Short comment

Using newly collected discount rate data for six Swiss cities from 1846 to 1893, we find no evidence of increasing integration during a 30-year period of lightly regulated free banking. We attribute ...

Read more about the monetary policy decision on riksbank.se.

This will be an unusually busy week for central banks.

How Italy lowered its interest payments

The 1933 rescue of the Schweizerische Volksbank

The General Council of the Riksbank has decided to begin a recruitment process for a new member of the Executive Board of the Riksbank. The General Council also

Has the neutral rate fallen sharply?

Abstract. We construct the first annual market rent and home sales price series for American cities over the 20th century using 2.7 million newspaper real

Decision finely balanced, but patience likely to prevail for now

A promising start with hopes of more to come

Seasonal adjustment reveals summer uptick

Source: Federal Reserve Board.

Punchline: The Reserve Bank of Australia surprised markets by holding rates steady in July, but the decision seems more understandable in hindsight given the limited CPI data available at the time.

Plus, the August TACO value pack

Our annual ranking compares economies in three different ways

Punchline: In an earlier post, I found little evidence that the SNB–ECB policy rate spread drives the CHF/euro exchange rate, likely because the ECB’s unconventional policies make its policy rate a po...

Source: ECB

Punchline: the flash CPI data for June were unexpectedly strong.

Punchline: It is often believed the spread between SNB and ECB policy rates is a key determinant of the CHF/euro exchange rate.

We examine the determinants of incumbent electoral success among members of Ireland’s lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann, over a time-period covering seven General Elections (1992 to 2020). We utilise multiple sources to create a dataset linking incumbent politicians’ electoral outcomes to personal characteristics, constituency and election-specific characteristics, as well as a range of constituency-level socioeconomic variables. Our analysis reveals a number of important factors in determining the re-election success of politicians. Notably, being a woman reduces an incumbent’s chances of re-election by 10 percentage points, even after controlling for a wide range of other potentially important factors. Holding a senior ministerial position is found to significantly boost an incumbent’s re-election prospects, while being a junior minister has no impact. However, absent a senior ministerial position, being a member of a ruling government party or coalition is associated with significantly lower re-election success. We construct a measure of competitiveness and find that an incumbent in a more competitive constituency is less likely to be elected, while past performance, as measured by the order in which an incumbent is elected in the previous contest, is found to be an important predictor of current success.

Punchline: Unlike most central banks, the Fed must balance inflation and unemployment.

Punchline: The Riksbank, Swiss National Bank and Norges Bank responded to easing inflation and rising uncertainty by cutting interest rates.

Punchline: The Riksbank is likely to cut interest rates to 2.0% on 18 June.

Punchline: Swiss inflation has turned negative.

Punchline: Rising trade tensions and softening demand have brought inflation back near target, prompting the ECB to further ease policy.

Remarks on the monetary policy outlook at a briefing hosted by Barclays