We propose a Markov switching cointegration approach to assess long run fi?scal sustainability. This method allows us to simultaneously: 1) test for cointegration in the presence of signifi?cant ?fiscal policy changes; 2) assess the type of fi?scal regime (whether strongly/weakly sustainable or...

Building on Blinder and Wyplosz (2005) this paper presents a formal mechanism which potentially explains how autocratically collegiate, genuinely collegiate and individualistic monetary policy committees (MPCs) are able to reach a consensus. Drawing on the theory of Markov chains, I adopt a...

This paper extends the nonparametric methods developed by Samuelson (1948), Houthakker (1950), Afriat (1973), Diewert (1973) and Varian (1982, 1983) to latently separable models. It presents necessary and sufficient empirical conditions under which data on the market behaviour of a price-taking...

We analyse the effects of fiscal policy co-ordination in a monetary union on inflation, public expenditure and the optimal degree of conservatism of the central bank. Our main result is that, when the fiscal authorities internalise the spillover effects originating from their loose fiscal...

In this paper we develop models of intra-industry trade in which the technological infrastructure associated with measurement activity plays a role in determining the ability of firms to differentiate their products, making them more marketable, and hence promoting intra-industry trade. We...

The International Monetary Fund is the world’s premier international financial institution with 184 member countries and active programmes in a significant number of them at any one time. The Fund attracts a great deal of attention, much of it critical. But the discussion is often polemic in...

Against a background of increased decentralisation in the structure of wage decision making, we analyse the effects of unions on the dispersion and persistence of pay settlements over the medium term using a longitudinal data set covering British private sector establishments over the period...

IMF supported programs have conventionally been assessed by examining their effects on intermediate variables and final outcomes. More recently greater attention has been paid to implementation on the assumption that in order to work programs need to be implemented. Empirical studies have begun...

For many years analysis of IMF conditionality overlooked the extent to which it was implemented. However, more recently increasing attention has been paid to implementation. Theoretical contributions have focused on the importance of special interest groups, but empirical evidence has failed to...

This paper examines pay determination in the labor market of a professional team sport hitherto neglected by researchers in the U.S. Using data on 361 Major League Soccer (MLS) players for one recent league season, mean and median regression models are exploited to investigate salary...