There is considerable debate about the role of wage rigidity in explaining unemployment. Despite a large body of empirical work, no consensus has emerged on the extent of wage rigidity. Previous attempts to empirically examine wage rigidity have been hampered by small samples and measurement...

Our analysis takes the perspective of an equity fund manager who seeks a potential safe haven asset to protect her portfolio during market downturns. We employ a regime-switching framework, within which we separate common and idiosyncratic shocks, to assess the suitability of gold, 10-year and...

This paper examines the effect of R&D leadership on Research Joint Venture formation. If firms compete in R&D, there is a first (second)-mover advantage, when spillovers are relatively low (high). RJV profits exceed those of R&D leadership, except for a very narrow range of low unit R&D costs...

We construct a model of corporate tax competition in which governments also use public infrastructural investment to attract foreign direct investment, thus enhancing their tax bases. In doing so, we allow for inter-regional infrastructural externalities. Depending on the externality,...

During the years 2003 to 2008, the Irish domestic financial sector experienced a very fast and poorly controlled expansion, followed by a dramatic collapse. The causes of the Irish credit bubble and bust have been exhaustively examined; see for example Connor et al. (2012), Honohan (2010), Nyberg...

This paper asserts that most undergraduates leave Irish universities short-changed, never having been exposed to the riches of research. A re-conceptualisation of the research university is proposed, one founded on a culture of inquiry, interdisciplinarity and innovation. Scholarship is expanded...

We develop a simple human capital model for optimum schooling length when earnings are stochastic, and highlight the pivotal role of risk attitudes and the schooling gradient of earnings risk. We use Spanish data to document the gradient and to estimate individual response to earnings risk in...

This paper assesses the effect of the means testing of benefits on the income of households n which the head is unemployed in Britain. Potential houselds income is simulated using microdata from the 1983- 1984 Living Standards during Unemployment Survey for different hours of work of the wives...

Agents are assumed to have a power risk aversion utility function in an otherwise standard asset pricing model. These preferences are shown to be capable of eliminating one version of the equity premium and risk free rate puzzles when they display decreasing relative risk aversion.

We propose a simple measure of beta-convergence which is not subject to Galton's fallacy. We illustrate our measure with OECD data for the period 1950-1988. We find evidence of sigma-convergence but little or no indication of beta-convergence over the period.