In this note, the authors present the outcomes of two unit root tests, which allow for the existence of a break in real GDP for twelve industrial countries, using data for the period 1870-1989. The authors conclude that in the majority of the countries real per capita GDP has no unit root and...

In this paper, the stationarity of aggregate output is examined using the scaled variogram for a sample of twelve countries. It is argued that if the true data generating process of output is stationary around a deterministic trend with a change in mean and/or growth rate, the results of...

Banks play a central role in the functioning of the economy. Not only do they allocate financial resources, they also collectively create money in the process of granting loans. In this way, they have a considerable impact on the type of activities that are financed in society. During the...

This paper reviews recent developments in the management of government debt in the euro area, covering both theoretical and practical aspects. It focuses on key aspects of debt management; the objectives of debt management, its organisation, the maturity of debt, inflation-indexation,...

We develop multivariate measures of synchronicity and co-movement of business cycles. In addition to synchronicity, the co-movement measure takes differences between cycle amplitudes into account that have been overlooked in most previous studies. We apply the new measures to the euro area....

Since the late 1980s, the Dutch economy has outperformed neighbouring countries in terms of employment and GDP growth. We argue that the recent growth performance of the Netherlands has primarily been the result of a correction of the belowaverage performance during the 1970s. This correction...

Using the quantile regression approach it is shown for a sample of 57 developing countries that the relationship between central bank independence and inflation over the period 1975--98 is not robust. Only in the higher quantiles do we find a significant relationship between independence and...