EMU fiscal indicators: a misleading compass?

The effectiveness of any device for fiscal discipline crucially depends on the indicators it refers to. This paper assesses the indicators adopted for fiscal rules in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with respect to their relevance for EMU’s objective of fiscal soundness and to the adequacy of the underlying statistical framework in providing conditions for enforcement. The paper argues that EMU’s deficit and debt indicators present several shortcomings with respect to both sustainability analysis and monitoring requirements. The debt indicator allows the achievement of targets via operations that do not improve fiscal sustainability and tends to underestimate overall outstanding liabilities. The deficit indicator cannot be monitored in a timely manner, allows too much room for discretion, and is subject to significant revisions. While acknowledging that any single indicator can be distorted when used as a policy target, the paper argues that the weaknesses of EMU’s indicators would be much reduced if consistency cross-checks played a larger role than they currently do.The authors wish to thank Claudia Braz, Carlo Cottarelli, Jorge Cunha, Mark De Broek, Albert␣Jaeger, Mohan Kumar, Joao Nogueira, Ethan Wiseman and the anonymous referees for helpful comments.     

Revealing the depth of reasoning in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-beauty contest games

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of information on levels of reasoning on individuals' choices in p-beauty contest games. In the baseline design, subjects received information only on the average and target values from the previous period. In the alternative design, the winner(s) explained in a short message (30 words maximum) what reasoning he/she applied in selecting the target value and then stopped playing. The winner's message, the winning number, the target and average values were then displayed on all computer screens. The results show that non-winning players imitate the level of rationality of winners, and a significant proportion of the population adopt strategies which are best responses to other imitators' behaviour rather than to the average level of rationality. Both the imitative strategies and the best responses to the imitative strategies stimulate a strong acceleration of the learning process. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at . JEL Classification C72, C91, C92     

Formal and informal learning in the workplace: a research review

The radical economic, social and cultural changes experienced by the labour market within recent decades have helped to highlight the central role played by the learning process in individual career development and organizational success. In such fast‐moving working contexts, skills and competencies rapidly become outdated and need to be continuously implemented and empowered as a strategic factor for global competitiveness. Traditional models of learning both inside and outside of the workplace have become unable to explain the complexity of such a process, weaving between and overlapping formal and informal components. Starting with this premise, the aim of the present paper was to analyse the role of knowledge and experience as important learning frames, which allow the acquisition and development of competencies in the workplace. A human resource development perspective was adopted, aimed at reconciling both the organizational and individual stances implied in the process. The methodology of achieving this was to review the most recent literature on workplace learning, with a special focus on its formal and informal dimensions.     

Owning capital or being shareholders: An equivalence result with incomplete markets

Many recent papers in macroeconomics have studied the implications of models with household heterogeneity and incomplete financial markets under the assumption that households own the stock of physical capital and undertake the intertemporal investment decisions. In these models, production exhibits constant returns to scale, households maximize expected discounted utility, and firms rent capital and labor from households to maximize period by period profits. This paper considers the case in which infinitely lived firms, rather than households, make the intertemporal investment decisions. Under this assumption, it shows that there exists an objective function for firms that results in the same equilibrium allocation as in the standard setting with one period lived firms. The objective requires that firms maximize their asset value, which is defined as the discounted value of future cash flows using present value processes that do not allow for arbitrage opportunities.     

Gute Hautverhältnisse als Therapievoraussetzung

Hautpflege beim Lymph?dem – Immer wieder verz?gern ?dembedingte Hautver?nderungen die zeitnahe Therapie eines Lymph?dems. Weil insbesondere ?ltere Patienten bei der Hautpflege professionelle Unterstützung durch Pflegefachkr?fte ben?tigen, geben wir Tipps, worauf Sie achten sollten.     

欧元区复苏缓慢推进

欧洲统计局速报数据显示，3季度欧元区GDP环比增长0．4％（未折算为年率），此结果与主流预测值基本相符，但低于我们的预期。我们原本预计，欧元区经济至少会出现0．9％以上的环比增长，从而与美国增势持平，然而欧洲的经济势头没有达到我们的预期。由于关于各国需求面和生产面的数据还不充分，因此我们还难以解释欧元区经济增势不及预期水平的原因。     

Sequential vs. simultaneous contributions to public goods: Experimental evidence

We report an experiment comparing sequential and simultaneous contributions to a public good in a quasi-linear two-person setting. In one parameterization we find that overall provision is lower under sequential than simultaneous contributions, as predicted, but the distribution of contributions is not as extreme as predicted and first movers do not attain their predicted first-mover advantage. In another parameterization we again find that the distribution of contributions is not as predicted when the first mover is predicted to free ride, but we find strong support for equilibrium predictions when the second mover is predicted to free ride. These results can be explained by second movers' willingness to punish first movers who free ride, and unwillingness to reward first movers who contribute.     

Does Size Matter? An Examination of Small and Large Web-Based Brand Communities

We investigate the causal relationship between brand community identification, brand affect, community loyalty, brand loyalty, brand evangelism, and community evangelism, developing a structural equation model set within the context of online brand communities for newly hybridized roses. The analysis considers size as a moderator for the relationships between constructs, comparing small and large web-based brand communities. Findings highlight that small communities operate differently from larger ones with regard to numerous aspects, and possess specific strengths and weaknesses. Members of small communities develop higher community loyalty; brand loyalty in small community stems more from community loyalty than from brand affect; small communities engage in word of mouth for the community more than in word of mouth for the brand. Managerial implications are addressed.     

What are the Real Effects of Liberalizing International Capital Movements?

Progress in financial integration calls for the abolition of capital controls, especially within the European community. Traditional analysis would then predict a better reallocation of productive capacity at the international level. A formal model is developed in order to show that it is impossible to draw unequivocal conclusions; moreover, when financial investors are allowed to allocate their wealth in public bonds, and governments pursue full employment targets, cases exist where the financial liberalization produces a reduction in capital accumulation in both the participating countries.It is my view ... that the new orientation of economic theory towards greater realism in regard to existing economic inequalities will imply the final liquidation of the old laissez-faire prediction and, more specifically, the free trade doctrine and the stable equilibrium approach.