Using unit labor cost (ULC) data from Euro area countries as well as US States and German Länder we investigate inflation convergence using different approaches, namely panel unit root tests, cointegration tests and error-correction models. All in all we cannot reject convergence of ULC growth...

Inflation differentials in the Euro area are mainly due to a sustained divergence of wage developments across the Euro area, and narrower differences in labour productivity growth (Alvarez et al., 2006). We investigate convergence of inflation using unit labour cost (ULC) growth and applying...

Nearly 25 years after the German reunification, vastly different living conditions between East and West Germany still remain. This is particularly true for the distribution of net wealth which is of special importance for the well-being of individuals. Wealth provides utility in a number of...

Mali has introduced a program to produce biodiesel using jatropha, a shrub widely available throughout the country. The aim of the program is to partially substitute diesel, which is entirely supplied through imports, with domestically produced biodiesel. In this paper, we use a computable...

Redistribution is usually understood in terms of income; as a way to rank individuals as well as to determine taxable capacity or benefit eligibility. Yet, it is increasingly argued that more prominence should be given to the joint distribution of income and wealth and interest into the taxation...

In online optimization, input data is revealed sequentially. Optimization problems in practice often exhibit this type of information disclosure as opposed to standard offline optimization where all information is known in advance. We analyze the performance of algorithms for online optimization...

This paper uses the ESRI's ISus model to explore the distributional differences in emissions by household type. Most greenhouse gas and metal emissions are emitted via indirect means, although direct sources of emissions play a role for CO2, SO2 and CO. The results suggest that the richest...

Distributional analysis captures the wide range of policy outcomes and the diverse effects of policy changes across the population. Static microsimulation models are a commonly used tool for producing distributional analysis. Treasury has developed the CAPITA (Comparative Analysis of Personal...

Nearly 25 years after the German reunification, vastly different living conditions between East and West Germany still remain. This is particularly true for the distribution of net wealth which is of special importance for the well-being of individuals. Wealth provides utility in a number of...