The measurement of core inflation can be carried out by optimal signal extraction techniques based on the multivariate local level model, by imposing suitable restrictions on its parameters. The various restrictions correspond to several specialisations of the model:the core inflation measure...

This paper looks at the relationship between the institutional design of the social security system and retirement from the labour force in three countries: Italy, Spain and the USA. Our works stresses the importance of dynamic incentives embedded in social security systems throughout the world...

The paper focuses on the adaptation of local polynomial filters at the end of the sample period. We show that for real time estimation of signals (i.e. exactly at the boundary of the time support) we cannot rely on the automatic adaptation of the local polynomial smoothers, since the direct real...

This paper proposes an econometric framework to assess the importance of common shocks and common transmission mechanisms in generating international business cycles. Then we show how to decompose the cyclical effects of permanent-transitory shocks into those due to their domestic and those due...

This paper shows that indicators and tests of government solvency should not be used alternatively. We present a simple and intuitive procedure to integrate simultaneously the results from the two approaches to fiscal sustainability. An application to U.S. post-World War II data demonstrates the...

Recent empirical research by Mark Taylor and co-authors has found evidence of hybrid dynamics for the real exchange rate. While there is a random walk near equilibrium, for real exchange rates some distance from equilibrium there is mean-reversion which increases with the degree of misalignment....

This paper contributes to the recent literature that studies the quantitative implications of the imperfect information about potential output for the conduct of monetary policy. By means of Bayesian techniques, a small New Keynesian model is estimated taking explicitly account of the imperfect...

Recent empirical evidence by Fair (2002, 2005) and Giordani (2003) shows that a positive inflation shock with the nominal interest rate held constant has contractionary effects. These results cannot be reconciled with the standard "New Synthesis" literature. This paper reconsiders the effects of...

In this paper I review evidence on the long-run relation between height and economic development in Italy. I ask three questions: What are the long-run trends of mean height and real incomes in Italy? What do we know about height dispersion? What other aspects of the distribution of height...

The paper investigates the determinants of bankruptcy in three representative unbalanced samples of Italian firms for the periods 1989-1991, 1992-94 and 1995-97. Two important results are that: i) the degree of relative firm inefficiency measured as the distance from the efficient frontier has...