We set up a two-region model to study the policy challenge of bringing the North's income up to the level of the South in the UK. The model focuses on labour costs as the driver of output gains through the international competitiveness channel. The empirical results show that the regional model...

This paper investigates whether housing collateral is important to the business cycle in China. We develop two models, one without housing collateral as benchmark and one variant allowing for it. Indirect Inference procedure tests these two models' compatibility with the data. We find that the...

In a recent article Pfleiderer (2020) argues that models should be put through a 'reality filter' before they should be taken seriously as a basis for empirical testing or policy analysis. He regards models that make dubious assumptions as 'chameleons', because while as theory they may give...