After its launching in 1999 and rather successful decade-long performance, the euro-zone entered in 2010 into its first and extremely profound crisis. The crisis has been dragging on for almost four years and there isstill a lot of work to be done in order to reach a comprehensive and...

In this paper, we present the root cause of the American financial crisis in 2007. We show that financial integration and capital flow volatility is the factor that creates a climate conducive to the emergence of the crisis in the USA and led to its spread to the rest of the world. On the...

Financialisation in Iceland should be seen as an evolving process driven by a mixture of global and domestic forces. Responding to fundamental issues underlying macroeconomic imbalances, the authorities introduced policies that proved particularly supportive of financial expansion at a time when...

This paper examines the extent to which economic crises facilitate the development of more effective regional institutions and whether such institutions can shield regions from crises. It compares six regional economic crises over the last four decades and the institution building - or decay -...

Although emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) weathered the global recession a decade ago relatively well, they now appear less well placed to cope with the substantial downside risks facing the global economy. In many EMDEs, the room for monetary and fiscal policies to respond to...

This paper identifies factors associated with takeoff - a sustained period of high growth following a period of stagnation. We examine a panel of 241 stagnation episodesʺ from 146 countries, 54 % of these episodes are followed by takeoffs. Countries that experience takeoffs average 2.3% annual...

This paper analyzes the effects of capital controls and crises on financial integration, using stocks from emerging economies that trade in both domestic and international markets. The cross-market premium (the ratio between the domestic and the international market price of cross-listed stocks)...

This paper investigates the causes behind the euro debt crisis, particularly Germany's role in it. It is argued that the crisis is not primarily a "sovereign debt crisis" but rather a (twin) banking and balance of payments crisis. Intra-area competitiveness and current account imbalances, and...

This paper investigates Germany's vulnerability to the ongoing Euroland crisis. In 2010-11, Germany experienced a strong rebound from the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The Euroland crisis then meant record low interest rates and a depressed euro that boosted German extra-area exports. But...

The currency and market turmoils in East Asia since summer of 1997 are every bit as much political crises as they are economic ones. Indeed, the political manifestations of these events may linger long after the necessary economic reforms have been introduced to return at least a semblance of...