Boom-bust cycles in real estate markets have been major factors in systemic financial crises and therefore need to be at the forefront of macroprudential policy. The geographically differentiated nature of real estate market fluctuations implies that these policies need to be granular across...

The extended period of limited growth experienced until recently in many European countries raises the issue as to which policies could be most effective in improving their economic performance. This paper argues that further financial sector reforms may be a valuable complement to ongoing...

Die Massenarbeitslosigkeit beherrscht die aktuelle politische Diskussion in Deutschland und ist in hohem Maße verantwortlich für die zunehmende Verschlechterung der Finanzsituation der Systeme der sozialen Sicherung. Die gesetzliche Arbeitslosenversicherung wird auch als eine der Ursachen für...

We model the impact of bank mergers on loan competition, banks' reserve holdings and aggregate liquidity. Banks compete in a differentiated loan market, hold reserves against liquidity shocks, and refinance in the interbank market. A merger creates an internal money market that induces financial...

Four years after the introduction of the euro, this paper provides an overview of the current structure and integration of the euro area financial systems and related policy initiatives. We first compare the euro area financial structure with that of the United States and Japan. Using new and...

In this note we demonstrate that in affine models for bilateral exchange rates, the nature of return interdependence during crises depends on the tail properties of the fundamentals' distributions. We denote crisis linkages as either strong or weak, in the sense that the dependence remains or...

Kapitalvorschriften und die Regulierung von Wechselkursrisiken: Theoretische Betrachtungen und jüngste Entwicklungen in den Industrieländern Kapitaladäquanzvorschriften, wie sie vom Basel-Komitee für Bankaufsicht entwickelt wurden, sind nahezu ein internationaler Standard der prudentiellen...

This paper provides a broad empirical examination of the major currencies' roles in international capital markets, with a special emphasis on the first year of the euro. A contribution is made as to how to measure these roles, both for international financing as well as for international...

We model the impact of bank mergers on loan competition, reserve holdings and aggregate liquidity. A merger creates an internal money market that affects reserve holdings and induces financial cost advantages, but also withdraws liquidity from the interbank market. Loan market competition...