A lack of sufficient diversification in research strategies has been identified as an important problem for delegated research. We show that this problem can be solved by local competition (such as bribery, lobbying, rent seeking, competition at the patent office) among players who apply the...

This paper studies panel data models with unobserved group factor structures. The group membership of each unit and the number of groups are left unspecified. The number of explanatory variables can be large. We estimate the model by minimizing the sum of least squared errors with a shrinkage...

The paper provides results of research concerning identification of strategic groups in the Polish banking sector and tests of the usefulness of these groups in the assessment of financial stability. The theory of strategic groups predicts the existence of stable groups of companies, stemming...

Labor productivity in developed countries is analyzed and modeled. Modeling is based on our previous finding that the rate of labor force participation is a unique function of GDP per capita. Therefore, labor productivity is fully determined by the rate of economic growth, and thus, is a...

Milton Friedman’s “The Methodology of Positive Economies” is still one of the most widely read pieces on economic methodology. One reason for this might be Friedman’s attractive proposal that economists use theories and hypotheses as pragmatic devices to summarize data and make...

Using an analog of the boundary element method in engineering and science, we analyze and model unemployment rate in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States as a function of inflation and the change in labor force. Originally, the model linking unemployment to...