The exceptional measures by central banks during the financial crisis have led to renewed interest in the redistributive effects of monetary policy. This paper adopts the perspective of central bank balance sheets to assess such effects. It uses information from the euro area National Central...

This study shows that Target2 net claims are a poor measure of Bundesbank loss exposure, and even more so of German loss exposure to the rest of the Eurozone. This is true even under plausible assumptions about a comprehensive break-up scenario that leaves Germany as the only member of the euro...

Important questions concerning the structure and operation of a European Central Bank remain unanswered. Although there exists no precedent for the process of institution-building in which the European Community is currently engaged, the founding and early operations of the Federal Reserve...

The present paper contains a brief presentation and analysis, in a historical perspective through the lens of the recent major crises, of the legal framework governing the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), as well as current developments and challenges ahead. It is structured in three...

During the first two years of monetary union, the euro's weakness surprised most market participants. Explanations proliferated ranging from fundamentals such as differences in growth prospects to psychological factors such as herd behaviour, but no single story fully accounts for the observed...

examines the volatility of the U$/Euro exchange rate during the period 1999-2005. According to our estimates, the degree of volatility persistence, although statistically significant, is rather low; moreover, there is no evidence of an asymmetric response of predictable volatility to past...

This paper assesses the validity of the ECB ‘benign neglect’ approach towards foreign exchange markets. I extend the analysis performed in Tronzano (2008) on the U$/Euro rate, applying a wide range of conditional volatility models to Yen/Euro data from 1999 to 2007. An overall evaluation of...

This policy paper aims at presenting the key facts related to the Euro sovereign debt crisis that occurred in the interval 2010-2012. It points out some main coordination failures that are at the origin of the crisis, and comments on the effectiveness of various stabilization measures undertook...

The paper discusses the choice between inflation targeting and monetary targeting as a strategy for the Eurosystem, the actual strategy the Eurosystem announced in the fall of 1998, the framework of the policy decisions appropriate for achieving the goals of the Eurosystem, the role of the...