Italy’s Economic Policy in the Age of the Euro

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-189
Author(s):  
Salvatore Zecchini
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Social Resistance ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Business Cycle

Abstract Italy’s participation in the EMU entails majors shifts in its economic policy approach, involving the full spectrum of policy domains, and not just the monetary area alone. The author presents an overview of the main changes, highlighting a number of critical issues that have emerged. Italy’s need for higher growth over the business cycle can hardly be met through a unified monetary policy that is attuned to the requirements of the larger and more developed part of the Eurozone. Extensive constraints stemming from EMU on fiscal policy and other adjustment tools leave die country no choice but to press ahead with far-reaching reforms of its structures and markets. But progress in this direction is hampered by social resistance and inadequate mechanisms to ease adjustment costs. Under these conditions, the partial policy co-ordination stemming from EMU raises for Italy problems of sustainability over the longer term, especially in prolonged phases of stagnation or recession.

scholarly journals Taxes and the Structure of Production

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Block
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Interest Rate ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Time Preference ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
Austrian Business Cycle ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
The Interest Rate ◽  
Structure Of Production

Abstract In Austrian theory, the business cycle is caused by expansive monetary policy, which artificially lowers the interest rate below equilibrium rates, necessarily lengthening the structure of production. Can tax alterations also cause an Austrian business cycle? Only if they affect time preference rates, the determinant of the shape of the Hayekian triangle. It is the contention of this paper that changes in taxes possibly can (but need not) impact time preference rates. Thus there may be a causal relation between fiscal policy and the business cycle, but this is not a necessary connection, as there is between monetary policy and the business cycle. This is contentious, since some Austrians argue that there is a praxeological link between tax policy and time preference rates.

scholarly journals Cyclical Fluctuation, Growth, and Stabilization: An Empirical Investigation of Dual Policy Objectives in Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richmond Sam Quarm ◽  
Mohamed Osman Elamin Busharads
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Money Supply ◽  
Macroeconomic Policy ◽  
Output Growth ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Business Cycle

In conventional economics, two types of macroeconomic policy i.e. fiscal policy and monetary policy are used to streamline the business cycle. This paper has examined the cyclical behavior of these variables over the business cycle of Bangladesh. The objective of this examination is to show whether policies (fiscal policy and monetary policy) in Bangladesh are taken with a motive to stabilize the economy or only to promote economic growth. In other words, it has examined whether the policies in Bangladesh are procyclical or countercyclical or acyclical. Hodrick Prescott (HP) filter has been used to separate the cyclical component of considered variables. Both correlation and regression-based analysis have provided that in Bangladesh government expenditure and interest rates behave procyclically, but money supply behaves acyclically over the business cycle. Besides, this paper has tried to identify the long-term as well as the short-term relationship between real GDP and the macroeconomic policy variables with the help of the Johansen cointegration test, vector error correction model (VECM), and block exogeneity Wald test. Through these analyses, this study has found that fiscal policy has a significant impact on GDP growth both in the short-run and long-run. In the case of monetary policy, although the interest rate has an impact on real output both in the short-run and long-run, the money supply has neither a short-run nor long-run effect on output growth.

Fiscal Multipliers and Their Relevance in a Currency Union – A Survey

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Illing ◽  
Sebastian Watzka
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Currency Union ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
Fiscal Multipliers ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Business Cycle

Abstract The article reviews the debate on government spending multiplier and provides a detailed discussion of the underlying economic mechanisms, focusing on the role of the state of the business cycle and the monetary policy reaction. Special emphasis is on the effects of fiscal policy within a currency union and its implications for the euro crisis.

scholarly journals QUADRATIC LABOR ADJUSTMENT COSTS, BUSINESS CYCLE DYNAMICS, AND OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 464-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Lechthaler ◽  
Dennis J. Snower
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
New Keynesian ◽  
Optimal Monetary Policy ◽  
Labor Adjustment Costs ◽  
Keynesian Model ◽  
Labor Adjustment ◽  
Output Persistence ◽  
The Business Cycle

We build quadratic labor adjustment costs into an otherwise standard New Keynesian model of the business cycle and show that this increases output persistence in a vein similar to that of other models of labor market frictions. Furthermore, we demonstrate the implication of quadratic labor adjustment costs for monetary policy. We show that there is a simple rule determining whether quadratic labor adjustment costs imply a trade-off between stabilizing inflation and output.

scholarly journals Pushing on a String: US Monetary Policy Is Less Powerful in Recessions

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvana Tenreyro ◽  
Gregory Thwaites
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Resource Utilization ◽  
Monetary Policy Shocks ◽  
Business Investment ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Policy Shocks ◽  
The Business Cycle

We investigate how the response of the US economy to monetary policy shocks depends on the state of the business cycle. The effects of monetary policy are less powerful in recessions, especially for durables expenditure and business investment. The asymmetry relates to how fast the economy is growing, rather than to the level of resource utilization. There is some evidence that fiscal policy has counteracted monetary policy in recessions but reinforced it in booms. We also find evidence that contractionary policy shocks are more powerful than expansionary shocks, but contractionary shocks have not been more common in booms. So this asymmetry cannot explain our main finding. (JEL E21, E22, E32, E52)

scholarly journals Cyclical Fluctuation, Growth, and Stabilization: An Empirical Investigation of Dual Policy Objectives in Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakil Ahmmed ◽  
◽  
Jonaed Jonaed
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Money Supply ◽  
Macroeconomic Policy ◽  
Output Growth ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Business Cycle

In conventional economics, two types of macroeconomic policy i.e. fiscal policy and monetary policy are used to streamline the business cycle. This paper has examined the cyclical behavior of these variables over the business cycle of Bangladesh. The objective of this examination is to show whether policies (fiscal policy and monetary policy) in Bangladesh are taken with a motive to stabilize the economy or only to promote economic growth. In other words, it has examined whether the policies in Bangladesh are procyclical or countercyclical or acyclical. Hodrick Prescott (HP) filter has been used to separate the cyclical component of considered variables. Both correlation and regression-based analysis have provided that in Bangladesh government expenditure and interest rates behave procyclically, but money supply behaves acyclically over the business cycle. Besides, this paper has tried to identify the long-term as well as the short-term relationship between real GDP and the macroeconomic policy variables with the help of the Johansen cointegration test, vector error correction model (VECM), and block exogeneity Wald test. Through these analyses, this study has found that fiscal policy has a significant impact on GDP growth both in the short-run and long-run. In the case of monetary policy, although the interest rate has an impact on real output both in the short-run and long-run, the money supply has neither a short-run nor long-run effect on output growth.

scholarly journals Business cycle synchronization and monetary policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bankarstvo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-20
Author(s):  
Dragan Jović
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Great Part ◽  
Currency Board ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Discretionary Monetary Policy ◽  
New Instruments

By adopting the currency board at the end of the last century, and by pegging its exchange rate to the Euro, a quarter of a century ago, Bosnia and Herzegovina surrendered a great part of its monetary policy in the hand of European Central Bank in the hope that the synchronization of the business cycle will make foreign monetary policy completely suitable for Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time during these two decades, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been developing and using reserve requirement and remuneration as discretionary instruments of monetary policy. The research shows that the domestic business cycle and the foreign one are relatively weakly synchronized compared to other countries' degree of synchronization, and by this findings current discretionary monetary policy and its further development and enrichment with new instruments is fully justified. Bosnia and Herzegovina must continue with developing its own discretionary monetary policy without relying on foreign monetary policy.

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