Standard macroeconomics, based on a reductionist approach centered on the representative agent, is badly equipped to explain the empirical evidence where heterogeneity and industrial dynamics are the rule. In this paper we show that a simple agent-based model of heterogeneous financially fragile...

In macroeconomic models with financial constraints (see, for instance, Greenwald and Stiglitz, 1993; Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist,1998; Kiyotaki and Moore,1997) firms' supply decisions depend upon the degree of financial robustness/fragility, which is identifed and measured in different ways. In the...

The EU Directive 2000/60/EC, also known as the “Framework directive in the field of water policy”, stresses the importance of water in human development processes and states that EU members should coordinate water policies towards a sustainable use of this resource; hence, water has a...

In this paper we analyze the Ancona wholesale fish market (MERITAN) where transactions take place in three simultaneous Dutch auctions. Our objective is to characterize the behavior of market participants and, in particular, buyers in such a market structure. Our analysis of the data shows that...

In this paper we show how a simple modification of a well-known multiplicative process of firms' growth, taking into account common and idiosyncratic elements, allows to reconcile an old aggregate-sector puzzle (Quandt, 1966) on firms'' size distribution reported in the literature.

Assessing systemic risk and defining macro-prudential policies aiming at reducing economic system vulnerability have been at the center of the economic debate of the last years. Credit networks play a crucial role in diffusing and amplifying local shocks, following the network-based financial...

Agents forming adaptive expectations generally make systematic mistakes. This characterization has fostered the rejection of adaptive expectations in macroeconomics. Experimental evidence, however, shows that in complex environments human subjects frequently rely on adaptive heuristics –...

The purpose of this paper is to give some insights about the debate between Aivazian and Callen (1981, 2003) and Coase (1981) regarding the empty core problem. In particular our analysis concerns the role played by transaction costs in the debate. By maintaining the Aivazian-Callen transaction...

Based on the prices of McDonald's Big Mac hamburger in 11 Eurozone countries over the 1986–2009 period, the present article investigates whether the adoption of the euro was accompanied by an increase in inflation and how far it affected developments in price dispersion. Our results...

In this paper we show how a simple modification of a well-known multiplicative process of firms' growth, taking into account common and idiosyncratic elements, allows to reconcile an old aggregate-sector puzzle (Quandt, 1966) on firms'' size distribution reported in the literature.