We analyze the feedback mechanisms between economic downturns and financial stress for several euro area countries. Our study employs newly constructed financial condition indices that incorporate banking variables extensively. We apply a non-linear Vector Smooth Transition Autoregressive...

Overleveraging of the banking sector has been considered as one of the main causes of the 2007-09 financial crisis and the subsequent great recession. It was also of major concern for the subsequent BIS regulatory policies resulting in Basel III and its request for higher capital requirements....

The path of output prior to the financial and economic crisis turned out to be not sustainable and lower than previously estimated in some European crisis countries. Specifically, the output gaps have been underestimated (and inversely potential output overestimated) before the recent crisis. It...

The financial and economic crisis has drawn attention to the need for a better understanding of destabilising effects that arise in the financial sector and spill over to the real economy. In turn, weakening economic conditions are likely to feed back to the financial sector, thus giving rise to...

This paper focuses on finding starting-values for the estimation of Vector STAR models. Based on a Monte Carlo study, different procedures are evaluated. Their performance is assessed with respect to model fit and computational effort. I employ (i) grid search algorithms and (ii) heuristic...

Reducing institutional rigidities in product and labour markets is key to lowering unemployment. The impact of such labour and product market reforms, however, depends crucially on the country-specific regulatory framework. In this paper, we estimate the country-specific impact of changes in six...

We focus on the influence of institutional variables on business cycle synchronisation for 20 OECD countries from 1979 to 2003. More precisely, this paper derives measures for similarity of institutions and structural reforms, and investigates direct and delayed reform effects on synchronisation...

Nachdem das vierte Quartal des vergangenen Jahres für eine konjunkturelle Abkühlung gesorgt hat, kehrt der Optimismus im neuen Jahr vorsichtig zurück. Stimmungsindikatoren deuten auf eine positive Wachstumsdynamik in den kommenden Monaten hin. Jedoch bleibt die Unsicherheit innerhalb der...

Seit dem Jahr 2002 erstellt das ZEW monatlich ein Konjunkturtableau, welches jeweils zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung auf www.zew.de und in der Börsen-Zeitung aktuelle Prognosen von Wirtschaftsforschungsinstituten, Banken und Versicherungen zu einer Art Konsensus-Prognose der...