This paper studies two aspects of the behaviour of provincial relative prices in Spain: the relevance and the nature of provincial inflation divergences and relative price shifts. Inflation differentials are found to be small (the range is less than half point per year in the long-run), but...

Empirical evidence shows that fixed exchange rates do not provide more fiscal discipline than flexible regimes, despite the fact that, in principle, fixing the exchange rate imposes important restrictions on seignoriage revenues. A more detailed analysis of seignoriage allows to explain the...

Global macroeconometric models can be a powerful tool for economic analysis and forecasting in various scenarios. This paper analyses the NiGEM model and its application to the euro area, placing particular emphasis on the study of the relative situation of the member countries' economies. The...

Over the last decade economic integration has advanced in both areas, and this has been seen as an opportunity for real convergence in Latin America and in the European periphery. But our approach emphasises that integration has to be supplemented by macroeconomic stability and structural...

Exchange rates in Latin America display a large volatility, constitute a central element of the policy strategies and their evolution have an important impact on financial stability due to the dollarization of liabilities which most countries exhibit. However, assessments on equilibrium exchange...

Fixing the exchange rate stabilises inflation and reduces monetary seignoriage, a key source of financing under the fiscal dominance hypothesis. However, the link between fixed exchange rate regimes and fiscal discipline in emerging markets has been found to be weak. This paper thoroughly...

This paper explores the impact of actual exchange rate regimes on fiscal discipline, which we purportedly link to the effect of announcing the peg and to the availability of external funds. To stress this point, the focus of the analysis is emerging markets spanning from the beginning of the...

In recent years, for most emerging markets, public debt has decreased and its composition has evolved toward domestic currency. This progress is remarkable in terms of reduced financial vulnerability, which has been underpinned by favourable financing conditions and related deepening of local...

New EU members share two very marked features which have conflicting implications for the evolution of their real exchange rates in the long run: accelerated growth and systematic current account imbalances, which would anticipate, respectively an appreciation and a depreciation of their...

This paper assesses whether domestic costs of reserve accumulation - and in particular monetary costs - constitute an eventual limit to the process in emerging markets. We find that sterilization is the first measure to deal with these costs. Then, we turn to study whether diminishing ability to...