D - Microeconomics
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An Overview of Carbon Markets and Emissions Trading: Lessons for Canada
The author provides an overview of carbon markets and explains how emissions trading can be important in encouraging the reduction of CO2 emissions in an efficient manner. He describes the key steps in establishing a cap-and-trade system, and reviews the European experiences with emissions trading. He highlights the lessons learned from the EU Emissions Trading […] -
Uncertainty and the Specificity of Human Capital
This paper studies the choice between general and specific human capital. A trade-off arises because general human capital, while less productive, can easily be reallocated across firms. -
Implications of Asymmetry Risk for Portfolio Analysis and Asset Pricing
Asymmetric shocks are common in markets; securities' payoffs are not normally distributed and exhibit skewness. This paper studies the portfolio holdings of heterogeneous agents with preferences over mean, variance and skewness, and derives equilibrium prices. -
Micro Foundations of Price-Setting Behaviour: Evidence from Canadian Firms
How do firms adjust prices in the marketplace? Do they tend to adjust prices infrequently in response to changes in market conditions? If so, why? These remain key questions in macroeconomics, particularly for central banks that work to keep inflation low and stable. -
Firms Dynamics, Bankruptcy Laws and Total Factor Productivity
This paper analyzes endogenous fluctuations in total factor productivity (TFP) in a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents, and illustrates the interaction of credit market frictions, asset prices, the entry and exit of firms, and fluctuations in TFP in response to firm-level productivity and aggregate credit-market shocks. I also analyze the effect of bankruptcy and foreclosure laws on fluctuations in TFP through their effect on credit market frictions. -
Monetary Policy Committees in Action: Is There Room for Improvement?
More than 80 central banks use a committee to take monetary policy decisions. The composition of the committee and the structure of the meeting can affect the quality of the decision making. -
Efficient Hedging and Pricing of Equity-Linked Life Insurance Contracts on Several Risky Assets
The authors use the efficient hedging methodology for optimal pricing and hedging of equity-linked life insurance contracts whose payoff depends on the performance of several risky assets. -
Education and Self-Employment: Changes in Earnings and Wealth Inequality
The author quantitatively studies the interaction between education and occupation choices and its implication for the relationship between the changes in earnings inequality and the changes in wealth inequality in the United States over the 1983–2001 period. -
Survey of Price-Setting Behaviour of Canadian Companies
In many mainstream macroeconomic models, sticky prices play an important role in explaining the effects of monetary policy on the economy.