This article reviews several hypotheses that aim at explaining the development of German merchandise exports. Based on cointegration estimation techniques, we examine different determinants for their ability to explain German exports during the period 1992-2016. The estimation results indicate...

We study the impact of several Covid-19 related supply shocks. We use a standard wage setting-price setting model of the labor market and analyze the transmission of the shocks to the natural rate of unemployment and production. In a first step, the shocks are analyzed in a general way,...

In this paper, we use a structural vector autoregression model to identify and compare demand and supply shocks between euro area countries and central and eastern European countries (CEECs). The shocks and the shock adjustment dynamics of these countries are also compared to EU countries that...

The financial crisis of 2008/2009 has left European economies with a sizeable public debt stock bringing back the question what factors help to reduce these fiscal imbalances. Using data for the period 1985-2009 this paper identifies factors determining major public debt reductions. On average,...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has announced it will refrain from profit distribution in 2022 owing to the accumulation of a huge financial loss. In this paper we examine key determinants of the SNB's loss and shed light on its implications to monetary policy pursuit. In particular, we show that...

The financial crisis of 2008/2009 has left European economies with a sizeable public debt stock bringing back the question what factors help to reduce these fiscal imbalances. Using data for the period 1985-2009 this paper identifies factors determining major public debt reductions. On average,...

We analyse the effect of COVID-19 on the Okun's law relationship for several EU countries and the US. Results are based on regressions and a systematic DF-Beta analysis. Our results indicate that the year 2020 is an outlier in the Okun relationship. However, the direction of change is different...