This paper surveys the capacity of simple macroeconomic models - ”three easy pieces” - to account for persistent and positive valuations of privately issued assets based on the blockchain. Each of these three models - transactions demand for a means of payment, consumption-based capital...

By any measure, the European Monetary Union and the European Union are in a deep hole. In the summer of 2011 we came uncomfortably close to an uncontrolled sovereign default of an EU country, a member of the European Monetary Union, hardly ten years after the common currency project was...

Evaluating real convergence or divergence in the EU is challenging because it is diffi cult to fi nd an appropriate counterfactual or comparison benchmark, or to formulate one. Should we compare the status quo with convergence that would have been obtained had the European Union (EU) never...

Aggregate labor productivity is a central indicator of an economy’s economic development and a wellspring of living standards. Somewhat controversially, many macroeconomists see productivity as a primary driver of fluctuations in economic activity along the business cycle. In some countries,...