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Optimal Speed (optimal + speed)
Selected AbstractsOptimal speed of transition with a shrinking labour force and under uncertainty*THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSITION, Issue 1 2006Randolph Luca Bruno Abstract In the 1990s , during the restructuring of large state enterprises , Central European economies experienced high unemployment. Social policy expenditures, particularly targeted to the non-employed, grew faster than expected due to the need to finance the out-of-the-labour categories. In 1992, after the Passive Labour Market Policies' reforms, the pace of transition decelerated. Unemployment dynamics, speed of transition and non-employment policies are modelled based on the assumption that the labour force is shrinking over time. Dismissed workers have the opportunity to choose an outside-option alternative to labour force participation. Individual uncertainty is assumed in a first phase of transition, while aggregate uncertainty , generating opposition to restructuring , is modelled in a second phase. The model predicts a slowdown in the speed of transition. [source] The flight speed of parent birds feeding youngJOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2006Alasdair I. Houston I review previous models of the speed at which parent birds should fly when delivering food to their young. Norberg gives a graphical method of finding a parent's best flight speed. This speed maximizes the overall rate at which energy is delivered to the young. An alternative assumption is that a parent maximizes the net rate of delivery of energy. I suggest that in general we cannot distinguish between net rate and overall rate on the basis of whether the parent feeds itself. The best way to distinguish between these currencies may be to use qualitative predictions. I present new results on the effect of a constraint on energy expenditure on the parent's optimal speed. I show that the optimal speed when foraging should be less than the optimal speed when traveling. I also analyse the advantage to a parent of flying faster than the maximum range speed and evaluate previous empirical studies of the speed at which parent birds fly. Only one study claims that parent birds fly at the speed identified by Norberg, but I raise doubts about this claim. [source] MIND THE GAP: UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE NEW EU REGIONSJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 1 2008Anna Maria Ferragina Abstract The paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on regional unemployment during transition in Central and Eastern Europe. The focus is on optimal speed of transition (OST) models and on comparison of them with the neo-classical tradition. In the typical neo-classical models, spatial differences essentially arise as a consequence of supply side constraints and institutional rigidities. Slow-growth, high-unemployment regions are those with backward economic structures and constraints on factors mobility contribute to making differences persistent. However, such explanations leave the question unanswered of how unemployment differences arise in the first place. Economic transition provides an excellent testing ground to answer this question. Pre-figuring an empirical law, the OST literature finds that the high degree of labour turnover of high unemployment regions is associated with a high rate of industrial restructuring and, consequently, that low unemployment may be achieved by implementing transition more gradually. Moreover, international trade, foreign direct investment and various agglomeration factors help explain the success of capital cities compared to peripheral towns and rural areas in achieving low unemployment. The evidence of the empirical literature on supply side factors suggests that wage flexibility in Central and Eastern Europe is not lower than in other EU countries, while labour mobility seems to reinforce rather than change the spatial pattern of unemployment. [source] The Output Effect of a Transition to Price Stability When Velocity Is Time VaryingJOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 5 2010LYNNE EVANS price stability; velocity; disinflation; output boom; optimal speed of disinflation This paper explores the effect of time-varying velocity on output responses to policies for reducing/stopping inflation. We study a dynamic general equilibrium model with sticky prices in which we introduce time-varying velocity. Specifically, we endogenize time-varying velocity into the model developed by Ireland (1997) for analyzing optimal disinflation. The nonlinear solution method reveals that, depending on velocity, the "disinflationary boom" found by Ball (1994) may disappear even under perfect credibility and that early output losses may be much larger than previously thought. Indeed, we find that a gradual disinflation from a low inflation may even be undesirable. [source] Public finance and the optimal speed of transition,THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSITION, Issue 3 2003Micael Castanheira Abstract We develop a general equilibrium model that jointly considers the influence of capital accumulation constraints and of labour market frictions on the process of transition. We endogenize the economic and budgetary costs of different government policies and show that, early in transition, governments ought to subsidize state firms. Provided that intertemporal commitment is feasible, this policy limits the initial output fall, which relaxes capital accumulation constraints, accelerates transition, and increases welfare. Moreover, by resorting to indirect , instead of direct , taxes, governments can bring the path of transition closer to the first best. Yet, political pressures may induce a policy of suboptimal subsidization. [source] | ||||||||||