This paper investigates the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policies. It identifies an antigrowth bias in the bank's monetary policy approach: the ECB is quick to hike, but slow to ease. Similarly, while other players and institutional deficiencies share responsibility for the euro's...

We evaluate the Swedish inflation targeting regime adopted in 1993?1995 using a novel approach based on a unique data set on the characteristics of collective wage agreements between 1908 and 2008. We find that the inflation targeting regime of 1995?2008 stands out as an exceptionally stable...

Inflation targeting was adopted by several countries, including Sweden, in the 1990s. We evaluate the Swedish inflation targeting regime since 1995 using a novel approach based on a unique data set on the characteristics of collective wage agreements between 1908 and 2008. First, we establish...

Hard currency policy in Austria was striving for monetary stability and low inflation rates. At the same time, full employment was a dominant goal of economic policy which may be viewed as inconsistent with a negative Phillips curve relationship between inflation and unemployment. Causality...

High oil prices and politics periodically elicit calls for more U.S. oil exploration in ecologically sensitive areas, in particular, Alaska's ANWR coastal plain with its large reserves. Though ANWR survived untouched from the elections and high prices in 2008, President Obama's recent proposal...

We investigate whether joining the European Monetary Union and losing the ability to set monetary policy affected the economic growth of Eurozone countries. We use the synthetic control approach to create a counterfactual scenario for how each Eurozone country would have evolved without adopting...

We assess the real effects of a recent opening of the energy sector in Mexico to private investment. We look at one particular channel, which operates through the change in the structure of electricity generation in favor of cheaper sources of energy, such as natural gas. We look at the...

This paper investigates the (lack of any lasting) impact of John Maynard Keynes's General Theory on economic policymaking in Germany. The analysis highlights the interplay between economic history and the history of ideas in shaping policymaking in postwar (West) Germany. The paper argues that...

This paper assesses the real effects of the energy reform in Mexico by looking at its impact on manufacturing output through changes in energy prices. Using sub-sector and state-level manufacturing output data, along with past variation in energy prices, we find electricity prices - relative to...

This paper investigates the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policies. It identifies an antigrowth bias in the bank's monetary policy approach: the ECB is quick to hike, but slow to ease. Similarly, while other players and institutional deficiencies share responsibility for the euro's...