Has deflation contributed to the long lasting stagnation of the Japanese economy? Could the Bank of Japan have stopped deflation by implementing a more expansionary monetary policy? Our tentative answers are probably not to the first question, and probably yes to the second question. We find...

We study the time series properties of the Fama-French factor returns volatility processes. Among the original findings of this paper, we point to structural breaks in the volatility of the factors, and strong coincidence between the timing of the breaks in the volatility of the market portfolio...

In the framework of a new money-market econometric model, we assess the degree of precision achieved by the European Central Bank (ECB) in meeting its operational target for the short-term interest rate and the impact of the U.S. subprime credit crisis on the euro money market during the second...

In this paper a small-scale macroeconomic system is estimated in the framework of a common trends model, in order to explore the dynamic interactions between real house prices, consumption expenditure and output in the US and major European economies. The results point to important differences...

In this paper the contributions of economic and financial integration to international stock markets comovements are investigated by means of a large scale macroeconometric model, set in the factor vector autoregressive framework (FVAR). The findings point to a key role of both economic and...

In the paper a new approach to the modelling of common components in long memory processes is introduced. The approach is based on a two-step procedure relying on Fourier transform methods (firrst step) and principal components analysis (second step), which, differently from previous...

This paper assesses the sources of volatility persistence in Euro Area money market interest rates and the existence of linkages relating volatility dynamics. The main ?ndings of the study are as follows. Firstly, there is evidence of stationary long memory, of similar degree, in all series....

The growth in the size of the hedge funds industry has led some in-vestors to worry about a decline in alphas, associated with reduced arbitrage opportunities in international financial markets. We introduce a multivariate components model for returns and net relative inflows into hedge funds,...

What are the sources of macroeconomic comovement among G-7 countries? Two main candidate explanations may be singled out: common shocks and common transmission mechanisms. In the paper it is shown that they are complementary, rather than alternative, explanations. By means of a large-scale...

In this paper a new approach to factor vector autoregressive estimation, based on Stock and Watson (2005), is introduced. Relative to the Stock-Watson approach, the proposed method has the advantage of allowing for a more clear-cut interpretation of the global factors, as well as for the...