Bargaining structure and nominal wage flexibility

In a model with wage setting by monopoly unions and monetary policy conducted by a central bank, the duration of nominal wage contracts is shown to be u-shaped in the degree of centralization, with intermediate bargaining systems yielding contracts of shorter duration and thus, more flexible nominal wages than both decentralized and centralized systems. The theoretical predictions of the model are tested on OECD data, and there is empirical support for the main results on contract length.     

Can non-renewable resources alleviate the knife-edge character of endogenous growth?

Standard endogenous growth models rely on the arbitrary assumptionthat the technology has exactly constant returns with respectto producible inputs. Can this knifeedge restriction be relaxedby including non-renewable resources as necessary inputs inproduction? In a one-sector optimal growth model, we find thatthe strain on the economy imposed by the need to extract successivelysmaller amounts of the nonrenewable resource can offset thepotentially explosive effects of allowing for increasing returnsto producible inputs. However, growth in per capita consumptionwill be unstable unless there is population growth. Thus, theknife-edge problem of (strictly) endogenous growth reappearsas an instability problem. But a ‘semi-endogenous’growth framework turns out to be an attractive alternative,relying on less restrictive parameter values, maintaining stability,and allowing a rich set of determinants of longrun growth.     

Optimal growth when environmental quality is a research asset

We advance an original assumption whereby a good state of the environment positively affects labor productivity in R&D such that deteriorating environmental quality negatively impacts R&D. We study the implications of this assumption for the optimal solution in an R&D-based model of growth, where the use of a non-renewable resource generates pollution. We show that in such a case, it is socially optimal to postpone extraction, as opposed to the situation in which the environment has no effect on productivity in R&D. Furthermore, insofar as environmental quality declines and subsequently recovers, we find that it is optimal to re-allocate employment to R&D in line with productivity changes. If environmental quality recovers only partially from pollution, R&D effort optimally begins above its long-run level, then progressively declines to a minimum and eventually increases to its steady-state level.     

EXCHANGE LISTING AND STOCK LIQUIDITY

Two measures are used to estimate the liquidity of stocks that switch their places of trading (from OTC to NYSE, from OTC to AMEX, and from AMEX to NYSE). Using an event-type methodology, results are obtained that indicate a decline in liquidity for stocks leaving the OTC market. Stocks switching from the AMEX to the NYSE experience an initial increase in liquidity, followed by a decline almost to previous levels.     

Klimapolitik — Instrumentenmix und Machbarkeit

Pro & Contra

Trennbankensystem: Pro Transparente Systemik