The concepts of steepness and deepness are used to investigate the existence of asymmetries at the business cycle frequencies in a number of Australian macroeconomic time series. The results suggest that Australian macroeconomic variables do not display any detectable asymmetries at the business...

Granger causality is tested for to examine the exogeneity of GDP which is assumed in previous research on the determinants of aggregate health care spending. In theory, the causal relationship between these variables could be in either or both directions. For some of the 20 OECD countries tested...

This study considers the possibility of estimating a Dickey-Fuller regression, constraining the autoregressive parameter to be at most one, and imposing prior knowledge of the sign of the drift parameter. In spite of apparently encouraging asymptotic results, it emerges that no feasible test of...

This paper presents new evidence on the nature of German bilateral foreign aid allocations. In particular, the paper focuses on the question of whether there are population and middle-income biases present in the disbursement of German assistance. Using data on German bilateral aid to 85...

The maturity effect is re-examined using the S&P 500 futures contract. A model is estimated in which daily volatility, measured on the basis on intraday data, is determined by its previous value and the number of days remaining to maturity. The estimation results do not support the maturity...

The paper considers a model of double Bertrand competition among banks, in which banks compete for deposits as well as loans. It is shown that the introduction of reserve requirements can have an effect on the existence and efficiency properties of Nash equilibria of this model. This provides a...

The devastating earthquake that struck the most densely populated and industrialized area of Turkey on 17 August, 1999 was one of the most damaging natural disasters during this century. This paper is a first attempt to estimate the transition path of the Turkish economy to its new equilibrium...

Theory suggests that equities are a good hedge against inflation. However, most of the empirical evidence suggests that the relationship between stock returns and inflation is negative. One explanation is the negative correlation between inflation and real output growth. In this paper the...

Delay due to multiple merger reviews in regulated industries is analysed empirically. Tests on a sample of over 500 mergers between 1990 and 1998 reveal that delay is 80% longer in regulated industries than unregulated industries.

This study examines the possible impacts of low-input farming on the growth of productivity. Specifically, emphasis is placed upon disentangling the effect of overusing chemical inputs and that of the market determinants. Taking into account both production and price uncertainty, the expected...