The aim of this paper is to assess the consequences of banking crises for public debt. Using an unbalanced panel of 154 countries from 1980 to 2006, the paper shows that banking crises are associated with a significant and long-lasting increase in government debt. The effect is a function of the...

This paper analyzes the ongoing international macroeconomic crisis and compares it with the Great Depression of the 1930s. It also discusses whether the government’s financial support program will be enough as to ensure the return to economic normality after the crisis is contained. The paper...

Why have economists had so little meaningful to say about the 2008 crises? Where and when did the 'science' get off the track? Can anything be done to restore respectability to Economics as a useful area of inquiry? This short essay examines these questions.

On September 3-4, 2009 SUERF and Utrecht University School of Economicsorganized the Colloquium "The Quest for Stability" in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium.

We investigate the information content of aggregate stock market liquidity and ask whether it may be a useful realtime indicator, both for financial stress, and real economic activity in Norway. We describe the development in a set of liquidity proxies at the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) for the...

The maturity of the operational target of monetary policy is a distinguishing feature of the SNB's operational framework of monetary policy. While most central banks use targets for the overnight rate to signal the policy-intended interest rate level, the SNB announces a target range for the...

In order to understand the peculiarities of Ukraine’s monetary and exchange policies relative to the 2008-2009 crisis, one should refer to the period following this country’s outcome of the previous crisis of 1998-1999. That comparatively distant past has a direct relation to what is...

The paper is particularly valuable in content by addressing the whole spectrum of issues faced by the world states in 2009, because of the financial crisis. The paper will present the risks taken by the world states in 2009. Then it will present several measures to combat the financial crisis...

In the 1990s the world economy was hit by a series of unusually deep crises with far-reaching consequences, the first of which occurred in Finland and Sweden. This paper compares the cost of the crisis of the 1990s with the costs caused by all major crises and depressions since the 1870s in the...

This study presents the main features of the Swedish approach for resolving the banking crisis of 1991-93 by condensing them into seven policy lessons. The main features of the Swedish approach to the banking crisis of 1991-93 concern political unity, a government blanket guarantee, swift policy...