This paper considers the joint role of macroeconomic and bankspecific factors in explaining the occurrence of bank failures. As bank failures are, fortunately, rare, we apply a regression model, based on extreme value theory, that turns out to be more effective than classical logistic regression...

We evaluate optimal monetary policy in the standard sticky-price DSGE model in which overlapping-generations households à la Blanchard-Yaari replace the infinitely lived representative household. With nominal rigidities, monetary policy faces a new trade-off between inflation and...

Forecast accuracy in macroeconomics is based on statistical techniques for extrapolating time series. This paper takes a new theoretical route studying the relation between forecast accuracy of macroeconomic variables and alternative monetary policies. Considering optimal policy with...

The aim of this paper is to develop a structural explanation of the subprime mortgage crisis, grounded on the combination of two apparently incompatible financial theories: the Financial Instability Hypothesis by Hyman P. Minsky and the theory of Capital Market Inflation by Jan Toporowski. The...

This paper draws on the literature on innovation in clusters and e-commerce to investigate how a particular kind of innovation project, the establishment of a regional e-marketplace (REM), may contribute to regional development. Using a firm-centred perspective, the role of geographical and...

This paper develops an estimation and testing framework for a stationary large panel model with observable regressors and unobservable common factors. We allow for slope heterogeneity and for correlation between the common factors and the regressors. We propose a two stage estimation procedure...

We reconsider the recent work by [Oku10] on (possibly asymmetric) Cournotian firms with two production factors, one of them being inferior. It is shown there that an increase in the price of the inferior factor does raise equilibrium industry output. In addition of providing a simpler and more...

We study the impact of organized crime on electoral competition. Assuming that the mafia is able to bring votes to the supported party in exchange of money, we show that (i) the strongest party is willing to pay the highest price to secure mafia services; (ii) the volume of electoral trade with...

Mixture models for hazard rate functions are widely used tools for addressing the statistical analysis of survival data subject to a censoring mechanism. The present paper introduces a new class of vectors of random hazard rate functions that are expressed as kernel mixtures of dependent...

Measuring the standards of living is a fundamental concern in economics and particularly in the eld of development. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most widely accepted measure for a country's economic size and performance, but in recent years the Gross National Income (GNI) has gained...