The paper presents a general equilibrium monetary production model to illustrate the influence of unexpected changes in the efficiency of the payments system on the velocity of circulation of money and on the financial markets, in the presence of uncertainty. In this model, households face a...

In recent years, a series of wide-ranging reforms designed to make greater use of market mechanisms has succeeded in eliminating shortages, raising efficiency and improving citizen satisfaction. Nevertheless, spending accelerated after the reforms, and per capita spending on health is now one of...

There have been concerns that employment-enhancing reforms along the lines of the 1994 OECD Jobs Strategy could inadvertently lead to increased income inequality and poverty. This paper focuses on the impact of institutions and redistributive policies on inequality and poverty with the view of...

It is commonly thought that interest rates should decrease in response to a positive velocity innovation. Velocity innovations, therefore, should lead to the same qualitative effects in the financial and goods markets as money supply innovations. The present paper represents an empirical...

Targets can be very useful in policymaking within the context of the Lisbon Strategy, but they need to be used in accordance with certain criteria. In particular, there should be intermediate targets in place that directly affect final policy goals, and are easy to measure and monitor. Moreover,...

Quarterly estimates of consumption, capital and labour tax rates are provided for six major OECD countries. We then use the "stylized facts" methodology to evaluate the strength, sign and phase of cyclical comovements between tax rates and labour market variables. Labour taxes distort labour...