This article proposes a new approach to estimate the effect of the unemployment rate on the labor participation ratio by sex and age. OECD labor participation ratios are estimated within an unobservable component model with the Kalman filter. This allows for treating the trend of the...

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical appraisal of the shocks-institutions controversy as an explanation of unemployment heterogeneity in OECD countries. Since the influential work of Blanchard and Wolfers (2000), many studies have tried to explain the differences in the OECD...

This paper adds to the already vast economic literature on the respective role of shocks and institutions in unemployment dynamics. Conclusions of existing studies widely diverge. Such divergences are mainly due to a weak theoretical framework underlying the models which have been estimated. We...

As residential energy markets open to competition, consumers can choose from a range of tariffs offered by different suppliers. We examine the relationship between the fixed charge levied on each consumer, and the variable charge per unit of energy used across all these tariffs. Data are the...

In this note it is shown that the index coefficients and location parameters in the standard triangular binary-choice model are identifed under an assumption of symmetry on the joint density of the latent disturbances. Identifcation of average effects follows. The implied restrictions suggest...

The opening up of the UK residential electricity sector in 1999 prompted several studies of the impact this had on both the level and structuring of retail charges, and on incumbent players’ market power. Drawing on observations of regional tariffs for the month of January 2004, this paper...

Gravity models have been widely used to describe bilateral trade in goods. Portes and Rey [Portes, R., Rey, H., 2005. The Determinants of Cross-Border Equity Flows. Journal of International Economics, 65(2), 269–296.] applied this framework to cross-border equity flows and found that distance,...