Comparing LDA As Classification Method with JEL Classification Codes

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Comparing LDA As Classification Method with JEL Classification Codes Comparing LDA as classification method with JEL classification codes Jelle Jacobus Schagen June 27, 2015 Bachelor Thesis Econometrics Supervisors: dr. Kees Jan van Garderen and dr. Marco van der Leij Roeterseilandcomplex Faculteit Economie en Bedrijfskunde Universiteit van Amsterdam Abstract In this paper the LDA model of Blei et al. (2003) is applied to a dataset of economic articles to create topics. These topics form the base of predicting which JEL categories are attached to the economic articles. The predicted topics and JEL categories show significant similarities but during the research process only a part of the dataset has been correctly predicted. This occured because of an incomplete match between the LDA topics and the JEL categories. Title: Comparing LDA as classification method with JEL classification codes Authors: Jelle Jacobus Schagen, [email protected], 10035877 Supervisors: dr. Kees Jan van Garderen and dr. Marco van der Leij Date: June 27, 2015 Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Theory behind LDA and JEL codes 4 2.1. LDA model . 4 2.1.1. The theory . 4 2.1.2. The script . 6 2.2. JEL codes . 6 2.3. Theory discussion . 7 3. Research Methods 9 3.1. Dataset . 9 3.2. Creating topics . 9 3.3. Pearson Chi square test . 11 4. Results 12 4.1. Topics created by LDA . 12 4.1.1. First level JEL codes . 12 4.1.2. Second level JEL codes . 13 4.2. Outcomes predictions . 14 4.3. Hypothesis testing . 15 4.3.1. JEL code correction . 15 4.3.2. Pearson Chi square test applied . 15 5. Conclusion 18 References 20 A. JEL codes 21 1. Introduction Whenever a thesis, like this one, or another article is published this increases the number of articles on the web. This never ending increase over time makes it harder to find a relevant article when searching for something specific. To solve this problem keywords are attached to papers when they are published. These keywords are chosen by the au- thor and based on the subject. By searching for the appropiate keywords the requested articles can be found. The keywords that are chosen by the author are either made up by the author or come from an existing classification system. If the keywords are made up by the author they can perfectly describe the content of his work because he is free to choose. By using an existing system the author is restricted to set categories. Keywords are picked based on the best match with the content as chosen by the author. In this paper the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model as published by Blei, Ng and Jordan (2003) is used for the classification of economic articles. The LDA model generates topics which consist of related words based on the occurence of the words in a corpus. A good implementation of LDA as a classification method could result in an automatic classification method. LDA can be used as a classification method because each article can be represented as a distribution of different topics. Larger percentages are related with more similarities 1 and thus increase the probability that the subject of a topic is the same as the subject of the article. Another classification method to order economic articles is produced by the Journal of Economic Literature and is called a JEL classification code. The codes are assigned to the articles by their author and an article can contain multiple codes. This classification code consists of twenty main categories from the field of economics. The second and third level subcategories do specify the subject of an article. Because the third level of the JEL codes contain mainly the same subject as the upper second level, the focus of this paper is on the second level JEL code. By recognizing LDA generated topics as a subcategory of the JEL code, a link between these classification methods is made. Articles with a JEL code can be compared with the topic distribution of the LDA model. If the classification methods give similar results an automatic classification system could be possible. In this paper the goal is to create this link and find an answer to the question: can the LDA model successfully predict the JEL codes of articles? To make a comparison between LDA and JEL possible a dataset from EconLit is chosen. The dataset contains 181 thousand abstracts of economic articles. Also, the necessary information, such as year of publication and the JEL codes, are included in the dataset. The publications in the dataset come from the time period 2000 up to and including 2011. In order to do the research the theory behind the LDA model is presented in the theoret- ical framework. The theoretical framework also contains information about the different levels within the JEL classification codes. Second, the methods used for trimming data, creating topics and the adjustment of JEL codes to LDA formed topics are explained. Subsequently a description of the comparison methods is given. Finally, the results are 2 presented and the results are discussed in the conclusion. 3 2. Theory behind LDA and JEL codes For understanding the research done it is important to understand both the classification methods LDA and JEL. Therefore the structure of these methods is explained. 2.1. LDA model 2.1.1. The theory The LDA model considers documents as a mixture of a finite number of topics and each meaningful word in a document as allocated by one of the topics. To make the used terms clear, the same terminology as Blei et al. (2003) will be used: • A word is the smallest unit within this model and denoted by w. • A document consists of N words and can be written as d = (w1, w2, ..., wN ). • A corpus is the biggest unit and is a collection of M documents. Therefore the notation is D = (d1, d2, ..., dM ). When LDA is applied to a corpus it allocates words to a set number of topics based on their occurence in the corpus. Also a mixture of these topics over the different docu- ments is produced. By doing so, LDA finds useful applications like creating topics from news articles as done by Xin Zhao et al. (2011) with articles from the New York Times. In their paper the topics created from the New York Times are compared with topics created from applying an adjusted LDA model to Twitter data. The Twitter-LDA model 4 proposed by Xin Zhao et al. was adjusted to take into account the restricted length of tweets. This paper is restricted to the original LDA model as published by Blei et al. (2003). An improvement made in the original LDA model compared to other text corpora modelling models such as unigrams (Nigam et al., 2000) is the multinominal distribution θ over the topics in each document. Blei shows that the restriction of one topic in a document is too restrictive to model a corpus. The pLSI model (Hofmann, 1999) takes multiple topics in one document into account but is restricted to the training set that is used. Therefore the pLSI model is only known with the topic distribution as known from the training set. Besides that, Blei et al. show in their comparison between LDA and pLSI that the pLSI model suffers from overfitting. Within each topic zn, the words wn follow a multinominal distribution. The same word can be part of multiple topics and for every word wi, with i being an element of the whole vocabulary of words, p(wi j zn) holds. Another requirement of the distribution of words is the 'Bag-of-words' assumption, which states that the sequence of words does not affect the LDA model. Blei et al. (2003) created LDA as a three-step generative process for creating documents in a corpus: 1. Choose N ∼ Poisson(ζ). 2. Choose θ ∼ Dirichlet(α). 3. For each of the N words wn: a) Choose a topic zn ∼ Multinomial(θ). b) Choose a word wn from p(wn j zn). 5 Two important steps for this paper are step 2 and step 3b. If step 2 is applied to the EconLit dataset it gives the distribution over the formed topics for every abstract. Step 3b gives the probabilities of appearances of certain words within a topic. For both steps high percentages mean a high chance of appearance and thus their relevance. 2.1.2. The script The LDA model that is applied in this paper is a script in the programming language Python, produced by Hansen et al. (2014). The script is available to the public and can be adjusted. By adjusting parameters it is able to fit the research goal and the dataset that is used. For example, one of the parameters is the number of topics created by LDA. To make an approximation for a different number of JEL categories the number of topics needs to be adjusted. The script also contains two steps to clean the dataset. The first one contains the removal of the so called stopwords. Stopwords are the words that help to build a sentence but do not contain information. Examples are 'the', 'and', 'where', 'themself', etc. This is necessary because the stopwords are not helpful in describing the content of a document. The second step is the stemming of words. Hereby the base of the words are taken in order to find words with the same meaning but a different conjugation. An example of a base word is ’financ’ which occurs within the abstracts in the form of ’finance’ or ’financing’. 2.2. JEL codes The second classification method in this paper are the JEL classification codes as de- scribed on the website of the American Economic Association.
Recommended publications
  • Hans-Joachim Voth* 23.1.2001 JEL Classification Codes E31, E43, E44
    WITH A BANG, NOT A WHIMPER: PRICKING GERMANY’S ‘STOCK MARKET BUBBLE’ IN 1927 AND THE SLIDE INTO DEPRESSION Hans-Joachim Voth* 23.1.2001 ABSTRACT In May 1927, the German central bank intervened indirectly to reduce lending to equity investors. The crash that followed ended the only stock market boom during Germany’s relative stabilization 1924-28. This paper examines the factors that lead to the intervention as well as its consequences. We argue that genuine concern about the ‘exuberant’ level of the stock market, in addition to worries about an inflow of foreign funds, tipped the scales in favour of intervention. The evidence strongly suggests that the German central bank under Hjalmar Schacht was wrong to be concerned about stockprices – there was no bubble. Also, the Reichsbank was mistaken in its belief that a fall in the market would reduce the importance of short- term foreign borrowing, and help to ease conditions in the money market. The misguided intervention had important real effects. Investment suffered, helping to tip Germany into depression. JEL classification codes E31, E43, E44, N14, N24 Keywords Stock Market, Foreign Lending, Fixed Exchange Rates, Asset Prices, Bubbles, Germany, Monetary Policy. * Economics Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08005 Barcelona, Spain and Centre for History and Economics, Cambridge CB2 1ST, UK. Email: [email protected]. 2 During November and December 1928, the American economist James W. Angell was conducting fieldwork for his book on the German economy. Visiting more than fifty factories and mines in the process, he came away deeply impressed by the prosperity and dynamism he encountered: “[O]nly six years after her utter collapse, Germany is once again one of the great industrial nations…and she is rapidly increasing her power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Equity Implications of Fiscal Consolidation
    THE EQUITY IMPLICATIONS OF FISCAL CONSOLIDATION (Forthcoming as an Economics Department Working Paper) By Lukasz Rawdanowicz, Eckhard Wurzel and Ane Kathrine Christensen ABSTRACT/RÉSUMÉ The equity implications of fiscal consolidation In several OECD countries, ongoing fiscal consolidation might have a negative impact on the static income distribution. However, this conclusion should be treated only as an approximate first step in the analysis. A full assessment of distributional effects of consolidation packages would need to consider dynamic measures, such as life-time income distribution and the equality of opportunity, along with behavioural responses and interactions with other policies. In any case, there is scope to balance current consolidation efforts in favour of more equity with only limited adverse impact on potential growth. In particular, relatively little weight has been given to reducing tax expenditures and raising taxes on immovable property. A number of consolidation instruments are consistent with equity goals while doing little or no harm to potential growth: increases in the effective retirement age, raising efficiency in the education and health care systems, cutting certain tax expenditures, hiking taxes on immovable property and broadly-based consumption taxes. Increases in capital income taxes would also be equitable but need to be well designed to avoid being distortive. Calculations based on simplifying assumptions indicate that increasing household direct taxes would reduce income inequality, while cutting transfers by the same amount would have a larger and opposite effect on inequality. However, raising progressive labour income taxes could have adverse effects on long-run growth. Cuts in government wages and employment can yield fast consolidation gains but need to be accompanied by increases in efficiency of service delivery to avoid that reductions in public services mainly hit the poor.
    [Show full text]
  • Working Paper No. 40, the Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking
    Portland State University PDXScholar Working Papers in Economics Economics 12-15-2019 Working Paper No. 40, The Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking Justin Pilarski Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/econ_workingpapers Part of the Economic History Commons, and the Economic Theory Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Pilarski, Justin "The Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking, Working Paper No. 40", Portland State University Economics Working Papers. 40. (15 December 2019) i + 16 pages. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Working Papers in Economics by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. The Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking Working Paper No. 40 Authored by: Justin Pilarski A Contribution to the Working Papers of the Department of Economics, Portland State University Submitted for: EC456 “American Economic History” 15 December 2019; i + 16 pages Prepared for Professor John Hall Abstract: This inquiry seeks to establish that Henry George’s writings advanced a distinct theory of political economy that benefited from a meteoric rise in popularity followed by a fall to irrelevance with the turn of the 20th century. During the depression decade of the 1870s, the efficacy of the laissez-faire economic system came into question, during this same timeframe neoclassical economics supplanted classical political economy. This inquiry considers both of George’s key works: Progress and Poverty [1879] and The Science of Political Economy [1898], establishing the distinct components of Georgist economic thought.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effects of Quasi-Random Monetary Experiments
    FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO WORKING PAPER SERIES The Effects of Quasi-Random Monetary Experiments Oscar Jorda Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Moritz Schularick University of Bonn and CEPR Alan M. Taylor University of California, Davis NBER, and CEPR May 2018 Working Paper 2017-02 http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-papers/2017/02/ Suggested citation: Jorda, Oscar, Moritz Schularick, Alan M. Taylor. 2018. “The Effects of Quasi-Random Monetary Experiments” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper 2017-02. https://doi.org/10.24148/wp2017-02 The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The effects of quasi-random monetary experiments ? Oscar` Jorda` † Moritz Schularick ‡ Alan M. Taylor § April 2018 Abstract The trilemma of international finance explains why interest rates in countries that fix their exchange rates and allow unfettered cross-border capital flows are largely outside the monetary authority’s control. Using historical panel-data since 1870 and using the trilemma mechanism to construct an external instrument for exogenous monetary policy fluctuations, we show that monetary interventions have very different causal impacts, and hence implied inflation-output trade-offs, according to whether: (1) the economy is operating above or below potential; (2) inflation is low, thereby bringing nominal rates closer to the zero lower bound; and (3) there is a credit boom in mortgage markets. We use several adjustments to account for potential spillover effects including a novel control function approach.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Depression As a Credit Boom Gone Wrong by Barry Eichengreen* and Kris Mitchener**
    BIS Working Papers No 137 The Great Depression as a credit boom gone wrong by Barry Eichengreen* and Kris Mitchener** Monetary and Economic Department September 2003 * University of California, Berkeley ** Santa Clara University BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS. Copies of publications are available from: Bank for International Settlements Press & Communications CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +41 61 280 9100 and +41 61 280 8100 This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org). © Bank for International Settlements 2003. All rights reserved. Brief excerpts may be reproduced or translated provided the source is cited. ISSN 1020-0959 (print) ISSN 1682-7678 (online) Abstract The experience of the 1990s renewed economists’ interest in the role of credit in macroeconomic fluctuations. The locus classicus of the credit-boom view of economic cycles is the expansion of the 1920s and the Great Depression. In this paper we ask how well quantitative measures of the credit boom phenomenon can explain the uneven expansion of the 1920s and the slump of the 1930s. We complement this macroeconomic analysis with three sectoral studies that shed further light on the explanatory power of the credit boom interpretation: the property market, consumer durables industries, and high-tech sectors. We conclude that the credit boom view provides a useful perspective on both the boom of the 1920s and the subsequent slump.
    [Show full text]
  • Of JEL Classification Codes Volumes 12S30, 1980S1998
    Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics: Supplement, 30(1998):145S172 © 1998 Southern Agricultural Economics Association Index of JEL Classification Codes Volumes 12S30, 1980S1998 Notes: Volumes 1S24 were published as the Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics. The JEL coding classification system was adopted beginning with Volume 12 (July 1980). The reader is advised that the JEL initially used a strict numerical coding system, applicable to Volumes 12S22 (July 1980SDecember 1990). Commencing with Volume 23 (July 1991), the JEL coding system was revised to include a combination of alphabetical letters and numbers. JEL Code, Description / Journal Article JEL Code, Description / Journal Article JEL NUMERIC CODES, Vols. 12S22: 1986(18,1):83S92; R. O. Love; “Extension and Farm Families in Financial Crisis” 000 GENERAL ECONOMICS: THEORY, HISTORY, 1986(18,1):109S112; R. L. Harwell and C. P. Rosson, AND SYSTEMS III; “Financial Crisis in Agriculture: Discussion” 1986(18,1):161S168; J. E. Epperson et al.; “On a 011 General Economics Name Change for the Journal” 1982(14,1):65 74; R. D.Lacewell and J.M. McGrann; S 1987(19,1):1S5; W. L. Bateman; “Status of Agricul- “Research and Extension Issues in Production Eco- tural Economics” nomics” 1987(19,2):195S201; D. L. Debertin and G. L. Brad- 1982(14,1):75S76; J. Holt; “Research and Extension ford; “Agricultural Economics Research and the Issues in Production Economics: Discussion” Experiment Station System” 1982(14,1):117 123; M. Belongia and D. Fisher; S 1989(21,1):55S60; J. B. Penn; “The SAEA: After 20 “Some Fallacies in Agricultural Economics” Years” 1983(15,1):1 7; G.
    [Show full text]
  • H Ans-J Oachim Voth* JEL Classification Codes E31, E43, E44
    WITH A BANG, NOT A WHIMPER: PRICKING GERMANY'S "STOCKMARKET BUBBLE" IN 1927 AND THE SLIDE INTO DEPRESSION Hans-Joachim Voth* ABSTRACT Asset price inflation presents central banks with a puzzle. We examine the case of Germany, 1925-7, when the Reichsbank intervened to bring down the stock prices, rectify imbalances, and curb speculation. The evidence strongly suggests that the German central bank under Hjalmar Schacht was wrong to be concerned about stockprices – no bubble can be discerned. Moreover, the misguided intervention had important real effects that helped to tip Germany – then the world's second-largest economy – into depression. JEL classification codes E31, E43, E44, N14, N24 Keywords Stockmarket, Asset Prices, Bubbles, Germany, Monetary Policy. * Centre for History and Economics, Cambridge CB2 1ST, UK and Economics Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08005 Barcelona, Spain. 2 Should asset bubbles be pricked? Recent experience suggests that the risks involved can be substantial. In the US in 1929, as well as in Japan in 1989, it was intervention by the central bank that eventually brought rapid increases in the valuation of stocks and other assets to an end. Interest rates were raised when concerns about asset inflation spilling over into the economy at large became pressing; sooner or later, equity valuations slumped. The extent to which the Japanese and American market were overvalued at the time of central bank intervention is controversial. What is clear is that deflating what the central banks saw as asset bubbles entailed substantial costs for the economy at large. Today's policy debate again centres on the importance of increases in stock prices at a time when inflation remains subdued.
    [Show full text]
  • JEL Classification Codes for the Search: D. Microeconomics D3
    JEL Classification codes for the search: D. Microeconomics D3. Distribution C1. Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General J1. Demographic Economics The Department of Economics at Colorado State University invites applications for a full-time, entry-level tenure-track Assistant Professor whose primary research and teaching interests include Applied Microeconomics with preference for scholarship focusing on income and wealth inequality including racial, ethnic and/or gender dimensions. The successful candidate will be expected to teach in our graduate microeconomics and econometrics sequences. The Department values both strong teaching and research, offering programs of study leading to the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees with graduate fields in public, development, international, regional, environmental, and political economy. Ph.D. must be completed by the time the appointment begins on 16 August 2020. The successful candidate will be appointed untenured and at the rank of Assistant Professor. Tenure requires both scholarly accomplishment and excellence in teaching. This position offers a defined contribution retirement plan, full benefits, sabbatical leave, and optional summer teaching when available. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled, but full consideration will be extended to those applications received by Monday, November 18, 2019. CSU is an EO/EA/AA employer and conducts background checks on all final candidates. The Department of Economics strives to create and support a diverse and inclusive environment appreciating and valuing the uniqueness of the individual. We value intellectual diversity and embrace a pluralistic approach to scholarship and teaching that reflects the broader society. Application Procedure: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled; to ensure full consideration, complete applications should be received by November 18, 2019.
    [Show full text]
  • Dollarization and Money Demand Stability in Bolivia
    Economics and Business Letters 4(3), 116-122, 2015 Dollarization and money demand stability in Bolivia Casto Martin Montero Kuscevic* • Darius Daniel Martin Department of Economics, American University of Beirut, Lebanon Received: 13 July 2015 Revised: 28 October 2015 Accepted: 10 November 2015 Abstract This paper investigates the long-run money demand stability in Bolivia over the period 1990- 2014 using a variety of estimators, namely, dynamic OLS, fully modified OLS, and canonical co-integrating regressions. Our results are robust and reveal that long-run money demand in- stability has been reversed even with persistent inflation volatility. We also show that de-dol- larization is associated with money demand stabilization. Keywords: money demand, financial dollarization, Bolivia JEL Classification Codes: E41, E52 1. Introduction From a theoretical standpoint, the seminal papers of Miles (1978) and McKinnon (1982) show that the currency substitution—i.e. dollarization—can create instabilities in money demand. Some researchers have empirically examined money demand in a dollarized economy. For ex- ample, Rogers (1992) and Ortiz (1983) using data for Mexico found that the high dollarization in the Mexican economy has important consequences for the monetary sector. Money demand instability could become persistent if dollarization becomes irreversible. On top of that, some authors argue that dollarization could be permanent1 even with low inflation due to the cost of switching currencies. In this paper, we analyze the stability of money demand in Bolivia over the period 1990- 2014. The Bolivian case is interesting for several reasons. First, hyperinflation in the Bolivian economy (1984-1985) had prolonged effects on the expectations of economic agents, which in turned got reflected in their preference for foreign currency i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • About JEL Codes
    Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Classification System Click on any subject category to see the full list of classifications for that category. Alternatively, the JEL Classification Codes Guide is now available online. Additionally, you may now download an xml file of JEL Codes. JEL Codes are 3-digit, but EconLit searches require the use the four digit codes consisting of the 3-digit JEL code plus a 0. The EconLit subject descriptors are the same as the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification codes. [ (Updated!) Indicates new or changed descriptor] A - General Economics and Teaching B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods D - Microeconomics E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics F - International Economics G - Financial Economics H - Public Economics I - Health, Education, and Welfare J - Labor and Demographic Economics K - Law and Economics L - Industrial Organization M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting N - Economic History O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth P - Economic Systems Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics Y - Miscellaneous Categories Z - Other Special Topics A - General Economics and Teaching A1 - General Economics A10 - General A11 - Role of Economics; Role of Economists; Market for Economists A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines A13 - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    [Show full text]
  • Research Methodology 2: Writing a Good Research Paper
    M2R \Development Economics" Research Methodology - Panth´eonSorbonne University Research Methodology 2: Writing a good research paper Remi Bazillier [email protected] Semester 1, Academic year 2019-2020 1 / 1 Introduction I What is a good research paper? 2 / 1 Introduction I This is a paper that... I ... is based on a good research project; I ... is very clearly written: I EACH sentence is short, meaningful and is logically linked to the other sentences; I A fellow graduate student should be able to reproduce EVERY number or regressions in your papers simply from the information you convey in your paper... this means that you have to be complete and NEVER allusive; 3 / 1 Introduction I This is a paper that (continued)... I ... is short: I As you write your paper, continually ask yourself: \Can I express the same idea in less space?"; I Your paper shouldn't exceed 40 pages (tables and figures included), knowing that you have to abide by the following constraints: 12-point Times New Roman or similar font; 1.5 line spacing; margins of 2.5 cm on the top, bottom, and sides; 4 / 1 Introduction I This is a paper that (continued)... I ... is as simple as possible: \Simple is better. Most students think they have to dress up a paper to look impressive. The exact opposite is true. The less math used, the better. The simpler the estimation technique, the better." (Cochrane, 2005, \Writing tips for PhD students") 5 / 1 Introduction I This is a paper that (continued)... I ... is organized in the following way: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Studies 160 Linna Martén Essays on Politics, Law, And
    Economic Studies 160 Linna Martén Essays on Politics, Law, and Economics Linna Martén Essays on Politics, Law, and Economics Department of Economics, Uppsala University Visiting address: Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, Uppsala, Sweden Postal address: Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden Telephone: +46 18 471 00 00 Telefax: +46 18 471 14 78 Internet: http://www.nek.uu.se/ _______________________________________________________ ECONOMICS AT UPPSALA UNIVERSITY The Department of Economics at Uppsala University has a long history. The first chair in Economics in the Nordic countries was instituted at Uppsala University in 1741. The main focus of research at the department has varied over the years but has typically been oriented towards policy-relevant applied economics, including both theoretical and empirical studies. The currently most active areas of research can be grouped into six categories: * Labour economics * Public economics * Macroeconomics * Microeconometrics * Environmental economics * Housing and urban economics _______________________________________________________ Additional information about research in progress and published reports is given in our project catalogue. The catalogue can be ordered directly from the Department of Economics. Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Lecture Hall 2, Ekonomikum, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, Uppsala, Saturday, 28 May 2016 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Erik Snowberg (California Institute of Technology). Abstract Martén, L. 2016. Essays on Politics, Law, and Economics. Economic studies 160. 150 pp. Uppsala: Department of Economics, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-85519-67-5. Essay 1: Several countries practice a system where laymen, who lack legal education, participate in the judicial decision making.
    [Show full text]