This paper presents a unified parametric approach to estimate the impact of taxes and transfers on the participation decision. We extend existing structural form methodologies by considering the effect of both taxes and transfers. In our framework, participation probabilities are determined by...

In this study, using a new microsimulation model, we estimate the long-term fiscal and labour market effects of the changes to the tax and transfer system which were passed into law in 2010 and which are currently planned. According to our results, if all of the currently planned measures are...

We present a new general-equilibrium behavioural microsimulation model designed to assess long-run macroeconomic and fiscal consequences of reforms to the tax and transfer system. General-equilibrium feedback effects are simulated by embedding microsimulation in a parsimonious macro model of a...

This paper documents the existence and main patterns of inter-industry wage differentials across a large number of industries for eight EU countries at two points in time (in general 1995 and 2002) and explores possible explanations for these patterns. The analysis uses the European Structure of...

This paper tries to identify the risks embodied in foreign-currency denominated sovereign bond spreads. It adopts an instrumental variables method , which attributes the explanatory power of fundamentals in a spread equation to their predictive power for observed risk realizations. Using...

This paper presents direct evidence for relational contracts in sovereign bank lending. Unlike the existing empirical literature, its instrumental variables method allows for distinguishing a direct influence of past repayment problems on current spreads (a "punishment" effect in prices) from an...

We study the adjustment process of a small open economy to a sudden worsening of external conditions. To model the sudden stop, we use a highly non-linear specification that captures credit constraints in a convenient way. The advantage of our approach is that the effects of the shock become...

This paper develops a flexible price, two-sector growth model with a nominal side to study the role of the exchange rate in transition dynamics. We adopt a standard small open economy model with traded and nontraded goods, where the engines of growth are exogenous productivity improvements and...