We consider two aspects of the commitment problem in price regulation with lobbying the ratchet effect and the hold-up problem. We set out a dynamic model of price regulation with asymmetric information where the regulated firm can ‘buy influence’ in a lobbying equilibrium. Firms can sink...

This paper focuses on two main issues, firstly the extent to which the employment position of the main ethnic minority groups in England and Wales changed between 1991 and 2001 and secondly, a detailed examination of employment amongst ethnic groups in 2001. In relative terms, the employment...

For the first time, we present evidence on employee theft in the UK using data on actual recorded crime. We present a model where employees are rational cheaters with consciences to produce hypotheses about the role of labour market (wages, unemployment) and social (age, education) influences on...

A New-Keynesian model with deep habits and optimal monetary policy delivers a fiscal multiplier above one and the crowding-in effect on private consumption obtainable in a Real Business Cycle model à la Ravn et al. (2006). Optimized Taylor-type or price-level interest rate rules yield...

In this paper, I study the correlation between stock and bond returns. We can define flight- to-quality from stocks to bonds as the decrease in the correlation between the two assets in falling stock markets periods (bear state), since the two assets returns move in the opposite direction. On...

This paper applies graphical modelling theory to recover identifying restrictions for the analysis of monetary policy shocks in a VAR of the US economy. Results are in line with the view that only high-frequency data should be assumed to be in the information set of the monetary authority when...

How does informality in emerging economies affect the conduct of monetary policy? To answer this question we construct a two-sector, formal-informal new Keynesian closed-economy. The informal sector is more labour intensive, is untaxed, has a classical labour market, faces high credit...

In this paper general CES consumption preferences are introduced into an endogenous growth model `a la Bernard, Eaton, Jensen, and Kortum (2003) and Eaton and Kortum (2001). This is in contrast to the more generally used assumption of logarithmic preferences. The paper shows that the CES...

Dynamic principal-agent settings with asymmetric information but no commitment are well known to create a ratchet effect. Here, the most efficient agents must be provided with extra 'information rent' as an incentive to relinquish their informational advantage over an uninformed principal; this...

We present results of 1189 structured interviews about price-setting behavior of firms in the manufacturing and services sector in Pakistan. Our discoveries are that frequency of price change is considerably high, lowering the real impact of monetary policy. The remaining price stickiness is...