This study gives a critical assessment of the existing empirical literature on central bank independence and inflation. From a cross-sectional analysis of the 15 EU-member states it is concluded, that central bank independence does not significantly reduce inflation if the effect of taxation and...

This paper analyses the optimal degree of flexibility under a Lucas type convex Phillipscurve. As a benchmark, we first analyse optimal monetary policy with a linear Phillipscurve and persistent cost-push shocks. As in Svensson (1997a), a central banker who possesses private information and who...

This paper presents forecasts for eight European Union member states for the years 1998 and 1999 based on the macroeconomic structural model EUROMON of the Nederlandsche Bank. In the baseline projection the economic effects of a fall in Asian economic growth resulting from the financial-economic...

Foreign subsidiaries account for a significant part of output in many industrialised countries. However, compared to international trade, relatively little is known about the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational firm behaviour in the transmission of disturbances from one...

This study considers the optimal regulation of a single bank that has private information on the intrinsic quality of its loan portfolio (adverse selection) and where the bank's choice of effort to improve this quality cannot be observed by the banking regulator (moral hazard). In designing...

In a dynamic framework banks compete for customers by setting lending conditions for the loans they supply, taking into account the capital adequacy requirements posed by the regulator. By easing its lending conditions a bank faces a tradeoff between attracting more demand for loans, thus making...

In this paper, a new method is introduced to predict currency crises. The method models a continuous crisis index, based on depreciations and reserve losses. The fact that during currency crises, the behaviour of market participants differs from normal circumstances is modelled by means of model...

This paper investigates the effect of the external wealth position of the Netherlands on the Dutch trade balance. Contrary to intuition which allows net creditors to run a trade deficit, the Netherlands has over a period of years be running trade surpluses. To explain this paradox, not unique to...

This paper provides a survey of the economic literature on immigration. We first give an impression of immigration in the Netherlands in 1500-1960, followed by a discussion of the long term economic consequences of the mass migration preceding Word War I. We then discuss some literature which...

This paper presents evidence that a higher degree of product market competition leads to a permanently lower inflation rate. Among a broad set of possible candidate variables, the indicator for product market competition used in this paper (the markup) is superior in explaining inflation...