Recent tests for the convergence hypothesis derive from regressing average growth rates on initial levels: a negative initial level coefficient is interpreted as convergence. These tests turn out to be plagued by Francis Galton's classical fallacy of regression towards the mean. Using a dynamic...

The use of self assessed health status as a measure of health is common in empirical research. We analyse a unique Australian survey in which a random sub-sample of respondents answer a standard self assessed health question twice – before and after an additional set of health related...

A relevant question for the organization of large scale research assessments is whether bibliometric evaluation and informed peer review where reviewers know where the work was published, yield similar results. It would suggest, for instance, that less costly bibliometric evaluation might - at...

The inequality dataset compiled in the 1990s by the World Bank and extended by the UN has been both widely used and strongly criticized. The criticisms raise questions about conclusions drawn from secondary inequality datasets in general. We develop techniques to deal with national and...

We study Austrian job reallocation in the period of 1978–98, using a large administrative dataset where we correct for ‘spurious’ entries and exits of firms. We find that on average nine out of 100 randomly selected jobs were created within the last year, and that about nine out of...

This Paper proposes and develops a dynamic matching model à la Mortensen and Pissarides (1994, 1999a, 1999b) where firms respond to idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks by upgrading, creating, and destroying jobs. By allowing firms to invest in the productivity of existing jobs, the Paper sheds...

Using data that permit a distinction between flows of workers, directly measured, and job creation and destruction, again, directly measured, we develop employment and job flow statistics for a representative sample of French establishments for 1987 to 1990. Annual job creation can be...

We provide new evidence that large firms or establishments are more sensitive than small ones to business cycle conditions. Larger employers shed proportionally more jobs in recessions and create more of their new jobs late in expansions, both in gross and net terms. The differential growth rate...

The observation that liquidations are concentrated in recessions has long been the subject of controversy. One view holds that liquidations are beneficial in that they result in increased restructuring. Another view holds that liquidations are privately inefficient and essentially wasteful. This...

We develop a dynamic discrete choice model of training choice, employment and wage growth, allowing for job mobility, in a world where wages depend on firm-worker matches, as well as experience and tenure and jobs take time to locate. We estimate this model on a large administrative panel data...