Both institutional quality and institutional stability have been argued to stimulate economic growth. But to improve institutional quality, a country must endure a period of institutional change, which implies at least a little and possibly a lot of institutional instability. We investigate the...

This paper analyzes the relation between three dimensions of globalization (economic, social and political) and life expectancy using a panel of 92 countries over the period 1970-2005. Using different estimation techniques and sample groupings we find a very robust positive effect from economic...

We suggest that the real exchange rate between the major currencies in the post-Bretton Woods period can be described by a stationary, two state Markov switching AR(1) model. Based on the forecast performance, both in-sample and out-of-sample, we find that this model out-performs two competing...

Around 600 B.C., Athens was ruled by a birth aristocracy. Some 150 years later, the city-state was a “democracy”. A rational-actor perspective, as perceived in the new institutional economics, sheds additional light on this intriguing transformation by focussing our attention on the...

Our aim is to give a comparative analysis of ability of different factor mimicking portfolios in representing the background factors. Our analysis contains a cross-sectional regression approach, a time-series regression approach and a portfolio approach for constructing factor mimicking...

This paper analyzes rigidities in the behavior of mark-up on petroleum products in the New York area using a new set of high-frequency data. We use a methodology that accounts both for deterministic and stochastic nature of petrol prices. The results indicate that the adjustment to the long run...

Projections show public pensions to take an increasing share of GDP. This has lead to increased activity in the reform area and resulted in a plethora of reforms ranging from marginal to more radical ones. The former kind has often tried to hold back increasing expenditure by decreasing benefit...

According to theories of screening and signaling, a temporary worker who shows effort should increase the probability of obtaining a permanent contract. We use two types of signals of effort: overtime and low levels of absenteeism to investigate i) whether temporary workers show more effort and...

Heated discussions of the economic effects of the wealth tax have raged in the popular media in a number of European countries. The academic community has been considerably quieter, however. This paper attempts to fill this gap by empirically estimating the relationship between the wealth tax...

This paper empirically studies the effects of fiscal policy shocks on private consumption. Further, it tries to determine if the initial conditions of the economy, such as the financing needs of the government or previous fiscal deficits, affect that relationship. We use yearly data between 1970...