The degree of comovement of economic activity across states or regions is an issue of utmost importance to policymakers. Asymmetric business cycles are often seen as an impediment to the formation of a common currency area. However, it has been argued that a common monetary policy in itself...

The studies' main aim is to investigate the effects of the EU-10 enlargement on price convergence within the Internal Market. It distinguishes between the opposite forces provided by: (1) the catching up effect of the EU-10, expected to lead to a rise in price levels; and (2) increased...

In this paper we investigate the effects of EU enlargement on price convergence. The internal market is expected to boost integration and increase efficiency and welfare through a convergence of prices in product markets. Two principal drivers are crucial to explain price developments. On the...

A bifactor model of the unobserved common leading and coincident indicators with Markov switching, introduced via the common factor intercept term, is examined. The model has four regimes and the lag between the leading and coincident factors is reflected in transition probabilities matrix....

This paper shows that the ECB's monetary policy has a heterogeneous impact on the sectoral stock market indexes in the Euro Area. We show that the heteroskedasticity based approach of Rigobon (2003) should be preferred to the event study approach.

Die deutsche Wirtschaft ist zuletzt kaum vom Fleck gekommen. Nach der Winterrezession und einer Stagnation im zweiten Quartal geht es nun in Trippelschritten bergauf. Kräftigere Zuwächse der Löhne und Gehälter zusammen mit einer niedrigeren Inflation dürften den Startschuss für eine...

The German economy has returned to a recovery course following a slight recession over the winter. Although the war in Ukraine, record inflation, and feared gas shortages have taken their toll on the German economy, a drastic slump failed to materialize. The German economy remained relatively...

Following the winter recession and stagnation in the second quarter of 2023, the economic upswing is proceeding at a sluggish pace, contrary to expectations over the summer. Weak foreign demand and ongoing inflation have proven to be slowing economic growth. For the time being, private...