This paper provides a comparative analysis of methods for the empirical ex post evaluation of merger control decisions. It develops a competition-policy oriented framework of assessment criteria for the leading evaluation methods and applies them to structural modeling and simulation,...

This paper analyzes how slum upgrading programs impact elementary school childrens attendance in Uruguay. We take advantage of the eligibility rule that deems slums eligible for a SUP program if they have 40 or more dwelling units. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity estimator, we find that...

Commuting shapes countless everyday-lives around the world, with dynamics varying from city to regional and cross regional level. Taking as reference the free-movement EU-28 area (plus Switzerland and Norway), the analysis considers a total sample of 195 NUTS2 regions over the decade 2007-2017...

Many different approaches have developed for the evaluation of non-tariff measures (NTMs) and free trade agreements (FTAs). Moving on from models using simple dummy variables, today a range of databases can capture different aspects of NTMs and FTAs. Some assess the depth of FTAs by extracting...

Some regulatory reforms do not change just a specific signal that can be represented by a quantitative continuous variable, such as a tax rate, a price cap, or an emission threshold. The standard theory of reform in applied welfare economics (going back to contributions by e.g. Ramsey, Samuelson...

In this paper we estimate inflation expectations for several Latin American countries using an affine model that takes as factors the observed inflation and the parameters generated from zero-coupon yield curves of nominal bonds. By implementing this approach, we avoid the use of...

Despite extensive research efforts, the magnitude of the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on unemployment remains unclear. Existing econometric estimates exhibit substantial variation, and it is therefore difficult to draw valid conclusions. This paper applies meta-analysis and...

We extend the Central Bank of Malta's core DSGE model - MEDSEA - with housing and financial frictions to capture the important theoretical links betweeen house prices, credit and consumption. The model features a rich set of features that are inherent to small open economies in a monetary union....

This paper documents the extension of MEDSEA, a small open economy DSGE model for Malta, with a detailed energy sector. The model contains relatively rich fiscal and energy blocks allowing the model to simulate the transitional costs related to the economy's decarbonisation, together with the...

We study alternative approaches to the withdrawal of prolonged unconventional monetary stimulus ("exit strategies") by central banks in large, advanced economies. We first show empirically that large-scale asset purchases affect the exchange rate and domestic and foreign term premiums more...