The macroeconomic impact of the French work-sharing reform of 2000 (a reduction of standard working hours in combination with wage subsidies) is analysed. Using a vector error correction model (VECM) for several labour market variables, as well as inflation and output, out-of-sample forecasts...

The analysis of diffusion processes in financial models is crucially dependent on the form of the drift and diffusion coefficient functions. A new model for a stock market index process is proposed in which the index is decomposed into an average growth process and an ergodic diffusion. The...

We test the hypothesis that the long-term Phillips curve is downward sloping and has become flatter in the last 10 to 15 years. Controlling for the most important other factors influencing the inflation rate, we estimate cointegrations and test whether a "break" in the Phillips curve can be...

The article examines the macroeconomic effects of the recent labour market reforms in Germany. The reforms increased the downward pressure on wages and led to rising income inequality. Many German economists welcomed this effect, because they consider lower wages and higher wage dispersion major...

Abstract Der Beitrag zeigt, dass der Arbeitsmarkt in Deutschland trotz der schärfsten Konjunkturkrise in der Nachkriegszeit weitgehend robust geblieben ist. Diese sowohl im internationalen Vergleich als auch gegenüber früheren Konjunkturabschwüngen außerordentlich günstige Entwicklung ist...

Following recent empirical evidence which indicates the importance of rank for the determination of workers' wellbeing, this paper introduces status seeking preferences in the form of rank-dependent utility functions into a moral-hazard framework with one firm and multiple workers, but no...