Monetary policy in the euro area is conducted within a multi-country, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual context involving multiple central banking traditions. How does this heterogeneity affect the ability of economic agents to understand and to anticipate monetary policy by the ECB? Using a...

The paper shows that there is a substantial degree of heterogeneity in the ability of Fed watchers to forecast US monetary policy decisions. Based on a novel database for 268 professional forecasters since 1999, the average forecast error of FOMC decisions varies 5 to 10 basis points between the...

Precisely 25 years ago, on July 1, 1990, German monetary union came into force. On the same day, capital controls in Europe were abolished, creating the basis for European monetary union and the euro. These two historical events fundamentally changed Germany and the rest of Europe. Both German...

Vor genau 25 Jahren, am 1. Juli 1990, trat die deutsche Währungsunion in Kraft. Am selben Tag wurde mit der Abschaffung von Kapitalverkehrskontrollen in Europa die Grundlage für die europäische Währungsunion und den Euro geschaffen. Diese beiden historischen Ereignisse haben Deutschland und...

Im Zahlungssystem der Eurozone, Target 2, sind seit 2007 hohe Verbindlichkeiten der Krisenländer gegenüber den übrigen Mitgliedern der Währungsunion aufgelaufen. Auf dem Höhepunkt dieser Entwicklung Mitte 2012 hatte allein die Deutsche Bundesbank Target-Forderungen in Höhe von 750...

Die Debatte über Target 2 - das Zahlungsverkehrssystem des Europäischen Systems der Zentralbanken - hat in den vergangenen Jahren zu kontroversen Diskussionen in Deutschland geführt. Die vorliegende Studie des DIW Berlin kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die in diesem Zusammenhang vielfach...

The debate about TARGET2, the payment system of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), has resulted in controversial discussions in Germany in recent years. The present study by DIW Berlin concludes that fears often expressed in this context of the risks to Germany are largely unfounded....

Am 11. und 12. Juni 2013 hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht Experten zur Krisenpolitik der EZB angehört. Dabei ging es um die Frage, ob oder inwieweit die EZB durch das Outright-Monetary-Transactions-Programm (OMT) Kompetenzen beansprucht, die ihr nicht übertragen worden sind. Wir...

This paper deals with the very short-term influence of "oral interventions" on the exchange rate of major currencies. The paper finds that official communication, as reported by wire services, are effective in influencing the US dollar-euro and yen-US dollar exchange rates in the desired...

This paper assesses the change in Federal Reserve policy introduced in 1999, with the publication of statements about the outlook for monetary policy (and later about the balance of risks) immediately after each FOMC meeting. We find that markets anticipated monetary policy decisions equally...