A VAR-GARCH-M model for aggregate employment and employment shares isdeveloped to explore the macroeconomic effects of sectoral shocks. Using U.S.,U.K. and German data, three main issues are investigated: the relevance ofshocks volatility; the amount of aggregate employment growth...

The Italian university system is in a profound and dangerous crisis. The below par performance of Italian universities is compared with the increasingly successful accomplishments of Canadian Universities. The paper identifies the major source of this performance differential in the hiring and...

The non-linearity of macroeconomic processes is becoming an increasingly important issue both at theoretical and empirical level. This trend holds for labour market variables as well. Reallocation theory of unemployment relies on non-linearities. At the same time there is mounting empirical...

We develop a generalised impulse response function (GIRF) approach to explore the different impacts of aggregate and sectoral shocks within a VAR-GARCH-M model. Using the output of our GIRF analysis, we explore the behaviour of three European countries (Germany, Spain and the UK). We analyse the...

The assumption of linearity is tested using five statistical tests for the US and Canadian unemployment rates, growth rates of the sectoral shares of construction, finance, manufacturing and trade sectors. An AR(p) model was used to remove any linear structure from the series. Evidence of...

Fostering entrepreneurship as a tool for the creation and support of rural businesses is a crucial goal for the integrated development and survival of rural economies. Despite the recognition of entrepreneurship as one of the main determinants of rural economic development, empirical research in...

The literature dealing with Milton Friedman's methodological framework tends to overlook his adhere nce to the neo-Bayesian interpretation of probability theory. In this note, it is shown that Friedman's probabilistic framework has deep i mplications for his notion of rationality and treatment...

This paper presents further evidence on the importance of sectoral shifts by examining unemployment fluctuations in the United States over the period 1960 to 1991, extending previous research in three directions: first, by using a thirty-industry decomposition of quarterly nonagricultural...

In this article a VAR-GARCH-M model for aggregate employment and employment shares is developed in order to explore the macroeconomic effects of sectoral shocks. Using US, UK and German quarterly data sets, the model is estimated and tested against alternative specifications. Three main issues...