This paper provides a survey of the economic literature on immigration. We first give an impression of immigration in the Netherlands in 1500-1960, followed by a discussion of the long term economic consequences of the mass migration preceding Word War I. We then discuss some literature which...

This paper presents evidence that a higher degree of product market competition leads to a permanently lower inflation rate. Among a broad set of possible candidate variables, the indicator for product market competition used in this paper (the markup) is superior in explaining inflation...

Central banks do not operate in a vacuum. In this paper we analyse the factors leading to external pressure or public support for European monetary policy. Moreover, based upon the findings for the Deutsche Bundesbank, some additional lessons are drawn for the ECB. External pressure on the ECB...

In this paper we analyze the optimal frequency of open market operations carried out by a central bank with the objective of steering the overnight interest rate and its relationship with required reserves and standing facilities. For this purpose, we construct a simple model of the reserve...

We study whether foreign and domestic banks in Central and Eastern Europe have reacted differently to business cycle conditions and host country banking crises. Our unique panel dataset comprises data of more than 300 banks for the period 1993-2000, with detailed information on bank ownership....

Policymakers' efforts to boost trend output growth may be hampered by the presence of a tradeoff between productivity gains and job creation. This paper presents empirical evidence that the negative relationship between productivity growth and employment growth that prevailed in the 1960s and...

We investigate the implications for he setting of interest rates when monetary policy decisions are taken by a committee, in which a subset of members may meet prior to the voting in the commitee and therefore has the possibility to reach consensus ex ante to vote unanimously ex post. We allow...

This paper considers the position of national central banks within the ESCB. The fundamental framework underlying the ESCB is that of a system of central banks in which component institutions are individually and collectively responsible for carrying out various tasks. Within this framework, we...

This paper is part of the Kobe Research Project and documents the Dutch and Thai experiences regarding exchange rate policy, capital controls, and developments in the banking sector. In view of these experiences, it seeks to identify requirements for successful currency regimes, in particular...

This paper investigates contagion of major financial institutions by focusing on extreme stock return co-movements. Our measure of contagion within banking and insurance sectors is the number of coincidences of daily extreme returns that cannot be explained by a linear propagation model of...