The founders of the Bretton Woods System sixty years ago were primarily concerned with orderly exchange rate adjustment in a world economy that was characterized by widespread restrictions on international capital mobility. In contrast, the rapid pace of financial globalization during recent...

Although Europe in the aggregate is a not a major contributor to global current account imbalances, its trade and financial linkages with the rest of the world mean that it will still be affected by a shift in the current configuration of external deficits and surpluses. We assess the...

Ireland's net external liability position expanded in dramatic fashion during 2008-2010, despite relatively small net financial flows during this period. Understanding the the source and persistence of this negative shock is critically important in assessing the future path for the Irish...

For the set of EMU member countries, we examine cyclical patterns in fiscal outcomes. We find that there is significant time variation in fiscal cyclicality, with an improvement in the wake of the Maastricht Treaty but a deterioration after the creation of EMU. Furthermore, we show that the...

This paper reviews the growth record of the member countries of the euro area and assesses the outlook for future economic performance. We describe how the external and fiscal adjustment challenges facing the euro periphery amplify the growth risks facing these countries. We address how growth...

This paper explores the contribution of international financial flows to the boom-bust-recovery cycle in Ireland. It finds that a nuanced interpretation is required, in that bank-intermediated debt inflows certainly contributed to the amplification of the property boom during 2003-2007 but that...

Asia came through the global financial crisis relatively well. At the same time, financial globalization means that Asia cannot be fully insulated from international financial shocks. Moreover, it is likely that the rest of the world will undergo a redesign of its international financial...

We study the impact of shocks to different types of government spending on the composition of sectoral output for a panel of EMU member countries. We find that fiscal shocks lead to an increase in the relative size of the nontraded sector. There is typically no significant impact on the level of...

What determines the composition of external liabilities, both across countries and over time? More specifically, which countries account for the massive increase in equity-like liabilities (foreign direct investment and portfolio equity), especially since the mid-1990s? The empirical analysis...

Ireland has participated in two currency unions - a bilateral union with the United Kingdom that lasted until 1979 and as a founder member of European Monetary Union that began in 1999. This paper investigates whether currency unions have influenced Irish trade patterns.