Working Papers

Did the GI Bill of 1944 Produce Persistent Effects on the US Economy? [.pdf]

Abstract

This research studies the impact of a short-run boost to college education, via the GI Bill (1944) education subsidy, on evolution of collegiate attainment, national income and structure of wages during the last-half of the century. For this purpose, a dynamic general equilibrium model is constructed in which the decision to pursue college education is endogenous, i.e., it is based on agents' optimization problem. The model is then calibrated to the US economy for the last-half of the century, and counter factual simulation is performed to study whether a temporary policy, like the GI education subsidy of 1944, would produce persistent effects. Finally, several sensitivity experiments are conduced. These experiments illustrate that short term relaxation of financial constraints, like GI education subsidy of 1944, would not produce long term impact on the economy; however, it does have short term impact. Further, it can be concluded from the results that the main driving force for the collegiate attainment is skill premium.

 

Empirics of Currency Crisis [.pdf]

Abstract

Empirical research is fundamental for an in-depth understanding of currency crises. With this aim, this paper studies currency crises in a simultaneous equation framework, and takes into account unobserved heterogeneity, which is expected in panel data. The results suggests that high risk countries are more susceptible to a currency crisis, and a large depreciation of exchange rate could contribute to a crisis.

 

Impact of Railroad Access on Land Value in Nineteenth Century America [.pdf]

Abstract

This research studies the benefits of railroad transportation in comparison to water transportation for agricultural land value in nineteenth century America. For this purpose, two time periods are identified where one mode of transportation was more dominant than the other. In these two time periods, Monte Carlo technique is employed to test whether the difference in annual growth of land value was significantly different. Results reveal that the annual growth of land value was not significantly different between the two time periods, which imply that railroad transportation did not lead to greater appreciation of agricultural land value in nineteenth century America in comparison to water transportation.