The use of payment cards, either debit or credit, is becoming more and more widespread in developed economies. Nevertheless, the use of cash remains significant. We hypothesize that the lack of card acceptance at the point of sale is a key reason why cash continues to play an important role. We...

This paper analyzes the stabilizing properties of alternative monetary policy regimes. In practice there is a choice between two broad types of monetary policy regimes: a fixed exchange rate regime or a floating exchange rate regime. In this paper I compare exchange rate targeting with different...

We examine the evolution of monetary policy rules in a group of inflation targeting countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom), applying a moment-based estimator in a time-varying parameter model with endogenous regressors. Using this novel flexible framework, our...

This paper investigates the role of monetary policy in a small open economy, where exchange rate shocks are important. VAR models are estimated for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Contemporaneous and sign restrictions are imposed in order to identify the effect of monetary policy and...

In Deutschland steht wieder einmal eine große Steuerreform an. Zum Jahresbeginn 2001 soll das Steuersenkungsgesetz in Kraft treten, in dessen Zentrum grundlegende Änderungen bei der Einkommens- und Unternehmensbesteuerung stehen. Diese Steuerreform ist oft mit einer im internationalen...

In this study, we suggest an explanation for the alarmingly low growth rates of real housing prices in Canada and Germany in comparison to other OECD countries over 1975-2005. We show that the long-run development of housing markets is determined by real disposable per capita income, real...

This paper explores the hypothesis that wage differentials between skill groups across countries are consistent with a demand and supply framework. Using micro data from 15 countries we find that about one third of the variation in relative wages between skill groups across countries is...

In this paper we study the effects of abusive behavior on the labor force andmarital status decisions of women. Using a unique Canadian data set on domesticviolence, we estimate the effects of abuse on the marital history as well ascurrent employment using a sequential, multi-state model. In our...

In this paper a post-sample prediction test is derived forestimators based on the Efficient Method of Moments. The mainadvantage of this particular test over other stability tests isthat no time-consuming estimation of the structural parameters forthe post-sample is needed. The asymptotic...

There is a concern that ordered responses on health questions may differ acrosspopulations or even across subgroups of a population. This reporting heterogeneity mayinvalidate group comparisons and measures of health inequality. This paper proposes a test fordifferential reporting in ordered...