Modern monetary policymakers consider a huge amount of information in their evaluation of events and contingencies. However, most research on monetary policy relies on simple rules, and one relevant underpinning for this choice is the good empirical fit of the Taylor rule. This paper challenges...

Changes in financial policy are expected to result in the greater availability of credit as financial controls are relaxed and banking competition is increased. This ‘financial deepening’ should show up in ahigher consumption expenditure in areas where credit is often required, such as...

In the last decades female permanent sterilisation became the most used contraception method in Mexico. During this time the demand for pills, condoms and other short-term contraceptives fell consistently. The shift in the demand for contraceptives raises concerns among demographers that the...

This paper examines how fertility plans of young individuals who live in intact families (i.e., those where both biological parents are present) differ from the fertility plans of young individuals who live in non-intact families in Mexico. The paper also analyses whether family background has a...

This paper analyses horizontal and vertical price dynamics in the EU petroleum markets. The results indicate that the cross-country price differentials have significant impact on the local price adjustments. The uncovered patterns can be seen as the first empirical support for the...

This paper examines how a durable-goods monopolist’s choice of product quality interacts with time inconsistency problems in an environment, where the firm faces an irreversible decision on quality and unit production costs increase in quality. The monopolist may have incentives to choose a...

We introduce possible asymmetries and non-linearities in the analysis of the taxing and spending decisions of local governments. Our empirical results evidence a down-ward inflexibility of both local government spending and taxation, pointing to a budget-maximizing local government. These...

We develop a theoretical nonlinear model of equilibrium unemployment and test its policy implications for a number of OECD countries. The theory here sees the natural rate and the associated equilibrium path of unemployment as endogenous, pushed by the interaction of shocks and the institutional...

This paper surveys the existing literature on the determinants of household savings and credit in developing countries and examines the ways in which macro-level policies might impact on household financial behaviour.

We investigate the Nash equilibria of asymmetric, winner-take-all, imperfectly discriminating contests, focusing on existence, uniqueness and rent dissipation. When the contest success function is determined by a production function with decreasing returns for each contestant, equilibria are...