Mergers and acquisitions are an integral part of any market economy, enhancing an economy's efficiency by reallocating and recombining production resources for better use. In China, the development of mergers and acquisitions activity has played a positive role in privatizing and revitalizing...

In the past few years, the pace of consolidation in the banking industry has accelerated, and combinations between banks and other financial service providers have become increasingly prevalent. In some countries, consolidation has resulted from the need to eliminate weak or problem...

For the last two or three decades, the global economy has been going through an extraordinary transition phase. This period has been marked by stronger integration among economies, fuelled by falling trade and communication costs, but above all by the rising prominence of emerging market and...

A modification of existing sticky-wage models to account for the observed cyclical behavior of real wages by means of a model that introduces productivity factors into nominal-wage contracts.

An examination of the commonly accepted positive correlation between money and real output, including a review of several models of business cycles and an explanation of how money can be neutral and yet still appear to affect real output.

An evaluation of the state of real business cycle theory, with an outline of useful directions for further research and a discussion of economic policy implications.

A review of research on the relationship between inventory investment and business cycle fluctuations, focusing on the developments of the last 15 years. A central issue in the literature, the relative importance of demand and supply shocks as sources of fluctuations, continues to be debated.

Policy and investment decisions are made with an eye toward future economic conditions, and an econometric model that can correctly forecast directional changes in the business cycle would be a boon to policymakers, the business community, and the general public. This article provides some...