We argue that if currency union member states have different potential output per capita, output growth rates, or trade balances, the common monetary policy may not be optimal for all of them. Euro area imbalances for potential output and for trade balances are quite large, while output growth...

The euro area crisis is often linked to the emergence of current account imbalances. As most of the deficit countries experienced pronounced credit booms at the same time that these imbalances were building up, this paper investigates the link between domestic credit developments and the current...

We examine the hypothesis that one of the fundamental factors behind the Euro Area (EA) crisis is the reversal of intra-EA capital flows between the ‘core' and ‘periphery' economies. We compile a data set on aggregate and disaggregate gross and net intra-EA flows between Germany and Greece,...

In this paper, we decompose the current account (CA) balance in 19 Euro area countries into cyclical and non-cyclical components. For the period 1999:Q1 to 2015:Q4, we compute income elasticities of imports and of exports via an alternative novel and improved approach by running time-varying...

We study the relationship between the government budget balance and the current account balance for Portugal, using quarterly data from 1999 to 2019. On the one hand, the causality tests find a unidirectional relation running from the current account balance to the government budget balance. On...

The paper analyses the role of fiscal and monetary policy for the development of the current account imbalances in the euro area, including the most recent developments during the coronavirus crisis. Several financial transmission channels such as international bank lending, changes in TARGET2...

This chapter surveys recent research on international financial crises. A financial crisis is characterized by a sudden, dramatic outflow of financial resources from an economy with an open capital account. This outflow may be primarily driven by the expectation of a large nominal devaluation,...

Im Januar 2002 wurden die neuen Euroscheine mit großen Hoffnungen verteilt, heute, nur zehn Jahre später, steckt das Europrojekt in einer tiefen Krise: Was als europäisches Friedensprojekt begann, hat zu Streit und Unwillen geführt, der nur durch den tiefen Griff in das Sparkonto der...