In this paper, I study the monthly net job creation (NJC) at the aggregate level in the U.S. over the period 1950-2011. The paper has few important findings. First, NJC did not show a significant trend over the last 6 decades, which resulted in a fall in the NJC rate. Second, NJC is very...

This paper studies the optimality of labor tax smoothing in a simple model with credit frictions. Firms’ borrowing to pay their wage payments in advance is constrained by the value of their collateral at the beginning of the period. The labor tax and the shadow value on the credit constraint...

This paper studies the optimal behavior of labor-income taxation in a simple model with credit frictions. Firms’ borrowing to pay their wage payments in advance is constrained by the value of their collateral at the beginning of the period. The labor-income tax rate and the shadow value on the...

This paper studies optimal monetary policy in a small open economy with Inflation Targeting, incomplete pass-through and rigid nominal wages. The paper shows that the right index to target depends on the structure of the individual economy. When wages are fully flexible, the consumer price index...

Recent empirical evidence suggests that nominal wages in the U.S. are downwardly rigid. This paper studies optimal monetary policy in a labor search and matching framework under the presence of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity (DNWR). The study shows that when nominal wages are downwardly rigid,...

The topic of trade effects on economic growth has been usually controversial. Former empirical evidence linking trade to growth in Israel has been mixed and inconclusive either. This study reexamines the role of trade in Israel by testing for cointegration and causality from both exports and...