We study the effects that the Maastricht Treaty, the creation of the ECB, and the Euro changeover had on the dynamics of European business cycles using a panel VAR and data from 10 European countries—seven from the Euro area and three outside of it. There are changes in the features of...

This Paper examines the properties of G-7 cycles using a multicountry Bayesian panel VAR model with time variations, unit specific dynamics and cross country interdependences. We demonstrate the presence of a significant world cycle and show that country specific indicators play a much smaller...

We examine the relationship between institutions, culture and cyclical fluctuations for a sample of 45 European, Middle Eastern and North African countries. Better governance is associated with shorter and less severe contractions and milder expansions. Certain cultural traits, such as lack of...

This paper describes a methodology to estimate the coefficients, to test specification hypotheses and to conduct policy exercises in multi-country VAR models with cross unit interdependencies, unit specific dynamics and time variations in the coefficients. The framework of analysis is Bayesian:...

We study the issue of income convergence across countries and regions with a Bayesian estimator which allows us to use information in an efficient and flexible way. We argue that the very slow convergence rates to a common level of per-capita income found, e.g., by Barro and Xavier...

This paper examines the relationship between the equity premium and the risk free rate at three different maturities using post 1973 data for a panel of 7 OECD countries. We show the existence of subsample instabilities, of some cross country differences and of inconsistencies with the...