Does it make us unhappier when we compare our consumptionwith that of the Joneses or our own past achievements? This paper tries ananswer by bringing together two disparate literatures: the macro (growth)theory on habit formation and the applied literature related to the Easterlinparadox. Using...

We estimate monetary policy rules for six central and eastern European countries (CEEC) bytaking changes in the policy settings explicitly into account. Distinguishing rather fixed andmore flexible exchange rate arrangements we find that for most countries exchange ratesplayed an important role...