We examine the determination of the optimal (from the point of view of social welfare) retirement age. We analyze the relationship between the choice of the retirement age and the choice of the nature of the pension system (relative shares of the pay-as-you-go and of the capitalized system). We...

We build a model where one borrowing emerging country receives both public and private loans. If its economic situation worsens, the cancellation of a part of the public loans will enable it to avoid defaulting on its private loans, but the fact that the intervention of public lenders is...

The balanced budget proposal which has been done in the United States, and which also appears in the Stability Pact devised for the Monetary Union in Europe, leads, in the long run, to a disappearance of the stock of public debt. We show that the absence of public debt is perhaps not an optimal...

We consider whether it is better for an emerging country to have its (public and private, domestic and foreign) debt in foreign currency (i.e. in this paper dollars) rather than in local currency. We introduce the possibility that the authorities opt for devaluation if the economic situation...

We show that, at the periphery of the European Union, or in the Central European accession countries, resources in skilled labour are abundant. This changes significantly the lessons drawn from the conventional model of international specialisation because of factor endowment. We build a model...