There is a mounting discontent in Europe about the conduct of macroeconomic policy in the euro area and especially its policy mix, in the broad sense of the term – the combination of monetary policy, fiscal policy and structural reforms. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the weak...

Economic theory tells us that even when mainly concerned with price stability, a central bank should target economic activity. This because on one side the effects of monetary policy on prices pass through economic activity, and on the other economic activity is a good indicator of expected (and...

Under high inflation, money experiences a process of institutional fragmentation: the unit of account and the unit of payment are split and transferred on alternate supports, either a foreign currency as for instance in Argentina, or domestic indices as in Brazil. Since the early 1970s’, this...

Almost all observers agree: diplomatic relations between the United States, France and Germany are in crisis. Awkward political maneuvering and faux pas on both sides have aggravated what has now clearly a fundamental rift. While the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung maintains a dossier on “the...

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The author looks at the OECD domestic political economy associated with ongoing WTO farm negotiations, focusing on the OECD-based coalitions which could be helpful for WTO negotiators. Support from individual final consumers and taxpayers is far from guaranteed because consumers are spending...

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A large part of group differences in wages comes from unobserved or unverifiable characteristics such as the intensity of human capital investments on-the-job. This is notably the classical argument to account for gender differentials.We build a framework in which training decisions are...