In this paper we examine the long-term effects of the Restart unemployment program introduced in the U.K. in 1987. The program was aimed at the long-term unemployed and involved a combination of tighter monitoring of benefit eligibility rules and increased job search assistance. We compare...

Over the last 10-15 years female labour force participation rates have increased substantially in Ireland. At the same time there has been a large increase in wage inequality but a decline in total household income inequality. In this paper we examine the relationship between the trends in...

This paper employs a new methodology for measuring the contribution of growth and interest rate differentials to the half-life of deviations from Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Our method is based on directly comparing the impulse response function of a VAR model, where the real exchange rate is...

This paper seeks to identify potential determinants of short interest rate differentials across European countries. We rely on the portfolio theory of Tobin to choose our set of risk factors and then assess the ability of these macroeconomic variables to influence both the conditional mean and...

We present a simple framework in which both the exchange rates disconnect and forward bias puzzles are simultaneously resolved. The flexible-price two-country monetary model is extended to include a consumption externality with habit persistence. Habit persistence is modeled using Campbell...

This paper uses simulations to evaluate the performance of various methods for estimating factor returns in an approximate factor model when the cross-sectional sample (n) is large relative to the time-series sample (T). We study the performance of the estimators under a variety of alternative...

This unpublished appendix provides ancillary empirical results and some simple robustness checks on the probit model of Irish mortgage defaults presented in Connor and Flavin (2014) hereafter referred to as CF. The document is organized in three sections; first we present our robustness tests;...

This paper examines despair from the perspectives of many disciplines to define despair and to characterize the despairing individual, his motivations, and his capacity for decision-making. Two models incorporating despair as a key element are then proposed. Using these models as a framework,...