The influence of commodity prices on consumer prices is usually seen as originating in commodity markets. We argue, however, that long run and short run relationships should exist between commodity prices, consumer prices and money and that the influence of commodity prices on consumer prices...

Brunnermeier et al. (2017) propose the introduction of sovereign bond-backed securities (SBBS) in the euro area. That and other papers assess how the securitisation would insulate senior bond holders from actual default-related losses. This paper generalises the assessment by using the VAR-based...

Models of inflation usually have monetary policy affecting the economy through either an interest rate channel or a monetary/credit quantity channel but not through both simultaneously. It is argued here that policy is transmitted via two distinct types of agents – those that are and that are...

The performance of the Irish economy stands out across western economies over the past two decades as the later years of its "Celtic Tiger" phase gave way to a sharp and extremely large economic downturn between 2008 and 2012. This severe recession has been followed by a Lazarus-style economic...

Against a backdrop of debt ratio targets being central to recent proposed changes to the EU fiscal rules, we examine errors in official forecasts of the General Government debt ratios and their determinants in 26 member states from 2012 to 2019 when the "six pack" rules applied. We find debt...

This paper considers whether Ireland's sovereign bonds have decoupled from other euro area sovereigns (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain - the "periphery") with whom it was categorised during the sovereign bond market crisis of the early 2010s. Having initially reviewed yield and sovereign...

A reason for revising the EU fiscal rules in the early 2010s was to improve member states' forecasts against a background of documented biases in official projections. Using data from Stability and Convergence Programmes and the European Commission's Spring Forecasts, evidence is presented which...

Blanchard and Leigh (2013, 2014) find fiscal multipliers to be underestimated in the EU in the deep recession of the early 2010s. Using two 2013-2018 datasets for 26 EU member states, assembled from Stability and Convergence Programmes and the European Commission's Spring Forecasts, we show that...

Data from member states' Stability and Convergence Programmes from 2011 to 2018 are used to assess the cyclicality of government consumption in the EU after the European Semester took effect. Econometric estimations, which address endogeneity issues, find the intended (ex-ante) fiscal policy to...

The performance of the Irish economy over the period 2002-2019 varied considerably, with a credit-led boom up to 2007 being followed by a sharp fall in economic activity and house prices in the following five years. This provides a valuable sample for investigating the relevance of the housing...