Monetary Policy and Macroeconomic Stabilization in Latin America
Latin America is a very important region of the globe, which has been buffeted by successive waves of economic instability within the last decades. These waves have caused several episodes of hyperinflation or near hyperinflation, and several currency and financial crises, which, in certain moments, have even spilled over and affected other emerging markets. This has resulted in huge costs in terms of lost potential growth, and, as is inevitable, the markets most affected by this have been the least capable of defending themselves. In a region plagued by still considerable rates of social exclusion, with some of the highest rates of income concentration in the whole globe, the human costs of these crises have been very substantial. Starting in the early 1990s, the slow implementation of reforms, plus the resumption of more sustained growth—to a substantial degree linked to the increase in commodity prices, especially since the early 2000s—seems to have resulted in a more stable situation. Initially, in early reformers like Chile, later in the larger economies of the region, like Brazil and Mexico, a consensus— embraced by both sides of the political spectrum—towards integration in global markets, both in their trade and financial components, floating exchange rates, independent monetary authorities, and sustainable fiscal policies has emerged.
Economic spillovers, structural reforms and policy coordination in the Euro area
This book analyses economic interdependence in the Euro Area and provides estimates of the sign and size of economic spillovers and the impact of economic policy coordination concerning structural and budgetary policies on economic performance in the Euro Area. In the different chapters of the book, the following topics are studied: (i) the link between fiscal and monetary policies in the Euro Area; (ii) the link between public debt and long-term interest rates in the Euro Area; (iii) the link between budgetary stabilisation and the level of public debt in the Euro Area; (iv) the spillovers from structural reforms in the Euro Area, (v) the scope for the coordination of fiscal policies and of structural reforms in the Euro Area, and (vi) wage flexibility in the Euro Area.

