Some current account rebalancing within EMU is currently in progress. Following the financial crisis, German current account surpluses with Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece have decreased. The following article shows that rebalancing has been achieved mainly at the expense of domestic demand in...

Open end real estate funds are the prevailing German retail product for commercial real estate investment. Yet, relatively few empirical studies explore the distinct characteristics of this asset class; almost no evidence exists with regard to flows. Looking at aggregate and individual fund...

The German valuation system is frequently accused of being not only unique in its institutional setting but also of the degree of smoothness it achieves. Formally adhering to a market value concept, German valuers are perceived to merely deliver on the promises made by fund managers who...

After the Deutsche Bundesbank was established as Germany’s central bank in 1957, a high degree of independence soon became its signature feature. Interestingly, the German obsession with central bank independence (CBI) did not resonate with academics and practitioners in other countries until...

This article extends the inspection of Central Bank Independence (CBI) with respect to inflation performance to an examination of the relationship between CBI and economic welfare in general. The common view of monetary neutrality, i.e. a “free lunch” of CBI with respect to economic growth...