Recent research has shown that the standard labor matching model hasdifficulties in reproducing the co-movement patterns observed in US data. Thisis due to the fact that the standard model lacks sufficient propagation of shocks.This paper shows that refining the informational structure of the...

We analyze optimal monetary policy in a sticky pricemodel where the central bank supplies money outrightvia asset purchases and lends money temporarily againstcollateral. The terms of central bank lending affect ra-tioning of money and impact on macroeconomic aggre-gates. The central bank can...

To what extent can monetary and financial crises and cycles be explained through economic theories? This paper is aimed at highlighting why a reliance on economic theories may be necessary given certain flaws which have been revealed from the recent Financial Crisis. Namely, that economic and...

In business cycle research, smoothing data is an essential step in that it can influence the extent to which model-generated moments stand up to their empirical counterparts. To demonstrate this idea, we compare the results of McDermott’s (1997) modified HP-filter with the conventional...

A new theory of capitalism is suggested. Its key moments and general logic are presented. This theory is based on the distinction between two market types – the simple commodity market and the capitalist one. Disequilibrium and "imperfect competition" are admitted to be a functional norm of...

In this note, we analyze the effects of intellectual property rights on the volatility of economic growth. Our analysis is motivated by the observation that the strengthening of patent protection and the increase in R&D in the US coincide with a reduction in growth volatility beginning in the...

In the article it is shown that current definitions of economic recessions are unsatisfactory. NBER definition of an economic recession is only qualitative, so it does not enable identifying recession unequivocally. Another often used ‘technical definition’ of a recession takes into account...

Habit formation is a fixture of contemporary new-Keynesian models. The vast majority assume that agents form habits strictly over consumption of an aggregate good, leaving open the question of whether it might be preferable to have them form habits over differentiated products instead–an...

In this article recession magnitudes in Europe, the USA and Japan during the Great Recession are compared. The strongest recessions (of severe category) occurred in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, while recessions in Japan and the USA were significantly weaker. Even the strongest recession (in...

This dissertation contributes to an increasing literature on macroeconomic instability in developing countries. It makes a critical review of the literature and classifies the sources of instability under exogenous and endogenous factors. It then argues that the impact of exogenous shocks is...