Construction of (composite) indices by the PCA is very common, but this method has a preference for highly correlated variables to the poorly correlated variables in the data set. However, poor correlation does not entail the marginal importance, since correlation coefficients among the...

This paper compares the different dynamics of the simple sum monetary aggregates and the Divisia monetary aggregate indexes over time, over the business cycle, and across high and low inflation and interest rate phases. Although traditional comparisons of the series sometimes suggest that simple...

The current financial crisis followed the “great moderation,” according to which the world’s central banks had gotten so good at countercyclical policy that the business cycle no longer existed. As more and more economists and media people became convinced that the risk of recessions had...

People tend, in many ways, to behave like the others they see around them. This note´shows that such reference group behavior tends to reinforce incentives (economic or other) that influence individuals directly only marginally. The workings or such incentives is augmented what might be called...

Marshall's notion of the representative firm can be read as a macro notion with some resemblance to Keynes' aggregative concepts. Keynes' notions of aggregate demand and aggregate supply are fashioned after Marshall's definitions of demand and supply. Keynes starts with the Marshallian...

This paper presents an index of institutionalized social technologies covering its two main dimensions namely Risk reducing technologies and Anti Rent seeking technologies and in turn covers several social, institutional, political and economic aspects. Specifically it attempted to classify and...

The models Feldstein and Rothschild (1974) and Jorgenson (1974) adopted to highlight the nature of the replacement ratio were identical. Yet, even though the theorems they derived from them were complementary and reinforced each other, the authors reached diametrically opposite conclusions....

The famous Mincer equation regressing log earnings on years of schooling is derived from a linear human capital accumulation equation at the individual level. Even if the cross-sectional Mincer equation holds at the level of individuals, it does not hold at the macro level of countries because...

It is well known that a one-dimensional discrete-time model may yield endogenous fluctuations while this is impossible in a one-dimensional continuous-time model. Invernizzi and Medio (1991) recast this time-modeling issue into an aggregation issue. They have proposed a "random-lags approach" as...

We study the aggregation of preferences when intensities are taken into account: the aggregation of cardinal preferences, and also of von Neumann-Morgenstern utilities for choices under uncertainty. We show that with a finite number of choices there exist no continuous anonymous aggregation...