In a recent article Canova et al. (2014) study the optimal choice of variables to use in the estimation of a simplified version of the Smets and Wouters (2007) model. In this comment I examine their conclusions by applying a different methodology to the same model. The results call into question...

Le salaire est une composante essentielle du niveau de vie. Son montant présente pour l'immense majorité des travailleurs un enjeu considérable. Comment les différents salariés perçoivent-ils à la fois le salaire qu'ils touchent et les écarts qui le séparent de celui des autres ?...

This paper exposes a simple endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation in which competition in the educational system can lead to fast output growth with a simultaneous decline in welfare along a balanced growth path. This illustrates the idea that satisfaction is not...

A retrospective analysis of European integration shows how political factors and economic opportunities/constraints have interacted in the progressive design of an unprecedented form of federalism. Political reconciliation of former enemies (France and Germany), modesty of the first steps of...

Recent studies have highlighted the existence of asymmetries in employment dynamics. This paper contributes to the analysis of this dynamics through the explicit modelling of its two components -job creations and job destructions. We propose a simple matching model extended for endogenous...

In order to assess the importance of embodiment, we build up an endogenous growth model in which learning by doing is the engine of both embodied and disembodied technological progress. In sharp contrast to Phelps (1962), we show that a change in the composition of technical change affects the...

Le contraste entre le succès des années quatre-vingt et la stagnation et l'incertitude des années quatre-vingt-dix au Japon a suscité nombre d'interprétations. L'article procède à une revue de littérature selon le caractère réel ou au contraire monétaire et financier des facteurs de...

Finding solutions to the Bellman equation relies on restrictive boundedness assumptions. The literature on endogenous growth or business cycle models with unbounded random shocks provide with numerous examples of recursive programs in which returns are not bounded along feasible paths. In this...

Le Big Bang domine potentiellement le gradualisme d'une part du fait du délais qu'il occasionne et d'autre part du fait de la complémentarité des réformes économiques. Cela dit la coopération sociale, définie de façon large, étant un déterminant important des réformes, le big bang...

It is often argued that the tax on continued work should be removed by implementing actuarially fair schemes. However, these schemes cannot help finance the expected Social Security deficit. This paper proposes to give individuals on a fraction of the marginal actuarially fair incentives in case...