This paper develops a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to examine the quantitative macroeconomic implications of counter-cyclical fiscal policy for France, Germany and the UK. The model incorporates real wage rigidity and consumption habits, as the particular market failures...

This paper contributes to the on-going empirical debate regarding the role of the RBC model and in particular of neutral and investment-specific technology shocks in explaining aggregate fluctuations. To achieve this, we estimate the model's posterior density using Bayesian methods. Within this...

Business cycles in different industries have a tendency to synchronize with one another in what appears to be a national business cycle. Using simulation and time series techniques in the time and frequency domain, we offer econometric support for the industrial sector mode-locking hypothesis,...

We propose a model of food allocation in an economy in which property rights exist in human beings. We assume that a slave-owner allocates food over the slave's lifetime so as to maximise his own wealth. The slave's productive capacity is determined endogenously by food consumption. Food...

Applying stochastic frontier analysis, we estimate distance to frontier of countries in the production of success at the Summer Olympic Games since the 1950s. Our measures of success are medal shares and a broader concept including Olympic diplomas. Following Bernard and Busse (2004), population...

In 1835, Edouard Mallet published a notable but today nearly forgotten study of the average height of Genevan conscripts. His individual data included 3029 conscripts born between 1805 and 1814, examined and measured between 1826 and 1835. Mallet's work was only the third auxological study to be...