The global financial and economic crisis has revived the debate in the academic literature and in policy circles about the size and effectiveness of automatic fiscal stabilisers. Especially in the euro area where monetary policy is centralised and discretionary fiscal policy making is...

Summary for non-specialistsThis paper uses a multi-region dynamic general equilibrium model with collateral constrained households and residential investment to examine the effectiveness of fiscal policy. The presence of credit constrained households makes fiscal policy a more powerful tool for...

This empirical essay reviews post-crisis integration in banking and insurance. Looking at aggregate data, we find that cross-border banking flows have been reversed, in particular into the CESEE and peripheral counties (Portugal, Ireland and Greece). But data at the individual firm level for...

There has been an ongoing trend towards increasing internationalisation of production over the past two decades or so. This implies that countries become more dependent on demand from foreign countries but also that countries and industries are able to source intermediates from different...

The measurement of quality is a difficult task given that quality typically is an unobserved product characteristic. In this paper we develop a new “Quality Indicator” based on a structural model with an identifiable quality parameter. We follow the methodology proposed by Di Comité, Thisse...

This paper estimates the impact of fiscal consolidation on unemployment and job market flows across EU countries using a recent database of consolidation episodes built on the basis of a “narrative” approach (Devries et al., 2011). Results show that the impact of fiscal consolidation on...

This paper presents and evaluates pharmaceutical policies in the EU aimed at the rational use of medicines and at keeping pharmaceutical spending under control. Policy makers are growing more aware that by regulating pharmaceutical markets correctly, considerable savings can be achieved without...

This paper provides a method for identifying when rising house prices are in danger of becoming bubbles on the verge of bursting. As a result, it is a first step towards establishing an early warning system for house price changes that could help prevent important welfare costs. By examining...

Whilst it is generally accepted that a shift of taxation from labour to consumption has positive effects on employment and is growth enhancing, such a policy reform is often not pursued due to equity considerations. In this paper we challenge these considerations by arguing that a fiscal...

This paper uses the European Commission’s QUEST macroeconomic model to analyse the impact of structural reforms on economic activity in an environment in which the zero bound on monetary policy rates is temporarily binding. The simulations suggest that although such reforms can have a negative...