Macroeconomic adjustment programmes in the euro area: an overall assessment

Since the start of EMU (Economic and Monetary Union), the euro area, and more broadly the global economy, experienced an unprecedented credit boom. The expansion of credit was particularly strong in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus and all of them subsequently needed official financial support. In each of the four programmes, financial assistance has been provided and promised against the commitment of each country to fulfil certain economic policy conditions contained in the macroeconomic adjustment programme. In general, a macroeconomic adjustment is a process driven by policies but also by changes in private spending behaviour (consumption, imports, investment) and improvement in competitiveness that countries are required to undertake after a large shock. In the case of the four countries, the shock emerged as a consequence of an excessive accumulation of imbalances in different parts of the economy: in the public sector in Greece, in the housing and banking sectors in Ireland, external imbalances in Portugal and in the banking sector in Cyprus. The paper looks at the feasibility of the fiscal adjustment comparing the macroeconomic conditions in the four countries and emphasising the role of the fiscal multipliers in the process. It also assesses the fall in the output in a comparative framework, stressing the role played by the different components of demand either in amplifying the effect of the fiscal consolidation or in offsetting it. In addition, it considers formulation of the programmes as well as their implementation with most attention devoted to reforms aiming at improving competitiveness, growth and employment in the framework of a cross-country approach.     

Money demand in the euro area: new insights from disaggregated data

Conventional money demand specifications in the euro area have become unstable since 2001. We specify a money demand equation in deviations of individual euro area Member States variables from the euro area average and show that the income elasticity as well as the interest rate semi-elasticity remain stable. The corresponding deep parameters of the utility function have not changed fundamentally. Aggregate money demand instability does therefore not result from altered standard factors determining the preference for holding money. Instead, other factors determine the aggregate monetary overhang. Since monetary developments cannot easily be explained by changing preferences, they should be closely monitored as they may actually be a sign of other factors.     

The enlargement of the euro area: what lessons can be learned from EMU?

This paper investigates what lessons may be learned from EMU for the enlargement of the euro area. It examines the situation of present and prospective EU countries in respect of nominal and real convergence. It suggests that fulfilling the EMU criteria consistently over the next few years will require huge efforts by prospective EU countries, with important output and employment losses. The possibility that present EU countries would have to bear part of these costs cannot be ruled out, with the risk of provoking tensions within the EU, in particular as regards the ‘one-size-fits-all’ monetary policy decisions of the ECB.     

Environmental policy and convexity of climate change damage functions: an experiment with New Keynesian DSGE model

International Economics and Economic Policy - The paper seeks out to investigate how varying degree of convexity of climate change damage function affect economic output and the dynamic response of...     

Sectoral and aggregate estimates of the cyclical behavior of markups: Evidence from Germany

Sectoral and Aggregate Estimates of the Cyclical Behavior of Mark-ups: Evidence from Germany. — The paper presents evidence of the cyclical behavior of the price to marginal cost ratio for Germany. Average markups are estimated both for two-digit manufacturing industries and for the aggregate economy, the results being quite similar once the difference between gross output and and value-added markups is accounted for. Over the business cycle, markups appear to be countercyclical for most parameter constellations. This is interpreted as empirical support for business cycle theories that rely on aggregate demand shocks to affect markups inversely, thus producing procyclical real wages and productivity without having to assume technology shocks.     

Oil price shocks and the current account: An analysis of short run adjustment measures

Zusammenfassung ?lpreisschocks und Leistungsbilanz: Eine Analyse der kurzfristigen AnpassungsmaΒnahmen. — Der Aufsatz befa?t sich mit einer groΒen Gruppe von Entwicklungsl?ndern, die kein Roh?l f?rdern und die zur Finanzierung ihrer Leistungsbilanzdefizite haupts?chlich auf internationale Beh?rden oder eigene Reserven angewiesen sind. Unglücklicherweise hatten viele dieser L?nder bereits eine schwache Reserveposition, als die letzte Welle von ?lpreiserh?hungen begann, was auf den ?lpreisschock von 1973/74 und die anschlieΒende weltweite Rezession zurückzuführen ist. Deshalb verwenden wir hier ein Modell, in dem keine Kapitalmobilit?t, aber feste Wechselkurse vorausgesetzt werden. AuΒerdem wird angenommen, daΒ das betreffende Land für importierte Fertigwaren Preisnehmer ist, dagegen auf seinem Exportmarkt eine gewisse Monopolstellung besitzt. Untersucht werden die Auswirkungen eines ?lpreisschocks auf Produktion, Preise, Investitionen und Leistungsbilanz, auΒerdem verschiedene MaΒnahmen zur Anpassung der Leistungsbilanz (Geld-, Wechselkurs- und Handelspolitik) sowohl unter der Annahme flexibler als auch starrer Reall?hne.

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Résumé Chocs de prix pétrolier et la balance des paiements courants: une analyse des mesures d’ajustements à court terme. — L’article s’occupe d’un grand nombre des PVD non-pétrole qui principalement dépendent d’agences officielles ou de leurs réserves comme source de financer des déficits dans leurs balances des paiements courants. Malheureusement, beaucoup de ces pays avaient eu peu de réserves au commencement de la période récente des chocs de prix pétrolier comme résultat des événements de 1973/74 et de la suivante récession mondiale. En conséquence, l’auteur ne suppose aucune mobilité de capital, mais un régime des taux de change fixes. Il suppose de plus que le pays ne peut pas influencer le prix pour les produits finis importés, mais qu’il a quelque pouvoir de monopole sur ses marchés d’exportations. Les conséquences directes d’un choc de prix pétrolier sur la production, les prix, l’investissement et la balance des paiements courants sont analysés aussi bien que plusieurs mesures d’ajuster cette balance (la politique monétaire et commerciale et la politique du taux de change) en supposant que des salaires réels soient flexibles ou rigides.

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Resumen Shocks de precios del petroleo y la cuenta corriente: un análisis de medidas de ajuste de corto plazo. — El artfculo se ocupa de un amplio grupo de paises en desarrollo no productores de petróleo que dependen de agencias oficiales o rèservas propias como fuente de financiamiento para dèficits de cuenta corriente. Desafortunadamente, muchos de estos paises ingresaron al periodo corriente de shocks del petroleo con una dèbil posici?n de rèservas, como resultado de los acontecimientos de 1973/74 y la recesión mundial sobreviniente. Por lo tanto, en el modelo nosotros suponemos que no hay movilidad de capital, pero un règimen cambiario fijo, y que el pais adopta los precios en el mercado de bienes finales importados, pero tiene algún poder monopólico en su mercado de exportación. Se analizan los efectos de impacto de un shock del petróleo sobre el producto, precios, inversiones y cuenta corriente como tambièn varias medidas de ajuste de cuenta corriente (politica monetaria, politica cambiaria y polftica comercial) bajo el supuesto de salarios reaies flexibles y rigidos.

     

Bank capital shocks and portfolio risk: Evidence from Japan

Despite the downward trend of land prices and the ex post low return on real estate loans, Japanese banks increased their lending to the real estate sector during the 1990s. We argue that this phenomenon can be explained by the risk-shifting incentives of banks and discover that banks with low capital-to-asset ratios and low franchise value chose high-risk assets such as real estate loans. Unlike previous studies, we show that the capital–risk relationship is non-linear and changes from positive to negative as franchise value falls. We also find that a capital adequacy requirement did not prevent risk-taking behavior of under-capitalized banks since they then just issued more subordinated debts to meet this requirement. In contrast, government capital injections led banks to reduce risky loans at the margin. Recapitalization by issuing subordinated debts helped banks recover their capital losses and mitigated the credit crunch, but consequently allowed them to increase their exposure to the real estate sector and worsened the bad loan problems.     

The euro crisis and crisis management: big lessons from a small island

Following an overview of the economics of the current financial crisis, and the phenomenon of the Irish ‘Celtic Tiger’, this article argues that the current Irish-crisis and purported Euro-crisis are specific examples of the failure of banks internationally to exercise appropriate prudential care when making loans to both individuals and governments. The policy issue is thus one of banking supervision rather than the exclusion, or otherwise, of crisis nations from the Euro-zone. Thus international banks which uncritically purchased bonds from reckless banks and profligate governments must share the adjustment costs associated with the current crisis.     

Macroeconomic effects of financial stress and the role of monetary policy: a VAR analysis for the euro area

This paper analyses an otherwise standard macro-financial VAR model for the euro area that includes - apart from conventional measures of output, inflation and monetary policy - a composite indicator of systemic financial stress, namely the CISS index, and total assets of the ECB balance sheet capturing the stance of unconventional monetary policy. I find that the CISS contributes significantly to the dynamics of the macroeconomy and exerts a strong influence on monetary policy when looking at both policy rates and the ECB balance sheet. The significance of the CISS appears robust to the inclusion of a broad set of real and financial control variables. Based on tests of direct versus indirect (Granger-)causality patterns proposed in Hsiao (1982), I also find that unlike unconventional policy as measured by ECB balance sheet growth, the policy rate does not seem to react directly to variations in financial stress but rather indirectly through the impact of financial stress on macroeconomic conditions. These different patterns of reaction are broadly consistent with the ECB’s “separation principle”. The estimated effects of the ECB’s standard and non-standard policy measures on inflation and economic growth are moderate, although an easier stance in both policy tools helps calm down financial stress.     

Fiscal policy in an optimizing model with finite lives and endogenous labour supply

Summary In this paper the impact of balanced budget, money-financed and bond-financed fiscal policy is analyzed, in the short run as well as in the long run. The analysis is based on an optimizing model of a closed economy that displays perfect foresight of agents and sticky wages and prices. Consumers have finite planning horizons modeled according to the Blanchard-Yaari framework. Labour supply is endogenized by including leisure in the utility function. Labour scarcity is also allowed for. The results are illustrated by numerical simulation experiments.List of symbols A financial wealth - B stock of bonds - c actual consumption - c _d demand for consumption goods - c _s supply of consumption goods - D dividend - E equity - F government budget deficit - g government expenditures - H human wealth - i actual investment (excluding installation costs) - i _d demand for investment goods (excluding installation costs) - j actual investment - j _d demand for investment goods - j _s supply of investment goods - k capital stock - l actual employment - l _d notional demand for labour - l _k Keynesian demand for labour - l _s supply of labour - M money stock - P _l nominal wage - P _y price - q Tobin'sq - R nominal interest rate - T lump-sum tax - u instantaneous utility - U lifetime utility - W total wealth - y actual production - y _d demand for goods - y _l labour constrained supply of goods - y _s notional supply of goods     

National and international spillovers from R&D: Comparing a neoclassical and an endogenous growth approach

National and International Spillovers from R&;D: Comparing a Neoclassical and an Endogenous Growth Approach.— Two models where productivity growth is caused by spillovers from R&;D are analyzed using a sample of nine manufacturing industries in six large OECD countries between 1979 and 1991. The first model is based on traditional productivity analysis, the second model on the endogenous growth theory. The empirical results indicate stronger support for the latter. The results suggest that spillovers from R&;D exist within industries, both nationally and internationally, confined to industries that are relatively R&;D-intensive. There is, however, little evidence of spillovers between industries. Finally, FDIs seem to facilitate the diffusion of R&;D results, but the authors do not find any effect on growth from R&;D embodied in intermediate products. JEL no. O32, O40     

Regional specialization and shocks in Europe: Some evidence from regional data

Regional Specialization and Shocks in Europe: Some Evidence from Regional Data. —The authors address the issue of the European Monetary Union (EMU), focusing on a comparison between EC countries and EC regions. They identify a number of homogeneous economic regions and show that in the period 1978–1989 asymmetric shocks in Europe have been regional rather than national. This derives from the fact that regional specialization in Europe is strongly diversified. They argue that cross-border regional diversification can cushion the net effects of differentiated sectoral shocks, reducing national instability. In addition, the costs of EMU associated with the loss of the exchange rate are likely to be smaller than usually thought.     

Exchange rate shocks and the current account under monopolistic competition: An intertemporal optimization model

This paper examines the current-account effect of a devaluation in a Chamberlinian model where both saving and investment are based on intertemporal optimization. It shows that devaluation tends to deteriorate the current account along the time horizon, leading to a reduction of the stock of foreign assets permanently. In contrast to recent work, these real effects do not rely on short-run disequilibrium in the goods or labor market. Besides, a temporary devaluation may generate hysteresis effects on both micro- and macro-economic aspects of a small economy.     

Income diversification before and after economic shocks: evidence from urban and rural Zimbabwe

The article examines changes in income and activity diversification in Zimbabwe before and after macroeconomic policy changes and the droughts of the early 1990s. Data from two comparable national surveys straddling a period of economic volatility show that the percentage of households earning income from private and informal sources grew considerably, while income from government and formal sources declined. In general, rural households tend to have a more diversified portfolio of income than urban households, and the degree of income diversification decreases with the level of urbanisation. Following the shocks, there was a marked reduction in income diversification, notably among the poor. The findings thus strengthen the need for public provision of well-designed safety nets.     

Social security wealth and aggregate consumption: An extended life-cycle model estimated for The Netherlands

Summary In this paper a method is developed to calculate a wealth variable accounting for the existence of the basic old-age provisions in The Netherlands (AOW). In line with Feldstein's extended life-cycle model, consumption functions with (gross) social security wealth are estimated for The Netherlands for the period 1957–1986. The marginal propensity to consume social security wealth is statistically significant in the applied specifications. The data favour the use of an age- and period-dependent discount rate. The results compare relatively well with the consumption equations in the models of the Central Planning Bureau and De Nederlandsche Bank.this paper improved considerably thanks to comments of members of the Department of Macro-Economics (University of Amsterdam) and the anonymous referee(s) of this journal. Special thanks to Hans Amman for letting me write my own computer program!     

Welfare gains from taxation in an open economy: Applied general equilibrium results

This paper uses a general equilibrium trade model with an endogenous labour supply to analyze the effects of changes in domestic taxes. When an open economy has some sectors with scale economies, domestic tax increases may increase social welfare by causing productivity gains which more than compensate for the deadweight welfare loss of taxation.     

(De-)Stabilizing two-country macroeconomic interactions in an estimated model of the U.S. and the Euro Area

In this paper a semi-structural macroeconomic model based on gradually adjusting wages and prices and hybrid, cross-over inflation expectation formation is analyzed and estimated with aggregate data of the U.S. and the Euro Area. Besides comparing, among other things, the determinants of the wage- and price inflation dynamics in both economies, the role of different macroeconomic transmission channels for the stability of the two-country system is investigated.     

Inflation in developing Asia: pass‐through from global food and oil price shocks

The world economy experienced a sharp spike in food and oil prices during 2007 and 2008. In light of developing Asia's dependence on imported oil and food, we can expect higher global food and oil prices to result in higher domestic consumer prices in the region. However, the actual impact of the global commodity shocks on consumer price inflation in developing Asia depends on a number of other factors, including government policy measures. The objective of this paper is to examine empirically the extent of the pass‐through of global food and oil prices to domestic consumer prices in nine countries in the region. The main empirical result is that the magnitude of the pass‐through has been limited. Government policy measures, for example, subsidies and price controls, played a role in reducing or delaying the pass‐through of oil and food price increases to domestic prices.     

Is there a direct effect of money?: Money’s role in an estimated monetary business cycle model of the Japanese economy

In this paper, to study the alternative monetary transmission mechanism to the traditional interest rate channel which may even work under zero nominal interest rates, we estimate the monetary business cycle model of the Japanese economy that incorporates the direct role of money. Estimation is conducted on the system of equations in a state-space form via maximum likelihood estimation. We, however, find that the direct effect of money is extremely small in Japan. This finding is the same as those obtained for the U.S. in Ireland [Ireland, P., 2004. Money’s role in the monetary business cycle. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 36, 969–984] and the Euro area in Andres et al. [Andres, J., Lopez-Salido, D., Valles, J., 2001. Money in an Estimated Business Cycle Model of the Euro area. Working Paper 121, Bank of Spain].