Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat im Februar 2014 seine Entscheidung zum Beschluss der Europäischen Zentralbank zum OMT-Programm vom September 2012 verkündet. Wie ist diese Entscheidung zu werten? Franz-Christoph Zeitler, Universität Augsburg und ehemals Deutsche Bundesbank, sieht in dem...

We study monetary policy-making in an economy with many sector-specific monopoly unions. It is assumed that the senior union members are in the majority and – due to the practice of lay-offs by inverse seniority – face a lower unemployment risk than the junior members. Consequently, the...

Economic unification forced an unprecedented adjustment crisis on the East German economy. The revolutionary shock of the transformation of the economic order was reinforced by a real appreciation shock exceeding 50%, due to the immediate introduction of the Deutschmark. This paper examines in...

The impact of aggregate nominal and real shocks on the variance of relative prices is studied in the case of an open economy with fixed exchange rates where agents have limited information about aggregate shocks and the price level. In the first part of the paper it is shown that the limited...

The renewed quest for a European monetary union raises the question: Is Europe ready for a common currency? We compare the variability and persistence of real exchange rate fluctuations within the German monetary union and between Germany and eight European countries to assess the viability of a...