We assess the role of national fiscal policies, as automatic stabilizers, within a monetary union. We use a two-country New Keynesian DGE model which incorporates non-Ricardian consumers (as in Galì et al. 2004) and a home bias in the composition of national consumption bundles. We find that...

We estimate forward-looking interest-rate reaction functions Exchange Rate Model for four ERM countries. Reputational factors and convergence to the German inflation rate are found to be the main policy goals. We cannot detect evidence that the target zone band was exploited to implement...

This study investigates the empirical relationship between unemployment and growth in a number of OECD economies. A structural time series model is used for labour productivity growth to demonstrate that, in most economies, there seems to be a negative correlation between unemployment and labour...

Using U.S. quarterly data we provide VAR evidence showing that a positive productivity shock leads to a persistent decrease in the unemployment rate and in the price markup, together with an increase in aggregate profits. In response to the shock the labor share of income decreases on impact and...

The recent financial crisis has stimulated theoretical and empirical research on the propagation mechanisms underlying business cycles, in particular on the role of financial frictions. Many issues concerning the interactions between banking and monetary policy forced policy makers to rede.ne...

This paper provides optimal labor and dividend income taxation in a general equilibrium model with oligopolistic competition and endogenous firms' entry. In the long run the optimal dividend income tax corrects for inefficient entry. The dividend income tax depends on the form of competition and...

The recent financial crisis has stimulated theoretical and empirical research on the propagation mechanisms underlying business cycles, in particular on the role of financial frictions. Many issues concerning the interactions between banking and monetary policy forced policy makers to redefine...

It has been argued that rule of thumb consumers substantially alter the determinacy properties of simple interest rate rules and the dynamics of an otherwise standard New-keynesian model. In this paper we show that nominal wage stickiness helps re-establishing standard results. Key findings are...