In this note we theoretically investigate the question of whether the relationship between public debt and economic growth is characterized by an inverse U-shaped functional form. Starting point of our analysis is the paper by Checherita-Westphal et al. (2012) who present an endogenous growth...

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the bond/money ratio on the nominal interest rate. The econometric model chosen fits a dynamic panel data for Canada, Japan and US over the period 1980-2006. We found empirical evidence that Ricardian Equivalence does not hold. The analysis indicates,...

In a cointegrated VAR model we examined the relationship between oil price and macroeconomy in Iran, which is the third largest oil exporter in the world. The sample is quarterly data, ranging from 1994:1 to 2007:4. We find that an increase in real oil prices by 1% is associated with a 0.30%...

A controversial view of the evolution of commodity markets is that the engagement of speculative capital arguably introduces volatility and price movements unrelated to changes in traditional demand and supply factors. Thus, the efficiency of spot and futures markets is an important topic in...

Recent papers by Chen et al (2009, 2010) suggest that exchange rates have predictive power over future commodity price movements. We use a Vector Error-Correction model to test this hypothesis using Australian data. We find substantial evidence of in-sample forecasting power but are unable to...