Macroeconomics Department Publications

Beeinflusst die Mitgliedschaft im Euroraum den Zusammenhang von BIP-Wachstum und öffentlicher Verschuldung?

In diesem Beitrag wird die Beziehung zwischen der Schuldenquote des Staates und dem realen BIP-Wachstum pro Kopf für die Mitgliedstaaten des Euroraums und einer Reihe weiterer Industrieländer untersucht. Dabei wird zwischen Perioden eines nachhaltigen und nicht-nachhaltigen Schuldenstandes differenziert. Liegt die Nominalverzinsung über dem nominalen Wachstum, sind Primärüberschüsse in den öffentlichen ...

Die Schuldenkrise im Euroraum: Entstehung, Entwicklung und wirtschaftspolitische Handlungsoptionen: Editorial

EU-Finanztransaktionssteuer und ihre Auswirkung auf Einkommens- und Vermögensverteilung

Die Europäische Kommission hat 2013 einen Richtlinienentwurf vorgestellt, der die Einführung der Finanztransaktionssteuer für elf Mitgliedsstaaten vorsieht. Die Steuer zielt auf Finanzinstitute, zwischen denen 85 Prozent des Handels mit Finanzinstrumenten stattfindet. Privathaushalte sind nur insofern direkt von der Steuer betroffen, als sie steuerrelevante Wertpapiere besitzen (Aktien, Anleihen und ...

Quo vadis? Offenlegungen und Klarstellungen im Streit um das Riester-Sparen: Editorial

Global Offshore Wealth, 2001-2023

This paper constructs homogeneous time series of global household offshore wealth covering the 2001–2023 period, during which major international efforts were implemented to curb offshore tax evasion. We find that: (i) global offshore wealth remained broadly stable as a fraction of global GDP since 2001, following a sharp increase in the 1980s and 1990s; (ii) the location of offshore wealth changed ...

Hegemonic Globalization

How do shifts in the global balance of power shape the world economy? We propose a theory of alignment-based “hegemonic globalization,” built on two central premises: countries differ in their preferences over policies (such as the rule of law or regulatory frameworks) and trade between any two countries increases with the degree of alignment in these policies. Hegemons promote policy alignment and ...

Economic Insecurity: Trade Dependencies and Their Weaponization in History

Do trade dependencies leave countries vulnerable to geopolitical coercion? We study the economic costs of trade and financial sanctions, from 1920 to the present. We first develop a continuous measure of sanction intensity, using bilateral commodity-level data to calculate the importance of specific flows that fall under sanctions. We find that sanctions inflict relatively small costs on average: sanctioning ...

Public Policies and the Housing Affordability Gap

Between 1950 and 2023, the housing cost burden — approximated by the proportion of total household consumption expenditure spent on housing, water, electricity and fuel — has risen almost steadily in many countries around the world. First, this trend can be explained by substantial improvements in the quantity and quality of housing. In fact, in some countries (e.g., Germany), per capita floor space ...

Restrictive Rental Policies and a Tough Trade Off: Lower Rents vs. Less Construction in Geneva

We study how rent control and housing rationing shape housing investment and market tightness in Geneva using a VAR on annual data (1994–2022) with generalized impulse responses and Granger causality. We find that housing rationing functions as a binding quantity restriction as it precedes a contraction in new institutional construction and Granger-causes lower vacancy rates. This increased scarcity ...

The House Price Channel of Quantitative Easing

I study the transmission mechanism of Quantitative Easing (QE) in the form of large-scale asset purchases in the mortgage market to aggregate consumption. To this end, I develop a New Keynesian model that features heterogeneous households, a microfounded housing market, and frictional intermediation. This model helps explain the empirical evidence suggesting that QE increases aggregate consumption ...