The appropriate design of monetary policy in integrated fi nancial markets is one of the most challenging areas for central banks. One hot topic is whether the rise in liquidity in recent years has contributed to the formation of price bubbles in asset markets. In this case, the inclusion of...

Recent econometric studies did not find evidence in favour of a stable long run money demand function. If the link between money balances and the macroeconomy is fragile, the rationale of monetary aggregates in the ECB strategy has to be doubted. In contrast to the bulk of the literature, we are...

We present a macroeconometric model for the large EU economies, i.e. Germany, the UK, France and Italy (Big4 model). The general model structure is based on the system of national accounts. Behavioural relationships are specified in error correction form for the supply and demand side at product...

German business cycle forecasts refer to the whole country. However, the usefulness of these forecasts at the regional level is not uncontroversial. Significant deviations between regional and national forecasts could occur if the sectoral structure is different. In this case, the forecast for...

The economic performance in the euro area and in particular in Germany has been rather weak over the recent past. Despite the cyclical upturn of the world economy domestic demand and private consumption have grown only modestly. The path of private consumption depends on the evolution of...

A stable money demand relationship is one of the pre-conditions for a successful monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB). In this contribution we examine the stability of money demand in the euro area by taken the period of the financial crisis into account. Our results indicate that...

We analyse the relationship between the debt-to-GDP ratio and real per capita GDP growth for euro area members and a broader set of industrial countries by distinguishing periods of sustainable and non-sustainable debt. Thresholds for debt are theory-driven and depend on-macroeconomic...