While a widespread consensus exists among macroeconomists that the German labour market reforms in 2003-2005 have successfully contributed to the decline of the unemployment rate, critics claim that the reforms led to wage restraint and consequently consumption dampening accompanied by...

We study currency risk management in the context of scenario analysis. We develop scenario-based optimization models that jointly determine the portfolio composition and the hedging strategy within each currency. Thus the model prescribes optimal selective hedging policies. We then study...

Successful resolution of consumer disputes needs a particular kind of approach in terms of decision-making - problems with traditional processes used to confront and resolve consumer disputes - development of industry-based consumer dispute resolution schemes - deal better with the relationship...

This paper suggests that international roaming markets suffer from structural flaws in the way that roaming agreements are established in Europe. The initial roaming interventions by the European Commission in 2007 have been very welfare enhancing and the transfer of producer surplus to...

Increasing fragmentation of production across borders is changing the nature of international competition. As a result, conventional indicators of competitiveness based on gross exports become less informative and new measures are needed. In this paper we propose an ex-post accounting framework...

The price of derivative contracts has always played a strategic role in extracting valid information to be employed in one's own investment strategies. Shimko (1993) was a pioneer in this arena.Taking up where Shimko left off, this paper will demonstrate how to extract Risk neutral density...

This paper examines the house price dynamics for thirteen European countries. A Markov-switching error correction model is estimated on house price returns at the country level, with deviations between house prices and fundamentals feeding into the short-run dynamics. The system is assumed to be...

Regulatory competition is often believed to be a hard fact of the post globalization era. Legal systems have to be economically "attractive" – and thus law makers must work to achieve this purpose. However, this view – as simple and seductive as it is – is not sound. Indeed a quick...

This paper explores the fiscal measures adopted in the transition European countries in order to encourage the foreign direct investment. There were analyzed six countries: Albania, Macedonia, Moldova, Russian Federation, Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, based on the four criteria:...

The regulatory system has taken 150 years to develop in the US. Even today it is far from unified with four supervisory "agencies" overseeing banking organizations, i.e., 50 State Regulatory bodies, the OCC, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, with a wide variety of individual and often...