A popular interpretation of the Rational Expectations/Efficient Markets hypothesis states that, if the hypothesis holds, then market valuations must follow a random walk. This postulate has frequently been criticized on the basis of empirical evidence. Yet the assertion itself incurs what we...

This paper uses comprehensive high-quality panel data from official statistics for exporting enterprises to investigate the micro-structure of the recent export collapse in manufacturing industries in Germany during the crisis of 2008/2009. Almost all of the decline in exports was due to...

We propose a new method for estimating the power-law exponent of a firm size variable, such as annual sales. Our focus is on how to empirically identify a range in which a firm size variable follows a power-law distribution. As is well known, a firm size variable follows a power-law distribution...

The distribution of labour productivity is investigated by analyzing the longitudinal micro-level data set which contains detailed financial condition of large numbers of Japanese companies over the period 1996-2006. The generalized beta function of the second kind is applied to explain the...

The Cobb-Douglas function is today one of the most widely-adopted assumptions in economic modeling, yet both its theoretical and empirical basis have long been under question. The purpose of this paper is to build an alternative production function on neoclassical microfoundations to address...

This study estimates and tests the endogeneity of the natural rate of growth using the balance-of-payments consistent rate of growth (BPCRG) instead of the actual rate of growth. Our approach is also theoretically compatible with the one proposed by Thirlwall (2001). Following this idea, we...

Economic policy interventions of a scale as effected in eastern Germany can be expected to have a significant impact on the economy, which may be in accordance with the objectives of the policy measures or manifest itself in distortions of several kinds. This paper analyzes the structural...

In the aftermath of the Great Recession and during the debt crisis in the euro area yields on German federal bonds have been exceptionally low. This analysis tries to calculate the profits that the federal government makes due to the low yields. The interest payments that are due to emissions of...

We analyze the stock prices of the S&P market from 1987 to 2012 with the covariance matrix of the firm returns determined in time windows of several years. The eigenvector belonging to the leading eigenvalue (market) exhibits in its long term time dependence a phase transition with an order...

This paper studies the effects of ECB communications about unconventional monetary policy operations on the perceived sovereign risk of Italy over the last five years. More than fifty events concerning non-standard operations are identified and classified with respect to the specific ECB...