In this paper we estimate a small model of the euro area to be used as a laboratory for evaluating the performance of alternative monetary policy strategies. We start with the relationship between output and inflation and investigate the fit of the nominal wage contracting model due to Taylor...

1 Abstract -- 2 Introduction -- 3 Chapter I: Literature on the subject of excess volatility -- 4 Chapter II: Excess volatility beyond discount rates -- 5 Chapter III: Evidence of excess volatility in the Eurozone market -- 6 Conclusions.

This paper uses data on German government bond futures options to examine the behaviour of market expectations around monetary policy actions of the European Central Bank (ECB). In particular, this paper focuses on the asymmetries in bond market expectations, as measured by the skewness of...