Peltonen, Tuomas A., Rancan, Michela, Sarlin, Peter, (2015), “Interconnectedness of the banking sector as a vulnerability to crises”, ECB Working Paper 1866, November. This paper uses macro-networks to measure the interconnectedness of the banking sector, and relates it to banking crises in Europe. Beyond cross-border financial linkages of the banking sector, macro-networks also account for financial linkages to the other main financial and non-financial sectors within the economy. We enrich conventional earlywarning models using …Read More
Rebooting the Eurozone: Step 1 – agreeing a crisis narrative
Baldwin, Richard, Beck, Thorsten, Bénassy-Quéré, Agnès, Blanchard, Olivier, Corsetti, Giancarlo, de Grauwe, Paul, den Haan, Wouter Giavazzi, Francesco, Gros, Daniel, Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem, Micossi, Stefano, Papaioannou, Elias, Pesenti, Paolo, Pissarides, Christopher, Tabellini, Guido, Weder di Mauro, Beatrice, (2015), “Rebooting the Eurozone: Step 1 – agreeing a crisis narrative”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, 19 November. The Eurozone Crisis, which broke out in May 2010, is a long way from finished. Worse yet, many of the fragilities and imbalances that primed the monetary union for the …Read More
Squaring the cycle: capital flows, financial cycles, and macro-prudential policy in the euro area
Merler, Silvia, (2015), ” Squaring the cycle: capital flows, financial cycles, and macro-prudential policy in the euro area”, Bruegel Publications, November. The financial crisis has prompted a renewed interest in macro-prudential policy as a framework to address the stability of the financial system as a whole, rather than only its individual components. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the European macro-prudential discussion by establishing empirically the special challenges that …Read More
Steady as She Goes— Estimating Potential Output During Financial “Booms and Busts”
Berger, Helge, Dowling, Thomas, Lanau, Sergi, Lian, Weicheng, Mrkaic, Mico, Rabanal, Pau, Sanjani, Marzie Taheri, (2015), “Steady as She Goes— Estimating Potential Output During Financial “Booms and Busts””, IMF, 6 November. Potential output—in the sense of the GDP level or path an economy can sustain over the medium term—is a crucial benchmark for policymakers. However, it is difficult to estimate when financial “booms and busts” are driving the real economy. This paper uses a simple multivariate filtering approach …Read More
The Distribution of Debt Across Euro Area Countries: The Role of Individual Characteristics, Institutions and Credit Conditions
Bover, Olympia, Casado, José Maria, Costa, Sonia, Du Caju, Philip, McCarthy,Yvonne, Sierminska, Eva, Tzamourani, Panagiota, Villanueva, Ernesto, Zavadil,Tibor, (2015), “The Distribution of Debt Across Euro Area Countries: The Role of Individual Characteristics, Institutions and Credit Conditions”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, November. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we present an up-to-date assessment of the differences across euro area countries in the distributions of various measures of debt conditional on household characteristics. We consider three different outcomes: …Read More
Youth Unemployment and Active Labor Market Policies in Europe
Caliendo, Marco, Schmidl, Ricarda, (2015), “Youth Unemployment and Active Labor Market Policies in Europe”, IZA, November. Since the economic crisis in 2008, European youth unemployment rates have been persistently high at around 20% on average. The majority of European countries spends significant resources each year on active labor market programs (ALMP) with the aim of improving the integration prospects of struggling youths. Among the most common programs used are training courses, job search …Read More
Economic Uncertainty and Structural Reforms
Bonfiglioli, Alessandra, Gancia, Gino A, (2015), “Economic Uncertainty and Structural Reforms”,Centre for Economic Policy Research, November. Does economic uncertainty promote the implementation of structural reforms? We answer this question using one of the most exhaustive cross-country panel data set on reforms in six major areas and measuring economic uncertainty with stock market volatility. To address endogeneity concerns, we propose various identification strategies, instrumenting uncertainty with world shocks to volatility and with natural disasters, …Read More
The limitations of policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester
Darvas, Zsolt, Leandro, Álvaro, (2015), “The limitations of policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester”, Bruegel Publications, Issue 19, 12 November. This paper assesses economic policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester. In sections 2 and 3, we make a positive (and not normative) assessment by taking Council recommendations made in the context of the European Semester as given and evaluating their implementation and consistency, without assessing …Read More
Is globalisation reducing the ability of central banks to control inflation?
Claeys, Grégory, Wolff, Guntram B., (2015), “Is globalisation reducing the ability of central banks to control inflation?”, Bruegel Publlications, Issue 18, 12 November. After soaring in the 1970s and early 1980s, inflation has declined significantly in all advanced countries and is now at very low levels.This movement coincided with the acceleration of globalisation, triggering a recent debate on whether globalisation could be one of the main drivers of the disinflation process, and …Read More
The Growing Intergenerational Divide in Europe
Hüttl, Pia, Wilson, Karen, Wolff, Guntram, (2015), “The Growing Intergenerational Divide in Europe”, Bruegel Publications, Issue 17, November. During seven years of economic crisis, the intergenerational income and wealth divide has increased in many European Union countries. In the bloc as a whole, young people on average have become significantly poorer, while poverty among pensioners has been reduced (Figure 1). Unemployment among the under-25s has risen notably while older workers (aged 5-64) have been less …Read More