In the 1970s and 1980s the USA and European economies experienced unemployment rates that persistently drifted upwards. The present paper captures this phenomenon by a simple extension of the hysteresis approach to the natural rate hypothesis of unemployment using a ratchet model. The impact of...

This paper extends analyses of the determinants of the level of transactions among barter exchanges in the US economy by separating the trend elements of the explanatory variables from their cyclical elements. The results suggest that the level of barter is positively influenced by the expected...

In this paper, a statistical model is developed to examine the determinants of the growing level of barter transactions in the US. Although a barter system is believed to be Pareto inferior to a money system, recent statistics of the estimated level of barter transactions in the US show a...

A quadratic presidential popularity function for the Nixon and Ford presidencies is estimated. Using monthly data it is found that there is a structural change in the relationship between presidential popularity and inflation and unemployment between the two presidencies. This result strengthens...

The hypothesis that inflation has reduced the rate of growth in the United States is tested using time series data for multifactor productivity. The negative effects of inflation on growth are significant and substantial.

We have succesfully estimated the public's indifference map between inflation and unemployment. The indifference curves are nonlinear and concave to the origin for most unemployment rates; the data are insufficient to permit us to be sure of the form at low unemployment rates. There is clear...

The purpose of this comment is a critical evaluation of the empirical analysis made by Cresti (2005) and her finding that commercial barter behaves differently than corporate barter during the course of business cycles. Here, we correct the arbitrary replacement of the missing observations by...

We analyse the determinants of the public's relative concerns about inflation and unemployment using responses to the Gallup Poll question on the relative seriousness of inflation and unemployment. We then estimate the rate of inflation that politicians will choose to impose on the US economy...