On 28-29 March 2003, the BIS held a conference on Monetary stability, financial stability and the business cycle. This event brought together central bankers, academics and market participants to exchange views on this issue (see the conference programme and list of participants in this...

This paper considers the scope for demand management policies to reduce the present high levels of European unemployment. While the evidence suggests that contractionary demand shocks are partly to blame, the presence of endogenous persistence mechanisms limit the scope for effective activist...