Schivardi, Fabiano, Sette, Enrico, Tabellini, Guido, (2017), “Credit misallocation during the European financial crisis”, VoxEU, 18 Ιουλίου There is a widespread perception that under-capitalised banks can prolong crises by misallocating credit to weaker firms and restraining credit to healthy borrowers. This column explores the extent and consequences of credit misallocation in Italy during and after the Eurozone Crisis. Bank undercapitalisation may have been costly in terms of misallocation of capital and …Read More

Wheatley, Alan, (2017), “Cash Is Dead, Long Live Cash”, Finance & Development, 54(2), Ιούνιος Fewer Nordic banks are using cash in their branches. India recently scrapped 86 percent of its banknotes. Korea plans to stop minting coins by 2020. Online payments are booming. The march toward a cashless society, it seems, is unstoppable. Young people especially, as well as the better off and better educated, are increasingly at ease paying …Read More

Cazes, Sandrine, Garnero, Andrea, Martin,  Sébastien, (2017), “The state of trade unions, employer organisations, and collective bargaining in OECD countries”, VoxEU, 9 Ιουλίου Trade union membership has been declining since the 1980s. Recently, however, there has been renewed interest in the potential of collective bargaining to address rising wealth inequality and poor wage growth. This column presents an OECD report on collective bargaining institutions and practices across member countries and selected …Read More

Schenker, Jason, (2017), “Euro’s Short Squeeze May Just Be Getting Started”, Bloomberg View, 7 Ιουλίου The euro has had an impressive rally since mid-April, including a surge last week that took it to its highest level against the dollar since May 2016. The logical question now is whether the run is over, especially after the currency’s softness this week in the face of some strong euro-zone economic data. Based on …Read More

Broadberry, Stephen, Wallis, John Joseph, (2017) “Growing, shrinking, and long-run economic performance”, VoxEU, 5 Ιουλίου Most analysis of long-run economic performance abstracts from short-run fluctuations and seeks to explain improved performance through an increase in the rate of growth. Using data on annual rates of change of per capita income reaching back to the 13th century for some countries, this column show that improved long-run performance has actually occurred primarily …Read More

Correa-Caro, Carolina, Ormaechea, Santiago Acosta, Komatsuzaki, Takuji, (2017), “Fiscal Reforms, Long-term Growth and Income Inequality”, IMF Working Paper 17/145, 29 Ιουνίου We estimate the effects on growth of nine fiscal reform episodes in seven high-income countries using the Synthetic Control Method. These episodes are selected using an indicator-based approach applied to the evaluation of growth-friendly fiscal reforms during 1975-2010. We find that in reform countries the annual growth rate of real GDP …Read More

Moutsianas, Konstantinos A., Kosmidou, Kyriaki, (2016), “Do the Troika’s financial assistance programs reduce systemic risk? Evidence from Eurozone countries”, International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance, 7(2), pp. 149-171 The European sovereign debt crisis has forced many countries in the Eurozone to request financial assistance from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent the contagion of the crisis to national banking systems. In the …Read More

Bricongne, Jean-Charles, Turrini, Alessandro, (2017), “The EU Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure: Some impact and no sanctions”, VoxEU, 22 Ιουνίου Since 2011, EU macroeconomic surveillance has aimed at preventing or correcting the type of imbalances that were responsible for the Global Crisis. Surveillance under the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure implies regular reports and policy recommendations monitored by the Commission, and the possible activation of economic sanctions. This column shows that, despite the procedure not having …Read More

ECB, (2017), “Domestic and global drivers of inflation in the euro area” , ECB, Ιούνιος This article discusses the role of domestic and global drivers of inflation in the euro area and whether and how their relative importance has changed over  time. Domestic price pressures result mainly from wage and price-setting behaviour, which is closely linked to the domestic business cycle. In respect of external drivers, import prices – especially of …Read More

Mattern, Frank, Mischke, Jan, (2017), “Turning Germany’s ‘bad’ trade surplus into a good experience for all (including Germans)”, VoxEU, 21 Ιουνίου Germany’s large trade surplus is once again at the centre of controversy. This column argues that instead of being on the defensive about its competitive exports, Germany should look to reduce its current account surplus by making itself more competitive in the long term through smart investment in digital …Read More