The debate on the underlying causes of the decline of interest rates to historically low levels is ongoing both in academia and among policy makers. Several explanations have been put forward, ranging from those citing real and structural factors to those underscoring the importance of cyclical...

Since the early part of 2010 tensions in the sovereign debt markets of some euro-area countries have progressively distorted monetary and credit conditions, hindering the ECB monetary policy transmission mechanism and raising the cost of loans to non-financial corporations and households. This...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro ricostruisce le serie storiche annuali degli aggregati monetari italiani. Rispetto a contributi precedenti, dedicati a periodi circoscritti dell'economia italiana, il lavoro copre l'intervallo 1861-2014; migliora la qualità di serie storiche del passato e fornisce...

This paper examines the recent behavior of sovereign interest rates in the euro area, focusing on the 10 year yield spreads relative to Germany for Italy and other euro area countries. Both previous analyses and the new evidence presented in the paper suggest that, in recent months, for several...

This paper argues that the lack of timely and decisive policy action to correct domestic and external imbalances contributed crucially to the build-up of financial excesses that led to the financial crisis and the Great Recession. We focus on 2002-07 and perform a number of counterfactual...

The paper analyzes developments in TARGET2 imbalances within the euro area since 2007, from two perspectives: national central banks' balance sheets and countries' balance of payments (BoP). We examine the relationship between TARGET2 balances and the Eurosystem liquidity provision, analyzing...

This paper reviews the main literature and evidence on the relevance of fiscal dominance in Italy in the last part of the 20th century and examines the evolution of the techniques of Treasury financing and of monetary targets. In the early 1970s budget deficits and monetary base creation were...

In this paper we provide evidence that the effects of the ECB's asset purchase programmes spill over into CESEE countries, contributing to easing their financial conditions both in the short and in the long term through different transmission channels. In the short term, a number of variables in...

Financial integration of emerging economies is on the rise and so are financial and monetary spillovers, especially those originating from US economic policy decisions and the (related) evolution of the US dollar. We revisit the “trilemma” vs. “dilemma” hypothesis and assess whether, and...

This paper investigates the effect of ECB asset purchases on inflation expectations in the euro area, as measured by the ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters. To identify the effects on individual expectations we adopt a panel approach, where the Eurosystem Asset Purchase Programme (APP)...