Prior to the recession of 2008/09 household saving was extremely low in the United States. In the context of the recession the saving rate has increased by about 2 percentage points to close to 4%. Such a rise is in line with the record from previous recessions. The study argues that, this time,...

The European Year 2012 was, to a certain extent, a framework for raising awareness of the contribution that older people make to society and mobilising stakeholders and policymakers at all levels to promote active ageing and solidarity between generations.To coordinate its activities during the...

The paper analyses the likely political and economic impacts of Turkish membership of the EU for the Union itself. It asks whether Turkish accession can be managed in a similar way to that of other enlargements or whether critics are right that Turkey is too big, too poor, has too dangerous...

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...

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....