Merler, Silvia, (2016), “The political economy of macroprudential policy”, Bruegel, 12 December What’s at stake: the emergence of renewed interest in macroprudential policy has characterised the aftermath of the great recession. There is not yet full agreement on what the tasks of macroprudential policy is or how it should be carried out, but there is a clear understanding that there is an important political economy dimension to it. We review …Read More

Gamberoni, Elisa, Giordano, Claire, Lopez-Garcia, Paloma, (2016), “Misallocating capital and labour across firms: Trends and determinants in selected Eurozone economies”, VoxEu, 13 December An efficient allocation of inputs across firms is a necessary condition to boost TFP growth. This column presents evidence that in large Eurozone economies, capital misallocation trended upwards in the period 2002-2012 while labour misallocation dynamics were flatter. Uncertainty and credit market frictions were strongly associated with the …Read More

Demertzis, Maria, B.Wolff, Guntram, (2016), “Eurozone QE and bank profitability: Why it is too early to taper”, Bruegel, 8 December In the eyes of the critics, the quantitative easing programs have been of little help to growth and inflation and have instead been an attack on savers, undermining the profitability of banks and insurances. Do these arguments stand scrutiny? Relevant Posts Hüttl, Pia, Merler, Silvia, (2016), “An update: Sovereign bond holdings …Read More

Dabrowski, Marek, (2016), “Challenges to debt sustainability in advanced economies”, Bruegel, 8 December The gross general government debt-to-GDP ratios in many advanced economies have reached the highest levels in peacetime history and continue to grow, putting into question sovereign solvency in these economies. Relevant Posts Dabrowski, Marek, (2016), “Are advanced economies at risk of falling into debt traps?”, Bruegel, 10 November Marsh, Chris, Nagly, Dominik, Pagoulatos, George, Papaioannou, Elias, (2016), …Read More