This paper makes the first attempt to estimate the time-varying natural rate jointly with the output gap and trend potential output growth for the world as a whole using a simple unobserved components model broadly following the methodology developed by Laubach and Williams (2003). We find that...

Abstract Negative interest rates policies (NIRP), usually depicted in economic textbooks as an impossibility due to the prospect of infinite demand for money, are now a reality in several countries due to different reasons. But while the ZLB has been surpassed when it comes to Central Banks, it...

This legal contribution reflects on the changing role of central banks in the global economy by observing three interconnected developments: globalization, regionalization and the global financial crisis. The hypothesis at the outset is that these developments which are to a considerable extent...

On September 3-4, 2009, SUERF and Utrecht University School of Economics jointly organized the 28th SUERF Colloquium on "The Quest for Stability" in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The papers contained in this SUERF Study jointly published with DNB and Rabobank are based on contributions to this...

This paper investigates the relation between economic openness and the aggressiveness of monetary authorities to ensure price stability. In a sample of 114 countries for the period 1949-2001, we find that more open economies tend to have more aggressive monetary policies which results in less...

This paper analyzes the causes and implications of recent financial crises. Financial crises in general lead to changes in both theory and practice of economics. The paper takes an historical overview. The global consensus of economic theory during the 20th century is discussed. The paper...

The IMF began to play a prominent role in low-income countries in the late 1970s and 1980s when many countries faced overvalued exchange rates, growing budget deficits, high inflation, and low reserves. But times have changed, and many low-income countries no longer face these problems and do...

Following the reduced-form models of Duffee (1999) and Jarrow, Lando and Yu (2005), this study investigates the risk diversification issue of corporate bond portfolios. Considering especially long run market behavior, our empirical decomposition of corporate bond yield spreads indicates that the...

We provide an analysis of cash trends in Canada before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the pandemic period, we explore the implications on demand for, use of and access to cash. We find that cash demand has been strong pre-pandemic and increased sharply during the pandemic. While...