This paper aims at analyzing whether Active Labour Market Programs (ALMP) could have different effects on unemployment and employment dynamics according to the particular region where the program is implemented. To this end, the research analyses alternative theoretical and econometric models...

The monetary conditions index (MCI) was developed in the early 1990s with the aim of capturing two of the important monetary transmission channels by combining both interest rates and exchange rates. This article examines the development of the MCI and explores the difficulties with implementing...

This article reviews the evidence available on the external financing conditions for firms in Ireland, the euro area, the United Kingdom and the United States since the onset of the financial crisis in terms of both volume and interest rates.

Using survey data from 2009 to 2011, we analyse the effects of the recent euro area economic, financial and private debt crisis on the supply of and demand for bank finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). At the country level, we identify three distinct aspects of the recent crisis in...

Cross-country divergence in credit availability to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been a salient feature of the recent Euro Area economic crisis. This paper uses firm level and macroeconomic data to identify heterogeneity in SME credit conditions within the Euro Area since 2009. By...

This paper examines the changing manner in which Irish financial institutions set their variable interest rates over the period 2003 - 2011. In particular, the onset of the financial crisis clearly results in a break in the pass-through relationship between market rates and variable rates at the...

This letter provides a consistent picture of Irish SME credit supply and demand up to March 2012 across two data sources: the European Commission and European Central Bank Survey of Access to Finance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SAFE) and the Mazars SME lending demand survey, commissioned by...

This Letter examines movements in the interest rates charged on variable rate mortgages. The results indicate that variable rates for all lenders closely followed changes in the ECB's policy rate, short-term wholesale rates and tracker rate mortgages until the end of 2008. Thereafter, the...

Governments, central banks and development banks around the world have a long history of intervention in the credit market for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). These interventions are justified by economic research which has found that enterprises facing credit constraints are less...

This paper analyses the effects of the recent euro area economic, financial and debt crisis on SMEs’ access to bank finance. We use a survey on access to finance of SMEs in the euro area carried out by the European Central Bank during 2009 and 2010 to examine the impact of macroeconomic...