The book summarises the results of a research agenda pursued by Eurosystem staff to enhance the set of tools used to conduct the ECB's monetary analysis and describes how these results are used to support the preparation of monetary policy decisions. The book is in two main parts. The first part...

Standard methods for constructing error bands around impulse response functions consider them in isolation, neglecting the estimation uncertainty that arises across variables and time horizons due to the joint nature of the underlying structural parameters. For example, one approach to assessing...

We study the application of approximate mean field variational inference algorithms to Bayesian panel VAR models in which an exchangeable prior is placed on the dynamic parameters and the residuals follow either a Gaussian or a Student-t distribution. This reduces the estimation time of possibly...

This paper proposes methods for estimation and inference in multivariate, multi-quantile models. The theory can simultaneously accommodate models with multiple random variables, multiple confidence levels, and multiple lags of the associated quantiles. The proposed framework can be conveniently...

We derive restrictions for Granger noncausality in Markov-switching vector autoregressive models and also show under which conditions a variable does not affect the forecast of the hidden Markov process. Based on Bayesian approach to evaluating the hypotheses, the computational tools for...

The Euro Plus Pact was approved by 23 EU countries in March 2011 and came into force shortly afterwards. The Pact stipulates a range of quantitative targets meant to strengthen cost competitiveness with the aim of preventing the accumulation of external financial imbalances. This paper uses...

This paper follows the Bayesian time-varying VAR approach with stochastic volatility developed by Primiceri (2005), to analyze whether the reaction of output and prices to interest rate and exchange rate shocks has changed across time (1996-2012) in the Polish economy. The empirical findings...