The paper examines the interrelationship between fiscal and monetary policy in a two-country monetary union. The worst scenario occurs when an independent central bank (CB sets the nominal interest rate and responds to rising government debt/GDP ratios by monetisation. The result is high...

This paper presents an empirical study of the channels of influence from uncertainty to fixed investment suggested by real options theory. Using panel data from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Industrial Trends Survey, we report OLS estimates of the impact of uncertainty on...

Cash balances of the firm follow a diffusion process, triggering liquidation when they cross a threshold value. Access to external funds is constrained. Shareholders are impatient. With these assumptions there is a precautionary motive for retaining earnings; the internal cost of funds and local...

We consider a dynamic model of price regulation with asymmetric information where strategic delegation is available to the regulator. Firms can sink non-contractible, cost-reducing investment but regulators cannot commit to future price levels. We fully characterise the perfect Bayesian...

Many studies suggest that research productivity falls after tenure is granted. We have however limited choice-theoretic understanding of why this should occur. With some simplifying assumptions, we rationalize this as follows. Scholars are assumed to be “specialistsâ€: their research...

The international macroeconomic policy trilemma suggests that de- spite the appeal of exchange rate stability, financial account openness and monetary sovereignty, these cannot be achieved simultaneously. Us- ing elements of Euclidean geometry, this paper proposes a new method for testing the...

Despite the modern origins of endogenous growth theory, we argue that the ‘Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim’ written by Immanuel Kant in 1784 provides an early and coherent example of such a theory. Kant’s endogenous growth mechanism is driven by the...

Bayesian estimation is employed to investigate whether deep as opposed to superficial habit improves the fit of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. If the stock of superficial habit features the additional persistence typical of deep habit, the two specifications are virtually as...

Has the global economic crisis resulted in countries shifting their exchange rate regimes and, if so, in what way? Focusing on the relevant period of 2008-12, and using the IMF’s Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER) classification of exchange rate...

This paper contributes to an emerging literature that brings the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) specification of the production function into the analysis of business cycle fluctuations. Using US data, we estimate by Bayesian methods a medium-sized DSGE model with a CES rather than...