This paper compares the stylized facts of the European growth cycle stemming from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the European Monetary Union with an unobserved common factor derived from a dynamic factor model with regime switching. The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence about the most adequate indicator for short-term monitoring of the cyclical state of the European economy. (JEL C32, E32, F15); Int'l Advances in Econ. Res., 10(2): pp. 87-99, May 04. ©All Rights Reserved

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This paper contributes to the discussion concerning the nature of the well-documented worsening of wage and employment inequality in western economies during the past three decades. It critically discusses the use of the traditional Heckscher and Ohlin approach to analyze the distributional effects of international competition. The paper also discusses an innovative theoretical scenario in order to effectively explain the empirical observations. The model overcomes the problem of a dichotomized labor market, which is an unfavorable result of the traditional approach. Furthermore, the factor-biased character of the technological change becomes endogenous as the strength of foreign competition and the induced incentives for technical innovations are taken into consideration. (JEL F10, F41, O33); Int'l Advances in Econ. Res., 10(2): pp. 100-112, May 04. ©All Rights Reserved

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The aim of New Keynesian theorists is to obtain Keynesian results on the basis of maximizing behavior. Accordingly, the New Keynesian shirking models depict a world of fully rational maximizing agents where equilibrium unemployment is the main consequence of the payment of efficiency wages. The problem is that oversimplified nature of most shirking models has until now prevented a full investigation of the interdependence of unemployment, the effort supplied by workers and labor demand. This article shows that the existence of this interdependence weakens the whole approach. In particular, when the unemployment rate is considered a truly endogenous variable, the stability of the macroeconomic equilibrium is generally incompatible with the existence of unemployment ascribed to the fact that firms pay efficiency wages. (JEL J41)); Int'l Advances in Econ. Res., 10(2): pp. 113-122, May 04. © All Rights Reserved

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Municipal solid waste is often transferred to landfills in other regions or states. While municipalities frequently resist imports, the interpretations of the Interstate Commerce Clause require that landfills accept waste regardless of its origin. This may require importers to act in ways that are not in their own best interest. The analysis of this paper suggests that importers benefit from trade when their landfill is so large that it is not exhausted at the end of the planning period. However, when landfill capacity is sufficiently scarce, importing waste is not welfare enhancing. Such municipalities have considerable motivation to try to de facto exclude waste from outside the municipality. (JEL L51); Int'l Advances in Econ. Res., 10(2): pp. 123-132, May 04. ©All Rights Reserved

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This study was conducted to measure the impact of H-University's (HU's) tuition increases on enrollment. Based on an internal survey, this study attempts to explain the sensitivity of student enrollment to tuition variations. In addition, this paper develops an aggregate enrollment model and uses the common economic variables such as tuition, income, wage rates, financial aids, and unemployment rates to explain the sensitivity of demand. The most significant finding of this study is that tuition consideration seems to have a relatively small effect on students' decisions. Actually, enrollment at HU (a private institution) have increased despite higher tuition rate. Possible justifications could be proposed, such as the necessity of higher education and the fact that higher education is a continued investment in human capital, in which the more relevant decision factor is the corresponding expected rate of return and not just the cost of investment.(JEL D11, C13); Int'l Advances in Econ. Res., 10(2): pp. 133-149, May 04. ©All Rights Reserved

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The objective of this paper is to estimate the dynamics of aquaculture and fish prices as a response to price shocks. The vector autoregression approach will be used to explain the dynamics of the sea bream market in both cultured and wild fishing. The main result is that changes in public regulation or in production conditions could stimulate production responses which may take time to settle. Usually, the change is a matter of adjusting between equilibria over a period of time, with the pattern and speed of the adjustment, depending on the nature and degree of disequilibrium in the fishing system. (JEL Q10, Q20); Int'l Advances in Econ. Res., 10(2): pp. 150-158, May 04. ©All Rights Reserved

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