The impact of euro Area monetary policy on Central and Eastern Europe

We document how the impact of monetary surprises on euro-area and US financial markets has changed from 1999 to date. We use a definition of monetary policy surprises, which singles out movements in the long-end of the yield curve — rather than those changing nearby futures on the central bank reference rates. By focusing only on this component of monetary policy, our results are more comparable over time. We find a hump-shaped response of the yield curve to monetary policy surprises, both in the pre-crisis period and since 2013. During the crisis years, Fed path-surprises, largely through their effect on term premia, account for the impact on interest rates, which is found to be increasing in tenor. In the euro area, the path-surprises reflect the shifts in sovereign spreads, and have a large impact on the entire constellation of interest rates, exchange rates and equity markets.

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Financialization and Income Inequality in Selected European Countries, 2004–2013

e-Finanse ◽

10.1515/fiqf-2016-0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 20-32

Author(s):

Grzegorz Golebiowski ◽

Piotr Szczepankowski ◽

Dorota Wisniewska

Keyword(s):

Income Inequality ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Gini Coefficient ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Value Added ◽

European Countries ◽

Total Employment ◽

The Gini Coefficient ◽

Synthetic Indicator ◽

The Impact

Abstract The article examines the impact of financialization on income inequality between 2004 and 2013, through a panel analysis of seven European countries. Moreover, it attempts to examine differences in the perception of the phenomenon between the selected European countries belonging to the G-7 and countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The results demonstrate the existence of individual effects, which means that the level of inequality under examination is influenced predominantly by country-specific factors. The most significant correlation is noticeable between the level of unemployment and the degree of income inequality. An increase in unemployment is accompanied by a rise in the disproportions in the level of income that individual citizens have at their disposal whereas a decrease in the unemployment level contributes to an improvement of the GINI coefficient. Simultaneously, the results confirm the existence of significant correlations between the level of the GINI coefficient and such financialization indicators as the share of employment in finance in total employment and the contribution of the financial sector to total value added creation. The most prominent dependency was discovered when a constructed synthetic indicator was adopted as an indicator of financialization. At the same time, analysis of the synthetic country financialization indicator points to a conclusion that the level of financialization is higher in European countries belonging to the G-7 (especially Great Britain) than in countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

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