Recently, a number of studies have made an attempt to deal with the key issue of the incompleteness of information available to the central bank when taking its monetary policy decisions. This study adds to this literature by tackling the problem with regard to the euro area. The analysis is...

This paper describes the monetary policy response of countries during the inter-war period. How did central banks react to the Great Depression? How did countries balance the externals demands of the gold standard with domestic policy pressures? What was the optimal level of international policy...

Dramatic declines in capital tax rates among U.S. states and European countries have been linked by many commentators to tax competition and an inevitable race to the bottom. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the reaction of capital tax policy in a given U.S. state to changes in...

This paper tackles the issue of the incompleteness of information available to thecentral bank when taking its monetary policy decisions. It is focused on euro areadata and based on the simplistic assumption of the central bank following a simplemonetary policy rule à-la-Taylor. Along the lines...

Tax competition within the EU is fiercer than in the rest of the OECD with tax rates fallingrapidly. This paper analyzes tax responses of EU-15 countries to corporate tax changes in theEU-10 new member states as a function of their proximity to these new member states. Theaverage corporate tax...

We estimate forward-looking interest-rate reaction functions for the G3 economies and for a group of countries which recently adopted inflation targets. Some significant shifts in the conduct of monetary policy are detected in the G3 countries, especially in the US A and Japan. In contrast with...

Real options theory applies techniques known from finance theory to the valuation of capital investments. The present paper investigates further into this analogy, considering the case of a portfolio of real options. An implementation of real option models in practice will mostly be concerned...

The present paper considers a retiree of a certain age who is endowed with a certain amount of wealth and is facing alternative investment opportunities. One possibility is to buy a single premium immediate (participating) annuity-contract....

Die aktuelle Situation des deutschen Versicherungsmarktes ist gekennzeichnet durch steigende Unternehmensrisiken auf der einen Seite bei gleichzeitig steigenden Anforderungen an die Profitabilität der Unternehmen auf der anderen ...