This paper examines, in the context of future EMU membership of the Central and Eastern European countiries (CEECs), the interaction between fiscal policy and the price level in different exchange rate regimes. The theoretical framework is based on the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level (FTPL)....

Economic theory is dominated by abstract structures. Underneath, there is no firm foundation. Above, there is a lack of rigorous confrontation with established fact. Basic theoretical concepts have no acknowledged definition. The apparatus of graphs, algebra and technical vocabulary are often...

What determines the speed of the technology diffusion? What are the consequences of diffusion? This paper presents a model to address these questions. Skilled machine-users adopt a new technology first, while unskilled users wait until machines become more reliable and accessible. The quality...

This paper asks two questions. First, can we detect empirically whether the shocks recovered from the estimates of a structural VAR are fundamental? Second, can the problem of non-fundamentalness be solved by considering additional information? The answer to the firrst question is 'yes' and that...

We analyze critically the usual analysis of free (that is, unreguled by a central authority) market behavior of prices and traded amounts. We find that quite usually either the offer function or the demand function cannot be defined meaningfully, and other models must be set-up. We show also...

We point out that the condition of maximization of the benefit is not Y'(n)=w in general, due to the eventual dependence of the salary w on the employement n. We show that in keynessian models, where the relation between w and n is given, we need to correct the relation between the salary and...

Traditionally, national governance and corruption challenges have been seen as: i) particularly daunting in the poorer countries, with the richer world viewed as exemplary; ii) anchored within a legalistic framework and focused on formal institutions, iii) a challenge within public sectors, and,...

The European Monetary Union (EMU) has been the subject of fierce controversies both among professional economists and ordinary people. This paper analyses the association between the degree of information of ordinary people and their opinion on EMU. In this context, we are concerned with basic...

The main aim of this article is to investigate the sources of non- neutrality in policy games involving one or more trade unions. We use a simple set up in order to clearly expose the basic mechanisms that also work in more complex frameworks. We show that there are common roots in the...

This paper presents estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources...