According to the mainstream view, labour market institutions (LMI) are the key determinants of unemployment in the medium run. The actual empirical explanatory power of measures for labour market institutions, however, has been called into question recently (Baker et al 2005, Baccaro and Rei...

Is time-varying firm-level uncertainty a major cause or amplifier of the business cycle? This paper investigates this question in the context of a heterogeneous-firm RBC model with persistent firm-level productivity shocks and lumpy capital adjustment, where cyclical changes in uncertainty...

For a country fractionalized in competing factions, each owning part of the stock of natural exhaustible resources, or with insecure property rights, we analyze how resources are transformed into productive capital to sustain consumption. We allow property rights to improve as the country...

Using a German firm-level data set, this paper is the first to jointly study the cyclical properties of the cross-sections of firm-level real value added and Solow residual innovations, as well as capital and employment adjustment. We find two new business cycle facts: 1) The cross-sectional...

Is time-varying firm-level uncertainty a major cause or amplifier of the business cycle? This paper investigates this question in the context of a heterogeneousfirm RBC model with persistent firm-level productivity shocks and lumpy capital adjustment, where cyclical changes in uncertainty...

Using a unique German firm-level data set, this paper is the first to jointly study the cyclical properties of the cross-sections of firm-level real value added and Solow residual innovations, as well as capital and employment adjustment. We find two new business cycle facts: 1) The...

We review evidence on the Great Moderation together with evidence about volatility trends at the micro level to develop a potential explanation for the decline in aggregate volatility since the 1980s and its consequences. The key elements are declines in firm-level volatility and aggregate...

Nach den Ergebnissen des ifo Investitionstests Neue Bundesländer, der zwischen Ende 2003 und Juli 2004 durchgeführt wurde, werden 2004 die Investitionen des ostdeutschen Verarbeitenden Gewerbes nach einem spürbaren Einschnitt im Jahr 2002 (- 6%) wieder ansteigen und in diesem Jahr annähernd...

Nach den neuesten Ergebnissen des ifo Investitionstests Neue Bundesländer kann im Jahr 2004 in den meisten Branchen von einem Zuwachs der Investitionen um 16% auf gut 7½ Mrd. € ausgegangen werden. Mehr als ein Drittel dieser Investitionen entstammt den Budgets nur zweier Branchen:...

Nach den neuesten Ergebnissen des ifo Investitionstests Neue Bundesländer kann im Jahr 2004 in den meisten Branchen von einem Zuwachs der Investitionen um 16% auf gut 7½ Mrd. € ausgegangen werden. Mehr als ein Drittel dieser Investitionen entstammt den Budgets nur zweier Branchen:...