Summary The common estimator for relative adjusted wage differentials based on dummy variables in loglinear regressions is inconsistent in the presence of group-specific heteroskedasticity. The direction and magnitude of the bias are derived. At the same time, a heteroskedasticity-consistent...

What is the role of contracting schemes for the welfare costs of nominal rigidities over the business cycle? We examine 4 different modeling schemes of nominal rigidities that all have the same average duration of contracts. We find that Calvo (1983) wage and price contracts may deliver welfare...

In the early 50's, Markowitz introduced the modern portfolio selection theory which, to this very day, constitutes the basis of many investment decisions. Given different correlated assets, how does an investor create a portfolio maximizing the expected utility? Markowitz's contribution was to...