This paper uses data on currency options prices for the exchange rates of the three largest new EU member states Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary vis-à-vis the euro and the US dollar to estimate the risk-neutral density (RND) functions and the density interval bands. Analysing the RNDs, we...

The paper analyses the potential for lending booms in the three biggest new EU Member States (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) during the process of euro adoption. Experiences of some old members (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) and the econometric evidence speak in favour of strong loan...

In this paper I address the question to what extent wages are affected by product market uncertainty. Implicit contract models imply that it is Pareto optimal for risk neutral firms to provide insurance to risk averse workers against shocks. Using matched employer-employee dataset, I adopted the...

We investigate the impact of fiscal variables on bond yield spreads relative to US Treasury bonds in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey from May 1998 to December 2007. To account for the importance of market expectations we use projected values for fiscal and macroeconomic...

In this paper we analyse the impact of monetary policy on total bank lending in the presence of a developed market for foreign currency denominated loans and potential substitutability between domestic and foreign currency loans. Our results, based on a panel of four biggest Central European...

Following the approach recently developed for the International Wage Flexibility Project (IWFP), the paper presents new estimates of downward real and nominal wage rigidity for Hungary. Results suggest that nominal rigidity is more prominent in Hungary than real rigidity. When compared to other...

This paper considers the problem of how a government, having decided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, identifies the policy or mix of policies that achieves this reduction at the lowest possible net economic cost. This involves accounting for the fact that each potential policy for reducing...

For more than ten years, formerly centrally-planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have endeavoured to redress their environmental problems. For most CEE countries, the record of accomplishments is mixed. One of the least successful areas of reform has been cleanup and restoration...

This paper examines household level economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe before and during the transformations of their economies. The authors test the assumptions that the economic transitions would increase poverty and income inequality within the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic,...

This paper culminates the work undertaken in a larger study on income and labor force status commissioned by USAID in 1995. It explores populations at risk in Eastern Europe, and attempts to address three questions: Who are the poor? How much protection do these people receive from the social...