This paper empirically examines the determinants of organized crime and of common crime in a panel of Italian regions over the period 1983-2003. In line with the literature, these factors include economic, socio-demographic, and crime-deterrence indicators. The analysis shows that both organized...

This paper considers a model of firm dynamics to study how well aggregate shocks account for fluctuations in the entry and exit of establishments. To do this, I construct measures of aggregate financial and technology shocks. Under reasonable parameters, the model indicates that financial shocks...

The conventional New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC), driven by unit labor costs has been criticized for failing to match inflation dynamics and for explaining the duration of fixed price contracts. This paper extends recent attempts in the literature to find an alternative marginal cost proxy...

This paper builds a model of rm dynamics to study the consequences of "limited re-entry" for macroeconomic dynamics. Matched individual-level data from the Current Population Survey indicate that only 8% of unemployed chief executives, on average, find employment again as a chief executive after...

The link between infrastructure and industrial development is studied in an OLG model with endogenous skill acquisition. Industrial development is defined as a shift from an imitation-based, low-skill economy to an innovation-based, high-skill economy, where ideas are produced domestically....

This paper offers a straightforward and descriptive contribution to the recent and busy debate on fiscal discipline made popular by a seminal paper by Reinhart and Rogoff (2010) after policymakers have sought foundation and justification of a policy known as austerity measures following the...

This paper uses a theoretical and empirical approach to examine the long run effects of working hours restrictions on the natural rate of unemployment. We estimate a French NAIRU using the Kalman filter applied to a Phillips curve model with French quarterly data between 1987 and 2009. The...