The fiscal consolidation efforts of Spain, Italy, and Portugal from 2010 to 2014 did not achieve their goal of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio in any of the three countries. This Economic Bulletin examines why the spending cuts and tax increases, at times drastic, were unsuccessful and...

This study investigates the impact of the global financial crisis on the determinants of corporate cash holdings and adjustments towards target cash levels using a sample of Eastern European firms. Employing panel fixed effects and GMM estimations, the results reveal that firm-level determinants...

This paper presents the model used for simulation purposes within the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance. REMS (a Rational Expectations Model for the Spanish economy) is a small open economy dynamic general equilibrium model in the vein of the New-Neoclassical-Keynesian synthesis...

This paper uses an extended version of “FiMod—A DSGE Model for Fiscal Policy Simulations” (Stähler and Thomas Econ Model 29:239–261, 2012) with endogenous job destruction decisions by private firms to analyze the effects of several currently discussed labor market reforms on the Spanish...

This paper aims to shed additional light on the existence of opportunistic and partisan political-business cycles in the Brazilian economy over the 1996-2016 period. To that end, it relies on two different approaches: (I) an Oaxaca model in the spirit of Blinder and Watson (2016); and (II) a...

This paper studies the macroeconomic implications of oil price shocks and the extant fuel subsidy regime for Nigeria. To do this, we develop and estimate a New-Keynesian DSGE model that accounts for pass-through effect of international oil price into the retail price of fuel. Our results show...

While conventional monetary policy maintains its role in counteracting inflation, there are doubts that it is sufficient to guard against the risks of financial instability. It has been debated whether monetary policy should lean against the wind, i.e., if central banks should also respond to...

This paper reconsiders the narratives surrounding Japan's economic performance since the 1980s in relation to the experiences of the U.S. and the Eurozone. There are important differences between these three economies and some striking parallels. It is found that the poor reputation of the Bank...

The global financial crisis and the ensuing criticism of macroeconomics have inspired researchers to explore new modeling approaches. There are many new models that deliver improved estimates of the transmission of macroeconomic policies and aim to better integrate the financial sector in...

We evaluate the direct employment effect of the public investment in key infrastructure - electricity, roads, schools and hospitals, and water and sanitation. Using rich firm-level panel data from 41 countries over 19 years, we estimate that US$1 million of public spending on infrastructure...