We apply the tradable-nontradable framework (T-NT) to evaluate the lack of convergence in labor productivity among EU Member States. Our results show that increases in overall productivity are primarily due to the tradable and not the nontradable sectors of production. The low productivity...

This report offers an extensive analysis of the effects of the EU Single Market. It sheds light on four interrelated aspects: It first reveals the asymmetric economic performance across member countries, which also mirrors structural differences. These differences in economic outcomes are next...

We develop a small-scale dynamic factor model for the Swiss economy allowing for non-linearities by means of a two-state Markov-chain. The selection of an appropriate set of indicators utilizes a combinatorial algorithm. The model's forecasting performance is as good as that of peers with richer...

We assess the role that nontradable goods play as a determinant of fiscal spending multipliers, making use of a two-sector model. While fiscal multipliers increase with the share of nontradable goods, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between multiplier size and the import share....

We study government spending multipliers of the UK economy using a time-varying parameter factor augmented vector autoregressive model (TVP-FAVAR) over the period 1966:Q1-2015:Q4. We show that government spending multipliers vary over time and that most of the variation is cyclical: multipliers...

Die österreichische Bundesregierung hat für den 19. Mai 2021 umfangreiche COVID-19-Öffnungsschritte angekündigt. Diese betreffen unmittelbar tourismusnahe Aktivitäten, den Bereich der Gastronomie sowie den Veranstaltungs- und Kulturbereich. In diesem Bericht wird ein Versuch unternommen,...

We study fiscal spending multipliers of the UK economy using a time-varying parameter factor augmented vector autoregressive (TVP-FAVAR) model. We show that government spending multipliers vary over time and that most of the variation is cyclical: multipliers are typically above one in...

We construct a composite index to measure real activity of the Swiss economy on a weekly frequency. The index is based on a novel high-frequency data-set capturing economic activity across distinct dimensions over a long-time horizon. An adequate adjustment of raw data prior to deriving the...