The years following the 2007-08 financial crisis saw central banks in the United States and other industrialized countries adopt highly expansionary monetary policy measures in an effort to stimulate the economy. But how effective have those policies been? A new study explores how effective an expansionary monetary policy stance can be in such turbulent times.

A new EU regulation sheds the first light on the hitherto hidden practices of short sellers. This legislation requires short positions to be made public as soon as they exceed a certain threshold. How are market participants responding to this new transparency? A new study looks into this question.

Demand in the USA and other industrial nations collapsed dramatically during the financial crisis and yet this did not lead to deflation. The reasons for this have still not been fully explained. A new study examines the extent to which financial shocks have a bearing on the path of inflation.

An oft-repeated assertion is that, in the economic and financial crisis, the interbank market fell victim to market failure, denying solvent credit institutions the ability to obtain funding. A recent analysis of the German interbank market now calls this narrative into question.

World trade suffered a marked decline during the financial and economic crisis which started in 2008, even more so than global economic output. A new study investigates what factors can explain the changes in world trade since 2000.

Covered bonds have a long history as a safe financial instrument and are still today a cornerstone of bank funding in Europe. But what underpins their success and how might new regulatory initiatives influence covered bond markets? A new study provides a theoretical model of covered bonds and identifies potential drawbacks of the instrument.

A substantial number of refugees have arrived in Europe in recent months, many of whom will presumably take up work in the coming years. Under considerably different circumstances, German displaced persons migrated to West Germany following the Second World War and needed to be integrated into the labour market. A new study examines how this integration took place.

Persistently low interest rates are depressing German credit institutions' profitability – this is revealed in a survey undertaken by the Bundesbank and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). The banks will have to subject the sustainability of their business model to critical analysis.

In the United States and Europe, efforts are being made to limit banks' proprietary trading of securities. A key argument is that if banks invest in securities, they reduce the credit supply to the real economy. A new study uses microdata to examine the role of proprietary trading in times of crisis and its impact on lending activity.

It is often said that wage moderation in Germany was the primary cause of the current account imbalances in the euro area that emerged prior to the financial crisis. A new study puts this hypothesis to the test.