This survey, which was conducted in September 1998, shows that the degree of acceptance of the Euro has grown to 78% among the public and 94% among businesses. Merely a quarter of the public is aware, however, of the starting year of the EMU, compared to 70% among large enterprises and 40 %...

We first sketch how central banks have used unconventional monetary policy measures by using three indicators based on the composition of the balance sheet of eleven central banks. Our analysis suggests that although the ECB's balance sheet has increased dramatically during the crisis, the...

This report investigates monetary transmission in a monetary union of developing countries (West-African monetary union or Communauté Financière Africaine, CFA). This requires existing monetary transmission models to be adapted. Three econometric methods are applied to assess the impact of...

In this paper a small econometric model with model-consistent expectations is adopted for the euro zone to study monetary and inflation targeting. Similation results show that the 'costs' in terms of inflation and economic growth volatility are by and large lowest in case of inflation targeting....

The recent financial crisis has stimulated theoretical and empirical research on the propagation mechanisms underlying business cycles, in particular on the role of financial frictions. Many issues concerning the interactions between banking and monetary policy forced policy makers to rede.ne...

Despite various payment innovations, today, cash is still heavily used to pay for low-value purchases. This paper develops a simulation model to test whether standard implications of the theory on cash management and payment choices can explain the use of payment instruments by transaction size....

Did ICT firms behave very differently from non-ICT firms during the global ICT boom-bust cycle on the stock markets? To answer this question we analyze the financial behavior of a sample of North-American and Western European firms during 1991-2002. We document that ICT firms are indeed what...

In this paper, the monetary transmission mechanism within the European Monetary Union is investigated. The impulse response functions and forecast error variance decompositions of a structural vector error correction model (SVECM) are compared with those of a New Keynesian theoretical model. The...

In this paper, a structural vector error correction model (S-VECM) is estimated to investigate three essential prerequisites for a successful monetary targeting strategy: stability, controllability and predictability. First, multivariate cointegration techniques are used to identify two...

This paper investigates the existence and extent of economies of scale in the European payment processing industry. It is expected that the creation of a Single European Payments Area (SEPA) will spur consolidations and mergers among European payment processors to more fully realize payment...