This paper examines the effects of revisions on quarterly GDP estimates in highlighting effects on business cycle turning points. We integrate a Markow-switching process to a dynamic factor model of monthly GDP. The quarterly averages of our monthly GDP estimates are, by construction, exactly...

High-profile complaints about so-called Dutch disease have led many to question if industry in some parts of the country is suffering due to the success of the natural resources sector in others. This paper considers changes in manufacturing employment from 2002- 2008, a time of increased...

The empirical literature on the asset allocation and medical expenditures ofU.S. households consistently shows that risky portfolio shares are increasing inboth wealth and health whereas health investment shares are decreasing in thesesame variables. Despite this evidence, most of the existing...

Information asymmetry is a necessary prerequisite for testing adverse selection.This paper applies this sequence of tests to Mauritian slave auctions. Dynamicauction theory with private value highlights more aggressive bidding by uninformedbidders and higher prices when an informed participant...

Reference–dependent preference models assume that agents derive utility fromdeviations of consumption from benchmark levels, rather than from consumptionlevels. These references can be either backward-looking (as explicit in the Habit literature) or forward-looking (as implicitly suggested by...

This paper proposes a new wealth-dependent utility function for the inter-temporal consumption and portfolio problem, in which the subsistance (bliss) con-sumption level is a function of wealth. Ratchet effects obtain when higher wealth in-creases the subsistance consumption level; blas´...