1. Papers must be in English.

2. All submissions are handled online at http://ees.elsevier.com/iref/ . Once you have logged on as author using your JOURNAL username and password you will be guided through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editors' decisions and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the Author's homepage only. Therefore users need to keep their contact coordinates on the registration page up-to-date with the "UPDATE MY INFORMATION" option.

3. Submission of accepted papers as electronic manuscripts only. Electronic manuscripts have the advantage that there is no need for rekeying of text, thereby avoiding the possibility of introducing errors and resulting in reliable and fast delivery of proofs. Ensure that the letter 'l' and digit '1', and also the letter 'O' and digit '0' are used properly, and format your article (tabs, indents, etc.) consistently. Characters not available on your word processor (Greek letters mathematical symbols, etc.) should not be left open but indicated by a unique code (e.g. gralpha, <alpha>, ˙, etc., for the Greek letter α). Such codes should be used consistently throughout the entire text; a list of codes used should accompany the electronic manuscript. Do not allow your word processor to introduce word breaks and do not use a justified layout. Please adhere strictly to the general instructions below on style, arrangement and, in particular, the reference style of the journal.

4. Manuscripts should be double-spaced, with wide margins, and printed on one side of the paper only. All pages should be numbered consequently. Titles and subtitles should be short. References, tables, and legends for the figures should be printed on separate pages.

5. The first page of the manuscript should contain the following information: (i) the title; (ii) the name(s) and institutional affiliation(s) of the author(s); (iii) an abstract of not more than 100 words; (iv) at least one classification code according to the Classification System for Journal Articles as used by the Journal of Economic Literature; in addition, up to five key words should be supplied. A footnote on the same sheet should give the name, address, and telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author [as well as an e-mail address].

6. Acknowledgements and information on grants received can be given before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.

7. Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and numbered consecutively throughout the text with superscript Arabic numerals. They should be double-spaced and not include displayed formulae or tables.

8. Displayed formulae should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript as (1), (2), etc. against the right-hand margin of the page. In cases where the derivation of formulae has been abbreviated, it is of great help to the referees if the full derivation can be presented on a separate sheet (not to be published).

9. References to publications should be as follows: `Smith (1992) reported that...' or 'This problem has been studied previously (e.g., Smith et al., 1969)'. The author should make sure that there is a strict one-to-one correspondence between the names and years in the text and those on the list. The list of references should appear at the end of the main text (after any appendices, but before tables and legends for figures). It should be double-spaced and listed in alphabetical order by author's name. References should appear as follows (for other examples, consult the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th Ed., 1994): For monographs Hawawini, G., & Swary, I (1990), Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. banking industry: Evidence from the capital markets. Amsterdam: North-Holland. For contributions to the collective works Brunner, K., & Meltzer, A.H. (1990). Money supply. In: B.M. Fiedman & F. H. Hahn (Eds.), Handbook of monetary economics, Vol. 1 (pp. 357-396). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
For periodicalsGriffiths, W., & Judge, G. (1992). Testing and estimating location vectors when the error covariance matrix is unknown, Journal of Econometrics 54, 121-128. Note that journal titles should not be abbreviated. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but they may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either `Unpublished results ?or `Personal communications?. Citation of a reference as `in press? implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

10. Illustrations will be reproduced photographically from originals supplied by the author; they will not be redrawn by the publisher. Please provide all illustrations in quadruplicate (one high-contrast original and three photocopies). Care should be taken that lettering and symbols are of a comparable size. The illustrations should not be inserted in the text, and should be marked on the back with figure number, title of paper, and author's name. All graphs and diagrams should be referred to as figures, and should be numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Illustration for papers submitted as electronic manuscripts should be in traditional form. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at the Author Gateway at http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.

11. Tables should be numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals and printed on separate sheets.

Any manuscript which does not conform to the above instructions may be returned for the necessary revision before publication.

12. Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. Proofs should be corrected carefully; the responsibility for detecting errors lies with the author. Corrections should be restricted to instances in which the proof is at variance with the manuscript. Extensive alterations will be charged. Twenty-five reprints of each paper are supplied free of charge to the corresponding author; additional reprints are available at cost if they are ordered when the proof is returned.