We construct a vintage capital model à la Whelan (2002) with both exogenous embodied and disembodied technical progress, and variable utilization of each vintage. The lifetime of capital goods is endogenous and it relies on the associated maintenance costs. We study the properties of the...

We study an optimal growth model with one-hoss-shay vintage capital, where labor resources can be allocated freely either to production, technology adoption or capital maintenance. Technological progress is partly embodied. Adoption labor increases the level of embodied technical progress....

We study optimal growth model à la Nelson and Phelps (1966) where labor resources can be allocated either to production, technology adoption or capital maintenance. We first characterize the balanced growth paths of a benchmark model without maintenance. Then we introduce the maintenance...

We study technology adoption in an optimal growth model with embodied technical change. The economy consists of the final good sector, the capital sector, and the technology sector whose role is the imitation of exogenous innovations. Labor resources are scarce. They are freely allocated to the...

This paper studies an R&D outsourcing contract between a firm and a contractor, considereing the possibility that in the interim stage, the contractor might sell the innovation to the rival firm. Our result points out that due to the competition in the interim stage, the reward needed to prevent...

The purpose of this paper is to test econometrically the existence of fiscal interactions between Belgian municipalities. At the time of writing, the motivation was to provide scientific support to the lively debate on fiscal competition that took place among Belgian politicians in the late...

This paper studies the impact of low-skilled immigration on the host country’s education system, which is characterized by sources of school funding, expenditres per pupil, and types of parents who are more likely to send children to publicly (privately) funded schools. When the size of...

Relying on an original data set on international migration by educational attainment for 1990 and 2000, we analyze the determinants of the brain drain from developing countries. We start from a simple decomposition of the brain drain in two multiplicative components, the degree of openess of...

We design and implement optimal foreign exchange portfolio allocations. An optimal allocation maximizes the expected return subject to a Value-at-Risk (VaR) constraint. Based on intradaily data, the optimization procedure is carried out at regular time intervals. For the estimation of the...

This paper analyses the Belgian monetary and exchange rate policies at the time of Bretton Woods. It sheds light on the groping adjustment process by which internal economic policies are hit by or adapt to the external constraints. In 1944, an ambitious monetary reform laid down the economic...