Green Consumption under Misperceived Prices: An Application to Active Transportation

We propose a consumption model that captures the impact that perceived price ambiguities may have upon decision‐making in green markets in general and in active transportation markets in particular. The basic intuition for the model is that a consumer who may be misperceiving the price of the green good (the active transportation mode) would be willing to pay a positive amount from her income in the current period to resolve the misperception going forward. We posit that the basis for the price misperception in the active transportation context is misperception of the relative risks involved in taking that mode. The compensating variation that aligns perceived and objective risk is derived. We show how raising green consumption via price misperception correction can be superior to traditional economic policy instruments. The results shed light on the more general family of situations in which agents may consistently misperceive aspects of the decision environment.     

Nonlinear dynamics in CEE stock markets indices

We investigate the existence of nonlinearities in the dynamics of the returns of stock markets indices from CEE economies. We use several types of nonlinear tests. We discuss the implications of the results with respect to the efficient market hypothesis.     

A quantitative explanation of the low productivity in South–Eastern European economies: the role of misallocations

It is well known that southeast Europe is the least developed area in Europe. Using a methodology based on the idea of heterogeneous firms, this paper studies the degree to which firm heterogeneity and resource misallocation can explain the lower TFP in southeast Europe. The results show a significant degree of heterogeneity and resource misallocation, although the results are sensitive to the calibration used. There is evidence that firm-level productivity depends on firm size, while taxation negatively influences it. There is also some evidence that foreign-owned firms are more competitive, as are exporting firms. Results are generally robust across the various specifications used, but less so relative to the measure of productivity used. Additional evidence suggests that infrastructure-related obstacles as well as institutional instability drive the output distortion, while no factor is underlined as a significant driver of capital distortions, suggesting the need for better data sources for the latter.     

Housing markets,monetary policy,and the international co‐movement of housing bubbles

We analyze whether there was co‐movement in bubbles at the international level from the mid‐1990s to 2018 using a data set of developed and emerging economies. We first identify the markets that were more prone to volatility and speculation before the crisis. Second, we determine and compare the responses of bubbles in housing markets to monetary policy in a Bayesian time‐varying framework. We then study the co‐movement of bubble responses to monetary shocks before and after the crisis using a dynamic factor model. This approach allows us to disentangle a common global factor from factors specific to high/low speculative housing markets.     

Business Cycle Accounting for Peripheral European Economies

Using the Business Cycle Accounting methodology, this paper analyzes the dynamics of the EMU‐periphery economies before and during what was called the sovereign debt crisis. TFP dynamics and the labor wedge explain most of the dynamics before and during the crisis. The bond wedge, corresponding to the risk premium, made a low contribution, moving counter‐cyclically. The capital wedge made a modest contribution to the fall in output during the crisis. Additional evidence links the dynamics of the TFP and the labor wedge with changes in the interest rates and a spike in import prices at the onset of the crisis, corresponding to the general mechanisms of the large capital inflows, in the wake of the introduction of the Euro, followed by sudden stops.     

中国采取爬行波幅钉住货币篮子的汇率政策

中国的“一揽子”是可以确保它的有效人民币汇率的。这个区间就表明可以有上有下的浮动,爬行使汇率能够朝着平衡方面走。如果能够按照这样一种模式走下去的话,也就是说钉住爬行波幅的话,就可以使人民币保持基本稳定     

Network modeling approaches for calculating wholesale NGA prices: A full comparison based on the Greek fixed broadband market

According to the European Commission Recommendation for setting copper and fiber wholesale prices where cost orientation is imposed as a remedy, National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) should adopt a Bottom-UP Long-Run Incremental Cost Plus (BU LRIC+) costing methodology that estimates the current cost that a hypothetical efficient operator would incur to build a modern efficient Next Generation Access (NGA) network. The starting point of modeling an efficient operator investing in NGA networks is the network modeling approach. In this paper, we compare the most widely adopted network modeling approaches in terms of wholesale fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) prices. In particular, the modified scorched node approach is compared to the extreme cases of the scorched node and the scorched earth approaches. The comparison between the aforementioned scenarios sheds light on the impact of each approach on the wholesale FTTH prices. The main finding of this paper is that the scorched earth approach leads to a maximum of 10% reduction in the short-term access prices compared to the most inefficient scorched node approach, whereas further extending its optimizations by optimizing the number of central offices, both the short-term and long-term wholesale price reductions are quite significant (more than 20%) regardless of service speeds. Consequently, NRAs should consider a geographically differentiated modeling approach when regulating the wholesale market by adjusting the level of scorching in each area and network segment according to the investment plans of telecom operators. An appropriate variation of the modeled network operator's efficiency is expected to more accurately represent the costs of a reasonably efficient operator based on the real market conditions and a forward-looking perspective. These findings provide valuable information to both network operators and telecom regulators.     

Stylized facts of business cycles in a transition economy in time and frequency

We discuss the properties of business cycles in Romania between 1991 and 2011 using a wavelets based method. We compare it with the standard approaches in literature. We analyze the relationship between output and key macroeconomic variables in time and frequency. While in terms of comovement the results are mostly in line with previous findings, there is a better picture of the time varying features as well as the influence of recessions on the nature of the relationships. The approach applied here can also isolate the influence of specific events, like the accession to the European Union.     

EXPÉRIENCES PRATIQUES DANS ĽUTILISATION DU SCN POUR LA COOPÉRATION ÉCONOMIQUE INTERNATIONALE

Ľutilisation du SCN actuel pour les besoins de la coopération économique internationale est considérée ci-après à la lumière des expériences accumulées au sein de la Communauté Economique Européenne.
Ľexpérience des années récentes prouve que si, dans une première étape, le SCN a pu servir de cadre général ďanalyse économique, ce cadre s'est rapidement révélé insuffisant lorsqu'il s'est agi de confronter des structures et des politiques nationales ou de définir des politiques coordonnées dans les domaines économique, social ou financier. Les travaux menés dans différents domaines ont montré la nécessitéďétendre, de détailler, de modifier et de préciser le système actuel de comptabilité nationale.
Une question importante concerne ľintérêt de faire apparaître ou ďéliminer du système comptable les différences institutionnelles existant entre pays. Bien qu'à cet égard ľavis des utilisateurs ne soit pas toujours unanime, ľexpérience plaide en faveur ďun système reflétant pleinement les différences réelles de structure entre pays, mais suffisamment détaillé afin de permettre les regroupements fonctionnels nécessaires à certaines analyses.
Ľarticle se termine par un bref rappel des principales critiques adressées au SCN actuel par ceux qui, dans le cadre de la Communauté Economique Européenne, se servent de la comptabilité nationale, critiques auxquelles la révision du SCN apportera, espérons-le, une réponse satisfaisante.     

Are Employers Omniscient? Employer Learning About Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills

Do employers recognize noncognitive skills at the beginning of a career or is there a learning process? Does learning transfer perfectly across employers or is there a degree to which learning resets as employees change jobs throughout their careers? This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 to incorporate measures of noncognitive skills into a model of symmetric employer learning described originally by Altonji and Pierret ( 2001 ) and nested in a model of asymmetric employer learning as in Schönberg ( 2007 ). I find evidence that employers reward self‐esteem, internal control, and schooling initially, while rewarding cognitive skills and motivation over time.