We analyze historical business cycles as a sum of short- and medium-term cycles defined for a particular class of unobserved component models. By associating the trend with the low frequencies of the pseudo-spectrum in the frequency domain, manipulation of the spectral bandwidth will allow us to...

This paper uses neo-institutional economics (I.E.) to examine why French film production firms have lost their competitive advantage to their American competitors from 1895 to 1998. I.E. posits that major institutional changes result in changes in firms' strategic assets and strategies as well...

This article investigates the willingness to pay for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) in the US. It is assumed that with the NAIS in place, consumers' risk perception about zoonosis, BSE or mad cow and residues in meat may be mitigated. Therefore, food safety indices for beef,...

Earlier studies of US wage data from the PSID with a variety of methods have led to mixed results with respect to the existence and extent of downward nominal wage rigidity. Here the kernellocation approach to the analysis of downward nominal wage rigidity in micro data is applied to that data...

We investigate the behavior of consumer confidence around national elections in the EU-15 countries during 1985:1-2007:3. Consumer confidence increases before the date of elections and falls subsequently by almost the same amount. It is able to predict the strength of the performance of the...