Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Volume 65 Issue 1

Issue of Review of Economics

Contents
Journal Overview

February 11, 2016

Content

Page range: i-i

Publicly Available February 11, 2016

Estimating Aggregate Capital Stocks Using the Perpetual Inventory Method

A Survey of Previous Implementations and New Empirical Evidence for 103 Countries

Michael Berlemann, Jan-Erik Wesselhöft

Page range: 1-34

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Abstract

Almost all attempts to construct capital stock data base on some variant of the Perpetual Inventory Method. While various countries employ this method to construct suitable proxies of national capital stocks, the implementation and the underlying assumptions differ considerably, thereby rendering the results internationally incomparable. Only a few attempts to construct internationally comparable capital stock data have yet been undertaken in the scientific literature. In this paper we outline the idea of the Perpetual Inventory Method and deliver a survey of previous implementations of the method. Based on a critical assessment of these implementations we propose a unified approach and construct estimations of aggregate capital stocks for the 1970 to 2010 period for 103 countries.

February 11, 2016

Ranking Economics and Econometrics ISI Journals by Quality Weighted Citations

Chia-Lin Chang, Michael McAleer

Page range: 35-52

Abstract

The paper analyses academic journal quality and impact using quality weighted citations that are based on the widely-used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). A recently developed Index of Citations Quality (ICQ), based on quality weighted citations, is used to analyse the top 276 Economics and top 10 Econometrics journals in the ISI Economics category using alternative quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs). It is shown that ICQ is a useful additional measure to the 2-Year Impact Factor (2YIF) and other well known RAMs available in ISI for the purpose of evaluating journal impact and quality, as well as ranking, of Economics and Econometrics journals as it contains information that has very low correlations with the information contained in alternative well-known RAMs. Among other findings, the top Econometrics journals have some of the highest ICQ scores in the ISI category of Economics.

February 11, 2016

How Informative Are Central Bank Minutes?

Mikael Apel, Marianna Blix Grimaldi

Page range: 53-76

Abstract

One characteristic feature of central banks today is that policy decisions are almost exclusively made by a committee rather than by a single policy maker. Another is that central banks endeavour to be transparent. Together, this has brought to the fore an important but so far unresolved issue: how much information about the committee’s deliberations should the central bank reveal? Does this kind of information make monetary policy easier to understand and predict, or does it make it harder? We address this issue by employing a novel method. We measure the sentiment and tone of the minutes of the Swedish central bank using an automated content analysis that converts the qualitative information in the minutes to a quantitative measure. We find that this measure is helpful in predicting future policy rate decisions.

February 11, 2016

Media Bias and Advertising: Evidence from a German Car Magazine

Ralf Dewenter, Ulrich Heimeshoff

Page range: 77-94

Abstract

This paper investigates the existence of a possible media bias by analyzing the impact of automobile manufacturers’ advertisements on automobile reviews in a leading German car magazine. By accounting for both endogeneity and sample selection using a two-step procedure, we find a positive impact of advertising volumes on test scores. The main advantage of our study is the measurement of technical characteristics of cars to explain test scores. Due to this kind of measurement, we avoid serious biases in estimating media bias caused by omitted variables.

February 11, 2016

The Objections against Workfare Revised

Tim Lohse

Page range: 95-118

Abstract

Opponents of work obligations in return for transfer payments argue that workfare can crowd out private sector work, that workfare harms the welfare of the poor and thereby reduces a society’s welfare in general. This paper analyzes these objections against workfare in a discrete optimal income tax model. Workfare productivity emerges to be the crucial determinant. We identify a productivity threshold. If workfare productivity exceeds this threshold, then crowding out indeed happens, but it is second-best. Crowding out occurs entirely in the sense that workfare and private sector employment are mutually exclusive. Welfare increases due to the fact that out of the three effects workfare entails, beyond the detected threshold, the output effect and the incentive effect dominate the negative utility effect. Numerical simulations calibrated on the distribution of gross hourly wages in Germany reveal that on an individual level, the poor may even be better off under a tax-transfer scheme with workfare rather than without workfare. This is due to the fact that a higher degree of redistribution can be achieved.

About this journal

Welcome! As of 2016 the Review of Economics as well as all other journals of Lucius and Lucius Verlagsgesellschaft are published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Aims and Scope
The Review of Economics (Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftswissenschaften) is a peer-reviewed general interest journal and publishes articles from all fields of economics.
Only articles with a strong policy focus are considered for publication. The Review of Economics will consider papers that are based on (i) a well defined theoretical model (ii) an empirical analysis or (iii) an experimental or (iv) an evidence-based framework.
The Review of Economics is also highly interested in survey articles on important policy issues.
Since the Review of Economics intends to deliver a forum for policy contributions and to influence the public debate we guarantee a quick and efficient referee process (the initial publication decision will be made within a maximum of 90 days). The editors may decide to publish papers without a referee process whenever authors send their submissions together with the referee reports and the decision letter of the previous submission and explain how they reacted to the reports. Accepted articles will be pre-published on the internet page of the journal as soon as they are accepted. Because the Review of Economics is not an e-Journal all articles also appear in a regular print version with some delay.

Partner Journal
Czech Journal of Economics and Finance

The Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (ISSN 0015-1920) is an English-language, double-blind refereed academic journal published in Prague since 1951. It devotes special attention to monetary economics, public finance, financial economics, and international economics, but it is open to high-quality papers from all fields of modern economics. The editors prefer empirically oriented papers, but do not exclude review articles or theoretical contributions provided that they are of high quality and relevant to the journal's aims.