We study the effects of the world economic crisis which began in 2007 on the Italian productive system. National accounts data are supplemented with information gathered in spring 2009 from the Bank of Italy’s survey on industrial and service firms, and from interviews with about 70 of their...

Since the financial crisis in 2007–08, central bank balance sheets in advanced economies have expanded significantly. This expansion has not led to inflation risks (at least not to date), but it has raised concerns about financial stability, which have been especially vocal in the euro area....

Financial shocks generate a protracted and quantitatively important effect on real economic activity and financial markets only if the shocks are both negative and large. Otherwise, their role is quite modest. Financial shocks have become more important for economic fluctuations after the 2000...

Financial shocks represent a major driver of fluctuations in tail risk, defined as the 5th percentile of the forecast distributions of output and inflation. Since the variance and the asymmetry of the forecast distributions are largely driven by the left tail, financial shocks turn out to play a...