Helvi Kinnunen and Pasi Kuoppamäki examine the sustainability of public finances in Finland and the four main euro area countries. The analytical framework is based on intertemporal budget dynamics. The paper shows that, in spite of the increase in age-related expenditure, the policies implicit...

We know that euro-area member countries have absorbed asymmetric shocks in ways that are inconsistent with a common nominal anchor. Based on a reformulation of the gravity model that allows for such bilateral misalignment, we disentangle the conventional trade cost channel and trade effects...