統計年鑑 = Statistical yearbook

This paper develops a model in which workers to a certain extent enjoy working. We examine the implications of workers' intrinsic motivation for optimal monetary incentive schemes. We show that motivated workers work harder and, for a given level of effort, are willing to work for a lower wage. When people differ in their motivation to work at a particular firm, the profits of the firm depend on its capability to attract and select highly motivated workers. We show that when the firm has all the bargaining power and workers face application cost, the firm needs to commit to a minimum wage offer in order to attract workers. A higher minimum wage increases the probability to fill the vacancy, but decreases the expected average quality of job applicants, as it induces lower motivated workers to apply. The optimal level of the minimum wage depends on whether or not the firm can observe the motivation of the applicants. If applicants can credibly signal their motivation, a minimum wage not only helps to attract workers, but also to select the best-motivated worker among the job applicants.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID315008_code102458.pdf?abstractid=315008&rulid=4890255&mirid=1

Signaling and Screening of Workers' Motivation

http://www.econ.upf.edu/~apesteguia/imitation.pdf

Imitation—theory and experimental evidence

According to the Leviathan-Model, fiscal federalism is seen as a binding constraint on a revenue-maximizing government. The competitive pressure of fiscal federalism is supposed to reduce public sector size as compared to unitary states. However, empirical results concerning the Leviathan hypothesis are mixed. This study uses a state and local-level panel data set of Swiss cantons from 1980 to 1998 to empirically analyze the effect of different federalist institutions on the size and structure of government revenue. Because of the considerable tax autonomy of sub-national Swiss governments, it is possible to investigate different mechanisms by which fiscal federalism may influence government size. The results indicate that tax exporting has a revenue expanding effect whereas tax competition favors a smaller size of government. Fragmentation has essentially no effect on the size of government revenue for Swiss cantons. The overall effect of revenue decentralization leads to lower tax revenue but higher user charges. Thus, revenue decentralization favors a smaller size of government revenue and shifts government revenue from taxes to user charges.

Decentralized Taxation and the Size of Government: Evidence from Swiss State and Local Governments

This paper develops a framework to analyze the incentives to form a patent pool or engage in cross-licensing arrangements in the presence of uncertainty about the validity and coverage of patents that makes disputes inevitable. It analyzes the private incentives to litigate and compares them with the social incentives. It shows that pooling arrangements can have the effect of sheltering invalid patents from challenges. This result has an antitrust implication that patent pools should not be permitted until after patentees have challenged the validity of each other’s patents if litigation costs are not too large.

/pdf/patent-pools-and-cross-licensing-in-the-shadow-of-patent-fxs4wxvl1e.pdf

Patent Pools and Cross-Licensing in the Shadow of Patent Litigation*

Since independence in 1963 Kenya has invested substantial resources in the education sector. For almost twenty-five years these investments and other government policies led to impressive gains in educational access at all levels. However since the mid-to late 1980s there appears to have been an erosion in educational participation and a reversal of the gains achieved in previous decades. Motivated by this trend this paper uses temporal cross-section and pseudo-panel data to assess the plausibility of various factors that may be responsible for the decline in primary school educational enrolment. In particular we consider the role of school fees school inputs and curriculum school availability the expected benefits of education and the spread of HIV/AIDS. We also try to identify the most effective policy interventions that may be used to prevent further declines in primary school enrolment rates. (authors)

/pdf/the-decline-in-primary-school-enrolment-in-kenya-55xshmj4jt.pdf

The decline in primary school enrolment in Kenya

A Situational Analysis of Poverty in Kenya

HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa has been closely associated with adverse economic effects, and could thwart the success of poverty reduction initiatives. HIV/AIDS is fast eroding the health benefits, which Kenya gained in the first two decades of independence. The paper explores the different channels through which HIV/AIDS affects economic growth in a low income country like Kenya. Within this framework, the paper attempts to analyse the impact of HIV/AIDS on Kenya's economic growth by way of simulations using a macroeconomic model for the Kenyan economy. Some of the key channels explored are the impact of HIV/AIDS on productivity and labour force supply; asset accumulation of human, physical and social capital; and the gender channel.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID449241_code031029590.pdf?abstractid=449241&mirid=1

An Assessment of the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Economic Growth: The Case of Kenya

Household surveys provide data that is used for identifying and measuring the poverty status of households and individuals. However, carrying out such surveys is expensive, especially in poor developing countries. Thus it is important to make maximum use of the available survey data in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where such data are expensive to collect and analyse. This paper develops a simple method for using poverty indices derived from survey data for a given year, to predict poverty rates for subsequent periods without having to conduct a new household survey. We illustrate the workings of the method with data from Kenyan household surveys for 1994 and 1997.

Nancy Nafula

Papers

The decline in primary school enrolment in Kenya

A Situational Analysis of Poverty in Kenya

An Assessment of the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Economic Growth: The Case of Kenya

Predicting Household Poverty: A Methodological Note with a Kenyan Example

A Review of the Health Sector in Kenya