This paper uses a sectoral version of conventional Imperfect substitutes model to motivate a parsimonious estimation of trade elasticities. The elasticities we compute depend directly on the specialization of trade across sectors, which is believed to add econometric precision to our estimates....

This article aims at linking the household wealth and income distributions for 15 European countries using the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. We study the role played by the household’s location in the income distributions in determining its location in the wealth distribution. A...

Using the first wave of the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), a large micro-level dataset on households’ balance sheets in 15 euro area countries, this paper explores how households allocate their assets. We derive stylised facts on asset participation as well as...

In this paper we define and estimate measures of labor market frictions using data on job durations. We compare different estimation methods and different types of data. We propose and apply an unconditional inference method that can be applied to aggregate duration data. It does not require...

Using new micro data on household wealth from fifteen European countries, the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, we first document the substantial cross-country variation in how various measures of wealth are distributed across individual households. Through the lens of a standard,...

This article reviews beer production, consumption and the industrial organization of breweries throughout history. Monasteries were the centers of the beer economy in the early Middle Ages. Innovation and increased demand later induced the growth of commercial breweries. Globalization and...

In this paper the evolution of beer consumption is analyzed between countries and over time. Historically, there have been major changes in beer consumption in the world. In recent times, per capita consumption has decreased in traditional “beer drinking nations†while it increased...

In the run-up to Rio+20, this Asia-Pacific Human Development Report takes a bold look at climate change and what can be done about it. Tackling head-on the issue of poverty reduction and human development, the Report argues that the option to grow now, clean up later no longer exists for...

This paper is an account of the main streams discussed in an international conference, held in New York in April 2008, organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Global Policy Forum, which considered the right to food and the role of the United Nations in responding to the global food...