The paper reviews the policy response of major central banks during the 2007-08 financial market turbulence and suggests that there is scope for convergence among central bank operational frameworks through the adoption of those elements that proved most instrumental in calming markets. These...

We propose a new housing portfolio channel through which QE affects output. In response to QE, intermediaries rebalance portfolios from bonds to houses, lowering the return to saving and stimulating consumption and output. We study this channel empirically in a German housing boom without credit...

In this paper, I develop a two-country general equilibrium model with financial frictions to study the global consequences of quantitative easing (QE) and foreign exchange reserve accumulation. In the model, the key financial frictions are limited commitment and differential pledgeability of...

Advances in the development of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models towards medium-scale structural frameworks with satisfying data coherence have considerably enhanced the range of analytical tools well-suited for monetary policy evaluation. The present paper intends to make a...

No one seems to be neutral about the effects of EMU on the German economy. Roughly speaking, there are two camps: those who see the euro as the advent of a newly open, large, and efficient regime which will lead to improvements in European and in particular in German competitiveness; those who...

The European Central Bank is planning a gradual reduction of government bond purchases under the asset purchase program it initiated in 2015. The present study by the German Institute for Economic Research analyzes the potential macroeconomic implications of different exit strategies. The...

Crises have cleansing effects: Low-quality firms face greater financial shortfalls and invest less than high-quality firms. Public liquidity support preserves the overall production capacity. However, by dampening the cleansing effects, it distorts the quality distribution and reduces the total...

Faced with COVID-19 crisis, central banks have once again become one of the key players in the economies. The aim of this article is to analyse the actions of Central and Eastern European central banks within all their roles (monetary policy, micro-and macroprudential policy, deposit...

We provide an update on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic on the demand for cash and the use of methods of payment based on data from the Bank Note Distribution System and from consumer surveys conducted in April and August 2021. Our key findings are as follows: Cash in circulation remained high...

Consumer spending declined significantly during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This negative shock likely reduced spending across all methods of payment (cash, debit, credit, etc.). As well, the mix of payment methods that consumers use could also be affected. This paper is a first step in...