This paper examines the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the growth r... more This paper examines the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the growth rate of per capita GDP during the period 1996-2006 in a sample 71 countries. Using software piracy data as a proxy for IPR violations, we find that countries with increasing rates of software piracy have lower growth rates. We also find that states with strong commitments to enact policies to protect intellectual property rights are able to achieve higher growth rates.
There is growing evidence from both behavioral and neurophysiological approaches that primates ar... more There is growing evidence from both behavioral and neurophysiological approaches that primates are able to rapidly discriminate visually between snakes and innocuous stimuli. Recent behavioral evidence suggests that primates are also able to discriminate the level of threat posed by snakes, by responding more intensely to a snake model poised to strike than to snake models in coiled or sinusoidal postures (Etting and Isbell 2014). In the present study, we examine the potential for an underlying neurological basis for this ability. Previous research indicated that the pulvinar is highly sensitive to snake images. We thus recorded pulvinar neurons in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) while they viewed photos of snakes in striking and non-striking postures in a delayed non-matching to sample (DNMS) task. Of 821 neurons recorded, 78 visually responsive neurons were tested with the all snake images. We found that pulvinar neurons in the medial and dorsolateral pulvinar responded more strongly to snakes in threat displays poised to strike than snakes in non-threat-displaying postures with no significant difference in response latencies. A multidimensional scaling analysis of the 78 visually responsive neurons indicated that threat-displaying and non-threatdisplaying snakes were separated into two different clusters in the first epoch of 50 ms after stimulus onset, suggesting bottom-up visual information processing. These results indicate that pulvinar neurons in primates discriminate between poised to strike from those in non-threat-displaying postures. This neuronal ability likely facilitates behavioral discrimination and has clear adaptive value. Our results are thus consistent with the Snake Detection Theory, which posits that snakes were instrumental in the evolution of primate visual systems.
We present a model of optimal government policy when policy choices may exacerbate socio-politica... more We present a model of optimal government policy when policy choices may exacerbate socio-political instability (SPI). We show that optimal policy that takes into account SPI transforms a standard concave growth model into a model with both a poverty trap and endogenous growth. The resulting equilibrium dynamics inherit the properties of government policies and need not be monotone. Indeed, for a broad set of conditions we demonstrate that government policy is unable to eliminate the poverty trap; when these conditions do not hold, "most" countries eventually reach a balanced growth path. The predictions of the model are tested by developing three new measures of SPI for a panel of 58 countries. Estimating optimal policies and the growth equation derived from the model reveals strong support for the theory. In particular, we show via simulations that optimal funding for public investment and the police cause a typical developing economy to expand on a quasi-linear growth path, with the baseline level of SPI determining whether growth is positive or negative.
This paper examines firms' competitiveness in the seafood processing industry in Vietnam and poli... more This paper examines firms' competitiveness in the seafood processing industry in Vietnam and policy changes for global integration. We find that trade liberalization is a very important policy change that has generally positive impacts and generates strong reactions in the seafood processing industry. Exchange rate depreciation is also an important factor and receives strong responsiveness as most of firms' intermediate inputs are tradable and seafood products are also tradable. Increasing electricity charges that reduce profitability also generate strong reactions. Oil and petrol comprise a small portion of intermediate inputs, hence increasing the oil price does not significantly hinder the industry and does not stimulate very strong reactions. The US anti-dumping tariff strongly hurts firms' profitability, not only seafood exporting firms but also non-exporters. Statistics Office (GSO) of Vietnam. Data from these surveys excluded non-state enterprises having less than 10 employees. 522 d. t. hong and q. v. le paper is to apply a supply model to analyse the competitiveness of seafood processing firms in different policy scenarios as envisaged in the current reform agenda. Profitability will be used as an indicator to measure the level of a firm's competitiveness with the assumption that the higher the profitability, the larger market share and the more competitive the firm becomes. In addition, through the supply function, we measure the level of firms' reactions in response to these policy changes in order to maximize profitability after experiencing price shocks.
Capital flight often amounts to a substantial proportion of GDP in developing countries. This pap... more Capital flight often amounts to a substantial proportion of GDP in developing countries. This paper presents a portfolio choice model that relates capital flight to return differentials, risk aversion, and three types of risk: economic risk, political instability, and policy variability. Estimating the equilibrium capital flight equation for a panel of 45 developing countries over 16 years, all three types of risk have a statistically significant impact on capital flight. Quantitatively, political instability is the most important factor associated with capital flight. We also identify several political factors that reduce capital flight, ostensibly by signaling that market-oriented reforms are imminent. 14 These variables include: black market premium, general government budget deficit, credit to private sector, external debt, total debt, interest rate, standard deviation of interest rate, trade openness, dummy variable for Latin America, dummy variable for Sub-Saharan Africa, GDP per capita, real GDP growth rate, inflation rate, standard deviation of inflation rate, gross domestic investment, ratio of money and quasi money to GDP, primary school enrollment rate, interest rate spread (lending minus deposit rates), standard deviation of interest rate spread, growth rate of export prices, growth rate of import prices, and trade (export þ import/GDP).
This paper presents empirical evidence that links private investment to rate of return differenti... more This paper presents empirical evidence that links private investment to rate of return differential, risk aversion, and several types of political and economic risk. Estimating private investment equation for a panel of 25 developing countries over 21 years yields the following results: (i) socio-political instability characterized by nonviolent protests promotes private investment while violent uprisings hinder private investment; (ii) regime change instability characterized by constitutional government change promotes private investment while unconstitutional government change hinders private investment; and (iii) policy uncertainty characterized by variability of contract enforcement rights promotes private investment while variability of government political capacity hinders private investment.
This paper considers the role of corruption in impelling capital flight. Identifying corruption a... more This paper considers the role of corruption in impelling capital flight. Identifying corruption as one dimension of poor governance, the empirical analysis explores direct linkages between corruption and capital flight in a broad sample of countries. The novelty of this investigation is that it is based on a portfolio choice model of asset allocation that explicitly recognizes corruption as contributing to the variance of domestic investment risk. The main testable proposition emerging from our theoretical specification is stated thus: does corruption impel capital flight by raising the risk of domestic investment, ceteris paribus? An econometric analysis suggests that, holding other determinants of capital flight constant, corruption does have a positive and significant impact on capital flight. Based on these results, the paper concludes that advocating good governance by combating corruption makes a great deal of sense for countries aiming to staunch capital flight.
The argument for the privatization of state enterprises is based on the superior efficiency of pr... more The argument for the privatization of state enterprises is based on the superior efficiency of private over state ownership. This argument is only true when it ignores the institutional constraints including insecure property rights enforcement, land, credit, and export-quota policies. By using a survey of ninety-six textile-garment enterprises in Vietnam, private and foreign enterprises were found to face serious institutional constraints. These constraints explain why private and foreign enterprises have inferior profitability indicators compared with state enterprises; and why total factor productivity of private enterprises is low compared with state enterprises. Without removing these institutional constraints, the privatization of state enterprises may not bring about greater operational efficiency. Vo
This paper examines the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the growth r... more This paper examines the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the growth rate of per capita GDP during the period 1996-2006 in a sample 71 countries. Using software piracy data as a proxy for IPR violations, we find that countries with increasing rates of software piracy have lower growth rates. We also find that states with strong commitments to enact policies to protect intellectual property rights are able to achieve higher growth rates.
There is growing evidence from both behavioral and neurophysiological approaches that primates ar... more There is growing evidence from both behavioral and neurophysiological approaches that primates are able to rapidly discriminate visually between snakes and innocuous stimuli. Recent behavioral evidence suggests that primates are also able to discriminate the level of threat posed by snakes, by responding more intensely to a snake model poised to strike than to snake models in coiled or sinusoidal postures (Etting and Isbell 2014). In the present study, we examine the potential for an underlying neurological basis for this ability. Previous research indicated that the pulvinar is highly sensitive to snake images. We thus recorded pulvinar neurons in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) while they viewed photos of snakes in striking and non-striking postures in a delayed non-matching to sample (DNMS) task. Of 821 neurons recorded, 78 visually responsive neurons were tested with the all snake images. We found that pulvinar neurons in the medial and dorsolateral pulvinar responded more strongly to snakes in threat displays poised to strike than snakes in non-threat-displaying postures with no significant difference in response latencies. A multidimensional scaling analysis of the 78 visually responsive neurons indicated that threat-displaying and non-threatdisplaying snakes were separated into two different clusters in the first epoch of 50 ms after stimulus onset, suggesting bottom-up visual information processing. These results indicate that pulvinar neurons in primates discriminate between poised to strike from those in non-threat-displaying postures. This neuronal ability likely facilitates behavioral discrimination and has clear adaptive value. Our results are thus consistent with the Snake Detection Theory, which posits that snakes were instrumental in the evolution of primate visual systems.
We present a model of optimal government policy when policy choices may exacerbate socio-politica... more We present a model of optimal government policy when policy choices may exacerbate socio-political instability (SPI). We show that optimal policy that takes into account SPI transforms a standard concave growth model into a model with both a poverty trap and endogenous growth. The resulting equilibrium dynamics inherit the properties of government policies and need not be monotone. Indeed, for a broad set of conditions we demonstrate that government policy is unable to eliminate the poverty trap; when these conditions do not hold, "most" countries eventually reach a balanced growth path. The predictions of the model are tested by developing three new measures of SPI for a panel of 58 countries. Estimating optimal policies and the growth equation derived from the model reveals strong support for the theory. In particular, we show via simulations that optimal funding for public investment and the police cause a typical developing economy to expand on a quasi-linear growth path, with the baseline level of SPI determining whether growth is positive or negative.
This paper examines firms' competitiveness in the seafood processing industry in Vietnam and poli... more This paper examines firms' competitiveness in the seafood processing industry in Vietnam and policy changes for global integration. We find that trade liberalization is a very important policy change that has generally positive impacts and generates strong reactions in the seafood processing industry. Exchange rate depreciation is also an important factor and receives strong responsiveness as most of firms' intermediate inputs are tradable and seafood products are also tradable. Increasing electricity charges that reduce profitability also generate strong reactions. Oil and petrol comprise a small portion of intermediate inputs, hence increasing the oil price does not significantly hinder the industry and does not stimulate very strong reactions. The US anti-dumping tariff strongly hurts firms' profitability, not only seafood exporting firms but also non-exporters. Statistics Office (GSO) of Vietnam. Data from these surveys excluded non-state enterprises having less than 10 employees. 522 d. t. hong and q. v. le paper is to apply a supply model to analyse the competitiveness of seafood processing firms in different policy scenarios as envisaged in the current reform agenda. Profitability will be used as an indicator to measure the level of a firm's competitiveness with the assumption that the higher the profitability, the larger market share and the more competitive the firm becomes. In addition, through the supply function, we measure the level of firms' reactions in response to these policy changes in order to maximize profitability after experiencing price shocks.
Capital flight often amounts to a substantial proportion of GDP in developing countries. This pap... more Capital flight often amounts to a substantial proportion of GDP in developing countries. This paper presents a portfolio choice model that relates capital flight to return differentials, risk aversion, and three types of risk: economic risk, political instability, and policy variability. Estimating the equilibrium capital flight equation for a panel of 45 developing countries over 16 years, all three types of risk have a statistically significant impact on capital flight. Quantitatively, political instability is the most important factor associated with capital flight. We also identify several political factors that reduce capital flight, ostensibly by signaling that market-oriented reforms are imminent. 14 These variables include: black market premium, general government budget deficit, credit to private sector, external debt, total debt, interest rate, standard deviation of interest rate, trade openness, dummy variable for Latin America, dummy variable for Sub-Saharan Africa, GDP per capita, real GDP growth rate, inflation rate, standard deviation of inflation rate, gross domestic investment, ratio of money and quasi money to GDP, primary school enrollment rate, interest rate spread (lending minus deposit rates), standard deviation of interest rate spread, growth rate of export prices, growth rate of import prices, and trade (export þ import/GDP).
This paper presents empirical evidence that links private investment to rate of return differenti... more This paper presents empirical evidence that links private investment to rate of return differential, risk aversion, and several types of political and economic risk. Estimating private investment equation for a panel of 25 developing countries over 21 years yields the following results: (i) socio-political instability characterized by nonviolent protests promotes private investment while violent uprisings hinder private investment; (ii) regime change instability characterized by constitutional government change promotes private investment while unconstitutional government change hinders private investment; and (iii) policy uncertainty characterized by variability of contract enforcement rights promotes private investment while variability of government political capacity hinders private investment.
This paper considers the role of corruption in impelling capital flight. Identifying corruption a... more This paper considers the role of corruption in impelling capital flight. Identifying corruption as one dimension of poor governance, the empirical analysis explores direct linkages between corruption and capital flight in a broad sample of countries. The novelty of this investigation is that it is based on a portfolio choice model of asset allocation that explicitly recognizes corruption as contributing to the variance of domestic investment risk. The main testable proposition emerging from our theoretical specification is stated thus: does corruption impel capital flight by raising the risk of domestic investment, ceteris paribus? An econometric analysis suggests that, holding other determinants of capital flight constant, corruption does have a positive and significant impact on capital flight. Based on these results, the paper concludes that advocating good governance by combating corruption makes a great deal of sense for countries aiming to staunch capital flight.
The argument for the privatization of state enterprises is based on the superior efficiency of pr... more The argument for the privatization of state enterprises is based on the superior efficiency of private over state ownership. This argument is only true when it ignores the institutional constraints including insecure property rights enforcement, land, credit, and export-quota policies. By using a survey of ninety-six textile-garment enterprises in Vietnam, private and foreign enterprises were found to face serious institutional constraints. These constraints explain why private and foreign enterprises have inferior profitability indicators compared with state enterprises; and why total factor productivity of private enterprises is low compared with state enterprises. Without removing these institutional constraints, the privatization of state enterprises may not bring about greater operational efficiency. Vo
Uploads
Papers by Quan Le