This paper investigates the empirical relevance of different unemployment theories in three major economies, namely the UK, the US and Japan, by estimating the degree of dependence in the unemployment series. Both univariate and multivariate long memory methods are used. The results vary...

Long-term contracts are an important element of all economic activity and, thus, critical for understanding modern economic structures. The natural gas industry provides particular insights into the functioning and dynamics of long-term contracts and industry structures, in a sector that is...

This paper uses data from a panel of more than 400 Italian banks for the period 2001 – 2012 to examine the main determinants of loan loss provision (LLP), which are classified as either discretionary (income smoothing, capital management,signalling) or non-discretionary (related to the...

By estimating a staggered price model over the period 1980q1-2010q2, this paper documents that, after the euro changeover, Italian retailers have increased the number of price adjustments, which has translated into a higher inflation rate, with a detrimental effect on the competitiveness of the...

This paper examines several US monthly financial time series data using fractional integration and cointegration techniques. The univariate analysis based on fractional integration aims to determine whether the series are I(1) (in which case markets might be efficient) or alternatively I(d) with...

We develop a composite indicator measuring the performance of national innovation systems. The indicator takes into account both "hard" factors that are quantifiable (such as R&D spending, number of patents) and "soft" factors like the assessment of preconditions for innovation by managers. We...

The growing literature on the potential role of energy resources around the Caspian Sea is dominated by geoplitics whereas economic aspects have been largely neglected thus far. The relevance of Caspian oil and gas reserves continues to be praised, though objective data on production and exports...

Shipbuilding has changed from a "heavy industry" to become a capital- and technologyintensive activity over the last decades. While Japanese, South Korean and Western European yards dominate the merchant shipbuilding market so far, Eastern European yards are increasingly active, in particular in...

In this paper, we show, using the consumer's budget constraint, that the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income should predict both stock returns and housing returns. We use quarterly data for a panel of 31 emerging economies and find that,...

In this paper we use a representative consumer model to analyse the equilibrium relation between the transitory deviations from the common trend among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income, cay, and focus on the implications for both stock returns and housing returns. The evidence...