The introduction of the Euro has led to price level stability and fostered growth within the European Union. Consequently, since its launch as a store of value and unit of account, there has been a clear convergence between the yield of France’s sovereign debt and German benchmark. This paper...

In this paper we investigate the quantitative importance of collective bargaining agreements for the observed fluctuations in Bulgarian labor markets. Following Maffezzoli (2001), we introduce a monopoly union into a real-business-cycle model with government sector. We calibrate the model to...

This paper shows a standard RBC model, when augmented with a VAT evasion channel, where evasion depends on the consumption tax rate, can produce a hump-shaped consumption La ffer curve. Furthermore, when the evasion channel is turned off , the hump in the Laff er curve disappears, resulting in a...

This paper utilizes an otherwise standard micro-founded general-equilibrium setup, which is augmented with a revenue-extraction mechanism to assess the magnitude of VAT evasion. The model is calibrated to Bulgaria after the introduction of the currency board (1999-2014), as one of the very few...

In this paper we investigate the quantitative importance of e fficiency wages in explaining fluctuations in Bulgarian labor markets. This is done by augmenting an otherwise standard real business cycle model a la Long and Plosser (1983) with unobservable workers e ort by employers and wage...

This paper explores the e ffects of fi scal policy in an economy based on indirect taxes, and one that is constrained to taxing all (labor and capital) income at the same rate. The focus of the paper is on the relative importance of consumption vs. income taxation, as well as on the provision of...

This paper explores the effects of fiscal policy in the presence of a VAT evasion channel, and then compares and contrasts two regimes - the exogenous vs. optimal policy case. To this end, a dynamic general-equilibrium model, calibrated to Bulgarian data (1999-2014), is augmented with a...

This paper explores the effects of fiscal policy in an economy with search and matching frictions. To this end, a dynamic general-equilibrium model with government sector is calibrated to Bulgarian data (1999-2018). Two regimes are compared and contrasted - the exogenous (observed) vs. optimal...

In this paper we combine two important ingredients - search and matching frictions and "fair wages," and investigate their combined quantitative importance in explaining fluctuations in Bulgarian labor markets. Overall, the calibrated real-business-cycle model for Bulgaria after the introduction...

In this paper we investigate the quantitative importance of search and matching frictions in Bulgarian labor markets. This is done by augmenting an otherwise standard real business cycle model a la Long and Plosser (1983) with both a two-sided costly search and fiscal policy. This introduces a...