This paper investigates some central issues of monetary policy by offering a model in which a central bank tries to stabilize fluctuations in aggregate output and inflation in an adaptive complex economy. We resort to evolutionary algorithms to model the central bank behaviour under discretion,...

Our analysis, conducted using the GDP and the GDP deflator time series (OECD source; 1960–2001) for the G7 countries, shows the robustness of the negative covariance between the GDP and its deflator, but only over long run horizons. Through wavelet decomposition we evaluate the price–output...

In this paper we show how a simple modification of a well-known multiplicative process of firms' growth, taking into account common and idiosyncratic elements, allows to reconcile an old aggregate-sector puzzle (Quandt, 1966) on firms'' size distribution reported in the literature.

Are expansions and recessions more likely to end as their magnitude increases? In this paper we apply parametric hazard models to investigate this issue in a sample of 16 countries from 1881 to 2000. For the total sample we find evidence of positive magnitude dependence for recessions, while for...

Based on the prices of McDonald's Big Mac hamburger in 11 Eurozone countries over the 1986–2009 period, the present article investigates whether the adoption of the euro was accompanied by an increase in inflation and how far it affected developments in price dispersion. Our results...