This study conducts an empirical test to examine wh ether the observed non-normal distribution of currency futures price changes isgenerated by the relationship between maturity and variability. In general, the author finds that the relationship between maturity and vari-ability is not suff icient to explain the observed non- normality. Although some amount of non-statio narity is present in the scale and in the characteristic exponent, the non-norma l stable Paretian distribution adequately describes futures price changes for mo st currencies and most contracts during the period covered in thisstudy Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

One of the current questions in the literature on the demand for money is whether the adjustment of actual to desired money holdings is in nominal or real terms.This paper describes a simple procedure than can be used to test the nominal against the real hypothesis.The test is carried out for 27 countries.The paper also tests the structural stability of the demand for money equations and the correctness of the dynamic specification.The results are strongly in favor of the nominal adjustment hypothesis.The estimated equations are quite good in terms of the number of coefficient estimates that are of the right sign and that are significant.The equations also stand up well when tested against a more general dynamic specification.There is, however, some evidence of structural instability before and after 1973, although the instability is generally moderate.The instability does not affect the conclusion that the nominal adjustment hypothesis dominates the real adjustment hypothesis.

Stephen C. Farber, Robert J. Newman, Accounting for South/Non-South Real Wage Differentials and for Changes in Those Differentials over Time, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 2 (May, 1987), pp. 215-223

Bilateral trade flows are used to examine the Linder hypothesis and the effect of exchange-rate variability in a gra vity-type trade model derived from an underlying demand and supply mo del. A behavioral model is used to justify examining these issues joi ntly. The model performs well empirically using a sample of seventeen countries for the period 1974-82. The authors find overwhelming supp ort for the Linder hypothesis and this version of the gravity model. Moreover, they find strong support for the hypothesis that increased exchange-rate variability affects bilateral trade flows. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

Varouj A. Aivazian, Jeffrey L. Callen, M. W. Luke Chan, Dean C. Mountain, Economies of Scale Versus Technological Change in the Natural Gas Transmission Industry, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Aug., 1987), pp. 556-561