Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Climate change has become relevant for central banks worldwide, but they are adopting their instruments at different speeds. This article compares the reactions of the Eurosystem with those of the other EU central banks. Do these central banks differ in their efforts to make their own policies "greener"? The article argues that the options and constraints to react to climate change diverge between central banks.

The paper deals with the problems of coordination between monetary and fiscal policies in the Euro area. It examines how the existing institutions handle these problems and how the literature evaluates their working, deriving from these evaluations a proposal to reorganise them. The paper points out that there is a need for coordination between monetary and fiscal policies when both cyclical (short-run) and structural (long-run) problems are dealt with. Then it assesses how coordination is carried out under the existing institutional arrangements and identifies which parts of them, according to the existing literature, are in need of modification. Finally, on the basis of the content of this literature, it formulates a proposal to reform the institutional arrangements and the economic content of the Stability and Growth Pact, which aims at making them work effectively.

Using quarterly data for the period since 1987 this paper explores, in the context of a small model of the EU economy, the degree to which monetary policy has been asymmetric.It shows in particular that monetary policy has been much more responsive to threats that inflation would lie outside the price stability target than to equal sized shocks within the target zone. Similarly monetary policy has responded to threats of large positive and negative output gaps but has remained largely unresponsive to smaller divergences.It thus appears that the ECB and its predecessors have been avoiding 'fine-tuning' but have been aggressive in responding to substantial threats to macroeconomic stability.The action seems to have been stronger with respect to inflationary pressure than to deflation but this may offset any bias in fiscal policy.The asymmetric response of policy in part reflects considerable non-linearities and asymmetries in the behaviour of the euro area economies.High unemployment has relatively limited effect in pulling inflation down while low unemployment can be much more effective in driving it up.Economic downturns are both more rapid and sustained in driving unemployment up than recoveries are in bringing it down. There is considerable variety in these relationships and IS curves across countries, sectors and regions.Monetary policy reacts in the light of this.

The 2010 edition of OECD´s periodic review of the Euro area economy. This edition includes chapters covering exiting from the crisis, resolving unsustainable imbalances, rebuilding public finances and fiscal discipline and minimising risks from imblances in European banking.

For central banks, the monitoring of financing conditions plays a pivotal role in assessing the actual transmission of monetary policy impulses to borrowers. This paper presents in detail some of the indicators and data used by the ECB to assess financing conditions in the euro area. It also shows how these indicators have been used to provide a broad assessment of developments in financing conditions in the euro area in recent years. The ECB's analysis of financing conditions is dynamic and seeks to reflect underlying changes in the euro area's financial structure.