Between 1995 and 2005, the German economy has experienced a phase of weak economic growth. We analyze whether this weak growth performance can be attributed to the stance of monetary conditions during that period. We show that the real effective exchange rate did have almost no dampening effects...

We build quadratic labor adjustment costs into an otherwise standard New-Keynesian model of the business cycle and show that this increases output persistence in a similar vein as other models of labor market frictions. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that quadratic labor adjustment costs imply...

This paper analyzes the costs of housing crises in terms of GDP growth and the economic conditions under which crises are particularly costly. Housing crises are often followed by recessions that are longer than other recessions. According to empirical estimates, a housing crisis reduces the GDP...

This paper introduces productivity-dependent firing costs into an otherwise standard endogenous separations matching model. We suggest an alternative to the standard fix cost approach and account for empirical evidence emphasizing that firing costs vary across workers. We show that the model...

Endogenous separation matching models have the shortcoming that they are barely able to replicate the Beveridge curve (i.e. the negative correlation between unemployment and vacancies) and business cycle statistics jointly. This paper builds upon the sectoral shock literature and combines its...

Diese Anmerkung zeigt, dass das reale Bruttoinlandsprodukt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland einem trendstationären Prozess folgt. Dabei werden sowohl ökonometrische Tests, bei denen die Trendstationarität die Alternativhypothese ist, eingesetzt als auch solche, bei denen sie die Nullhypothese...

Der Aufsatz untersucht einige populäre Methoden zur Messung des Output Gaps auf der Basis von aggregierten Daten für die Euro-Zone. Obwohl die Methoden einige wichtige gemeinsame Eigenschaften aufweisen, zeigen sie auch erhebliche Unterschiede; insbesondere ist die Korrelation zwischen...

This paper studies the relative performance of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of oil price shocks in a small open economy optimizing model. Our analysis shows that it is important to distinguish between alternative price indices (CPI, core CPI, and GDP deflator) when modeling...

The globalization of capital and product markets has many implications for economic welfare. Countries can specialize in the production of goods for which they have comparative advantages, and capital is allocated more efficiently. However, one potentially adverse effect of globalization is the...

The process of European integration has gained considerable momentum during the past couple of years. This paper provides an assessment of the degree of integration of both the accession states of central and eastern Europe and of the pre-ins for monetary union with respect to Germany. Using...