Gros, Daniel, (2015), “Countries under Adjustment Programmes: What role for the ECB?”, CEPS, 10 Δεκεμβρίου. Providing ‘technical assistance/advice’ on programmes for countries under financial stress is well within the mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB). Being fully part of the Troika, however, is a different role. Formally the ECB does not participate in the ‘decision-making’ on programmes (decisions are taken by the Finance Ministers – and the IMF). However, the …Read More

Reis, Ricardo, (2015), “Looking for a success in the euro crisis adjustment programs: the case of Portugal”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Δεκέμβριος. Portugal’s adjustment program in 2010-14 under the troika was extensive and aimed at addressing its large debt and anemic growth, so it may serve as a blueprint for reforms in the Eurozone. This paper argues that, conditional on a diagnosis of the underlying problems of the Portuguese economy, the …Read More

Gros, Daniel, (2015), “Completing the Banking Union: Deposit Insurance”, Ceps publications, 3 Δεκεμβρίου. It is generally agreed that a Banking Union should have common or ‘single’ institutions responsible for carrying out three basic functions: supervision, resolution and deposit insurance.  So far, however, agreement has been reached in the EU on only the first two of these functions. The Commission has now presented its proposal on how to complete the Banking Union with a …Read More

Asonuma, Tamon, Trebesch, Christoph, (2015), “Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Preemptive or Post-Default”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Νοέμβριος. Sovereign debt restructurings can be implemented preemptively – prior to a payment default. We code a comprehensive new dataset and find that preemptive restructurings (i) are frequent (38% of all deals 1978-2010), (ii) have lower haircuts, (iii) are quicker to negotiate, and (iv) see lower output losses. To rationalize these stylized facts, we build a …Read More

Papanikolaou, Nikolaos I., Wolff, Christian C, (2015), “Does the CAMEL bank ratings system follow a procyclical pattern?”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Νοέμβριος. The financial crisis which erupted in 2007-8 has illustrated the disruptive effects of procyclicality. The phenomenon of procyclicality refers to the mutually reinforcing interactions between the financial system and the real economy that tend to amplify business cycle fluctuations. These fluctuations can cause or exacerbate turbulences in the financial system …Read More

Homar, Timotej, Wijnbergen, Sweder van, (2015), “On Zombie Banks and Recessions after Systemic Banking Crises”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Νοέμβριος. What costs do zombie banks impose on society? We analyze the effects of government and central bank interventions in 68 systemic banking crises since 1980, of which 28 are part of the recent global financial crisis. Our estimation approach controls for the correlation between intervention measures and the time-invariant component of unobservable crisis …Read More

G Cecchetti, Stephen, (2015), “On the separation of monetary and prudential policy: how much of the pre-crisis consensus remains?”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Νοέμβριος. Prior to the crisis, monetary policymakers and prudential authorities had clearly defined tools and goals with little or no conflict. The crisis revealed a variety of overlaps, where one set of policies seem to influence those in another. Does this mean that two policy realms …Read More