Gorton, Gary B., Ordoñez, Guillermo L, (2016), “Good booms, bad booms: Why only some credit booms end in a crisis”, Voxeu, 27 Μαρτίου Credit booms are not rare and usually precede financial crises. However, some end in a crisis while others do not. This column argues that credit booms start with an increase in productivity, which subsequently falls much faster during ‘bad booms’. When this decline is severe enough, it changes …Read More
Kreilinger, Valentin, (2016),” National Parliaments, Surveillance mechanisms and ownership in the Euro Area“, Jacques Delors Institut , Μάρτης European coordination mechanisms play an increasingly important role in EU Economic Governance. However, there is still too little acceptance of the common rules and too little compliance in member states. This study asks to what extent the role of national parliaments and national political ownership can help to explain the lack of compliance and how …Read More
Pienkowski, Alex , Saito, Joyce Miharu,Tambunlertchai, Suchanan, (2016), “Public debt in low-income countries: Risks and opportunities”, Voxeu, 28 Μαρτίου Initiatives to reduce public debt in low-income countries have made substantial progress over the past decade, but challenges remain and continue to evolve. This column presents the findings from a new IMF-World Bank report on these developments. Low-income countries have benefited from debt relief and favourable economic conditions, resulting in generally lower …Read More
Schneider, Friedrich, Buehn, Andreas, (2016), “Estimating the Size of the Shadow Economy: Methods, Problems and Open Questions”, IZA DP No. 9820, Μάρτιος This paper presents various methods for estimating the size of the shadow economy and analyzes their strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it demonstrates that no ideal method exists to estimate the size and development of the shadow economy. Because of its flexibility, the MIMIC …Read More
Baldursson, Fridrik, Mar, Portes, Richard, Thorlaksson, Eirikur, Elis, (2016), “All’s Well that Ends Well? Resolving Iceland’s Failed Banks”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Μάρτιος Iceland’s capital controls were imposed in October 2008 in order to prevent massive capital flight and a complete collapse of the exchange rate. The controls have not been lifted yet; until recently this was primarily because of the risk of large outflows of domestic holdings of …Read More
Equiza-Goni, Juan, Faraglia, Elisa, Oikonomou, Rigas, (2016), “Union Debt Management”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Μάρτιος We study the role of government debt maturity in a monetary union in the absence of fiscal transfers across countries. Our key finding is that fi scal hedging is only possible when spending represents an aggregate shock in the union. In the case of idiosyncratic disturbances in spending it is not possible to target a …Read More
Feld, Lars, P., Schmidt, Christoph, M., Schnabel, Isabel, Wieland, Volker , (2016), “Completing Maastricht 2.0 to safeguard the future of the Eurozone”, Voxeu, 23 Μαρτίου Economists continue to debate how to safeguard the Eurozone, with some countries exiting the Crisis and some still reeling from it. This column, by members of the German Council of Economic Experts, concludes that reforms have mostly moved the Eurozone in the direction of ‘Maastricht …Read More
Chortareas, Georgios, Logothetis, Vassileios, Magkonis, Georgios, Zekente, Kalliopi-Maria, (2016), “The effect of banking supervision on central bank preferences: Evidence from panel data”, Economics Letters, Volume 140, Μάρτιος We examine the effects of banking supervisory architecture on central bank preferences, quantified through a recently proposed measure of central bank conservatism. Using a dynamic panel data specification we document that central banks serving both monetary policy and banking supervision functions are less inflation …Read More
European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), “Benchmarking Working Europe 2016″, ETUI aisbl: Βρυξέλλες, Μάρτιος 2016 With this year’s chosen focus – ‘prepared for the future?’ – the new edition of Benchmarking working Europe analyses the state of working Europe with the aid of a multi-level and multi-dimensional set of indicators. This 2016 edition is intended as one contribution to an assessment of what the EU current policies have achieved, or above all …Read More
Eijffinger, Sylvester, (2016), “The ECB Goes Rogue”, Project Syndicate, 18 Μαρτίου The European Central Bank has done it again. At its recent meeting in Frankfurt, the ECB Governing Council decided to increase bond purchases further, from €60 billion ($67 billion) to €80 billion per month, with corporate bonds now also eligible for purchase. The deposit rate, too, was reduced once again, and now stands at -0.4%. This is far from a …Read More
