When the international monetary system of Bretton Woods collapsed in 1973 the Deutsche Mark was at the top of its international reputation. The Dollar was permanently weak because the FED financed the US budget deficit for many years over the money printing press. In the European Union the...

A crisis that started as a textbook case of how financial and asset markets can spin out of control without adequate public oversight has transmuted in 5 years into a crisis of irresponsible sovereigns, such that restoring prosperity requires that governments re-establish control over their own...

Large banks derive a funding advantage from being too-big-to-fail, while small banks do not. To estimate the funding advantage we explain the CDS spreads of small banks in six major European countries during the crisis by market fundamentals and bank-specific characteristics. Next, we...

Since 2008, economic policymakers and researchers have occupied a brave new economic world. Previous consensuses have been upended, former assumptions have been cast into doubt, and new approaches have yet to stand the test of time. Policymakers have been forced to improvise and researchers to...

The aim of the following research paper is to present the state of the business environment five years after the beginning of the crisis, the most general reasons for this state and the erspectives for positive change in the context of the conditions for enhancement of competitiveness of the...

Against the background of the recent financial crisis that in many countries metastasised into significant fiscal stress, this article reviews the analysis, management and mitigation of fiscal risks. On the basis of the classification of specific, general and systemic types, fiscal risks have...

commission has reviewed all the guarantees, loans and financial interventions provided by the Dutch government. This review shows that policy makers often perceive these measures as a “free lunch”, do-not-ask (sufficiently high) premiums and do-not-build reserves to cover potential damages....

The government wants two tasks to be performed. In each task, unobservable effort can be exerted by a wealth-constrained private contractor. If the government faces no binding budget constraints, it is optimal to bundle the tasks. The contractor in charge of both tasks then gets a bonus payment...

The article introduces the new issue of the journal, reviewing the contributions included therein, and placing them in context. The author discusses the recent trends in European economic policy, with specific focus on its neglected international and global spillovers.

Commentators on market-oriented policy reform, e.g. John Williamson and Naomi Klein, have observed that radical policy change is often enacted in the wake of a “crisis†which is perceived to necessitate and justify the change. In section 2, I critically examine Williamson’s work...