Nominal and real interest rates in advanced economies have been decreasing since the mid-1980s and reached historical low levels in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Understanding why interest rates have fallen is essential for both monetary policy and financial stability. This paper...

The debate on the underlying causes of the decline of interest rates to historically low levels is ongoing both in academia and among policy makers. Several explanations have been put forward, ranging from those citing real and structural factors to those underscoring the importance of cyclical...

Nominal and real interest rates in advanced economies have been decreasing since the mid-1980s and reached historical lows in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Understanding why interest rates have fallen is essential for both monetary policy and financial stability. This paper...

Should monetary policy be more aggressive or more cautious when facing uncertainty on the relationship between macroeconomic variables? This paper's answer is: “it depends” on the degree of persistence of the shocks that hit the economy. The paper studies optimal monetary policy in a basic...

This paper analyzes the operation of the Eurosystem's public and private assets purchases programmes for monetary policy purposes, quantifying the potential effect on the Italian economy. First we give an exhaustive account of the main transmission channels by which the purchases can be expected...

We explain why the macroeconomic effects of shocks to inflation of the same size, but opposite sign, are not necessarily symmetric. All in all, the costs of deflation and disinflation tend to exceed those of inflation due to the presence of constraints in the economy, namely the zero lower bound...

A prolonged period of low inflation, particularly in a situation of monetary policy rates near the zero lower bound, can heighten the risk of inflation expectations de-anchoring from the central bank objective. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of a sequence of deflationary...

We review the debate on the monetary and fiscal policy measures that were adopted in response to the pandemic shock in advanced economies, as well as others that could be taken in the near future, once the health emergency is over. The pandemic is an exceptional global health shock, which has...

The paper summarizes the debate about the proposed introduction of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). We place the CBDC in the wider context of the different types of money used in market economies. We explore the most important ideas on why economic agents use money, on the history of...