This paper investigates the causes of business cycle fluctuations that Japan experienced over the period 1980 to 2000. To this end, I build a dynamic general equilibrium model with endogenous borrowing constraints where business cycle fluctuations are the result of TFP fluctuations and...

The IMF classifications of the Central and Eastern European exchange rate arrangements are heterogeneous. While one group of countries reports tight pegs to the euro, a second group seems to have moved toward (more) exchange rate flexibility. Based on the recent discussion about the accuracy of...

In this paper we empirically analyse the linkages among growth, investment and reforms in the South East Asian countries, in the North Africa and in the non CFA Sub-Saharan Africa economies over 1970-89 to 2003. These regions differ considerably among them selves as well as with regard to the...

This paper studies the Gold Standard in Portugal. It was the first country in Europe to join Great Britain in 1854. The principle of free gold convertibility was abandoned in 1891. For the purposes of a macroeconomic study, we also extended the analysis up to 1913. Our study points out the...

This paper documents a new stylized fact of the U.S. greater macroeconomic stability of the last two decades or so. Using 131 monthly time series, three popular statistical methods and the forecasts of the Federal Reserve's Green book and the Survey of Professional Forecasters, we show that the...

This paper examines the mutually reinforcing interactions between exchange rate dynamics and technical trading strategies. I first show that technical trading systems have been quite profitable during the floating rate period. This profitability stems from the successful exploitation of...

This paper examines a decision-making problem of rational agents with risk averse utilities in the financial market both in statics and in dynamics. In the financial market there are two securities, one risky security and one riskless bond, and a continuum of investors with heterogeneous...

This paper analyses a temporary financial market equilibrium by considering a two-period model of asset pricing with s securities, one riskless bond, and a continuum of heterogeneous agents with different preferences, endowments, and beliefs. Investors' objectives are to maximize the expected...

The framework of a general equilibrium heterogeneous agent model is used to study the optimal design of an unemployment insurance (UI) scheme and the voting behaviour on unemployment policy reforms. In a first step, the optimal defined benefit and defined replacement ratio UI systems are...

Agent heterogeneity has been used in recent economic literature to justify nonlinear dynamics for the time paths of aggregate economic variables. In this paper, the mechanism through which heterogeneous agents leads to chaotic motion is explained. Adding to a system with initial behavior...