The current accounts of most EU member states in central and eastern Europe have been showing growing deficits in recent years. According to panel estimates the deficits can be attributed primarily to factors characteristic for the stage of development, ie the relative income level and high...

The interplay between banks and the macroeconomy is of key importance for financial and economic stability. We analyze this link using a factor-augmented vector autoregressive model (FAVAR) which extends a standard VAR for the U.S. macroeconomy. The model includes GDP growth, inflation, the...

Introduction. And yet the Twain Meet: Great Convergence brings the East closer to the West -- Great Divergence and the Rise of the West -- Great Convergence and the Rise of the Rest -- The Great Convergence and Globalization: How the Former Colo-nies Became the World Economic Locomotives --...

“A must read for anyone interested in understanding complexities of development process.” -Fakhruddin Ahmed, former Governor of the Central Bank of Bangladesh “Policy makers and general readers including specialists would find this lucid analysis very useful.” - Nurul Islam, Deputy...

This book analyzes the effects of the recent crisis and evaluates potential solutions to the gridlock that is currently dominating the Eurozone and the European Union, concerning both the monetary policy and the budgetary and fiscal policy. The timely study highlights the main challenges that...

This book investigates the changing nature of economic policies following the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009. Well-respected, international scholars come together to discuss the level of economic growth following the crisis, concerns over inequality in industrialised countries, and labour...

Japan has ambitious economic goals: 3 percent nominal growth; 2 percent inflation; and a primary budget surplus. Abenomics has employed the three arrows of monetary, fiscal and structural policies, but the goals remain out of reach. We propose that countercyclical measures be embedded in...

This paper studies the impact of product and labor market reforms when the economy faces major slack and a binding constraint on monetary policy easing. such as the zero lower bound. To this end, we build a two-country model with endogenous producer entry, labor market frictions, and nominal...