Search Results
Working Paper
Using vehicle taxes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions rates of new passenger vehicles: evidence from France, Germany, and Sweden
France, Germany, and Sweden have recently linked vehicle taxes to the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rates of passenger vehicles. France has introduced a system of CO2-based purchase taxes and subsidies, whereas Germany and Sweden impose annual circulation (i.e., registration) taxes that are linear functions of CO2 emissions rates. This paper (a) compares the effects of vehicle taxes on registrations and average emissions rates across countries and (b) estimates the effect of reducing CO2 emissions rates on manufacturers? profits. The taxes have had a significant negative short-run effect on ...
Speech
Opening remarks for the Transatlantic Economic Interdependence and Policy Challenges Conference
Remarks at the Transatlantic Economic Interdependence and Policy Challenges Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City.
Speech
The internationalization of national currencies, speech at the Comenius European Banking and Financial Forum, Czech National Bank, Prague, Czech Republic, March 27, 2007
President Pianalto discusses the characteristics of international reserve currencies and the benefits that a country - or a region such as the Eurozone - can enjoy if its currency fulfills that role. She concludes with comments on why global currency competition provides an incentive for central banks to pursue and preserve price stability.
Journal Article
The launch of the euro
The introduction on January 1, 1999, of the euro--the single currency adopted by eleven of the fifteen countries of the European Union--marked the beginning of the final stage of Economic and Monetary Union and the start of a new era in Europe. The creation of a single currency and a single monetary policy has provided both extraordinary challenges and exceptional opportunities within Europe. This article reviews the organization, objectives, and targets of the euro area's new central bank and discusses some of the early challenges it has faced in setting and implementing monetary policy with ...
Journal Article
The EMU effect on the currency denomination of international bonds
This Economic Letter reviews recent work that focuses on micro-level data to study the impact of the launch of the EMU on the currency denomination of international bonds.
Working Paper
Fast micro and slow macro: can aggregation explain the persistence of inflation?
An aggregation exercise is proposed that aims at investigating whether the fast average adjustment of the disaggregate inflation series of the euro area CPI translates into the slow adjustment of euro area aggregate inflation. We first estimate a dynamic factor model for 404 inflation sub-indices of the euro area CPI. This allows to decompose the dynamics of inflation sub-indices in two parts: one due to a common
Newsletter
The Cyprus crisis through the lens of bank investors
Last year, Cyprus joined its neighbor Greece on the list of eurozone countries in financial crisis. Although Cyprus is one of the smallest economies in the euro area, following the announcement of the official financial aid package for Cyprus on March 16, 2013, bank investors in the rest of the eurozone suffered large losses. Our analysis indicates that bank investors interpreted the Cypriot aid package as potentially forming a template for future eurozone bank restructurings, whereby bank investors would bear a higher fraction of the resolution costs. .
Speech
What the euro crisis means for taxpayers and the U.S. economy
Testimony before the Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives.
Journal Article
Assessing the Euro three years after its launch
Report
Menu costs at work: restaurant prices and the introduction of the euro
Restaurant prices in the euro area saw an unprecedented increase after the introduction of the euro. We use an extension of commonly used models of sticky prices and argue that the increase in restaurant prices can be explained by menu costs. The extension we use involves the state-dependent decision of firms about when to adopt the euro. Two main mechanisms drive the result. First, our model concentrates otherwise staggered price increases around the introduction of the euro. Second, before the adoption of the euro, prices do not reflect marginal cost increases expected to occur after the ...