The household saving ratio in France underwent sharp changes over the past two decades, falling dramatically in the early 1980s before rising more recently. This paper emphasizes two factors in the evolution of private saving in France. The first relates to perceptions of household income growth...

This paper analyzes the process of disintermediation, the progress in consolidation, the impact of new technologies, and the role of ownership and control structures for the euro area banking sector. The impact of these trends on competition policy, quot;too big to failquot; concerns, and...

The household saving ratio in France has undergone very sharp changes over the past two decades, falling dramatically in the first part of the 1980s before rising in more recent years. This paper emphasizes two factors in the evolution of private saving in France. The first relates to...

This paper presents an analysis of the determinants of private investment in the Caribbean region, using data for the 1977-91 time period. Drawing on the endogenous growth literature, a model is developed to capture the impact of public education expenditure on private sector capital formation....

The social security system in Spain has steadily expanded since the late 1970s. Currently, social security expenditure exceeds 15 percent of GDP, being a factor of fiscal imbalance. This paper reviews achievements and the current situation of the social security system, discusses changes in the...

Increasing use of life insurance instruments and company-sponsored funds in France suggests that French households may be inclined to a greater reliance on financial savings as a source of retirement income. This paper examines the challenges imposed by an aging population on the pay-as-you-go...

This paper examines monetary transmission in France using the vector autoregression methodology. Interest rates are decomposed into external and domestic components, and a nonrecursive contemporaneous structure is used to identify the system. Innovations in the external component are found to...

The existence of a well-specified and stable relationship between money and prices has long been perceived as a prerequisite for the use of monetary aggregates in the conduct of monetary policy. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about the stability of euro area money demand by...