This paper develops a general perturbation methodology for constructing high-order approximations to the solutions of Markov-switching DSGE models. We introduce an important and practical idea of partitioning the Markov-switching parameter space so that a steady state is well de?ned. With this...

This paper describes the construction of series of educational attainment of the adult population in a sample of 22 OECD countries covering the period 1960-2010. These series are a revised and extended version of the data set described in de la Fuente and Doménech (2002).

This paper develops a simple model that can be used to analyze the long-term sustainability of the contributive pension system and the steady-state response of pension expenditure to changes in some key demographic and economic variables, in the characteristics of the average pensioner and in...

We examine the effect of oil price fluctuations on democratic institutions over the 1960-2007 period. We also exploit the very persistent response of income to oil price fluctuations to study the effect of persistent (oil price-driven) income shocks on democracy. Our results indicate that...

Fixed-term contracts have low firing costs and can thus help low skilled youth find a first job faster. But do these workers get a more rewarding career? Using Spanish social security data, we compare the careers of native male high-school dropouts who entered the labor market just before and...

Governments often impose choices regarding the levels of savings and the composition of the portfolio of assets in mandatory pension systems; either the share of pay-as-you-go vs. financial assets or the structure of default portfolios to which a majority of workers stick. Yet, it is well known...

In this paper, we identify monetary policy shocks in structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) by imposing sign and zero restrictions on the systematic component of monetary policy while leaving the remaining equations in the system unrestricted. As in Uhlig (2005), no restrictions are imposed...

The policies under analysis are set out in Spanish Law 39/99 and Austrian Law Nr. 38/2004. In essence both policies were directed at allowing parents to work part-time if they had children under 7 years old, with an equivalent wage reduction. Furthermore, those workers who decided to use the law...

Over the last 50 years, some important reforms in European countries were aimed at improving the system of vocational studies. By contrast, the Spanish educational law (LOGSE) from 1990 moved in the opposite direction. While the LOGSE increased the number of compulsory schooling years from 8 to...

This paper develops a particle filtering algorithm to estimate dynamic equilibrium models with stochastic volatility using a likelihood-based approach. The algorithm, which exploits the structure and profusion of shocks in stochastic volatility models, is versatile and computationally tractable...