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Organisation

Department of Economics, Leuven

Research Unit

Lifecycle:1 Jul 1977 →  Today
Organisation profile:

1.ECONOMETRICS:*Empirical economic models: country models, global models , specification, estimation & simulation.*Consumer demand: systems of demand functions for economies as a whole and for groups of products. *Portfolio models: descriptive models for financial investment.*New technology & employment: microeconomic impact of technological change on employment.*Labor contracts: the allocation of risk over partners & time.*Foundations of Social security:socio-economic efficiency, role of private & public institutions.* Social choice:aggregation of individual preferences.*Financial models:asset pricing, term structure of interest rates, predicting stock market returns & volatility. 2.MONETARY & INFORMATION ECONOMICS:*Saving & financial wealth in Belgium. Database on macroeconomic & financial savings. Analysis, within the framework of portfolio models, of recent changes in the sectoral  & asset allocation with respect to institutional & structural adjustments.*Monetary policy & financial innovations in Belgium. Database of monetary & financial variables. Analysis of the implications of financial internationalization, innovation & deregulation for the functioning of financial markets, for the role of financial intermediation & for monetary & credit policies : operational rules for macroeconomic policy making in the context of a small open economy.* Foundation of financial intermediation: asymmetric information, technology, data on mergers & strategic management analysis of the banking industry.*Mergers 3. ECONOMIC POLICY:* Social security: health insurance (risk adjustment), pension systems.*Efficiency measurement:social capital & economic performance.*Welfare economics:distributive justice (survey research),Optimal taxation,Construction of micro- simulation models.*Imperfect competition in goods & labor markets *Macroeconom. policy design & coordination.*Public finance:macro-economic impact of deficits & debt, debt management.*Public finance in an economic  & monetary union. 4. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: *International monetary problems. *Theory of exchange rate determination.*The application of chaos theory to the foreign exchange market.*The economics of monetary integration.*Economic intergration on Europe: the single market. *International trade & imperfect competition. 5. ECONOMIC HISTORY: *Economic growth, structural change & productivity in Belgium (1760-2000 ):reconstruction of historical national income accounts from available statistical material and qualitative sources; Modelling of the process of economic development in Belgium; Comparison of Belgian economic performance to that of other countries. *Business History, 19th & 20th centuries *History of the port of Antwerp, 20th century.*History of European economic integration (19th & 20th centuries). 6. DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS:*Macro- & microeconomic analysis of development issues. * Development aid. *Debt. *Terms of Trade. *Constraints on private enterprise development in developing countries. *Civil war and economics in Africa *Food market integration *Food security *Poverty analysisstrategies *Health in developing countries *Child labour *Africa *Asia *Latin America. 7. ENERGY, TRANSPORT & ENVIRONMENT:*Policy optimization for energy, transport & environmental problems: costs & benefits of t he use of different policy instruments for the different parties involved.*Particular emphasis on integration of sectoral objectives with more global economic objectives (public finance aspects, economic welfare, etc ..).

Keywords:Energy., Choice of instruments., Development theories., Agricultural history., Economical integration., Labour economics., Macroeconomic analysis., Econometrices.
Disciplines:Economic history, History, Applied economics, Macroeconomics and monetary economics, Microeconomics, Tourism, Economic development, innovation, technological change and growth