No abstract.

Using a regression analog of growth accounting, I present cross- sectional and panel regressions showing that growth is negatively associated with inflation, large budget deficits, and distorted foreign exchange markets. Supplementary evidence suggests that the causation runs from macroeconomic...

Starting with Romer [1987] and Rivera-Batiz-Romer [1991] economists have been able to model how trade enhances growth through the creation and import of new varieties. In this framework, international trade increases economic output through two channels. First, trade raises productivity levels...

We initially examine two different methods for learning about parameters in a Rational Expectations setting, and show that there are conflicting E-stability results. We show that this conflict also extends to Minimum State Variable (MSV) representations. One of these methods of learning lends...

We characterise the relationships between preliminary and subsequent measurements for 16 commonly-used UK macroeconomic indicators drawn from two existing real-time data sets and a new nominal variable database. Most preliminary measurements are biased predictors of subsequent measurements, with...

We analyze the IMF as a lender to countries in financial distress highlighting the fact that it is a senior creditor. An advantage of delegating senior lending in a single institution rather than on competitive markets is that it would be able to reach the socially optimal solution. This would...

How and why does distant political and economic history shape the functioning of current institutions? This paper argues that individual values and convictions about the scope of application of norms of good conduct provide the "missing link." Evidence from a variety of sources points to two...

Since the writing of David Hume, in the eighteenth century, there has been a general agreement amogst economists that an increase in the stock of money leads, initially, to an increase in economic activity. Most writer have attributed the real effects of money, in the short run, to mistaken...