Total factor productivity of twenty OECD countries for a recent period (1971-2002) is explained using six different models based on the established literature. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is not dealt with in these models. In the present paper it is shown that – when this variable is added...

This paper examines the effects of taxation on long-run growthin a two-sector endogenous growth model with (i) physical capitalas an input in the education sector and (ii) leisure as anadditional argument in the utility function. The analysis of theeffects of taxation - including income...

Estimates of the effect of education on GDP (the social return) have been hard to reconcile with micro evidence on the private return to schooling. We present a simple explanation combining two ideas: imperfect substitution and endogenous skill-biased technological progress and use cross-country...

The need to absorb windfalls gains and manage them appropriately has been discussed extensively by academics and policy makers alike. We explore the role of the financial sector in intermediating these windfalls. Controlling for the level of financial development, inflation, GDP growth and...

We present a dynamic general equilibrium model with agency costs, where heterogenous firms choose among two alternative instruments of external finance - coporate bonds and bank loans. We characterize the financing choice of firms and the endogeous financial structure of the economy. The...

This paper employs a Markov regime-switching approach to investigate whether the Great Moderation is over since the start of the late 2000s recession. The results confirm that the recent financial crisis did cause a simultaneous high-volatility period among the G7 countries. However, the...

In this paper, we develop and apply Bayesian inference for an extended Nelson-Siegel (1987) term structure model capturing interest rate risk. The so-called Stochastic Volatility Nelson-Siegel (SVNS) model allows for stochastic volatility in the underlying yield factors. We propose a Markov...

In this note we establish the existence of the first two moments of the asymptotic tracestatistic, which appears as weak limit of the likelihood ratio statistic for testing the cointe-gration rank in a vector autoregressive model and whose moments may be used to developpanel cointegration tests....

Using data for six OECD countries, this paper studies the effect of macroeconomic conditions on the mortality index kt in the well-known Lee-Carter model. Significant correlations are found with real GDP growth rates in Australia, Canada, and the United States, and with unemployment rate changes...

In this paper we adopt a principal components analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimensionality of the term structure and employ autoregressive models (AR) to forecast principal components which, in turn, are used to forecast swap rates. Arguing in favor of structural variation, we propose data...