Due to the financial crises from 2008 to 2012, unconventional monetary policy caused an environment of record low interest rates around the world. Maintaining the low interest rate policy might be reasonable for the ECB in the short run in order to fight the fragmentation of the financial market...

Im September 2011 legte die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) eine Kursuntergrenze des Euro gegenüber dem Franken von 1,20 fest. Dieser Mindestkurs wurde im Januar 2015 überraschend aufgehoben. Nach Ansicht von Peter Bernholz, Universität Basel, sind die Folgen der Freigabe zurzeit noch nicht...

This paper takes a fresh look at the often confused - and therefore confusing - debate on the role of wage policy in tackling Germany's unemployment problem. The key issues in this debate are the relative importance of wages and aggregate demand in the determination of employment, the...

On the eve of the financial and economic crisis of 2008/09, the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) could look back to a decade of remarkable macroeconomic stability. Somewhat surprisingly, though, inflation differentials across member states have been substantial and persistent, causing...

Die Schweiz ist in den vergangenen Monaten durch die drastische Aufwertung des Schweizer Franken gegenüber dem Euro unter Druck geraten. Im September 2011 verkündete deshalb die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) einen Mindestkurs des Franken zum Euro. Mit einer Untergrenze von 1,20 Franken je...

Fiscal policy is widely criticized for its failure to act as a stabilizing countercyclical force in the European Monetary Union. Two periods should be distinguished: Prior to the Financial Crisis of 2008, when monetary policy had traction to pursue stability for the aggregate eurozone, fiscal...

In this paper, we address the question of the macroeconomic assignment problem of wage and demand policy that is implicit in the “two-handed approach”. As a novelty relative to the existing literature, we thereby distinguish the two levels of policy instruments and policy makers....