Using data for 17 OECD countries from 1983 to 2003, this paper establishes a non-linear relationship between private consumption and the level of government debt. In countries with a high level of government debt, a fiscal expansion is partly crowded out by a fall in private consumption. In...

This paper is part of the Kobe Research Project and documents the Dutch and Thai experiences regarding exchange rate policy, capital controls, and developments in the banking sector. In view of these experiences, it seeks to identify requirements for successful currency regimes, in particular...

The relationship between monetary indicators and inflation is ussually assumed to be linear, implying that looser monetary conditions always signal an increase in in.ation. Recently, money growth in the euro area surged while inflation remained comparatively subdued. This seems at variance with...

This paper investigates whether there has been a structural increase in financial market integration in nine European countries and the US in the period 1980-2003. We employ a GARCH model with a smoothly time-varying correlation to estimate the date of change and the speed of the transition...

We analyse the optimal composition of a federal or supra-national committee. The representation of regional (national) entities in federal committees is typically motivated by their superior knowledge of local conditions. Using this argument, we formally model the optimal composition of a...

The crisis has demonstrated that the ability of banks to absorb shocks needs to be strengthened. The financial tensions that have emerged repeatedly since 2007 could assume such serious proportions because the exposure of the banks was too high and too risky in relation to their capital...

This study is part of the Kobe Research Project. It documents the exchange rate policies and the financial liberalisation processes of both the Netherlands and Thailand over the past decades. In view of these experiences and of the academic literature, the study seeks to identify requirements...