Why do private firms stay private? Empirical evidence on this issue is sparse, as most private firms in the US do not report their financial results. We investigate why private status matters by taking advantage of a unique dataset of large, leveraged private firms with SEC filings. Unlike a...

This paper analyses the recent productivity slowdown, attempting to distinguish permanent from cyclical changes. It then considers the implications for anti-inflationary policies, discussing the short-run effects of more restrictive policies as well as the prospects for reducing inflation in the...

This paper analyses Risk premia on overnight interbank loans increase by a factor of 13 at year-end. Further, this finding is not consistent with common theories of similar year-end anomalies in other money markets. In particular, seasonal liquidity demands seem to explain only a fraction of the...

This paper re-examines the empirical content of the expectations theory of the term structure by employing the Campbell-Shiller (1987) methodology to study the behaviour of 10-year/three-month US government yield spreads. The methodology is implemented in two ways. First, theoretical spreads...

The remarkable stability of low domestic inflation in many countries requires explanation. In this paper, a number of competing hypotheses are evaluated on a stand-alone basis, and all are found to be inadequate. This includes the view that this outcome has been solely the result of more...

This paper presents an approach to portfolio selection using fuzzy decision theory. The approach is such that a given target rate of return is achieved for an assumed market scenario. If the assumed market scenario turns out to be incorrect, the portfolio is guaranteed to secure a given minimum...

This paper explores the evolving relationship between central banks and governments in the European monetary unification process. In particular, it focuses on the institution-building phase (setting up of the ECB) and the monetary and macro-economic policy mix within EMU. I attribute the...

This paper examines the terms of bank lending and borrowing by exploring pricing in the federal funds market, the market in which financial institutions trade overnight reserves. By exploiting a never-before-used dataset containing detailed information on every Fedwire transfer between financial...

This paper examines the impact of exchange rates and import prices on domestic PPI and CPI in selected industrialised economies. The empirical model is a VAR incorporating a distribution chain of pricing. Impulse responses and variance decompositions indicate that these external factors have a...

The purpose of this paper is analyse the factors that influence conditions in the Euro-currency market, focusing separately on demand and supply factors. The paper tentatively concludes that the main reasons for the present borrowers' market seem to be, first, the turn-round in the US current...