The Regulation on the Single Supervisory Mechanism mandates the European Central Bank to exercise prudential supervision on the banks located in the Euro area, whether directly by the Bank’s own services for the significant banks, or indirectly by the national prudential supervisors but under...

This paper investigates contagion between bank risk and sovereign risk in Europe over the period 2006-2011. Since this period covers various stages of the banking and sovereign crisis, it offers a fertile ground to analyze bank/sovereign risk spillovers. We define contagion as excess...

Frictions prevent banks to immediately adjust their capital ratio towards their desired and/or imposed level. This paper analyzes (i) whether or not these frictions are larger for regulatory capital ratios vis-à-vis a plain leverage ratio; (ii) which adjustment channels banks use to adjust...

The paper considers the issue of whether a supranational fiscal policy in Europe is needed, and, if so what responsibilities it should undertake. The literature on endogenous growth and the principle of subsidiarity suggest that such a policy should be limited to externalities or economies of...

This paper reviews the accumulated theory and evidence on the sources of European underperformance in terms of economic growth and unemployment. It takes the view that the main problem lies with labor market institutions, ranging from negotiation structures to hiring and firing costs,...

In this paper we consider a range of topics which connect exchange rates to the economic growth process. In particular, we first of all outline the basic properties of exchange rates when they are flexible. One key feature of flexible exchange rates is that they are highly volatile and such...

This paper discusses possible links between monetary arrangements in particular monetary union and economic growth. It is stressed that growth depends ultimately on how the real economy works: there is no monetary magic that can conjure up growth. But monetary policy can contribute to conditions...

The international press has recently reported on the widely-held view in the financial markets that the movement of the Belgian industrial confidence indicator might precede the euro area business cycles. The initial purpose of this paper is to assess whether this market perception is more than...

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with sticky prices and wages for the euro area. The model incorporates various other features such as habit formation, costs of adjustment in capital accumulation and variable capacity utilisation. It is...

We discuss the scope of asymmetries in growth and inflation developments in the euro area countries, taking the euro area as the natural benchmark since the establishment of EMU. We start with a descriptive analysis of a set of indicators that can give a first idea of the likelihood of or extent...