We analyse the newly updated Stability Programmes of the Euro area governments by applying the simple accounting identity by which the financial balances of the government, the private sector and the foreign sector always sum to zero. While the focus of the old Stability and Growth Pact was...

It is generally held, from both a global and a European perspective, that the three most impor-tant objectives for the years to come are 1) the reduction of current account imbalances, 2) the reduction of public deficits, and 3) the reduction of unemployment. This paper argues that the Stability...

Infolge der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise sind insbesondere in den Ländern mit Leistungsbilanzdefiziten die Defizite der öffentlichen Haushalte empor geschnellt und die Staatsverschuldung ist stark gestiegen. Damit ist die Frage nach dem Umgang mit den Ungleichgewichten im Euroraum und mit...

Public debt has increased sharply during the financial and economic crisis. The European stability and growth pact could not have prevented this from happening. It follows that the institutional framework of the European Monetary Union is inadequate. Nonetheless, the current debate about...

Die Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise hat einen massiven Anstieg der staatlichen Verschuldung nach sich gezogen, ohne dass der europäische Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakt dies hätte verhindern können. Es ist offenkundig geworden, dass die bestehenden institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen für die...

Using the financial balances accounting identity, we analyze whether there is evidence in recent national accounting data and the projections of the Stability Programmes (SP), that the focus on fiscal deficits to the exclusion of other economic variables risks further deterioration of the euro...

We develop a three-country, stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model to study the effects of changes in both personal and functional income distribution on national current account balances. Each country has a household sector and a non-household (corporate) sector. The household sector is...

We analyse the link between income distribution and the current account through a descriptive analysis for the G7 countries and a series of panel estimations for the G7 countries and a larger sample of 20 countries for the period 1972-2007. We find that, firstly, rising personal inequality leads...