764 research outputs found
Trends in productivity: the case of capital shortage
Full text linkAbstract This paper analyses the effect of rising wage rates and real interest rates on labour productivity and capital productivity in a situation of capital shortage. Furthermore, it shows the effect of rising wage rates and real interest rates on the capital intensity of the production process. This latter effect can not be determined unambiguously.
Trends in productivity: the case of capital shortage
Full text linkThis paper analyses the effect of rising wage rates and real interest rates on labour productivity and capital productivity in a situation of capital shortage. Furthermore, it shows the effect of rising wage rates and real interest rates on the capital intensity of the production process. This latter effect can not be determined unambiguously.
Participation and Performance at the London 2012 Olympics
Full text linkThe current paper predicts the medal tally for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The forecast procedure consists of analyzing participation and success at the country level
of the three most recent editions of the Olympic Summer Games. Potential explanatory variables for medal winnings are income per capita, population, geographical distance to the Games, success in terms of medals won at World
Championships, and the home advantage. Our forecasts show that the China takes first place in the medal tally with 44 gold medals, followed by the United States of America winning 33 gold medals. We expect Great Britain to take fourth place winning 23 gold medals.
Gerard de Nerval: A Reappraisal
Full text linkThe author explores Gerard de Nerval’s influence on modern literature. A brief look at episodes in Nerval’s life that influenced him as a writer, at his early prose works, and at trends in literature since his day show that the spirit of his work still finds echoes in twentieth century literature
Do skin suits increase average skating speed?
Full text linkWe analyze the effectiveness of speedskating suits to increase average skating speed at the 2002 Olympic winter games of Salt Lake City. We model the average skating speed of male and female speed skaters at distances from 500 to 10000 meters. Speed not only depends on physical characteristics of the skaters, but also on previous performance and speedskating suits that reduce drag. We find that one specific suit, the so-called Swift Skin suit, significantly increases average skating speed, especially in long-distance events. This suits increase speed by up to 0.2-0.3 seconds per lap on a 400-meter oval. The effects are more pronounced for men than for women and show up in the first part of the race.
Inventories and upstream gasoline price dynamics
Full text linkThis paper sheds new light on the asymmetric dynamics in upstream U.S. gasoline prices. The model is based on Pindyck's inventory model of commodity price dynamics. We show that asymmetry in gasoline price dynamics is caused by changes in the net marginal convenience yield: higher costs of marketing and storage lead to rising gasoline prices, whereas a drop in these costs lowers gasoline prices. The former effect is stronger. This indicates asymmetric dynamics. We also analyze the asymmetry across the sample by analyzing recursive and rolling regressions. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
The powers that are: central bank independence in the Greenspan era
Full text linkThis paper investigates political pressure from incumbent Presidents and Congress on US monetary policy during the period that Greenspan was the chairman of the Federal Reserve. We propose an expectations-augmented Taylor rule in which we replace realized values with expectations, and use the unemployment gap instead of the output gap. We apply a state-space framework that allows the use of mixed frequency data. Our findings suggest that the Federal Reserve under Greenspan did not create election driven cycles, but also did not strictly follow the Taylor rule. The deviations from the Taylor rule are not driven by partisan politics, but are rooted in the expected economic condition
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