This paper explores lock-in and lock-out via economic policy. It argues policy decisions may near-irrevocably change the economy's structure, thereby changing its performance. That causes changed economic outcomes concerning distribution of wealth, income and power, which in turn induces...

This paper uses the European Monetary Union (EMU) as a natural experiment to investigate whether more effective monetary policy reduces the persistence of inflation. Taking into account the fractional integration of inflation, we confirm that inflation dynamics differed considerably across Euro...

This paper uses the European Monetary Union (EMU) as a natural experiment to investigate whether more effective monetary policy reduces the persistence of inflation. Taking into account the fractional integration of inflation, we confirm that inflation dynamics differed considerably across Euro...

We argue that the characterization of the financial turmoil in the European Monetary Union as merely a sovereign debt crisis is inaccurate insofar as the deterioration of public finances represents the culmination of a process: legal and institutional flaws laid the ground for a public debt...