The paper discusses key elements of optimal central bank design and applies its findings to the Eurosystem. A …

growing gap between deposits above lending and has compressed interest margins as the traditional source of bank's income …

The paper compares the boom-and-bust cycles in Japan and Europe with respect to the reasons for excessive booms, the … characteristics of the crises, and the (potential) effects of the crisis therapies. As in Japan the consequence of expansionary … well as gradual real income losses, the economic policy implication for Japan and Europe is the timely exit from the …

Both Japan and parts of the European Monetary Union have experienced boom and bust in stock and real estate markets … public debt and monetary policy in the context of crisis. It is shown for Japan that the attempts to maintain regional … expansion. Econometric estimations show that in Japan regional redistribution of funds has ensured homogeneous living conditions …

The empirical literature on central banking has found measures of central bank independence/conservatism to be …. We find that an increase in central bank conservatism leads to higher short-term interest rates and a more activist … economy, higher output and somewhat lower inflation. We also investigate the interaction between the central bank and the …

welfare gain associated with making the central bank less conservative than society, however if the outside option is in real … of central bank conservatism. …