This paper looks at the history of money and its modern form from a scientific and mathematical point of view. The approach here is to emphasize simplicity. A straightforward model and algebraic formula for a large economy analogous to the ideal gas law of thermodynamics is proposed. It may be...

This paper analyzes the effects of anticipated inflation on the resource allocations between production and financial services. We develop a model with heterogeneous workers and two sectors economy. A manufacturing sector producing a final composite good and a financial sector providing monetary...

During the 52 years between the Unification of the Kingdom of Italy and World War 1, the lira was legally convertible into metal for a limited period of time. Although not formally committed to gold, the lira exchange towards the gold standard countries proved remarkably stable,...

This paper tests the stability of the U.S. federal intertemporal budget constraint over the postwar period. The implied equilibrium budget path is estimated and used to determine which component of the budget has greater responsibility for the recent intertemporal violations.

In this paper, we investigate the consequences of the rise in educational attainment on the US generational accounts. We build on the 1995 accounts of Gokhale and al. (1999) and disaggregate them per schooling level. We show that low skill newborns are characterized by a negative generational...

Hyman Minsky is best known for his work in the area of financial economics, and especially for his financial instability hypothesis. In recent years, some authors have also recognized his advocacy of the “employer of last resort” as part of his “big government” intervention to help...

The recession under way in the European Union and the threat of deflation have spawned increasing frequent calls for modification of the Stability and Growth Pact. The present article confirms the negative correlation of the rate of real output growth with that of increase in current public...

Most economic models implicitly or explicitly assume that interactions between economic agents are 'global' - in other words, each agent interacts in a uniform manner with every other agent. However, localized interactions between microeconomic agents are a pervasive feature of reality. What are...

In this paper we consider the problem of sequential detecting change points in economic time series. We compare the performances of three well known procedures, Shiryayev-Roberts, CUSUM and EWMA, in the problem of early detection of the US business cycle turning points using leading indicators...

This paper is aimed at studying the determinants of currency crises suffered by Argentina from 1885 to 2003, on one hand, and at characterizing each particular currency crisis, on the other hand. Firstly, we identify crises episodes throughout the Argentine history. We apply the Eichengreen,...