A two-parameter family of filters is proposed in which the HP filter is considered as the lowest order member. While the HP filter converges to linear time trend as the smoothing factor grows, the higher order members of the proposed family converge to higher order polynomial time trends. The...

This work describes the main characteristics of an inflation targeting regime and derives the optimal solution for interest rates according to an original methodology for two models based on the Phillips and IS curves containing general exogenous variables and a complete loss-function.

Central Bank of Brazil is implementing a Value At Risk (V.A.R.) methodology to establish minimum capital requirements for financial institutions to bear market risk derived from interest rate fluctuations. This article shows that the construction of the correlation matrix of the Brazilian...

This paper explores the incentives that students and instructors face when a new technology that grants access to online class materials is introduced. We examine the consequences for attendance and for the composition of live lectures. We also analyze how various sources of heterogeneity in...

We analyze a static game of public good contributions where finitely many anonymous players have heterogeneous preferences about the public good and heterogeneous beliefs about the distribution of preferences. In the unique symmetric equilibrium, the only individuals who make positive...

This paper investigates how the availability of alternative forms of bribe payments, on top of money, may facilitate corruption. There are two bribe payment technologies and a Corruptor and a Receiver must agree on the value and on the technology of the bribe. The paper infers which form of...

This paper investigates the consequences of receiving sexual favors or other services as an alternative form of bribery. It infers how these non-monetary payments are made by analyzing the relative effciency of sex bribes and the bargaining power of agents. By assumption, sex payments are less...

We analyzed the market for indivisible, pure status goods. Firms produce and sell different brands of pure status goods to a population that is willing to signal individual abilities to potential matches in another population. Individual status is determined by the most expensive status good one...

This paper considers a monetary growth model in which banks provide liquidity, and in which a government finances a deficit by printing money and selling bonds. In this context, I examine the possibility that the government may want to impose binding reserve requirements on banks' holdings of...

In this paper we study the endogenous choice to accept fiat objects as media of exchange, the fundamentals that drive their acceptance, and their implications for their bilateral nominal exchange rate. To this end, we consider a small open economy where agents have no restrictions on what...