In this paper we investigate the real effects of fiscal policy in Brazil during the 1995-2008 period by estimating a VAR model that explicitly takes into consideration the role of public debt in the determination of fiscal variables, as recommended by Favero and Giavazzi (2007). According to our...

This note argues that the solutions to the euro-area crisis proposed by the EU governing institutions in cooperation with the IMF, based on further austerity and wage cuts, will worsen the crisis. They are unlikely to reduce both sovereign and external debt ratios of countries experiencing these...

Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans, it accounts for 40% of the WAEMU's output, and 11% of its population are immigrant workers. Any political instability in the country will not only affect the domestic economy, but it will also affect the international...

This paper investigates the unemployment effects of fiscal policy in Greece based on the SVAR methodology. We find evidence that the unemployment and growth effects can be quite sizeable in case of cuts in government purchases and in particular government consumption and to a lesser extent...

Mit dem anstehenden Staatsanleihen-Kaufprogramm 'Outright Monetary Transactions' (OMT) der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) in Verbindung mit dem kürzlich eingesetzten Europäischen Stabilitätsmechanismus (ESM) hat das Thema 'monetäre Staatsfinanzierung' viel Aufmerksamkeit erfahren (z.B....

We show that the effects of inflation on growth change substantially as the inflation rate rises. Moreover the nonlinearities are quite different for industrial economies than for developing countries. We find that the threshold at which inflation first begins to seriously negatively affect...

Die Inflationsrate im Euroraum liegt seit knapp einem Jahr unterhalb der von der Europäischen Zentralbank angestrebten Zielmarke und wird voraussichtlich auch in der kommenden Zeit auf einem sehr niedrigen Niveau verharren. Zum einen steht eine solch geringe Inflation nicht im Einklang mit der...

Whenever unemployment stays high for an extended period, it is common to see analyses, statements, and rebuttals about the extent to which the high unemployment is structural, not cyclical. This essay views the Beveridge curve pattern of unemployment and vacancy rates and the related matching...

Since the end of the civil war, the Government of Sierra Leone has made substantial progress in strengthening public financial management. Improvements have been achieved across all aspects of the budget cycle and are particularly notable with regard to budget execution functions. The main...