This document analyzes the patterns of fiscal and monetary policy in five economies of the Latin American Southern Cone (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) during four episodes of international crises: 1994, 1997-1999, 2001 and 2008. In contrast with earlier episodes when most...

This article addresses Japan's economy, its new economic policy package, which is known as Abenomics. The centerpiece of Abenomics has been the three "economic arrows" targeted at aggressive monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy, and growth strategy. This article focuses on Abenomics and shows...

We show that policy uncertainty about how the rising public debt will be stabilized accounts for the lack of deflation in the US economy at the zero lower bound. We first estimate a Markov-switching VAR to highlight that a zero-lower-bound regime captures most of the comovements during the Great...

This paper analyzes how effective macroeconomic policy actions are in ending recessions. We also investigate which structural factors help the country to get out of recessions, in other words experience shorter recessions. We implement survival regression analysis and conclude that expansionary...

Comparing the two significant recessions Israel experienced over the last decade, we highlight the importance of sustained fiscal discipline and credible monetary policy during normal times for expanding the set of policy options available at a time of need. In the first recession Israel was...

Locating the appropriate degree of interaction between fiscal and monetary policy plays an important role in ensuring economic stability. Their joint impact is, however, still unclear. We observe significant differences in the transmission of shocks, in particular between the Great Recession and...

The recent recovery in Latin America has been impressive but also raises the question whether this represents a fundamental break with the region's history of boom-bust cycles. The paper traces how this history of macroeconomic volatility and financial crisis over the past century has adversely...

We show that policy uncertainty about how the rising public debt will be stabilized accounts for the lack of deflation in the US economy at the zero lower bound. We first estimate a Markov-switching VAR to highlight that a zero-lower-bound regime captures most of the comovements during the Great...

This paper investigates the effect of cyclical macroeconomic policy and financial sector characteristics on growth. Using cross-country, cross-industry OECD data, it yields two main findings. First, countercyclical fiscal and monetary policies foster growth disproportionately in more...