The fall in risk free interest rates since the 1980s has mostly been described as being induced by factors that push down interest rates from the demand side. This paper contributes to the literature by adding a view of the supply side, namely that interest has to be earned first, before it can...

This paper makes three main points. Fiscal policy, first, may be needed in the long run to maintain full employment and avoid secular stagnation. If fiscal policy is used in this way, second, the long-run debt ratio depends (i) inversely on the rate of growth, (ii) inversely on government...

This paper evaluates the domestic and international macroeconomic effects of purchases of domestic long-term sovereign bonds by the Eurosystem. To this end, we calibrate a five-country dynamic general equilibrium model of the world economy. According to our results, the sovereign bond purchases...