We compare welfare levels under two alternative fiscal rules: a procyclical balanced budget policy and an acyclical structural surplus (government accumulates assets). We use a dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium model. The acylical rule benefits households that do not enjoy access to...

Depending on how it is structured, the introduction of a European unemployment insurance within the euro area could make a significant contribution to stabilizing economic developments. This even applies to a relatively small-scale system (based on the volume of transfers) with a maximum...

This paper examines the sources of Australia's business cycle fluctuations focusing on the role of international shocks and short run stabilization policy. A VAR model identified using robust sign restrictions derived from an estimated structural model is used to aid the investigation. The...

It is often claimed that the presence of liquidity constrained households enhances the need for and the effects of fiscal stabilization policies. This paper studies this in a model of a small open economy with liquidity constrained households. The results show that the consequences of liquidity...

The global economy has a chronic shortage of safe assets which lies behind many recent macroeconomic imbalances. This paper provides a simple model of the Safe Asset Mechanism (SAM), its recessionary safety traps, and its policy antidotes. Safety traps share many common features with...

This paper proposes an optimal strategy for stabilizing macroeconomic policy to address jointly the effects of changes in the prices of food, minerals and energy (oil). Our approach differs from the general literature, which analyzes the effects of a commodity boom and therefore the solutions in...

We show that welfare can be lower under complete financial markets than under autarky in a monetary union with home bias, sticky prices and asymmetric shocks. Such a monetary union is a second-best environment in which the structure of financial markets affects risk-sharing but also shapes the...

We show that the welfare costs of business cycles in a monetary union can be higher under incomplete financial markets than under complete markets. A monetary union with home bias, sticky prices and country-specific shocks is a second-best environment in which the structure of financial markets...

A European transfer system could contribute to a stabilization of the euro area by synchronizing business cycles in the monetary union, thereby simplifying the common monetary policy. Such a system is suggested here in the form of a European unemployment insurance system. Compared to other forms...

Depending on how it is structured, the introduction of a European unemployment insurance within the euro area could make a significant contribution to stabilizing economic development. This even applies to a relatively small-scale system (based on the volume of transfers) with a maximum...