Giugliano Ferdinando, (2017), “Central Bank Independence Requires Accountability”, Bloomberg View, 23 October The appointment of Italy’s new central bank governor has turned into a depressing power struggle. But for all the elements that make this a uniquely Italian affair, it also raises broader questions about how a country should balance independence and accountability in the event of a possible central bank failure. Relevant Posts Transparency International EU, (2017), «TWO SIDES …Read More

Giancarlo Corsetti, Luca Dedola, Marek Jarocinski, Bartosz Mackowiak, Sebastian Schmidt, (2017), “Business cycle stabilisation in the Eurozone: Ways forward”, VoxEU, 23 October Business cycle stabilisation policy in the Eurozone may end up being far from optimal if member states must tighten fiscal policy amid weak economic activity while monetary policy is constrained by the lower bound on nominal interest rates. This column surveys the recent literature formulating practical lessons for …Read More

Gregory Claes, Konstantinos Efstathiou, Dirk Schoenmaker, (2017), “Spotting excessive regional house price growth and what to do about it”, Bruegel, 18 October Rapidly rising house prices are a well-known source of financial instability. This Policy Contribution examines whether there are regional differences in house price growth within European countries and, if so, whether this warrants more targeted measures to address vulnerabilities. Relevant Posts Kregel, Jan, (2017), «A Two-Tier Eurozone or …Read More

Toshkov, Dimiter, (2017), “Why it’s not so simple to make the EU simpler”, LSE EUROPP, 18 October The EU’s institutional architecture is often regarded as being too complex for citizens to properly engage with, and both Jean-Claude Juncker and Emmanuel Macron have recently proposed some form of simplification such as merging the President of the European Commission with the President of the European Council, or reducing the size of the …Read More

Bernard, Benjamin, Capponi, Agostino, Stiglitz, Joseph, (2017), “Bail-ins and bailouts: Incentives, connectivity, and systemic stability”, VoxEU, 18 October Worried about the cost of public bailouts, governments have proposed bail-ins whereby banks contribute to rescuing their debtors. This column analyses the conditions under which bail-in strategies can be credibly implemented, showing that this heavily depends on the network structure. While earlier work has suggested that denser networks are socially preferred to …Read More

Bordo, Michael, Siklos, Pierre, (2017), “Central banks: Evolution and innovation in historical perspective”, VoxEU, 17 October The role of central banks in monetary policy and financial stability has changed radically over time. This examines the similarities and idiosyncrasies of ten central banks, and also considers how inflation might have looked had the central banks been around earlier, or had they adopted different strategies. While important differences between the narrative and …Read More

Nico Zorell, (2017) , “Large net foreign liabilities of euro area countries : Risks, prospects and policy options”, ECB Occasional Paper Series No 198, Οctober This paper examines the risks arising from these external stock imbalances, the prospects for their smooth unwinding and the menu of policy options. The paper demonstrates that external stock imbalances remain a source of vulnerabilities in the (former) programme countries and, to a lesser extent, …Read More

Wouter den Haan, Martin Ellison, Ethan Ilzetzki, Michael McMahon, Ricardo Reis, (2017), “Global risks from rising debt and asset prices: Views of leading economists” , VOX, 16 October The outgoing German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has recently expressed concerns about the risks posed to the world economy by high levels of debt. This column presents the latest Centre for Macroeconomics and CEPR survey of leading economists, in which a strong majority …Read More