In this paper we develop a simple procedure which delivers tests for the pres-ence of a broken trend in a univariate time series which do not require knowledgeof the form of serial correlation in the data and are robust as to whether theshocks are generated by an I(0) or an I(1) process. Two...

Real effective exchange rate volatility is examined for 90 countries using monthlydata from January 1990 to June 2006. Volatility decreases with openness tointernational trade and per capita GDP, and increases with inflation, particularlyunder a horizontal peg or band, and with terms-of-trade...

In currency crises, unlike in orderly devaluations, the financial markets dominateevents. It is shown that currency collapses (crises followed by depreciations) have hada much greater adverse impact in emerging markets (defined as relatively highincomedeveloping countries exposed to...

Endogenous growth models, such as Barro (1990), predict that governmentexpenditure and taxation will have both temporary and permanent effects on growth.We test this prediction using panels of annual and period-averaged data for OECDcountries during 1970-95, isolating long-run from short-run...

The pricing of closed-end funds in the United States has been a focus of debate aboutmarket efficiency. Institutional ownership of closed-end fund shares in the UnitedKingdom is much greater than in the U.S., yet share prices display similar evidence ofnoise trading...

The standard model of currency crises is amended to distinguish betweenunemployment aversion and financial fragility. Fragility is assumed to affect theauthorities’ sensitivity to a combination of high real interest rates and unemployment.An increase in fragility expands the region of...

This paper examines the impact of monetary policy on UK firms’ access to bank and market finance whenallowance is made for differences in firm-specific characteristics. A theoretical model determines the cut-off valuesfor project profitability that would allow firms to access bank or market...

This paper investigates the role of trade credit in the transmissionof monetary policy. Most models of the transmission mechanism allowthe firm to access only financial markets or bank lending according tosome net worth criterion. In our model we introduce trade creditas an additional source of...

The paper proves that in two-player logit form symmetric contestswith concave success function, commitment to a particular strategydoes not increase a player's payo, while in contests with more thantwo players it does. The paper also provides a contest-like game inwhich commitment does not...

The fact that members of an immigrant community may have different demographiccharacteristics, or may have different tastes, to the indigenous population, may manifestitself in differences in saving behaviour. In addition, depending on their ethnicbackground, there could be differences among the...