Sticky Information Phillips Curves: European Evidence

We estimate the Sticky Information Phillips Curve model of Mankiw and Reis (2002) using survey expectations of professional forecasters from four major European economies. Our estimates imply that inflation expectations in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are updated about once a year, while in Italy, about once each 6 months.     

Repo Auctions and the Market for Liquidity

What is the nature of imperfections in the market for liquidity? Studying bidder level data from European Central Bank (ECB) repo auctions, we find that this market appears to be informationally efficient in the sense that participants do not have private information about future short‐term rates. However, auction allocations affect banks' subsequent behavior in a way that is consistent with a degree of allocational and operational inefficiency. Also, large bidders appear to have better access to the interbank market than small ones. Finally, the evidence suggests that the ECB uses collateral haircuts that do not equilibrate opportunity costs.     

REGIONAL FINANCIAL INTEGRATION IN SUB‐SAHARAN AFRICA – AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF ITS EFFECTS ON FINANCIAL MARKET DEVELOPMENT

This article examines the effects of political agreements on regional financial integration (RFI) on financial market development and access to and cost of finance in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Our results suggest that RFI positively affects financial development – measured very broadly as ratio of liquid liabilities to gross domestic product (GDP) – when combined with a sufficient level of institutional quality. If institutional quality is below a threshold level, RFI apparently has negative effects on financial development. However, we cannot find any significant effects of RFI on the ratio of private credit to GDP or on the efficiency of the banking sector. Regarding the effects of RFI on access to and costs of finance of enterprises in SSA, our results are mixed. We can find no significant effect of RFI on access to finance for all firms in the aggregate, but the results indicate that RFI actually impedes small firms' access to finance. Furthermore, there is a significant positive influence of foreign bank involvement on the severity of the credit constraint for small enterprises, while we do not find such an influence for large enterprises. These results provide some support for the foreign bank barrier hypothesis in the context of RFI.     

MARKET SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES OF MULTIPRODUCT FIRMS*

We analyze a multiproduct duopoly and ask whether firms should offer general purpose products or tailor their offerings to fit specific consumer needs. Offering a targeted product has two effects: utility increases for some consumers due to increased fit, whereas utility decreases for others due to increased misfit. Previous work has not considered these two effects jointly and has therefore not been able to capture the tradeoff inherent in market segmentation. We show that in addition to the degree of fit and misfit, the intensity of competition and the fixed cost of offering an additional product determine firms' market segmentation strategies.     

Australian Business Investment: A New Look at the Neoclassical Approach*

This paper attempts to reconcile neoclassical theory with Australian investment data. We argue that, by focusing almost exclusively on the demand for capital services, neoclassical investment theory neglects two related decisions: the decision to own the existing capital stock, and the decision to produce new capital goods. We propose a simple model of investment behaviour that integrates production decisions with portfolio decisions. Careful consideration is given to the determination of the price of capital, the rental price of capital, and the return on capital. The model is estimated by FIML, and a number of simulation results are reported.