The objective of this article is to compare the outcomes of fiscal coordination under a narrow and a broad agenda in the European Monetary Union (EMU). The EMU (narrow) approach to fiscal coordination will lead to higher volatility of interest rates, output, inflation and average budget deficits...

The empirical evidence testing the validity of the Rational Partisan Theory (RPT) has been mixed. In this article, we argue that the inclusion of other macroeconomic policies and the presence of an independent central bank can partly contribute to explain this inconclusiveness. This article...

Sometimes two variables Y and Z are each cointegrated with another variable X, but Y and Z do not appear to be cointegrated with each other. This article provides a possible explanation why this might happen.

Central banks often intervene secretly in the foreign exchange market. This secrecy seems to be at odds with the signalling channel. In this article we will analyse when a central bank intervening in the foreign exchange rate market purely through the signalling channel would prefer to act...

The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) aims at reducing the deficit bias and inducing fiscal policy co-ordination in EMU. This article shows that, under positive (demand or supply) shocks, average deficits and interest rates with fiscal co-ordination can be higher than without co-ordination, thus...

Sometimes two variables Y and Z are each cointegrated with another variable X, but Y and Z do not appear to be cointegrated with each other. This article provides a possible explanation why this might happen.