This paper investigates the nature of nonlinearities in the monetary policy rule of the US Fed using the flexible approach of Hamilton (2001a). We find that while there is significant evidence of nonlinearity for the period to 1979, there is little such evidence for the subsequent period....

In this paper we challenge the conventional assumption that accumulated human capital can be divided into employer-specific and general labour market skills and explore the possibility of industry and occupational specificity. The estimates of a Mincer wage equation, on a BHPS sample, suggest...

This paper presents a model of partial observability applied to the childcare market in Britain. We simultaneously estimate the demand and use and calculate the excess demand for childcare. We find a large queue with nearly half of the mothers demanding childcare queuing for it. We also find...

This paper attempts to quantify the effect of skill shortages on the UK labour market by developing a simultaneous equation model of unemployment and real wage growth. The model is developed following a structural approach based on a priori economic information and is initially estimated using a...

This paper focuses on the decomposition of increased wage inequality in OECD countries into the component factors of trade surges in low wage products and technological change. It argues that if the observed wage inequality response to price and technology shocks represents a short run response...

This paper studies coalition formation and payoff division in a class of majority games (apex games) assuming that payoff division can only be agreed upon after forming the coalition (two-stage bargaining) and that negotiations in the coalition can break down and a new coalition be formed...

We consider a discriminatory pricing and service differentiation model where: a)state physicians exploit their monopoly position and adjust quality to the unofficial payment made, and b)patients, perceiving state provision as poor, pay unofficially to improve it. Applying OLS and probit analysis...

Recent years have seen a considerable increase in the number of economists researching the role of income, employment status and other demographic characteristics in determining individual life satisfaction or happiness. In this paper we investigate how life satisfaction is affected by a large...

We investigate the effect of union membership on job satisfaction. We account for the endogenous selection induced by the sorting of workers into unionised jobs and use different methodologies to address the question of how the membership decision is related to overall job satisfaction and to...

The paper explores theoretically and empirically why trade intermediaries (TIs) are frequently used as agents for exports to some countries but not to others. We adapt a standard intra-industry trade model with variable export costs (e.g. transport) and fixed export costs (e.g. market access) to...