Using a longitudinal matched employer-employee data set for Portugal over the 1986-2005 period, this study analyzes the heterogeneity in wages responses to aggregate labor market conditions for newly hired workers and existing workers. Accounting for both worker and firm heterogeneity, the data...

This work concerns the problem of rank estimation in semidefinite matrices, having either indefinite or semidefinite matrix estimator satisfying a typical asymptotic normality condition. Several rank tests are examined, based on either available rank tests or basic new results. A number of...

This study investigates wage determination at the firm level using a longitudinal panel of large firms in Portugal. The results revealed that insider forces such as revenue per employee and market share have a significant impact on wage determination. The results also showed that...

This paper addresses the case of complementary services with vertical relations. Using the example of airport handling activities, we develop a model to investigate the effects on welfare and competitiveness of four different handling market situations. We find out that the usual Cournot result...

This paper assesses the forecast performance of a set of VAR models under a growing number of restrictions. With a maximum forecast horizon of 12 years, we show that the farther the horizon is, the more structured and restricted VAR models have to be to produce accurate forecasts. Indeed,...

This paper assesses the relation between the yield curve and the main macroeconomic variables in the U.S. between early 1960s and 2010 across time and frequencies, using wavelet analyses. The shape of the yield curve is modelled by latent factors corresponding to its level, slope and curvature,...

According to theoretical predictions, the application of peak-load pricing to utilities is expected to result in higher levels of welfare and is recommended on that basis. This price system is adopted by some airports in the EU, in order to alleviate congestion by means of shifting demand, while...

A common and longstanding assumption in the economic growth literature has been that total factor productivity growth is lower in the agriculture sector than in the rest of the economy. Using a stochastic production frontier finite mixture model, labor productivity change is decomposed into...

With the recent wave of privatisation and liberalisation the number of state owned firms has remarkably decreased. In some industries, namely in healthcare and education, and in many countries, they go on playing an important role, alone or competing with private ones. In this paper we use a...

Understanding the causes of the dramatic rise in health insurance costs in the United States over the past two decades is of increasing importance to employers and policymakers. While past studies focus primarily on macroeconomic developments and changes in the health sector, little attention...