For the set of EMU member countries, we examine cyclical patterns in fiscal outcomes. We find that there is significant time variation in fiscal cyclicality, with an improvement in the wake of the Maastricht Treaty but a deterioration after the creation of EMU. Furthermore, we show that the...

I estimate the short-run dynamic effect of fiscal shocks on real wages for a panel of euro area countries. The main findings are in line with the Neo-Keynesian predictions that real wages increase in response to spending shocks. However, the scale of the wage response depends on the type of...

We study the short-run effects of shocks to government spending on Ireland’s output and its real exchange rate. We show that the impact of government spending shocks critically depend on the nature of the fiscal innovation. Our main finding is that there are important differences between...

We estimate the impact of shocks to government spending on the real exchange rate for a panel of EMU member countries. Our key finding is that the impact differs across different types of government spending, with shocks to public investment generating a larger and more persistent impact on the...

This book chapter provides for a review of quantity-based and price-based indicators of regional financial integration. These measures should be easy to construct and interpret, based on publicly available data, and available for many countries and regions over time. The chapter discusses the...

This paper documents industrial output growth around the poor periphery (Latin America, the European periphery, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa) between 1870 and 2007.We provide answers to the following questions: When and where did rapid industrial growth begin in...

The Great Depression of the Thirties and the Great Credit Crisis of the "Noughties had similar causes but elicited strikingly different policy responses. It may still be too early to assess the effectiveness of current policy responses, but it is possible to analyze monetary and fiscal policies...

Panel analysis of 20 industrial countries shows evidence for pro-cyclicality of capital gains on domestic stock markets - in particular over a medium term horizon. Thus, with cross-border ownership of portfolio equity investments, potential for international smoothing of domestic output...

This paper shows that, controlling for standard determinants of net external positions, financially-remote countries exhibit more positive net external positions. This finding is found to be stronger for less advanced countries, hinting at external funding problems for more remote countries....

Analysis of 21 emerging European economies reveals a substantial role for domestic financial reforms in attracting net capital flows. Controlling for standard determinants of capital flows, we find in particular banking sector reforms to be consistent with larger current account deficits and net...