This paper uses the multivariate unobserved components model with phase shifts to analyse the interaction of interest rates, output, asset prices and credit in the US. We find close linkages amongst cyclical fluctuations in the variables.

We apply recent money illusion tests on data on individual life satisfaction from the Eurobarometer for the period 1980–2003. The null hypothesis of no money illusion cannot be rejected. Different nominal rigidities across European countries and EMU countries, specifically, cannot be explained...

Unemployment and inflation lower well‐being. The macroeconomist Arthur Okun characterized the negative effects of unemployment and inflation by the misery index—the sum of the unemployment and inflation rates. This paper makes use of a large European data set, covering the period...

Proposals for full reserve banking have been put forward as a radical way of preventing further financial crises. They rest on the argument that crises are caused by excessive money supply growth brought about by inadequately controlled bank credit creation. Our aim is to provide a critique of...

Purpose – Downward movements in house prices can exacerbate bank crises if mark‐to‐market methods of asset valuation are used by lenders to assess their current balance sheet exposure. There is an imperative to find methods of house price index calculation that reflect equilibrium prices...

This paper examines the time-series properties of house price to earnings ratio (HPER) in the UK using aggregate and regional data. Specifically, we utilise a series of unit root tests to examine the null hypothesis of nonstationary HPERs. These include linear tests as well as a nonlinear test...