The aim of this paper is to assess the dimension of factors and shocks that drive financial conditions, and in particular financial stress in the euro area. A second aim is to construct summary indices on the…
While a widespread consensus exists among macroeconomists that the German labour market reforms in 2003-2005 have successfully contributed to the decline of the unemployment rate, critics claim that the reforms…
Private equity (PE) firms have long time emphasized their role as investors who create value in their portfolio companies. In this paper we analyze a key strategy of PE investors, the so-called buy-and-build…
This paper focuses on finding starting-values for maximum likelihood estimation of Vector STAR models. Based on a Monte Carlo exercise, different procedures are evaluated. Their performance is assessed w.r.t.…
This paper provides an explanation of why garbage as a measure of consumption implies a several times lower coefficient of relative risk aversion in the consumptionbased asset pricing model than consumption…
The financial and economic crisis has stressed the need for a better understanding of destabilizing effects, in particular arising from the financial sector, and how these may spill over to economic activity. In…
