Im vergangenen Jahrzehnt gingen beträchtliche Kapitalströme aus den entwickeltenVolkswirtschaften mit einem starken Kreditwachstum in den Ländern des westlichen Balkans,der Türkei und den GUS einher. Dennoch konnten fast alle Länder der Region – ungeachtetihrer unterschiedlichen...

Some ten years ago, Michael Dooley (Dooley, 1997; Dooley, 2000) put forwardan insurance model of currency crises, which after some modifications gives a goodtheoretical basis for explanation of the overall dynamics of the post communist transformationand diversity across countries and periods. The...

The globalization of banking in the United States is influencing the monetarytransmission mechanism both domestically and in foreign markets. Using quarterlyinformation from all U.S. banks filing call reports between 1980 and 2005, we findevidence for the lending channel for monetary policy in...

This paper explains a currency crisis as an outcome of a switch in how monetarypolicy and fiscal policy are coordinated. The paper develops a model of an open economy in which monetary policy starts active, fiscal policy starts passive and, in a particular state of nature, monetary policy...

Microfoundations of the euro´s effect on euro area trade hinge on the timing, thespeed and the size of adjustment in trade costs. We estimate timing, speed and sizeof adjustment in trade costs for sectoral trade data. Our approach allows for sectorspecific impacts of trade costs on sectoral...

The structure of banking systems has been frequently in the debate over a long time. A re-structuring of banking systems is very often based on the experience of other countries. Ger-man cooperative banks can learn much about the development of Italy's cooperative banks. In contradiction to the...

We disentangle different driving factors of sovereign bond market integrationby studying yield co-movements of EMU countries, the UK, the US and 16German L¨ander in the last 15 years. At a low frequency of weeks, bondmarket integration has increased gradually in the course of the last 15 years...

There is a broad consensus that the quality of the political system and its institutionsare fundamental for a country’s prosperity. The paper focuses on political events inItaly over the past 35 years and asks whether the adoption of the euro in 1999 hashelped insulate Italy’s financial...

Early warning systems (EWSs) are subject to restrictions that apply to exchangerates in general: fundamentals matter but their influence is small and unstable. Despitethis limitation four major lessons emerge: First, EWSs have robust forecastingpower and thus help policy-makers to prevent...