We study the sources of corporate default clustering in the United States. We reject the hypothesis that firms' default times are correlated only because their conditional default rates depend on observable and latent systematic factors. By contrast, we find strong evidence that contagion,...

English Abstract: We use a multivariate hazard model to analyse the ratification behaviour of ILO conventions by developing countries. The model accounts for two random effects: one at the country level, the other at the convention level. After investigating identification, we use a...

We analyze portfolio credit risk in light of dynamic “frailty,” by which the credit qualities of different firms depend on common unobservable time-varying default covariates. Frailty is estimated to have a large impact on estimated conditional mean default rates, above and beyond those...

This paper is concerned with the effect of vocational training on individual unemployment duration in West Germany. The database used in this study is the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for West Germany for the period from 1984 to 1994. The econometric model is a semi-parametric single risk...

We estimate a semiparametric single-risk discrete-time duration model to assess the effect of vocational training on the duration of unemployment spells. The data basis used in this study is the German Socio-Economic- Panel (GSOEP) for West Germany for the period from 1986 to 1994. To take into...

The paper documents the price setting practices followed by some 400 or so firms operating in Greece. Survey replies reveal: a low percentage of firms changing prices with frequency higher than annual; staggering of price changes during the year; sluggish adjustment of prices to cost shocks;...

In the mid-1980s,most accessions to permanent employment in several European countries have been through fixed-term contracts. This paper studies the duration pattern of fixed-term contracts and the determinants of their conversion into permanent ones in Spain, where the share of fixed-term...

In the mid-1980s, several European countries, characterized by high levels of employment protection, introduced fixed-term contracts. Since then most accessions to employment have been through fixed-term contracts. This paper studies the duration pattern of fixed-term contracts and the...

Unemployment durations are determined by a number of factors. According to mainstream economics theory, unemployment durations are shorter in a more flexible labour market. In this paper, we hypothesize that workers who had a temporary contract before the spell of unemployment will experience...