The uncovered interest rate parity condition lies at the heart of the "impossible trinity", stating that the three objectives of fixed exchange rates, free capital flows, and independent monetary policy cannot be pursued simultaneously. We argue that although monetary unification does indeed...

On 5-6 September 2012 SUERF held its 30th Colloquium “States, Banks, and the Financing of the Economy” at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium. All the chapters in this publication discuss from different...

Central banks with an exchange rate objective set the interest rate in response to what they call ''pressure.'' Instead, existing interest rate rules rely on the exchange rate minus its target. To stay closer to actual policy, we introduce a rule that uses exchange market pressure (EMP), the...

On 5-6 September 2012 SUERF held its 30th Colloquium "States, Banks, and the Financing of the Economy" at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium. All the chapters in this publication discuss from different...

On 5-6 September 2012 SUERF held its 30th Colloquium “States, Banks, and the Financing of the Economy” at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium. All the chapters in this publication discuss from different...

We present a tentative estimate of a common risk free rate for the European Monetary Union countries from January 2004 to December 2010 using variables motivated by a theoretical portfolio selection model. In a first stage, we analyze the determinants of EMU sovereign yield spreads and find...

In this paper we analyze the convergence of interest rates in the European MonetarySystem (EMS) in a framework of changing persistence. This allows us to estimate the exact date of full convergence from the data. A change in persistence means that a time series switches from stationarity to...

We propose a common European bond which would yield a common European Monetary Union risk free rate. We present a tentative estimate of this common risk free for the European Monetary Union countries from January 2004 to December 2010 using variables motivated by a theoretical portfolio...

This paper applies multi-equation cointegration methodology to the short-term interest rate series of European Monetary System (EMS) member countries during the period from March 1979 to July 1998. The objective of the paper is to measure the degree to which the interest rates of EMS member...

We introduce "financial imperfections" -- asymmetric net wealth positions, incomplete risk-sharing, and interest rate spreads across member countries -- in a prototypical two-country currency union model and study implications for monetary policy transmission mechanism and optimal policy. In...