This paper studies theoretically and empirically why and how labor policies may reduce productivity and employment in order to stabilize labor incomes and redistribute resources. It proposes a specific stylized model where the tradeoffs facing labor policies are influenced by structural factors,...

The confidence that financial markets are able to discipline the debt behaviour of governments is not very high. Therefore, the Stability and Growth Pact has been implemented as an institutional constraint to substitute for the market mechanism. With the weakening of the Pact, market discipline...

The discussion about country-specific influence on the interest rate decisions of the European Central Bank does not cease. To investigate the possibility of regional influence on the determination of the policy rate, we estimate Taylor-type reaction functions for the period from 1999 to 2005...

Entwicklungen in Informationstechnologie beeinflussen Banken auf zwei verschiedene Arten. Erstens, Informationstechnologie kann die Kosten von Banken reduzieren, indem sie auf Papier basierende, arbeitsintensive Prozeduren automatisiert. Zweitens, sie verändert möglicherweise die Art und Weise...