D - Microeconomics

• Determinants of Borrowing Limits on Credit Cards

  Staff Working Paper 2005-7 Shubhasis Dey, Gene Mumy

  The difference between actual borrowings and borrowing limits alone generates information asymmetry in the credit card market.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): C, C3, D, D4, D8, D82

• Monetary Policy under Model and Data-Parameter Uncertainty

  Staff Working Paper 2005-6 Gino Cateau

  Policy-makers in the United States over the past 15 to 20 years seem to have been cautious in setting policy: empirical estimates of monetary policy rules such as Taylor's (1993) rule are much less aggressive than those derived from optimizing models.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): D, D8, D81, E, E5, E58

• Uninsurable Investment Risks

  Staff Working Paper 2004-29 Césaire Meh, Vincenzo Quadrini

  The authors study a general-equilibrium economy in which agents have the ability to invest in a risky technology.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial markets JEL Code(s): D, D3, D31, E, E2, E21, G, G0

• Financial Market Imperfection, Overinvestment, and Speculative Precaution

  Staff Working Paper 2004-27 Christian Calmès

  The author uses panel data to assess the sensitivity of investment to cash flow in non-financial firms, taking into account the role their financial health plays in investment decisions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles JEL Code(s): D, D9, D92, E, E2, E22, E4, E44, G, G3, G33

• Translog ou Cobb-Douglas? Le rôle des durées d'utilisation des facteurs

  Staff Working Paper 2004-19 Eric Heyer, Florian Pelgrin, Arnaud Sylvain

  Using French data on industrial firms over the period 1989-2001, the authors estimate a "flexible" Translog production function that accounts for the volumes and durations of factor utilization.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C3, C33, D, D2, D24, J, J2, J23

• Durées d'utilisation des facteurs et fonction de production : une estimation par la méthode des moments généralisés en système

  Staff Working Paper 2004-12 Eric Heyer, Florian Pelgrin, Arnaud Sylvain

  Although a number of studies have demonstrated the importance of the degree of factor utilization in economic analysis, the impact of the durations of utilization in a production function remains largely unknown, particularly in terms of the duration of equipment utilization.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C3, C33, D, D2, D24, J, J2, J23

• Public Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship

  Staff Working Paper 2004-10 Oana Secrieru, Marianne Vigneault

  Entrepreneurship is a key factor in promoting growth in output and employment. Consequently, to encourage new start-ups, most governments in developed countries have public venture capital programs.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Fiscal policy, Labour markets JEL Code(s): D, D2, G, G2, G24, G28, J, J2, J24, M, M1, M13

• The Economic Theory of Retail Pricing: A Survey

  Staff Working Paper 2004-8 Oana Secrieru

  The types of contracts that arise in a typical vertical manufacturer–retailer relationship are more sophisticated than usually assumed in standard macroeconomic models.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, D40, L, L2, L22, L4, L42

• Are Distorted Beliefs Too Good to be True?

  Staff Working Paper 2003-4 Miroslav Misina

  In a recent attempt to account for the equity-premium puzzle within a representative-agent model, Cecchetti, Lam, and Mark (2000) relax the assumption of rational expectations and in its place use the assumption of distorted beliefs. The author shows that the explanatory power of the distorted beliefs model is due to an inconsistency in the model and that an attempt to remove this inconsistency removes the model's explanatory power.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial markets JEL Code(s): D, D8, D84, G, G1, G12

• The Usefulness of Consumer Confidence Indexes in the United States

  Staff Working Paper 2002-22 Brigitte Desroches, Marc-André Gosselin

  This paper assesses the usefulness of consumer confidence indexes in forecasting aggregate consumer spending in the United States.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Domestic demand and components, Economic models, International topics JEL Code(s): D, D1, D12, E, E2, E21, E27