In light of persistent inflation dispersion and high debt levels in the EMU, this paper investigates the desirability of budget-neutral fiscal policy rules that respond to the domestic inflation differential. The paper employs a two-country DSGE model of a monetary union with traded and...

The paper reviews adjustment dynamics in the EMU on the basis of estimated DSGE models for four large EA Member States (DE, FR, IT, ES). We compare the response of the four countries to identical shocks and find a particularly strong response of employment and wages in ES, a high sensitivity of...

This paper explores the Balassa-Samuelson effect in a New-Keynesian DSGE model of a monetary union with traded and non-traded goods. Credible sets for theoretical impulse response functions show that a model with perfect intersectoral labour mobility is unable to reproduce an appreciation of the...

We estimate a panel VAR model for the euro area to quantitatively asses the contribution of the TARGET2 system to the propagation of different types of structural economic shocks as well as to the historical evolution of aggregate economic activity in euro area member countries. Our results...

This paper studies Ramsey-optimal monetary and fiscal policy in a New Keynesian 2-country open economy framework, which is used to assess how far fiscal policy can substitute for the role of nominal exchange rates within a monetary union. Giving up exchange rate flexibility can result in high...

We analyse the welfare properties of progressive income taxes in a stylized DSGE model of a currency union calibrated to the Eurozone. When the central bank follows a standard Taylor rule and volatility originates solely in productivity shocks, we find that considerable welfare gains can be...

Within currency unions, according to the pre-crises consensus, countries can rely on fiscal policy to stabilize economic activity locally. Monetary policy's role, in turn, is to stabilize economic activity at the union level. Against this background, we reassess the optimal degree of fiscal...