There is a broad consensus that the quality of the political system and its institutionsare fundamental for a country’s prosperity. The paper focuses on political events inItaly over the past 35 years and asks whether the adoption of the euro in 1999 hashelped insulate Italy’s financial...

We consider a simple extension of the basic new-Keynesian setup in which we relaxthe assumption of frictionless financial markets. In our economy, asymmetricinformation and default risk lead banks to optimally charge a lending rate above therisk-free rate. Our contribution is threefold. First,...

In the ECB's Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) for the fourth quarter of 2024, expectations for headline HICP inflation were largely unchanged from the previous survey (conducted in the third quarter of 2024), although expectations for 2025 were revised downwards slightly. Headline...

In the ECB's Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) for the fourth quarter of 2024, expectations for headline HICP inflation were largely unchanged from the previous survey (conducted in the third quarter of 2024), although expectations for 2025 were revised downwards slightly. Headline...

Motivated by the linkage between credit and growth in the Greek economy, and the deceleration of credit since the financial crisis, this paper studies the evolution of credit demand and supply in Greece. A disequilibrium model of demand and supply is estimated spanning the period 2003M1-2011M3....

This paper examines how credit market frictions affect optimal monetary policy and if there is a role for central bank asset purchases. We develop a sticky price model where money serves as the means of payment and ex-ante identical agents borrow/lend among each other. The credit market is...

We investigate the empirical relationship between product market competition and prices in the retail grocery sector in the euro area. The study uses micro-data from ACNielsen on chain stores' census characteristics and price levels for a broad variety of products. We construct...