In the wake of the recent European debt crisis, the European Central Bank (ECB) has grown significantly in importance. As the crisis worsened, especially in the southern countries of the euro area, the ECB was forced to take measures which went far beyond its monetary policy operations in normal...

The German economy is following a moderate upward trend. At 0.7 per cent, growth in the second quarter was strong compared to the first quarter, but this development was overstated by special effects. In the course of the next quarters production accelerates. In the coming year, growth will...

The recent financial crisis has exposed the fragility of the banking sector to sudden withdrawals of wholesale funding, asset price declines and market dry-ups. Governments and central banks had to step in to prevent major banks from defaulting. These events led to renewed interest in the...

How do banks choose their debt maturity structure when credit markets are subject to information frictions? This paper proposes a model of equilibrium maturity choice with asymmetric information and endogenous roll-over risk. We show that in the presence of public signals about firms'...

The question of whether monetary policy should target asset prices remains a contentious issue. Prior to the 2007/08 financial crisis, central banks opted for a wait-and-see approach, remaining passive during the build-up of asset price bubbles but actively seeking to stabilize prices and output...

Bank liability guarantee schemes have traditionally been viewed as costless measures to shore up investor confidence and stave off bank runs. However, as the experience of some European countries, most notably Ireland, has demonstrated, the credibility and effectiveness of these guarantees is...

Bank debt guarantees have traditionally been viewed as costless measures to prevent bank runs. However, as recent experiences in some European countries have demonstrated, guarantees may link the coordination problems of bank and sovereign creditors and induce a functional interdependence...

Exportüberschüsse werden vielfach als positiver Indikator für die Leistungsfähigkeit und internationale Konkurrenzfähigkeit einer Wirtschaft begriffen. Zugleich wird gerade Entwicklungsländern, aber ebenso manchen Industriestaaten, eine exportfundierte Wachstumsstrategie bescheinigt. Auch...

Bank liability guarantee schemes have traditionally been viewed as costless measures to shore up investor confidence and prevent bank runs. However, as the experiences of some European countries, most notably Ireland, have demonstrated, the credibility and effectiveness of these guarantees are...