Currently, the European Union is proposing the broadband as part of government responsibility to combat digital divide and as part of the European economic recovery package. However, from a public policy point of view, any recommendation of using government funds should consider the opportunity...

Typically a constant – or zero – lower bound for interest rates is applied in shadow rate term structure models. However, euro area yield curve data suggest that a time-varying lower bound might be appropriate for the euro area. I show that this indeed is the case, i.e. a shadow rate model...