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This paper provides novel evidence of nonlinearities in the formation of preferences for redistribution by uncovering evidence of multiple regimes consistent with the presence of multiple equilibria and multiple steady states. Using threshold regressions that account for the endogeneity of the threshold variable, countries are classified into three groups that share common characteristics. Finally, our analysis reveals substantial evidence of parameter heterogeneity in the coefficient estimates of threshold regressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the relationship between inequality, redistribution, and the duration of growth spells in the presence of a rich set of alternative determinants, by explicitly accounting for model uncertainty using model averaging for duration models. We find that lower net inequality is associated with longer growth spells. Redistribution does not appear to be correlated with the duration of growth spells. In addition, there is no evidence of nonlinearities in the inequality–redistribution–growth spell relationship. Finally, lower initial income, higher secondary education, and higher FDI are associated with longer spell duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper uncovers novel empirical patterns in the cross‐country price mechanism using a nonlinear factor model and threshold regression analysis based on individual goods retail price data for a large panel of countries. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to find strong evidence for club convergence of retail prices. These clubs emerge due to the interaction of traded and nontraded factors. For example, countries physically closer to potential trade partners converge faster than countries in the high distance regime as long as they have low initial labor productivity or low initial income. Moreover, we find an asymmetry in the extent that arbitrage opportunities related to international trade are exploited, with low initial price regime countries exhibiting faster convergence from below than high initial price regime countries exhibit from above, consistent with less resistance to exporting than to importing due to political economy considerations. We interpret our findings as evidence of a local law of one price due to barriers to price convergence influencing the duration of the effect of price shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Barro and McCleary (2003, Religion and economic growth across countries. American Journal of Sociology 68: 760-781) is a key research contribution in the new literature exploring the macroeconomic effects of religious beliefs. This paper represents an effort to evaluate the strength of their claims. We evaluate their results in terms of replicability and robustness. Overall, their analysis generally meets the standard of statistical replicability, though not perfectly. On the other hand, we do not find that their results are robust to changes in their baseline statistical specification. When model-averaging methods are employed to integrate information across alternative statistical specifications, little evidence survives that religious variables help to predict cross-country income differences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]