According to some accounts, compensation practices have recently been undergoing marked changes, with an increasing number of firms said to be substituting lump-sum payments for regular pay increases, allowing for greater variability of remuneration across individuals or groups, and making...

We survey the evidence bearing on measurement error in the CPI and provide our best estimate of the magnitude of CPI bias. We also identify a "weighting" bias in the CPI that has not been previously discussed in the literature. In total, we estimate that the CPI overstates the change in the cost...

This paper develops a methodology for evaluating the short-run welfare implications of different exchange rate regimes. Heterogeneous, optimizing domestic consumers live for two periods, consume goods and leisure, supply labor, save home and foreign bonds, and demand currency. Firms maximize...

We explain the rapid increase in personal savings in China since the economic liberalization which began in 1979. We use an intertemporal disequilibrium framework based upon a virtual price technique. The virtual price is defined as the price level that would induce the observed level of...

The analysis by Lebow concerns Japan. Given the high public debt levels, it focuses on the fiscal implications of the monetary expansion undertaken since the early nineties and those of a possible reversal of such a policy in case inflation picks up. The paper argues that for analysing fiscal...

Japan's government debt is extremely high, especially considering the fact that the data exclude likely future liabilities stemming from an ageing population and possible requirements of the financial system. Nevertheless, an offsetting factor is the degree to which the Bank of Japan has already...