“Euro-area sovereign bond holdings: An update on the impact of quantitative easing“. Since the European Central Bank’s announcement of its quantitative easing (QE) programme in January 2015, national central banks have been buying government and national agency bonds. In this post the authors look at the effect of QE on sectoral holdings of government bonds, updating the calculations published initially in May 2016.

 “Can the Euro rival the Dollar?“. The international role of the US dollar is deeply entrenched. To change that, Europe – and Germany in particular – would need to rethink some core economic policies.

 “Global trends in interest rates“. Interest rates are at their lowest levels of the last 150 years in virtually all advanced economies. This column argues that this unprecedented environment reflects secular global forces that have lowered the trend in the world real interest rate by about two percentage points over the past 30 to 40 years.

 “Financing bank resolution: An alternative solution for arranging the liquidity required“. This paper proposes an ECB liquidity facility with an Single Resolution Fund (SRF) guarantee as an alternative solution for banks in resolution.

 “Machine learning and economics“. Machine learning (ML), together with artificial intelligence (AI), is a hot topic. Economists have been looking into machine learning applications not only to obtain better prediction, but also for policy targeting. We review some of the contributions.

 “Political connections, innovation, and firm dynamics“. Corruption, especially rent-seeking behaviour by politicians and firms, has adverse consequences for competition and ultimately growth. This column explores how political connections influence firms’ outcomes in Italy.

 “Using big data and artificial intelligence to accelerate global development“. Emerging technologies have transformed three core areas: (i) data collection; (ii) data analysis and (iii) use of data analysis for policymaking. New big data platforms allow researchers to acquire granular details on a number of socioeconomic and environmental indicators.

EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

 

 “Italy’s floods: How the European Union Solidarity Fund can help“. The authors discuss Italy’s potential recourse to disaster relief from the European Union Solidarity Fund in the wake of recent floods, focusing specifically on how much aid Italy might expect and under what terms.

 

 “A more stable EMU does not require a central fiscal capacity“. A central fiscal capacity is a recurring topic in discussions on reform of the Economic and Monetary Union, but no consensus on the usefulness and necessity of a such a capacity has been reached. This column argues that the potential stability benefits of a central fiscal capacity can be achieved through stronger financial market risk sharing and more effective use of fiscal stabilisers, without any additional fiscal risk sharing.

 

 “Sustaining Growth through Innovation in Capital Markets“. Well-functioning, deeper and highly integrated European capital markets are expected to play a greater role in providing alternative corporate funding, better savings/investment opportunities and enhancing private risk-sharing mechanisms.

 

SOCIAL POLICY

 

 “The role of parenthood on the gender gap among top earners“. This column studies the effect of parenthood on the careers of high-achieving women relative to high-achieving men in a set of high-earning professions. It finds that the child earnings penalty is substantially larger for mothers with an MBA or law degree than for mothers with a STEM or medical degree. Why women matter in monetary policymaking.