Most theories of involuntary unemployment predict that the equilibrium wage in the labor market will be greater than the reservation wage of the unemployed. These theories concentrate on explaining why the labor market does not clear, with the market wage falling to the level of the reservation...

In the long run the economic incidence of a tax is unaffected by whether a tax is levied on workers, consumers or firms. In the short run, however, with wages and prices not fully flexible the incidence may be different. We test this hypothesis using aggregate time series data and examine the...

The reservation wage is an integral part of most theories of involuntary unemployment. We use panel data to examine the empirical determinants of the reservation wage - in particular the influence of previous wages - and consider what this implies for the evolution of the natu- ral rate of...

We examine the ability of the Expansionary Fiscal Contraction (EFC) hypothesis to explain the performance of of OECD economies during times of crisis. We find some limited evidence in its favour - if public consumption is reduced in response to a fiscal crisis (as defned by a high level of...

We examine the usefulness of the Expansionary Fiscal Contrac- tion hypothesis in explaining the performance of the Irish and Danish economies. We find some evidence in favour of a weak version of the EFC hypotheisis - If the budget deficit is reduced in response to a fis- cal crisis, consumption...

Low rates of inflation have been recorded in the United States in recent years despite a decline in the unemployment rate. This phenomenon could be the result of a series of transitory shocks or of a permanent change in the structure of the economy leading to a lower NAIRU. The paper suggests...

The standard public finance analysis of the welfare cost of labour income taxation is based on the estimation of labour supply functions that treat unemployed individuals as non-participants. This paper applies econometric models of multinomial discrete choice to the labour market, explicitly...

We calculate the NAIRU for the U.S. in a framework where inflation and the unemployment rate can respond to each other. The NAIRU is defined as the component of the actual unemployment rate that is uncorrelated with inflation in the long run. Using a structural VAR approach, the NAIRU and core...

The paper analyses the impact of the relatively belated move to professionalism in Rugby Union. We use data on match attendance for 3,667 fixtures in European club Rugby over 15 seasons to estimate the effect of competitive balance on attendance. We find that (short- and medium-term) competitive...

The economic literature on professional sports leagues suggests supporters’ utility depends on uncertainty of outcome (competitive balance) and the quality of play. Unlike soccer, where the Champions League is dominated by teams from larger countries, our analysis indicates that the ERC...