Abstract Credit-constrained households must use savings both to smooth consumption and to finance productive investments. This non-separability between consumption and production decisions is ignored in the standard intertemporal buffer-stock consumption model where income growth is exogenous....

Abstract In this paper we discuss fiscal and monetary policy issues facing heavily-indebted poor countries (HIPCs) who receive debt reduction via the enhanced HIPC initiative. This debt relief program is distinguished from previous ones by its conditionality: freed resources must be used for...

Abstract The relative demand for skills has increased considerably in many OECD countries during recent decades. This development is potentially explained by capital-skill complementarity and high growth rates of capital equipment. When production functions are characterized by capital-skill...

Abstract This paper investigates whether monetary and exchange rate policies are important for the success of major fiscal adjustments. We assess their role controlling for other determinants of success identified in the literature, including the size and composition of the deficit cut, the...

Abstract In the mid 80's, many European countries liberalized the use of fixed-term (temporary) contracts in order to lower firm's non-wage labor costs, instead of reducing firing costs associated with indefinite duration (permanent) contracts. This policy generated segmented labor markets. The...

Abstract A number of hypotheses have been proposed to account for the role of lagged inflation in the New Keynesian price-adjustment model: (1) In the aftermath of abrupt structural change, rational learning may appear adaptive. (2) The model may have a serially correlated error term. (3)...

Abstract This study examines the relationship between growth in manufacturing employment and youth outcomes in Indonesia from 1985 to 1995, a time of rapid industrialization. In comparison with cross-national studies, this study has a larger sample size of regions, defines data more...

Abstract This paper examines whether taxation is effective in eliminating sunspot fluctuations by considering two separate model economies by which indeterminacy occurs for empirically plausible specification of the model parameters. In the first model where production exhibits social increasing...

Abstract We examine stability under learning of sunspot equilibria in Real Business Cycle type models with indeterminacies. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of examining alternative representations of sunspot solutions. A general bivariate reduced form contains parameter regions in which...

Abstract I show that in a Ramsey growth model, where the production function is of fixed proportions type and the utility function is CRRA, the saddle path is a closed form expression. The closed form expression greatly simplifies the analysis of how the labor productivity growth, the...