Introduction. – In [1] the authors claim to observe a periodic signal in measurements of Newton’s gravitational constant, G. Specifically they find a 5.9-year-period signal that is strongly correlated with variations in the observed length of day [2]. They do not suggest that G actually varies on these time scales, but rather that there could be some systematic effect on the measurement process...

This research attempts to examine the links between fluctuating oil prices, economic sanctions and the employment in the Libyan economy. In particular, this study attempts to answer the basic question whether UN’s resolutions number 748 (1992) of 31 March 1992 and oil price fluctuations have any significant influence on the employment in Libya. One of this study’s key findings is that fluctuati...

It is rather common to have several competing forecasts for the same variable, and many methods have been suggested to pick up the best, on the basis of their past forecasting performance. As an alternative, the forecasts can be combined to obtain a pooled forecast, and several options are available to select what forecasts should be pooled, and how to determine their relative weights. In this ...

How does the magnitude of the output response to a change in government spending vary over the business cycle? What are the welfare effects of fiscal shocks? This paper studies the state-dependence of the output and welfare effects of shocks to government purchases in a DSGE model with a number of real and nominal frictions and a rich fiscal financing structure. Both the output multiplier (the ...

The Great Moderation is often characterized by the decline in the variability of output and inflation from earlier periods. While a multitude of explanations for the Great Moderation exist, notable research has focused on the role of monetary policy. Specifically, early evidence suggested that the increased stability has been associated with monetary policy that responded much more strongly to ...

We document sectoral differences in changes in output, hours worked, prices and nominal wages in the US during the Great Depression. We explore whether contractionary monetary shocks combined with different degrees of nominal wage frictions across sectors are consistent with both sectoral as well as aggregate facts. To do so, we construct a two-sector model where goods from each sector are used...

The jobless recoveries in the aftermath of the 1991 and 2001 recessions have puzzled many. Most explanations have focused on structural change. In this paper, I investigate the quantitative contribution of a cyclical mechanism towards generating jobless recoveries. Extending the model by Hansen and Sargent (1988), I calibrate and compute a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of heterog...