This paper provides a tractable framework to assess how the structure of debt instruments-specifically by currency denomination and indexation to GDP-can raise the debt limit of a sovereign. By calibrating the model to different country fundamentals, it is clear that there is no...

We study how the distribution of earnings growth evolves over the business cycle in Italy. Wedistinguish between two sources of annual earnings growth: changes in employment time (number ofweeks of employment within a year) and changes in weekly earnings. Changes in employment timegenerate the...

The paper uses a large survey (GSOEP) to analyze the labor market performance of immigrants in Germany. It finds that new immigrant workers earn on average 20 percent less than native workers with otherwise identical characteristics. The gap is smaller for immigrants from advanced countries,...

Nominal wage growth in most advanced economies remains markedly lower than it was before the Great Recession of 2008-09. This paper finds that the bulk of the wage slowdown is accounted for by labor market slack, inflation expectations, and trend productivity growth. In particular, there appears...