Bath); M. Cassinelli (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); T. Taylor (University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines existing measures taken to protect the coastal zones of the Mediterranean Sea and assesses their success. A summary of the main pressures facing these zones is given, followed by an analysis of the legislation covering coastal zone development in ten countries: Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, Malta, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. We find that not all of these states have legislation specifically covering coastal zones, but there is concern in all areas that the legislation is not working, We also look at the costs and benefits of controlling coastal development. Firstly, a literature review of valuation studies identifies a range of values placed on developed and undeveloped coastline for both users and local property owners. These values were then used in a model to evaluate policy options to control development of a stretch of coastline. The model indicates that a stricter control regime of coastal development may provide significant benefits. |
| Keywords: | Coastal Zone Management, Legislation, Littoral, Mediterranean, Recreation |
| JEL: | Q5 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2009.71&r=ara |
| By: | A. Nazif Catik (Department of Economics, Ege University); A. Özlem Önder (Department of Economics, Ege University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates distribution of inflation items using various measures of skewness and kurtosis for Turkey covering the period 1996-2007. Considering sensitivity of traditional distribution measures to outlying observations robust skewness and kurtosis are also computed as a novelty. Analysis results mainly reveal that inflation components are right skewed and fat tailed as documented by the previous studies. However due to possible effects of the outliers traditional measures, in particular skewness, are lagging behind the robust measures in identifying underlying dispersion. Therefore one can say that weighted mean inflation used to measure general price changes is not trustworthy and a biased estimator of central location. Our results further suggest that core measures based on constant and symmetric trimming applied by the previous studies for Turkey is somewhat deficient since skewness of the data is ignored in the estimation process. Therefore, to obtain more reliable information in monitoring general price movements we suggest use of asymmetric trimmed means estimators which allows trimming different percentages from each tail of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | Infation, Prices, Distribution, Robust Skewness, Robust, Kurtosis. |
| JEL: | C43 E31 E52 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ege:wpaper:0902&r=ara |
| By: | Lim, Jamus Jerome; Saborowski, Christian |
| Abstract: | The scope and complexity of international trading arrangements in the Middle East, as well as their spotty historical record of success, underscores the urgent need for an adequate understanding of the relative costs and benefits of participation in preferential trading arrangements and, more generally, of changes in the domestic import regimes. This paper seeks to address this problem by providing estimates of the adjustment costs associated with two broad classes of hypothetical trade policy scenarios scenarios for Syria: Participation in preferential trading arrangements, and changes in the domestic import regime. We find that the revenue consequences of the first scenario may be substantial, while our analysis of the second scenario suggests that the number of tariff bands can be reduced to a lower number, while ensuring revenue neutrality, via the introduction of a VAT of sufficient but reasonable size. |
| Keywords: | Trade policy; trade adjustment costs; tariff reform; Syria |
| JEL: | P33 O24 O53 F14 |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17613&r=ara |