The recent Great Recession has renewed interest in the role of financial markets and credit in the economy, as well as in the boundaries of monetary, macroprudential and fiscal policies that impact macroeconomic developments and may influence business cycles. In the first two chapters of this...

This paper argues that incorporating information about the financial cycle is important to improve measures of potential output and output gaps. Conceptually, identifying potential output with non-inflationary output is too restrictive. Potential output is seen as sustainable; yet experience...

There is no consensus about the causes of the reduction in business cycle volatility seen in many major economies over the last decade. Using stylised models of the economies of the US, Euro area, UK and Japan, we argue that economic stability has been fostered by improved monetary policy and by...