Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Volume 67 Issue 3 -

Issue of Review of Economics

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available March 10, 2017

Frontmatter

Page range: i-iii

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January 10, 2017

Is Globalization Reducing the Ability of Central Banks to Control Inflation? A Literature Review with an Application to the Euro Area

Salomon Fiedler, Nils Jannsen, Stefan Reitz, Maik Wolters

Page range: 231-253

Abstract

Globalization influences inflation and the transmission channels of monetary policy in various ways. The effects of globalization on the ability of monetary policy to control inflation have been discussed intensively. However, in the light of recent experiences following the global financial crisis with extended periods of disinflation in many advanced economies, the question whether the ability of monetary policy to control inflation has suffered significantly from increasing globalization has received new relevance. Based on a review of the literature, this paper discusses whether globalization is reducing the ability of central banks to control inflation and draws conclusion for the current situation in the euro area. We find that globalization has made it more complicated for central banks to ensure price stability and that it has tended to reduce the ability of monetary policy to control inflation in the short- to medium-run. However, in principle the ECB is still able to control inflation but may have to tolerate deviations from its inflation target for somewhat longer periods.

November 23, 2016

The Laffer Curve, Efficiency, and Tax Policy: A Note

Gerasimos T. Soldatos

Page range: 255-262

Abstract

This short article underlines the efficiency considerations reflected by a Laffer curve. In a static context in which inflation is assumed away, the Laffer curve describes what would the response of tax revenue to tax rate change be under increasing inflation if there were allocative efficiency, i. e. given perfect competition and full-employment output. The link between market structure and state of economic activity thus emerges as a critical determinant of the shape of Laffer curve. Under imperfect competition, the entire Laffer curve would reflect how the business “leadership” having emanated from the prevailing market structure, uses taxation as a means of higher profit earning capacity.

February 9, 2017

Public Goods, Private Consumption, and Human Capital: Using Boosted Regression Trees to Model Volunteer Labour Supply

Eike Emrich, Christian Pierdzioch

Page range: 263-283

Abstract

Economists use three types of models to describe volunteer labour supply: the public-goods model, the private-consumption model, and the human-capital model. We used data from an online survey questionnaire of volunteers working for the German Red Cross to study the extent to which utility components representing these three types help to explain volunteer labour supply. We analysed the survey data using boosted regression trees, where we controlled for several other potentially important socioeconomic correlates of volunteer labour supply. We used measures of relative influence and partial dependence plots to analyse the strength and the direction of the correlation of the utility components and the other socioeconomic variables with volunteer labour supply.

March 10, 2017

Pure Theory of the Federal Funds Rate

Stefan Homburg

Page range: 285-296

Abstract

The effective federal funds rate is determined in a competitive interbank market, while the target federal funds rate represents a policy variable. This paper proposes a theory of the determination of the effective funds rate. According to the main result, the latter is a Lagrange multiplier that vanishes if excess reserves emerge. This is exactly what happened in the United States in September 2008. A final section considers interest on reserves.

About this journal

Welcome! As of 2016 the Review of Economics as well as all other journals of Lucius and Lucius Verlagsgesellschaft are published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Aims and Scope
The Review of Economics (Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftswissenschaften) is a peer-reviewed general interest journal and publishes articles from all fields of economics.
Only articles with a strong policy focus are considered for publication. The Review of Economics will consider papers that are based on (i) a well defined theoretical model (ii) an empirical analysis or (iii) an experimental or (iv) an evidence-based framework.
The Review of Economics is also highly interested in survey articles on important policy issues.
Since the Review of Economics intends to deliver a forum for policy contributions and to influence the public debate we guarantee a quick and efficient referee process (the initial publication decision will be made within a maximum of 90 days). The editors may decide to publish papers without a referee process whenever authors send their submissions together with the referee reports and the decision letter of the previous submission and explain how they reacted to the reports. Accepted articles will be pre-published on the internet page of the journal as soon as they are accepted. Because the Review of Economics is not an e-Journal all articles also appear in a regular print version with some delay.

Partner Journal
Czech Journal of Economics and Finance

The Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (ISSN 0015-1920) is an English-language, double-blind refereed academic journal published in Prague since 1951. It devotes special attention to monetary economics, public finance, financial economics, and international economics, but it is open to high-quality papers from all fields of modern economics. The editors prefer empirically oriented papers, but do not exclude review articles or theoretical contributions provided that they are of high quality and relevant to the journal's aims.