Response of the Nigerian construction sector to economic shocks

The construction sector (CS) is an economic barometer that mirrors the state of the economy. Therefore, the construction sector is susceptible to economic impacts. This study investigated the impact of economic shocks (measured with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) on construction sector performance. The study used econometric methodology which involves several sequential procedure including unit root test, cointegration test, causality and exogeneity tests. The data used was the Annualized time series data about GDP and construction sector. The data were extracted from the United Nations Statistics Division database based on the year 2010 US Dollars price over a forty seven (47) year period (1970-2016). The study found that the GDP significantly caused the construction sector output in all tests investigated. The study concluded that the construction sector significantly responded to economic shocks in both the short and long run. The study recommended that government should develop a policy framework that supports a concurrent development of the economy and the construction sector in Nigeria.

Housing Development, Energy Consumption and Energy Prices

New housing completions constitute a considerable share of the overall housing supply in Chinas current urban housing markets. We argue that large-scale new housing developments significantly increase energy consumption in the long run, thereby increasing energy prices. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of supply-side housing variables rather than demand-side housing variables on energy prices in Beijing. Supply-side housing variables include level variable (floor space) and growth variable (changes in floor space). We investigated their respective effects on energy prices. We tested for cointegration, Granger causality and weak exogeneity. Tests indicated that new housing completions exerted a positive long-term effect on energy prices. Hence, new housing development needs to improve energy efficiency.

Downs, Stokes and the Dynamics of Electoral Choice

A six-wave 2005–09 national panel survey conducted in conjunction with the British Election Study provided data for an investigation of sources of stability and change in voters’ party preferences. The authors test competing spatial and valence theories of party choice and investigate the hypothesis that spatial calculations provide cues for making valence judgements. Analyses reveal that valence mechanisms – heuristics based on party leader images, party performance evaluations and mutable partisan attachments – outperform a spatial model in terms of strength of direct effects on party choice. However, spatial effects still have sizeable indirect effects on the vote via their influence on valence judgements. The results of exogeneity tests bolster claims about the flow of influence from spatial calculations to valence judgments to electoral choice.

Unemployment and Profitability in Spain

This paper explores empirically the relationship between the high and persistent unemployment in Spain and the profitability on invested capital. It is shown that there exists a negative long-run relationship between the two variables, an unemployment-profit rate trade-off (UPRT). A conditional equation with constant parameters relating the unemployment rate to the profit and capacity utilization rates is derived. Exogeneity tests indicate that profit rate and capacity of utilization are weak, strong, and super exogenous for the parameters of the unemployment equation.