When people share risk in financial markets, intermediaries provide costly enforcement for most trades and, hence, are an integral part of financial marketsu0092 organization. We assess the degree of risk sharing that can be achieved through financial markets when enforcement is based on the...

This paper analyses regional growth in eastern Europe in the second half of the 1990s, when regional disparities sharply increased. It aims to identify the factors behind growth and to investigate in particular the role of (foreign) investment, education and innovation as well as geographical...

In 2006 the external net borrowing requirement of the Spanish economy was almost 8% of GDP, after having been in balance between 1993 and 1998. This increased borrowing requirement is the financial mirror image of a growth model, in which corporate and households' investments are generating an...

Estimations of simple monetary policy rules are often very rigid. Standard practice requires that a decision is made as to which indicators the central bank is assumed to respond to, ignoring the data-rich environment in which policy-makers typically form their decisions. However, the choice of...

Within a two-step GARCH framework we explore the linkages between equity returns of ten sectors in the euro area, the United States and Japan, respectively. Our estimation framework allows a distinction to be made between spillover effects originating from one of the three currency areas and...

This paper analyses the link between finance and growth by studying the effect that the process of financial deregulation and harmonisation of banking laws at the EU level has brought about on growth over the last 40 years. Our main findings point to the existence of a positive long-run growth...

We provide a general characterization of the structure of rational expectations equilibria of any degree of revelation for pure exchange, sequential economies, with deffinitely many states of private information, an incomplete financial market and nominal assets. We estimate the dimension of the...

This study provides a background for the preparation of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) 2003 and assists the EP in putting forward recommendations in supply-side issues covered in the BEPGs. The report looks at investment, progress in opening markets, integration of financial...

The recent financial crises in Asia, Russia and Latin America have focussed attention on the effectiveness of the world's 'financial architecture'. The freeing of capital movements and the globalisation of markets have boosted economic growth; but also increased instability and systemic risk....