James C. Murdoch

Economic Growth, Civil Wars, and Spatial Spillovers

A neoclassical growth model is used to empirically test for the influences of a civil war on steady-state income per capita both at home and in neighboring countries. This model provides the basis for measuring long-run and short-run effects of civil wars on income per capita growth in the host country and its neighbors. Evidence of significant collateral damage on economic growth in neighboring nations is uncovered. In addition, this damage is attributed to country-specific influences rather than to migration, human capital, or investment factors. As the intensity of the measure used to proxy the conflict increases, there are enhanced neighbor spillovers. Moreover, collateral damage from civil wars to growth is more pronounced in the short run.

The voluntary provision of a pure public good: The case of reduced CFC emissions and the Montreal protocol

Abstract This paper applies the theory of the voluntary provision of a pure public good to the behavior of nations to curb chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) emissions during the late 1980s. By devising an empirical test, we determine that these cutbacks in emissions are consistent with Nash behavior. When taste parameters are controlled, the relationship between emission cutbacks and national income is nearly linear as implied by the theory. If the sample is purged of potential outliers, then the linear relationship results. A significant taste parameter is the extent of political and civil freedoms, while a marginally significant parameter is geophysical position in terms of latitude.

A Tale of Two Collectives: Sulphur versus Nitrogen Oxides Emission Reduction in Europe

A theoretical model of emission reductions is specified that accounts for voluntary and nonvoluntary behavior regarding the adherence to the Helsinki and Sofia Protocols, which mandated emission reductions for sulphur and nitrogen oxides, respectively. From this model, the authors derive an econometric specification for the demand for emission reductions that adjusts for the spatial dispersion of the pollutant. When tested for twenty-five European nations, the model performs well for sulphur cutbacks. Less satisfying results are obtained for nitrogen oxides, because the models assumption of a unitary actor at the national level is less descriptive. Collective action considerations indicate that sulphur emissions are easier to control than those of nitrogen oxides. Copyright 1997 by The London School of Economics and Political Science

The participation decision versus the level of participation in an environmental treaty: a spatial probit analysis

Abstract This paper represents treaty participation as a two-stage game, for which nations first decide whether or not to participate and then they choose their level of participation. The resulting subgame perfect equilibrium is used to derive a reduced-form equation for estimating and separating the influences of the variables at the two decision stages. This spatial probit equation forms the basis for a full-information maximum likelihood estimator that accounts for the simultaneity bias associated with public good spillins at both stages. When the procedure is applied to the Helsinki Protocol, we find that the strategic influence of a variable may drastically differ depending upon which stage is scrutinized.

Why Cooperate? Public Goods, Economic Power, and the Montreal Protocol

This paper develops a correlated probit model to describe dichotomous choices that may contain a public-goods component or some other forms of interdependency. The key contribution of the paper is to formulate tests for interdependent behavior among agents. In particular, we examine the decisions by nations whether or not to ratify the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Specifically, we reject free riding as a motive for not ratifying the Protocol, and we find little evidence that individual nations were influenced by the behavior of their largest trading partners. Hence, the data suggest that, with respect to the Montreal Protocol, most nations acted without regard for the actions of other nations.

Nash-Cournot or Lindahl Behavior?: An Empirical Test for the NATO Allies

This paper derives systems of demand equations for distinguishing between Nash-Cournot and Lindahl behavior in a group that either shares a pure public good or an activity that provides a private and a pure public joint product. Systems of simultaneous equations are estimated based upon Nash-Cournot and Lindahl behavior for a sample of ten NATO allies for the 1956–1987 period. Nonnested hypothesis tests support the Nash-Cournot specification for five of the ten sample allies. No evidence of Lindahl behavior is found. The Nash-Cournot joint-product specification outperforms the pure public model for all sample allies.

The Influence of Demographics and Distance on Nonprofit Location

This article investigates the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and the provision of nonprofit services for census block groups in Dallas County, Texas. We find that the number of health, education, and social service nonprofits in a given area is positively influenced by block group income, age, percentage minority, and racial heterogeneity, and negatively influenced by income heterogeneity and age heterogeneity. On further examination, we find a complex pattern of relationships between income and age and number of providers that suggests researchers should exercise caution when using these variables. Also, in all of our results the effects of the demographic variables are by far the strongest for nonprofits within one mile of the block group centroid; they weaken as they get farther from the centroid. This shows that nonprofits are most heavily influenced by the characteristics of the neighborhoods directly around them.

A Spatially Autoregressive Median Voter Model of Recreation Expenditures

This article presents a median voter model to explain the expenditures on recreation by local governments. The authors show that when the benefits of a public good provided by one community can spill over to members of other communities the correct empirical specification is a spatially autoregressive econometric model With respect to local recreation, it was found that communities with relatively high incomes and air pollution spend relatively less on provision.

Civil wars and economic growth: A regional comparison

The paper examines the impact of civil wars on income per-capita growth at home and in neighbors for four regional groupings of countries: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and a pooled Asian and Latin American sample. Both macroeconomic and civil-war influences on growth differ by region. With the use of a distance measure, we demonstrate that the spatial reach from the negative consequences of a civil war are region and time period specific. Generally, there was less dispersion in Africa than in Asia and Latin America. Moreover, Africa demonstrates a greater ability to recover from the adverse effects of civil wars than the other regions tested.

Hedonic price estimation of variable urban air quality

Abstract This paper investigates the validity of the hypothesis that the appropriate specification of the hedonic function should use mean levels of environmental quality. A test of the mean specification is constructed by estimating a hedonic equation with the probabilities of various levels of environmental quality entered as independent variables. The test indicates rejection of the mean specification. The results imply that benefit estimates based on the traditional mean model are likely to be biased and that efforts to improve the accuracy of hedonic methods should consider more complete measures of environmental quality.