The perspective of modern macroeconomic theory, be it new classical or old and new Keynesian, is that unemployment can be reduced only if real wages are cut. The modern Keynesians, basing themselves upon the microfoundations of efficiency wage theory, argue that real wages cannot and will not be...

An enormous number of empirical papers have estimated technical efficiency, the distance of firms inside a frontier, following the model of Farrell (1957). We propose a theory that explains the distance these empirical papers seek to measure. The theory is based on the idea that workers can...

This paper is focused on an activity that has received little attention in the bankingliterature, namely the Off-Balance Sheet activities (OBS). After examining what is meant behind the name OBS activities, the fast growth these operations have shown over the period 1985-1995, and the main...

This paper extends the existing research on real estate investment trust (REIT) operating efficiencies. We estimate stochastic-frontier, panel-data models specifying a translog cost function. The specified model updates the cost frontier with new information as it becomes available over time....

A contentious populist belief maintains that increasing international trade or economic 'globalisation', has deleterious effects upon the economic welfare of the vast majority of the world's population. Such negative effects are an inevitable consequence of capitalism, especially that which...