Dipendra Sinha

Determinants of Import Demand in Thailand

This study estimates an aggregate import demand function for Thailand. The earlier studies on import demand based on time series date did not deal with the issue of stationarity of the time series before estimation. Using the cointegration approach, we find aggregate import demand for Thailand to be price inelastic, cross price inelastic (with respect to domestic price) and income inelastic in the short run. In the long run, aggregate import demand is still price inelastic and cross price inelastic. However, aggregate import demand is highly income elastic in the long run. [C22, F14]

A NOTE ON TRADE ELASTICITIES IN ASIAN COUNTRIES

This article estimates the price and income elasticities of import and export demands for India, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand using annual time series data. Both price and income elasticities of import demand are found to be in the inelastic range for all five countries. Export demand is found to be price elastic for Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand and price inelastic for India and Sri Lanka. Export demand is found to be income elastic for Japan but not for the other four countries. The Marshall-Lerner-Robinson condition states that a devaluation improves the balance of trade position only if the sum of the absolute values of price elasticity of import demand and the price elasticity of export demand is greater than one. This condition is met for India, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand but not for Sri Lanka.

Saving-investment relationships for Japan and other Asian countries

Abstract This paper studies the relationship between saving and investment rates for Japan and 10 other Asian countries. When structural breaks are taken into account, we find that the two rates are cointegrated for Myanmar and Thailand. The causality tests with structural breaks show that the growth of the saving rate (SR) causes the growth of the investment rate (IR) for Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The reverse causality holds for Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore.

Rankings of Australian Economics Departments, 1988-2000

This paper provides new rankings for Australian university economics departments for the periods 1988-2000, 1988-94 and 1994-2000 using the ECONLIT database. We rank economics departments using two different journal ranking criteria--one based on citations and the other based on perceptions of journal quality. In addition, we provide updates on the rankings using the Towe and Wright (1995) methodology. We find that the perception-based rankings are quite different from the citation-based rankings. Copyright 2002 by The Economic Society of Australia.

Output variability and economic growth: The case of Australia

This paper looks at the relationship between output variability and economic growth in Australia using the ARCH-M model. Quarterly data for growth rates of industrial production and of GDP are used for the analyses. However, the growth of GDP does not show any ARCH effects. The variability is found to be significantly negatively related to the growth rate of industrial production. Unlike Caporale and McKiernan (1998), our empirical results do not support Blacks (1987) hypothesis, which is that there is a positive relationship between output variability and economic growth. Our results support the Keynesian position.

An Exploration of the Long-Run Relationship between Saving and Investment in the Developing Economies: A Tale of Latin American Countries

Note: The following is a description of the paper and not the actual abstract. Following the study of Feldstein and Horioka in 1980, economists have been studying the relationship between saving and investment with renewed vigor. Most of the recent studies have studied the relationship in the context of capital mobility in the industrialized countries. However, even though data are now available for developing countries, there are hardly any studies which focus on developing countries. Our paper studies the relationship for the following ten Latin American countries: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela. We use the cointegration methodology. Our results show that only for four countries, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica and Panama, there is a long-run relationship between saving and investment. The other six countries may face macroeconomic instability in the long run because of the divergence between saving rate and investment rate.

The Feldstein-Horioka model re-visited for African countries

We study the relationship between the saving and investment rates for 20 African countries using a long period of data. A high correlation between saving and investment is often taken as evidence of capital immobility. We use the new Ng–Perron unit root tests to examine the stationarity of saving and investment rates. Both Johansen cointegration tests and fractional cointegration tests are used. The results are mixed. The Johansen cointegration tests show that the saving and investment rates are cointegrated only for Rwanda and South Africa. This implies that for the other 18 countries, there is evidence of capital mobility. The fractional cointegration test results are different. The two rates are found to be fractionally cointegrated for the following 12 countries: Algeria, Burundi, Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tunisia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. For Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Lesotho and Sierra Leone there is some evidence of capital mobility while the results for Ethiopia, Malawi, Mauritius and Nigeria are mixed.

An aggregate import demand function for greece

This study estimates the aggregate import demand function for Greece using annual data for the period 1951–92. There are two methodological novelties in this paper. The authors find that the variables used in the aggregate import demand function are not stationary but are cointegrated. Thus, a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables during the period under study. The price elasticity is found to be close to unity in the long run. The cross-price elasticity is also found to be close to unity. Import demand is found to be highly income elastic in the long run. This implies that with economic growth, ceteris paribus, the trade deficit for Greece is likely to get worse.

How much influence do economics professors have on rankings? The case of Australia and New Zealand

This study ranks Australian and New Zealand economics teaching departments on the basis of the research productivity of its economics professors in economics teaching departments using quality adjusted journal articles listed on the ECONLIT database for the periods 1988 to 2002 and for 1996 to 2002. The per capita research productivity of professors is highest for University of Melbourne, University of Western Australia and University of Canterbury. For a number of economics departments, the per capita research productivity is lower than the research productivity of all faculty members, using a number of criteria for 1988–2002 and 1996–2002. These universities are University of Auckland, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Griffith University and Macquarie University.

On the robustness of alternative rankings methodologies: Australian and New Zealand economics departments, 1988 to 2002

Just as friendly arguments based on an ignorance of facts eventually led to the creation of the definitive Guinness Book of World Records, any argument about university rankings has seemingly been a problem without a solution. To state the obvious, alternative rankings methodologies can and do lead to different rankings. This article evaluates the robustness of rankings of Australian and New Zealand economics teaching departments for 1988 to 2002 and 1996 to 2002 using alternative rankings methodologies, and compares the results with the rankings obtained by Macri and Sinha (2006). In the overall mean rankings for both 1988 to 2006 and 1996 to 2002, the University of Melbourne is ranked first, followed by UWA and ANU.