Monetary policies of the ECB and US Fed can be characterised by “Taylor rules”, that is bothcentral banks seem to be setting rates by taking into account the “output gap” and inflation.We also set up and tested Taylor rules which incorporate money growth and the euro-dollarexchange rate,...

Two of the four macroeconomic adjustment programmes – in Portugal and Ireland – can be considered a success in the sense that the initial expectations in terms of adjustment, both fiscal and external, were broadly fulfilled. A rebound based on exports has taken hold in these two countries,...

This paper analyzes whether differences in institutional structures on capital markets contribute to explaining why some OECD-countries, in particular the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been much more successful over the last two decades in producing employment growth and in reducing unemployment...

Labor market performance has differed considerably between OECD countries over the last two decades. The focus of the literature so far has been to ask whether these differences can be explained by varying degrees of labor market rigidities and generosity of welfare states. This paper takes a...

The significant gains in export market shares made in a number of vulnerable euro-area crisis countries have not been accompanied by an appropriate improvement in price competitiveness. This paper argues that, under certain conditions, firms consider export activity as a substitute for serving...

Deviations of policy interest rates from the levels implied by the Taylor rule have been persistent before the financial crisis and increased especially after the turn of the century. Compared to the Taylor benchmark, policy rates were often too low. This paper provides evidence that both...

Member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) initiated wide-ranging labour market reforms in the last decade. This process is ongoing as countries that are faced with serious labour market imbalances perceive reforms as the fastest way to restore competitiveness within a currency...

Das Handbuch zur deutschen Europapolitik erscheint in Zeiten multipler Krisen und wachsender Skepsis gegenüber der engen Verflechtung Deutschlands mit dem EU-System. Es zeigt, dass europäische Politik von besonderem Wert und Nutzen für die politische und ökonomische Wirklichkeit Deutschlands...