This paper integrates the contributions to a forthcoming volume of the same title by the authors. The volume analyzes and empirically examines linkages between the real and financial variables that themselves link open economies-- quot;linkagequot; thus has a double meaning. Two types of...

In this paper, we investigate changes in the impacts of world crude oil prices on domestic prices in Japan. First, we employ a time-varying parameter VAR (TVP-VAR) approach to confirm that the rate of pass-through of oil prices declined, both at the aggregate and sectoral levels, for the period...

The purpose of my paper is to empirically explore the validity of the relative version of purchasing power parity (PPP) for nine EU New Member States (NMS) using unit root and panel unit root frameworks. Three periods are considered: the period before NMS joined the EU (1995:01-2004:04), the...

In this paper, we present evidence on the statistical features of observed dispersion in inflation rates in the Euro area. Our descriptive exercise shows that there is still a remarkable dispersion of HICP inflation rates and most of dispersion originates in the non-traded categories of the...

Amid the recent commodity price gyrations, policy makers have become increasingly concerned in assessing to what extent oil and food price shocks transmit to the inflationary outlook and the real economy. In this paper, we try to tackle this issue by means of a Global Vector Autoregressive...

In this paper we investigate the effects of EU enlargement on price convergence. The internal market is expected to boost integration and increase efficiency and welfare through a convergence of prices in product markets. Two principal drivers are crucial to explain price developments. On the...

This paper demonstrates that, after integration, equity portfolios of countries that joined the European Monetary Union have converged at faster rate than those of NON EMU countries. This outcome can be interpreted as a combination of the convergence of inflation rates and the convergence of...

In this paper we analyse in a mark-up framework the pass-through of commodity price and exchange rate shocks to the main components of producer and consumer prices. Thereby we link movements in prices at the different production stages as firms set their prices as a mark-up over production...