The paper presents a structural model framework for a small open economy. The model, based on optimising households and firms, has been calibrated on Czech macroeconomic data in order to develop an analytic framework suitable for analysing key policy questions related to the Czech Republic’s...

This paper investigates in a consistent semi-structural empirical framework three current issues of monetary policy in the euro area. First, regarding policy transmission we offer a three-stage procedure to combine the efficient estimation of economic structure prior to EMU with current ECB...

Transitions to floating exchange rate regimes have led to sharp increases in exchange rate volatilities with no corresponding changes in the distribution of macroeconomic fundamentals. In the spirit of Dornbusch (1976), we assess whether nominal exchange rate overshooting is responsible for this...

In this paper we assess the stability of open economy backward-looking Phillips curves estimated over two different exchange rate regimes. The pseudo-data employed in our econometric exercise come from the simulation of a New-Keynesian hybrid model suited for performing monetary policy analysis....

We study the price adjustment practices and provide quantitative measurement of the managerial and customer costs of price adjustment using data from a large U.S. industrial manufacturer and its customers. We find that price adjustment costs are a much more complex construct than the existing...

The paper reviews the recent conduct of monetary policy and the central bank’s rule-based behavior in Russia. Using different policy rules, we test whether the central bank in Russia reacts to changes in inflation, output gap and the exchange rate in a consistent and predictable manner. Our...

We apply Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) theory to the analysis of long- run equilibrium in the foreign exchange market. We study the case of Portugal vis-à-vis Germany and Spain, and the case of Spain vis-à-vis Germany, in the period 1960-1990. The empirical analysis was based on unit-root...

The equilibrium exchange rate is a closely scrutinized variable in international finance and monetary economics. A model to estimate an equilibrium exchange rate is proposed in this paper. It consists of several building blocks: a state-space structure, uncovered interest parity and the...

Now that four years have passed since the introduction of the euro as a commercial currency, it has become possible to assess many arguments made in the abstract during the 1990s about the implications of monetary union. This contribution does precisely that. In brief, the euro zone still falls...

In this paper labour productivity growth and its impacts are studied at the industry level. The development of productivity is analysed in 54 industries in 14 EU countries and in the US between 1979 and 2001. The conclusion of the study is that the industry structure that leads to fast...