Many economists monitored the developments that led to the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 with concern. The course and depth of the crisis, however, came as a surprise to many. This paper discusses whether there are structural deficits in economic research which prevent a deeper analytical...

This paper evaluates the role of fair value accounting in recent financial crisis, and examines whether the call for its demise is justified. Critics argue that fair accounting regulation added to the volatility in financial markets and aggravated financial crisis. On the other hand, supporters...

The aim of this paper is to assess the consequences of banking crises for public debt. Using an unbalanced panel of 154 countries from 1980 to 2006, the paper shows that banking crises are associated with a significant and long-lasting increase in government debt. The effect is a function of the...

This paper analyzes the ongoing international macroeconomic crisis and compares it with the Great Depression of the 1930s. It also discusses whether the government’s financial support program will be enough as to ensure the return to economic normality after the crisis is contained. The paper...

Why have economists had so little meaningful to say about the 2008 crises? Where and when did the 'science' get off the track? Can anything be done to restore respectability to Economics as a useful area of inquiry? This short essay examines these questions.

On September 3-4, 2009 SUERF and Utrecht University School of Economicsorganized the Colloquium "The Quest for Stability" in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium.

We investigate the information content of aggregate stock market liquidity and ask whether it may be a useful realtime indicator, both for financial stress, and real economic activity in Norway. We describe the development in a set of liquidity proxies at the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) for the...

The maturity of the operational target of monetary policy is a distinguishing feature of the SNB's operational framework of monetary policy. While most central banks use targets for the overnight rate to signal the policy-intended interest rate level, the SNB announces a target range for the...

In order to understand the peculiarities of Ukraine’s monetary and exchange policies relative to the 2008-2009 crisis, one should refer to the period following this country’s outcome of the previous crisis of 1998-1999. That comparatively distant past has a direct relation to what is...