We set up an agent-based macromodel focusing on consumption-saving without the assumption of utility maximization, but preserving certain "rational" aspects of human choice based on the idea of ecological rationality Todd et al. (2012). In this framework we address the classical problem of the...

Macroeconomic modelling is a recent development within the rapidly advancing field of agentbased modelling. Like older macromodels macro ABMs must also feature a well-designed consumption-savings block. As the microeconomic ABM literature on savings is non-existent researchers had to resort to...

In this paper we analyze statistics derived from the cross-wavelet transform of inflation differentials and exchange rate changes for a group of countries with Germany as the reference country. An important tool is the wavelet coherency measure from which we can judge the strength of the...

Men's labor income is on average higher than that of women practically everywhere. This gender pay gap can be decomposed into two components: on the one hand men usually work in better paid jobs (the sorting effect), and, on the other, even in the same occupation men get higher wages (the...

We estimate the gender pay gap with the traditional OLS based Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, and with an extension using Random Forest (RF) regressions on Hungarian data for the years 2008-2016. Random Forests perform better as predictors out-of-sample and yield consistently lower estimates for...

A basic principle of economics is that people always prefer a larger set of opportunities. Money illusion can be considered as the phenomenon that people may not perceive correctly their budget constraints, and may act in ways that run counter to this preference. In this view money illusion is a...

The phenomenon of infrequent price changes has troubled economists for decades. Intuitively one feels that for most price-setters there exists a range of inaction, i.e. a substantial measure of the states of the world, within which they do not wish to modify prevailing prices. However, basic...

We study a family of models of tax evasion, where a flat-rate tax finances only the provision of public goods, neglecting audits and wage differences. We focus on the comparison of two modeling approaches. The first is based on optimizing agents, who are endowed with social preferences, their...

It is well known that the size of the informal (black or grey) economy causes serious fiscal problems for Hungary. This study makes an attempt to quantify the budgetary and macroeconomic effects of different ways of widening the formal sector (whiteningʺ) with the help of a model. It turns out...