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Germany after Qualification for EMU: A Disaggregated Approach to the Analysis of Structural Public Finance Developments

In diesem Aufsatz wird die strukturelle Entwicklung der öffentlichen Finanzen in Deutschland nach der Qualifikation zur Währungsunion analysiert. Um die verschiedenen Einflüsse auf die Entwicklung der öffentlichen Finanzen zu unterscheiden und einzuordnen, wird eine erweiterte Version eines disaggregierten Ansatzes zur Konjunkturbereinigung von Haushaltssalden verwandt. Wir untersuchen außerdem die ...

Does the EMU Need a Fiscal Transfer Mechanism?

Die zentrale Frage des Aufsatzes lautet: Ob und wie kann eine zentrale Fiskalbehörde oder ein fiskalischer Transfermechanismus die fiskalpolitische Stabilisierung in der EWU verbessern? Dazu werden theoretische Argumente und empirische Evidenz präsentiert, die die These bestätigen, dass die gegenwärtige EWU nicht in der Lage ist, asymmetrische und symmetrische idiosynkratische Schocks zu verarbeiten.The ...

What Is behind the Real Appreciation of the Accession Countries' Currencies? An Investigation of the PPI Based Real Exchange Rate

In the paper, we calculate real equilibrium exchange rates (EER) for EU accession countries and compare these with the actual exchange rate movements since the mid-1990s. The real equilibrium exchange rates are derived from models of macroeconomic balance and tested for econometrically. It is found that productivity increases can be regarded as one source of the observed PPI-based real appreciation ...

Banking Crises, Regulation, and Growth: The Case of Russia

Recent empirical analyses of the relationship between financial system development and economic growth find that financial system development causes economic growth, is a good predictor of growth and that its impact is relatively large. Moreover, the empirical literature predicts that the adverse effects of banking crises on economic growth will rise in the absence of an adequate response by the government. ...

The Default Risk of Firms Examined with Smooth Support Vector Machines

In the era of Basel II a powerful tool for bankruptcy prognosis is vital for banks. The tool must be precise but also easily adaptable to the bank's objections regarding the relation of false acceptances (Type I error) and false rejections (Type II error). We explore the suitability of Smooth Support Vector Machines (SSVM), and investigate how important factors such as selection of appropriate accounting ...

Corporate Debt Maturity Choice in Transition Financial Markets

This paper investigates the determinants of liability maturity choice in transition markets. We formulate a model of firm value maximization that describes managers' choice of optimal debt structure. The theoretical predictions are tested using a unique panel of 4,300 Ukrainian firms during the period 2000-2005. Our estimates confirm the importance of liquidity, signaling, maturity matching, and agency ...

Quoted Spreads and Trade Imbalance Dynamics in the European Treasury Bond Market

Using high-frequency transaction data for the three largest European markets (France, Germany and Italy), this paper documents the existence of an asymmetric relationship between market liquidity and trading imbalances: when quoted spreads rise (fall) and liquidity falls (increases) buy (sell) orders tend to prevail. Risk-averse market-makers, with inventory-depletion risk being their main concern, ...

Driven by the Markets? ECB Sovereign Bond Purchases and the Securities Markets Programme

After the dramatic rescue package for the euro area, the governing council of the European Central Bank decided to purchase European government bonds - to ensure an “orderly monetary policy transmission mechanism”. Many observers argued that, by bond purchases, national fiscal policies could from now on dominate the common monetary policy. This note argues that they are quite right. The ECB has indeed ...

Four Decades of German Export Expansion - an Enduring Success Story?

Banking Crises in Transition Countries - Theory and Empirical Evidence: The Case of Russia

Das Papier gibt zunächst einen Überblick über die Ursachen und ökonomischen Kosten der Bankenkrise in Rußland, die im Jahr 1998 ausbrach. Eine Analyse des Verhaltens russischer Banken im Zeitraum 1998 bis 1999 zeigt, daß diese sich relativ konservativ bezüglich ihrer Kreditvergabe verhielten. Dies kann ein überraschendes Ergebnis sein aus folgenden Gründen: Die Bankenaufsicht hatte bisher eine relativ ...