Firms adjust their employment to changes in output. But they tend to adjust it only partially. Typically, labor is hoarded in downturns and subsequently firms have to hire less in upturns. Investment in labor hoarding may therefore be influenced by factors that impede investments, such as...

The removal of the lower bound on the EUR/CHF exchange rate in January 2015 provides a unique setting to study the implications of a large and sudden appreciation in an otherwise stable macroeconomic environment. Using transaction-level data on non-durable goods purchases by Swiss consumers, we...

The full-information rational expectations model is clearly rejected by the data. The expectation formation process has therefore important implications for macroeconomic outcomes. We examine how consumers react to information provided by the media, by taking into account that this information...

We evaluate the empirical relevance of real convergence on the process of nominal convergence for the new EU Member States. We focus our discussion on two main channels: productivity growth and increased trade openness. Productivity growth can have a positive effect on price levels via the...

What are the unequal effects of changes in consumer prices on the cost of living? In the context of changes in import prices (driven by, e.g., changes in trade costs or exchange rates), most analyses focus on variation across households in initial expenditure shares on imported goods. However,...

In this paper we propose a straightforward method to derive a non-inflationary rate of capacity utilization (NIRCU) based on micro data. We condition the current capacity utilization of firms on their current and planned price adjustments. The non-inflationary capacity utilization rate is then...