This study provides responses to the question of the effectiveness of Loan-To-Value (LTV) and Debt Service-To-Income (DSTI) caps to contribute to financial stability. Using a lender’s risk management perspective, the paper provides a new methodology extending the standard asymptotic single...

We propose in this paper a critical review of the literature on urban enterprise zones. The results that emerge from the papers published over the last twenty years vary a lot across studies. Several explanations can account for these apparently conflicting results. Technical tools and empirical...

In this paper, we study the impact of a French enterprise zones program -- the``Zones Franches Urbaines'' (ZFUs) policy-- on establishment location decisions. Our empirical analysis is based on an micro-geographic dataset that provides exhaustive information on the location of establishments in...

The question of reducing public debt is at the heart of the current debates in France where the level of debt ratio amounted to 86% of the GDP in 2011. In this paper, we examine how the primary balance, the GDP growth rate, the real interest rate and the inflation rate have influenced the...

Can the evolution of public debt be predicted from its determinants? While the recovery programs undertaken during the 2008 crisis have led to a big takeoff in public debt ratios, the factors likely to curb its upward spiraling dynamic are subject to considerable uncertainty and fuel debate...

Railways were one of the main engines of the Latin American trade boom before 1914. Railway construction often required financial support from local governments, which depended on their fiscal capacity. But since the main government revenues were trade-related, this generated a two-way feedback...

The French housing market showed some recovery in 2013 amid furthermoderate price falls in the Paris area, Île de France and the rest of the country,at -1.5%, -1.6% and -1.4% respectively, and as interest rates stabilised athistorically low levels. The volume of transactions for existing homes,...

In a context of declining housing sales and decreasing prices, the annual survey on housing finance carried out by the Autorité de Contrôle prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) recorded a 27.6% decrease in loans extended in 2012. Outstanding loans experienced their lowest annual growth since...

Over the last decade, France and Spain have experienced property price and residential investment increases which were among the strongest and the lengthiest in the euro area. Although the quality of the underlying data limits the precision of the estimates, the present paper aims at analysing...

In this paper, we attempt to analyse the relationship between house price developments and the business cycle. Employing a time-varying transition probability Markov switching framework, we provide empirical evidence that house price growth may prove a useful leading indicator for turning point...