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How well do alternative labor market theories explain variations in net job creation? According to search-matching theory, job creation in a firm should depend on the availability of workers (unemployment) and on the number of job openings in other firms (congestion). According to efficiency wage and bargaining theory, wages are set above the market clearing level and employment is determined by labor demand. To compare models, the authors estimate an encompassing equation for net job creation on firm-level data.

Despite this clear verdict by economic theory, so far not much empirical evidence has been provided on the (macroeconomic) inferiority of a military draft, relative to an all-volunteer force. This paper establishes such evidence, at least for OECD countries in the period between 1960 and 2000.

This paper traces the evolution of technocracy in Indonesia, while asking how to explain the changing effectiveness of the economic team of ministers from the early Suharto era to the current era under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the economic policy decision making.

The paper constructs a consistent set of quarterly Japanese data for the 1960-2002 sample period and compares properties of the Japanese and U.S. business cycles. The authors formulate, estimate and analyze a model that makes distinction between the intensive and extensive margin and allows for gender differences in labor supply.

Empirical results on the relationship between uncertainty and interfirm cooperation are conflicting, according to the authors. To address this puzzle, the authors distinguish between two different sources of uncertainty: primary and behavioral uncertainty.

The authors examine whether hedge funds experience contagion. To conduct this examination, the authors estimate binomial and multinomial logit models of contagion using daily returns on hedge fund style indices as well as monthly returns on indices with a longer history. The main finding is that there is no evidence of contagion from equity, fixed income, and foreign exchange markets to hedge funds, except for weak evidence of contagion for one single daily hedge fund style index.

This paper examines whether CEOs are fired after bad firm performance caused by factors beyond their control. Standard economic theory predicts that corporate boards filter out exogenous industry and market shocks to firm performance when deciding on CEO retention. Using a new hand-collected sample of 1,590 CEO turnovers from 1993 to 2001, the authors document that CEOs are significantly more likely to be dismissed from their jobs after bad industry and bad market performance.

Drawing on the experience of Structural Funds, the paper argues that cohesion may be beneficial to growth under certain conditions. It develops some arguments based on recent economic theory and empirical evidence on the trade off between cohesion and growth and draws some lessons for future policy.

The economic impact of privatisation is hard to assess, the author states. This paper extends the analysis of Florio (2004) in four directions. It argues that a welfare assessment of privatisation must include an evaluation of the performance of public enterprises in light of their originally broad set of objectives including, for example, the promotion of employment. It highlights the importance of financial pressure, independently of privatisation, in improving the performance of public firms.

According to the authors, todays federal budget deficits are a preoccupation of many American citizens and more than a few political leaders. This paper address the questions: Is the American government going bankrupt? Does our fiscal condition warrant radical surgery, as some now prescribe? Or, are we in such deep trouble that there is no plausible route of escape?