It is a matter of debate in how far credit ratings contribute to allocative efficiency or to excessive volatility of asset prices and cross-border capital flows. Yet it is generally taken for granted that ratings play a significant role in the transnationalization of financial relations. This...

The author shows with pooled OLS estimations based on transport margins from international social accounting data that investments in improved road infrastructure have the potential to significantly reduce transport costs. However, this result can only be clearly confirmed for industrial...

This paper studies the impact of financial openness on the size of government, and other key economic variables, such as the consumption-wealth ratio, the growth rate of wealth, and welfare, in a two-country world, based on a portfolio approach, assuming that public spending is...

Most studies on Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) focus on the impact of their expansion through inward or outward foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. However, divestments are quite common among the operations of MNEs. In order to derive their effects, we have built a computable general...

In this study, the main purpose is to analyze the factors that stimulate the probability of financial crises. The period of analysis covers the years of 1970-2008, thereby including the impact of recent global financial crisis. The analysis aims to make a comparison for the developed and...

[Concluding remarks] The financial crisis has rendered conventional monetary policy (of major central banks) powerless. Unconventional monetary policy, in the form of forward guidance and quantitative easing, has taken center stage. Recent moves in financial markets have challenged the notion...

Die Finanzlage der Sozialversicherung hat sich in den Jahren 2010 und 2011 vor allem infolge des kräftigen Aufschwungs stark verbessert. Der Budgetüberschuss betrug im Jahr 2011 rund 15 Mrd. Euro, nach einem Defizit in Höhe von 15 Mrd. Euro im Jahr 2009 (Statistisches Bundesamt 2012). Es...

Der Euroraum steckt in einem Dilemma zwischen ordnungspolitischen Anforderungen an eine langfristig stabile Währung auf der einen Seite und systemischen Risiken bei Einhaltung dieser Anforderungen auf der anderen Seite. Dieses Dilemma hat Anlass für Spekulationen gegen einzelne Staaten des...

In contrast to academic recommendations monetary authorities all over the world intervene on the foreign exchange market to actively manage the exchange rate. Particularly in the aftermath of the global financial crisis the exchange rate is abused by some countries in a currency war to...