IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/jofitr/0855.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

THE SGP and the ECB an exercise in asymmetry

Author

Listed:
  • Mayes, David

    (University of Auckland)

  • Viren , Matti

    (University of tUrku and Bank of Finland)

Abstract

Using panel data for the Euro Area countries in the period since 1972 this paper explores, in the context of a small model of the E.U. economy, the degree to which macroeconomic policy has been asymmetric. It shows in particular that monetary policy has been much more responsive to threats that inflation would lie outside the price stability target than to equal sized shocks within the target zone. Similarly monetary policy has responded to threats of large positive and negative output gaps but has remained largely unresponsive to smaller divergences. It thus appears that the ECB and its predecessors have been avoiding ‘fine-tuning’ but have been aggressive in responding to substantial threats to macroeconomic stability. In the light of this finding one can reflect on the asymmetries in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) that imposes penalties on excessive budgetary deficits. This paper examines the sense of the SGP, as revised in March 2005, in light of these findings, and the role the ECB plays vis-à-vis these policies. In particular it considers the new provisions for behavior in 'good times' and improved governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Mayes, David & Viren , Matti, 2007. "THE SGP and the ECB an exercise in asymmetry," Journal of Financial Transformation, Capco Institute, vol. 19, pages 159-175.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:jofitr:0855
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Mayes & Matti Virén, 2010. "The Impact of Asset Prices and their Information Value for Monetary Policy," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 28(61), pages 134-167, August.
    2. Staehr, Karsten, 2008. "Fiscal policies and business cycles in an enlarged euro area," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 46-69, March.
    3. David G. Mayes, 2013. "The euro crisis," Chapters, in: John Farrar & David G. Mayes (ed.), Globalisation, the Global Financial Crisis and the State, chapter 11, pages 243-271, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asset prices; Monetary policy; European Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:jofitr:0855. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Prof. Shahin Shojai (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.capco.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.