Bocchi, Alessandro Magnoli, (2015), “Ten Questions for the Global Economy”, Economonitor, 25 November. The fundamental structure of the world economy is changing. While the contribution of services to global output is on the rise, investment and productivity remain stagnant, savings keep accumulating, and growth and inflation decline. Meanwhile, globalization has increased co-dependence: a rising number of countries can influence the world’s economic performance and its financial stability. Yet, the international monetary system …Read More

S. Gürkaynak, Refet, Davig, Troy (2015), “Perils of central banks as policymakers of last resort”, Voxeu, 25 November Central banks around the world have been shouldering ever-increasing policy burdens beyond their core mandate of stabilising prices. This column considers the social welfare implications when central banks take on additional mandates that are usually the domain of other policymakers. Additional mandates are shown to worsen trade-offs faced by the central bank, while distorting …Read More

Portier,  Jean, Sanfilippo,  Luca, (2015), “Reviving Credit in the Euro Area”, IMF direct, 23 November A stock in excess of €900 billion of nonperforming loans continue to clutter the European banking system, impeding economic growth. This issue remains a key challenge for policy makers. As we show in our latest Global Financial Stability Report,part of the solution to address this legacy is an upgrade in legal systems. Current inefficiencies—long foreclosure times …Read More

Prados de la Escosura, Leandro, (2015), “A new historical database on economic freedom in OECD countries”, Voxeu, 23 November Indices of economic freedom refer mostly to the recent past, making policy prescriptions difficult to draw. This column presents a new historical index of economic liberty covering 21 OECD countries for the period 1850-2007. Over time, progress in economic liberty has derived from different factors, but improvements in legal structures and property …Read More