This article questions the model of central bank independence by considering the mainstream empirical literature that purports to correlate central bank independence with lower inflation rates. The studies, conducted mostly prior to the 2008 financial crisis, mimic the flaws in the risk...

The credit risk exposure of the German banking system is growing again after the 2009 peak and its subsequent reduction. This column comments it through the lens of the Target2 net balances in connection with the capital flows experienced by the Eurozone (EZ) balance of payments. Several aspects...

Global financial institutions play an important role in channeling funds across countries and, therefore, transmitting monetary policy from one country to another. In this paper, we study whether such international transmission depends on financial institutions' business models. In particular,...

In this paper, I develop a two-country general equilibrium model with financial frictions to study the global consequences of quantitative easing (QE) and foreign exchange reserve accumulation. In the model, the key financial frictions are limited commitment and differential pledgeability of...

Foreign driven medium-term oscillations that originate from fluctuations in technological frontier countries gained widespread attention among policymakers. To study this phenomenon in the context of domestic and other foreign drivers of the euro area business cycle, we develop a medium-scale,...

The Greek sovereign debt crisis has raised some important issues, not only with regard to the effectiveness of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as an optimal currency area, but also as to whether or not a member state should exit the euro zone in the face of unsustainable debt problems,...

We analyze the role of government intertemporal budget policies in a growing open economy including nominal assets in the presence of an upward sloping supply of debt. This introduces transitional dynamics that influence the effects of government policy instruments on the long term fiscal...

This paper examines two explanations for the recent spate of complaints about cross-border monetary policy spillovers and calls for international monetary policy coordination, a development that contrasts sharply with the monetary system in the 1980s, 1990s and until recently. The first...

This paper examines the fiscal and monetary policy options available to China as a sovereign currency-issuing nation operating in a dollar standard world. We first summarize a number of issues facing China, including the possibility of slower growth, global imbalances, and a number of domestic...