We develop a simple overlapping generations model in which the young have a choice in investing in equities or index-linked bonds. Projections of share price uncertainty over a 30-year period show that the risk associated with such long-term investments predicts an equity premium that matches...

The EU has pursued protectionist policies not merely in food but also in manufacturing at the customs union level. In services it has not dismantled much of the existing national protectionism. The economic costs are calculated here at some 3% of GDP for the UK and some 2% for the rest of the...

Since the establishment in 1979 of the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the EMS a number of countries, after entry, have experienced a substantial and persistent rise in their real exchange rate (the ratio of domestic to foreign prices). This paper explains this phenomenon in terms of a `peso problem'...

The world economy is modelled by linking nine small country models of the 'new classical' type, and adding three blocs of trade equations to cover the smaller economies. The model (like the Liverpool Model of the United Kingdom) assumes rational expectations and market clearing (there are union...

In the past few years the view has commonly been expressed that central banks follow `Taylor Rules' (as first promulgated by Henderson and McKibbin (1993)). We show that the appearance of such an interest rate rule – a ‘pseudo-Taylor rule’ – can be created by a standard macro model in...