We analyze how strategic asset trading can be used to gain competitive advantage. In the case of electricity markets, companies seek to improve the value of their generating portfolios by acquiring, or selling, power plants. Accordingly, we derive the basic determinants of plant value,...

We provide evidence that higher moments of the relative price distribution improve out-of-sample forecasts of inflation. Further, we show how theoretically consistent higher moments can be calculated by expanding the seminal work by Theil (1967). Results presented here are of direct relevance to...

Alvarez and Jermann (2000) show that the constrained efficient allocations of endowment economies with complete markets and limited commitment can be decentralized with endogenous borrowing limits on the Arrow securities. In a model with capital accumulation, aggregate risk and competitive...

Central puzzles in international macroeconomics are why fluctuations of the real exchange rate are so volatile with respect to other macroeconomic variables, and the contradiction of efficient risk-sharing. Several theoretical contributions have evaluated alternative forms of pricing under...

We build a dynamic duopoly model that accounts for the empirical observation of monopoly persistence in the long run. More specifically, we analyze the conditions under which it is optimal for the market leader in an initially duopoly setup to undertake pre-emptive R&D investment, ("strategic...

Beginning with Mirrlees, the optimal taxation literature has generally focused on economies where individuals are differentiated by only their productivity. In this pa- per we examine models with discrete types where individuals are differentiated by two or more characteristics. For example, we...

Using monthly data from 1926:01 to 2003:12 for the United States, this paper examines the predictability of real stock prices based on the dividend-price ratio. In particular, we focus on estimating and forecasting a nonlinear exponential smooth autoregressive model (ESTAR). One motivation for...

Inflation in the most industrialized economies of the world has an important international common component that accounts for the historical decline in the national rates. Country specific conditions explain the rise in inflation volatility of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the subsequent...

This paper exhibits and quantifies a new theoretical channel of the non-neutrality of inflation transiting through capital market imperfections. Unconstrained households change their financial position in front of a change in the inflation rate, whereas constrained households can not. Thus...

Above market clearing wages are shown to prevail as an outcome of a game in which employers possess and employees lack the ability to coordinate. It is established in a monopolistically competitive framework that it may be optimal for individual firms to coordinate and restrict entry of indirect...