In this paper we examine the consequences of having a Central Bank whose preferences are state contingent. This has been identified in the literature as a Central Bank that is 'rationally inattentive' or 'constructively ambiguous'. The new feature in this paper is that we show how the private...

For Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the US an Error Correction Model with a long-term non-linear wage equation is estimated by 3-SLS to obtain consistent estimates, accounting for endogeneity and common shocks. On the basis of the estimated parameter elasticities of wages with...

This paper investigates the role of inflation risk in a model of the price dividend ratio, combining a dynamic Gordon model specification with the inflation-augmented capital asset pricing model (CAPM). The model is estimated for the Euro Area and U.S. and tested against traditional models. For...

The economic development in the United States has been very successful over the past decade, with high economic growth being accompanied by relatively low inflation. This article explores this development, comparing the economy of the United States with that of the EMU. In addition, it considers...

We investigate to what extent the expansion of FDI and the internationalization of production can be related to the recent phenomenon of more synchronized business cycles. We first focus on the relationship between bilateral FDI positions and cross-country output correlations in the period 1982-...

We study the capital structure dynamics of Central and Eastern European firms in order to get a better understanding of the quantitative and qualitative development of the financial systems in this region. The dynamic model we use endogenizes the target leverage as well as the adjustment speed...

This report presents an overview of the theory of regulation in general, with special attention for the regulation of banks. Two theories of government regulation are described. The first, normative, theory uses market failures as the justification of government regulation. The second, positive,...

This report analyses the portfolio behaviour of Dutch households. The study is partly based on information from a broad survey commissioned by the Nederlandsche Bank, held in March of this year. The investigation shows that risk bearing elements are becoming more and more important in households...

This paper examines whether Europe's monetary union framework of "ins" and "outs" reflects differences in market structures underpinned by relatively immobile labour. Such a situation could give rise to sufficient nominal convergence to satisfy the entry requirements to EMU, but little real...

The empirical evidence of heavy tails in stock return data is recognised by risk managers as an important factor in assessing the Value-at-Risk and risk profile of investment portfolios. Tail index estimation appears to be a tailor-made tool for estimating the extreme quantiles of heavy tailed...