Optimal Simple Monetary and Fiscal Rules under Limited Asset Market Participation

The combination of limited asset market participation and consumption habits generates indeterminacy for empirically plausible calibrations of a business cycle model characterized by price and nominal wage rigidities. Equilibrium determinacy is restored by demand management policies based on simple fiscal rules. In this regard, fiscal control of nominal income growth is particularly effective. In addition the complementarity between the Taylor rule and the fiscal feedback on nominal income growth produces relatively large welfare gains, limiting both aggregate and intragroup volatilities.     

历史法学、统一国家与德国资本主义

本文宏观考察了19世纪德国法理学发展的思想史轨迹。19世纪的德国法理学围绕统一德国的主题而展开,经历了面对统一问题的自由主义法理论与民族主义法理论间的复杂争论。19世纪的德国资产阶级要求的民主问题与地方封建邦的自主要求混杂在一起,从而又危及着德国的统一问题（德国自由主义法理论的困境）;同时,德国的统一问题又与维持德国封建君主制关联在一起（德国民族主义法理论的困境）。这是德国法理学不同于自然法理念的历史法理学特征。可以说,以历史法学为象征的19世纪德国法理论丧失了现代性的普遍品格,成为一种德意志的意识形态。     

Cyclical Changes in Firm Volatility

We characterize trends and cycles in the volatility of U.S. firms using a measure that we argue more cleanly captures firm‐specific volatility in sales and earnings growth than standard measures do. While earlier literature has emphasized a trend increase in the volatility of publicly traded firms, we find that a typical publicly traded firm has become more stable. We find that the negative association between firm‐specific volatility and the business cycle is weaker than earlier research based on dispersion measures suggests. We find that during the Great Recession of 2007–2009, firm‐specific volatility increased moderately but never substantially exceeded its sample mean. Our results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that firm‐specific volatility is an important driver of the business cycle, as it theoretically could be through an effect of default risk on credit spreads.     

OPEN ACCESS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A COMPETITIVE NATURAL GAS MARKET

Recent regulatory changes permitted natural gas pipelines to become "open access" transporters. This change in pipeline carrier status dissolved regulatory barriers to markets. This paper describes the institutions that were developed to support exchange in gas markets and observes and evaluates their emergence, evolution, and performance. The institutional and empirical evidence reveals that gas markets rapidly emerged with the dissolution of regulatory barriers. Spot gas prices converged and became highly correlated. A national market for natural gas developed within four years.     

Counterexamples on the Superiority of Approval versus Plurality

We present a simple voting environment with three candidates where the Condorcet winner exists. Under plurality rule, the derived game has a stable set where such a candidate is elected with probability one. However, no stable set of the approval game elects the Condorcet winner with positive probability. We also analyze the robustness of such an example to changes in the number of voters and their preferences. To conclude, we present a generic four‐candidate voting environment with the same properties.