What accounts for inflation after 2008? We use the prominent pre-crisis Smets-Wouters (2007) model to address this question. We find that due to price markup shocks alone inflation would have been 1% higher than observed and 0.5% higher that the long-run average. Their standard deviation is...

The Economics of Monetary Union: the Theory of Optimum Currency Areas (OCAs) -- The Economic Rationale of Fiscal Rules in OCAs: The SGP and the EDP -- To Cope with Asymmetric Shocks in EMU: The Role of Labour Market Flexibility -- The Concept of Labour Market Flexicurity in the Eurozone -- The...

The prominent role of monetary policy in the U.S. interwar depression has been conventional wisdom since Friedman and Schwartz [1963]. This paper presents evidence on both the surprise and the systematic components of monetary policy between 1929 and 1933. Doubts surrounding GDP estimates for...