In this paper we study the long-run determinants of current account balances in 21 OECD countries. We define long-run targets to determine whether actual current account balances are in line with their equilibrium values and find that, following the crisis, the United States, Japan and Spain...

Long run convergence implies that the convergence hypothesis will be rejected if the income differential is not stationary. However, this definition is valid only if the catching-up process between the two countries is already over. If we take into account catching-up dynamics, then poorest...

Various forms of instability can be observed in macroeconomic and financial data including changes in variance, changes in cycle properties, or both. Traditional tests do not allow to distinguish between these different cases. This paper proposes and compares two alternative approaches. The...