Learning rules are increasingly being used in macroeconomic models. However one criticism that has been levelled at this assumption is that the choice of variables for inclusion in the learning rule, and the actual specification of the learning rule itself, is arbitrary. In this paper we test...

This paper assesses the implications of discounting on a result derived by Bean (1998): that in a model of monetary policy where policy acts with a lag, the outcomes of monetary policy are very similar for a wide range of weightings of the (non-discounting) monetary authority's objective...

This article is concerned with the dynamic behaviour of UK unemployment. However, instead of using traditional approaches based on I(0) stationary or I(1) (integrated and/or cointegrated) models, we use the fractional integration framework. In doing so, we allow for a more careful study of the...

This paper challenges what is the standard account of UK unemployment, namely that the major swings in unemployment over the past 25 years are due predominantly to movements in the underlying empirical "natural rate of unemployment" (NRU). Our analysis suggests that the British NRU has remained...

It is commonly asserted that the standard wage equation derived from bargaining theory cannot be identified. Here, it is argued that the case for this alleged failure rests on an outmoded definition of identification. Newer concepts based on non-stationarities, cointegration and reduced rank are...

Recent time series evidence favouring a supply-side interpretation of long-run unemployment in the UK is based on the finding of cointegration between unemployment and wage pressure variables. We show that this is necessary but not sufficient. The key assumptions in recent work, that a single...