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Introduction Acute rhinosinusitis accounts for most of the cases of orbital infections and is the most common cause of periorbital oedema in children. Up to 10% of patients with orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis may experience vision loss and other complications such as meningitis, intracranial abscess or even death. Therefore, these patients require prompt diagnosis and proper treatment. Objectives This study aims to report the clinical presentation and management of post-septal orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis in the paediatric population. Materials and methods A retrospective medical chart review of all children aged under 18 years old who were diagnosed with post-septal orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis at a tertiary academic hospital, between 01/2007 and 12/2020. Patients were grouped according to the Chandler Classification (groups 2–5). Results Fifty-five children (mean age of 6.91 ± 4.61 years) fulfilled the entry criteria for post-septal orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis, based on clinical evaluation by an otorhinolaryngologist and CT-scan findings. Forty (72.72%) patients were also evaluated by an ophthalmologist. Most patients were male (76.36%). Twenty-four patients had post-septal cellulitis (43.63%), 21 patients had a subperiosteal abscess (38.18%) and 10 patients had an orbital abscess (18.18%). Eyelid swelling was the most frequent sign, followed by fever. Microbiology varied considerably and gram-positive agents were clearly predominant. Eighteen (32.73%) patients had been treated with oral antibiotics prior to hospital admission, exhibiting a significantly higher risk of recurrence of orbital infection (p = 0.020). Ethmoid and maxillary sinuses were the most involved paranasal sinuses (90.91%). Thirty-three patients (60%) were successfully treated medically, and 22 patients (40%) required surgical drainage. Seven patients (12.73%) developed further complications and six recovered without sequelae. The mean length of hospital stay was 8.0 ± 5.0 days and recurrence of orbital infection occurred in six patients (10.91%). The absolute neutrophil blood count was significantly different amongst Chandler groups (p = 0.021), with higher counts in patients with subperiosteal abscess. The duration of hospitalization was significantly higher in patients submitted to surgery (p Conclusion Post-septal orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis are infrequent but dangerous events in the paediatric population. Close collaboration with Ophtalmology is paramount, as the child's vision is at risk. Eyelid swelling and proptosis are early signs. CT-scan imaging plays an invaluable role in the diagnosis and decision-making. Predictive indicators for surgery were not found. However, emergency endoscopic nasal surgery with abscess drainage should be considered whenever vision is at risk, if there is no improvement after aggressive medical treatment, and in cases of intracranial complications.

We present the first assessment of U.S. Okun's Law across time and frequencies. We use a set of continuous wavelet tools that allows for estimating Okun's coefficient and the lead/lag of output over unemployment at each moment and for each cyclical frequency. We find similar results for the gaps and the first differences specifications at business cycles frequencies, but not at lower frequencies. Okun's coefficient has increased (in absolute value) since the mid-1960s, except in 1985-1995, and is not particularly sensitive to recessions. The lead of output varies considerably over time and also at different frequencies. We observe (especially with the gaps specification) that there are at least two cyclical processes relevant for the Okun's relationship, one at the business cycle and another at lower frequencies. Methods that do not take this into account are bound to mix the information embedded in both cycles., Research at NIPE has been financed by National Funds of the FCT Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, within the project "UIDB/03182/2020".Research at Cef.up has been financed by Portuguese public funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the framework of the project with reference UIDB/04105/2020.

The typical increase of the corporate bond-to-bank ratio during downturns is known to mitigate business cycle recessions. In the three longest and deepest post-war U.S. recessions this ratio didn't increase from their outsets. In this paper we focus on the timing of the corporate bank-to-bond substitution in the Great Recession, simulating counterfactual paths for output growth under plausible notional behaviors of the bond-to-bank ratio. We find that the Great Recession would have been milder and the recovery much stronger if the bank-to-bond substitution had started since the outset of the recession and evolved thereafter as in most U.S. recessions.

We show that the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) outperforms standard bench marks in forecasting U.S. inflation once frequency-domain information is taken into account. We do so by decomposing the time series (of inflation and its predictors) into several frequency bands and forecasting separately each frequency component of inflation. The largest statistically significant forecasting gains are achieved with a model that forecasts the lowest frequency component of inflation (corresponding to cycles longer than 16 years) flexibly using information from all frequency components of the NKPC inflation predictors. Its performance is particularly good in the returning to recovery from the Great Recession.

We estimate the U.S. New Keynesian Phillips Curve in the time-frequency domain with continuous wavelet tools, to provide an integrated answer to the three most controversial issues on the Phillips Curve. (1) Has the short-run tradeoff been stable? (2) What has been the role of expectations? (3)Is there a long-run tradeoff? First, we find that the short-run tradeoff is limited to some specific episodes and short cycles and that there is no evidence of nonlinearities or structural breaks. Second, households´ expectations captured trend inflation and were anchored until the Great Recession, but not since 2008. Then, inflation over-reacted to expectations at short cycles. Finally, there is no significant long-run tradeoff. In the long-run, inflation is explained by expectations., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT); UID/ECO/03182/2019, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The typical increase of the corporate bond-to-bank ratio during downturns is known to mitigate business cycle recessions. In the three longest and deepest post-war U.S. recessions this ratio didn’t increase from their outsets. In this paper we focus on the timing of the corporate bank-to-bond substitution in the Great Recession, simulating counterfactual paths for output growth under plausible notional behaviors of the bond-to-bank ratio. We find that the Great Recession would have been milder and the recovery much stronger if the bank-to-bond substitution had started since the outset of the recession and evolved thereafter as in most U.S. recessions.

Motivated by the U.S. events of the 2000s, we address whether a too low for too long interest rate policy may generate a boom-bust cycle. We simulate anticipated and unanticipated monetary policies in state-of-the-art DSGE models and in a model with bond financing via a shadow banking system, in which the bond spread is calibrated for normal and optimistic times. Our results suggest that the U.S. boom-bust was caused by the combination of (i) interest rates that were too low for too long, (ii) excessive optimism and (iii) a failure of agents to anticipate the extent of the abnormally favourable conditions.

In this article, wavelet tools and economic sentiment indicators are used to study the similarity and synchronization of economic cycles in the eurozone. The time-varying and frequency-varying patterns of business cycles synchronization are assessed and the impact of the creation of the European monetary union (EMU) in 1999 is tested. Among several results, it is found that: the EMU is associated with a significant increase in the similarity and synchronization of the economic sentiment in the eurozone; and the hard-peg of its currency to the euro led to a comparable effect on Denmark's economic sentiment after 1999, different from what happened in the United Kingdom.

We study fiscal behaviour and the sovereign yield curve in the U.S. and Germany in the period 1981:I-2009:IV. The latent factors, level, slope and curvature, obtained with the Kalman filter, are used in a VAR with macro and fiscal variables, controlling for financial stress conditions. In the U.S., fiscal shocks have generated (i) an immediate response of the short-end of the yield curve, associated with the monetary policy reaction, lasting between 6 and 8 quarters, and (ii) an immediate response of the longend of the yield curve, lasting 3 years, with an implied elasticity of about 80% for the government debt ratio shock and about 48% for the budget balance shock. In Germany, fiscal shocks entail no significant reactions of the latent factors and no response of the monetary policy interest rate. In particular, while (i) budget balance shocks created no response from the yield curve shape, (ii) surprise increases in the debt ratio caused some increase in the short-end and the long-end of the yield curve in the following 2nd and 3rd quarters. JEL Classification: E43, E44, E62, G15, H60

This paper assesses the adequacy of the exchange rate regime of 16 African countries that are pegged to the euro since 1999. The evaluation is based on three key criteria borrowed from the optimal currency area literature. A first conclusion is that the peg to the euro has granted the 16 countries a good inflation performance. However, with the clear exception of Cape Verde, the peg is not supported by the other economic requirements, namely trade integration and synchronisation of business cycles. We also assess whether the US dollar would be a better currency to anchor. Since the results are ambiguous, pegging to the euro seems to be a better alternative as these countries benefit from established exchange rate cooperation agreements. Given that most of the countries in the sample are historically grouped together in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) or the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CAEMC), the paper further assesses whether the grouping of countries in these two CFA monetary unions receives economic support. The conclusion is that the composition of CAEMC does not conform to basic requirements. In contrast, for a wide group of WAEMU countries there is room for sharing a common monetary policy. Copyright 2012 , Oxford University Press.

This paper tests the significance and the non-linearity of the Phillips trade-off in the aggregate Euro Area, in an unobserved components model of stochastic NAIRU and trend output featuring the Phillips equation and the Okun law as main identifying equations, with quarterly data for 1970:I-2002:III. The Phillips curve turns out to be linear and its trade-off statistically significant, while non-linearity shows up in the Okun relation. The results prove to be robust to alternative lag length structures of the model, and to alternative non-linear functional forms. The trend-cycle decompositions estimated with the model capture the main features of the Euro Area’s recent macroeconomic record.

The aim of this article is to uncover the aggregate monetary policy preferences in the euro area. This is pursued under the assumption of optimizing policy behaviour subject to a simple model of the macroeconomic structure, following a procedure proposed recently in the literature in which GMM estimation stems from the optimal control solution to the optimization problem. Instead of waiting for more quarterly data of ECB policy-making, the sample goes as far back as possible into the pre-EMU years. Through a combined analysis of facts, data and literature on European integration, 1995 is identified as the start date of a euro area notional policy regime, sustained later by the ECB. The policy preferences are estimated as a loss function with strict inflation targeting at 1.6 per cent and interest-rate smoothing, in the period 1995–2002.

We assess the performance of optimal Taylor-type interest rate rules, with and without reaction to financial variables, in stabilizing the macroeconomy following financial shocks. We use a DSGE model that comprises both a loan and a bond market, which best suits the contemporary structure of the U.S. financial system and allows for a wide set of financial shocks and transmission mechanisms. Overall, we find that targeting financial stability – in particular credit growth, but in some cases also financial spreads and asset prices – improves macroeconomic stabilization. The specific policy implications depend on the policy regime, and on the origin and the persistence of the financial shock.

We present the first assessment of U.S.monetary policy across time and frequencies within the Taylor Rule framework. We derive a novel wavelet tool - the partial wavelet gain - to estimate a parametric equation relating the federal funds rate to infation and the output gap. We detect a gradual shift of the focus of policy from short cycles to intermediate cycles at the beginning of the Great Moderation,followed by a strengthening of policy´s reaction to long fluctuations once credibility was attained, and, during the Great Recession, a renewed interest in shorter output cycles. We document that the violation of the Taylor principle until the early 1980s and the strengthening of the reaction of policy to inflation there after were more marked at intermediate than at long cycles. Overall, we also detect lead-lag relationships between the policy rate and infation and the output gap that differ along time and cyclical frequencies., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

We assess the performance of optimal Taylor-type interest rate rules, with and without reaction to financial variables, in stabilizing an economy following financial shocks. The analysis is conducted in a DSGE model with loan and bond markets, each featuring financial frictions. This allows for a wide set of financial shocks and transmission mechanisms and can be calibrated to match the bond-to-bank finance ratio featured in the US financial system. Overall, we find that monetary policy that reacts to credit growth, a form of the so-called “leaning against the wind”, improves the ability of the central bank to achieve its mandate in the wake of financial shocks. The specific policy implications depend partly on the origin and the persistence of the financial shock, but overall not on the assignment of a mandate for financial stability in the central bank’s objective function.

We assess the relation between the yield curve and the macroeconomy in the U.S. between 1961 and 2011. We add to the standard parametric macro-finance models, uncovering evidence simultaneously on the time and frequency domains. We model the shape of the yield curve by latent factors corresponding to its level, slope and curvature. The macroeconomic variables measure real activity, inflation and monetary policy. The tools of wavelet analysis, the set of variables and the length of the sample allow for a thorough appraisal of the time-variation in the direction, intensity, synchronization and periodicity of the yield curve-macroeconomy relation., QREN, FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

We use wavelet tools and Economic Sentiment Indicators to study the synchronization of economic cycles in the Euro Area. We assess the time-varying and frequency-varying pattern of business cycles synchronization in the Area and test the impact of the creation of the European Monetary Union in 1999. Among several results, we find that (a) the EMU is associated with a significant increase in synchronization of economic sentiment in the Euro Area; (b) the hard-peg of its currency to the Euro led to a comparable synchronization of Denmark's economic sentiment after 1999, differently from what happened in the case of the UK.

We develop a new-Keynesian DSGE model with an extended fiscal policy block to assess the conditions for expansionary fiscal consolidations. In addition to several taxes, we consider public employment expenditures and government spending, which may have different degrees of productivity. We calibrate the model for the Euro Area and use it to simulate alternative fiscal consolidations with changes in the budget composition. Among the main conclusions we find that: (i) if conducted with a cut in weaklyproductive spending and a symmetric increase in highly-productive spending, fiscal consolidations have expansionary effects on investment and output; (ii) if consolidation is pursued through a pure reduction in weaklyproductive public employment, the effects on output decrease with the degree of labor market competition and turn out to be positive under perfect competition.

This paper is motivated by the recent financial crisis and addresses whether a “too low for too long” interest rate policy may generate a boom-bust cycle. We suggest a model in which a microfounded shadow banking sector is included in an otherwise state-of-the-art DSGE model. When faced with perverse incentives, financial intermediaries within the shadow banking sector can divert a fraction of stockholders’ profits for their own benefits and extend credit at a discounted rate. The model predicts that long periods of accommodative monetary policy do create the preconditions for, but do not cause per se, a boom-bust cycle. Rather, it is the combination of a persistent monetary ease with microeconomic distortions in the financial system that causes a boom-bust.

We study fiscal behaviour and the sovereign yield curve in the U.S. and Germany in the period 1981:I-2009:IV. The latent factors, level, slope and curvature, obtained with the Kalman filter, are used in a VAR with macro and fiscal variables, controlling for financial stress conditions. In the U.S., fiscal shocks have generated (i) an immediate response of the short-end of the yield curve, associated with the monetary policy reaction, lasting between 6 and 8 quarters, and (ii) an immediate response of the longend of the yield curve, lasting 3 years, with an implied elasticity of about 80% for the government debt ratio shock and about 48% for the budget balance shock. In Germany, fiscal shocks entail no significant reactions of the latent factors and no response of the monetary policy interest rate. In particular, while (i) budget balance shocks created no response from the yield curve shape, (ii) surprise increases in the debt ratio caused some increase in the short-end and the long-end of the yield curve in the following 2nd and 3rd quarters.

After 10 years of a fixed exchange rate against the euro and a deepening integration with the European Union (EU), the authorities of Cape Verde maintain a strong commitment to nominal stability and are now considering the official euroization of the country. Compared to the current pegging, euroization could be costly if the economic conditions of Cape Verde were to require control over the interest rates and the exchange rate. Given the strong economic and financial integration between Cape Verde and Europe, and the fact that Cape Verde records inflation rates at levels that are similar to those of the European Monetary Union (EMU), the relevant issue is whether the European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy fits the needs of Cape Verde. In order to answer this question, we empirically assess the synchronization between the business cycle of Cape Verde and the business cycle of the EMU. For that purpose, we compute output gaps and then use conventional correlation measures as well as other indicators recently suggested in the literature. Replicating the methodology for each of the current 27 EU members, our results show that Cape Verde ranks better than several EU countries and even better than some EMU countries. We thus argue that there is a strong case for the euroization of Cape Verde. Euroization would secure the benefits already attained with the pegging to the euro and would warrant additional benefits, most likely with no relevant costs stemming from inappropriate ECB monetary policies.

This article tests for asymmetries in the preferences of the euro-area monetary policymaker with 1995:1–2005:2 data from the latest update of the European Central Bank's (ECB's) Area-wide database. Following the relevant literature, we distinguish between three types of asymmetry: precautionary demand for expansions, precautionary demand for price stability and interest rate smoothing asymmetry. Based on the joint generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation of the Euler equation of optimal policy and the aggregate supply-aggregate demand (AS-AD) structure of the macroeconomy, we find evidence of precautionary demand for price stability in the preferences revealed by the monetary policymaker. This type of asymmetry is consistent with the ECB's definition of price stability and with the priority of credibility-building by a recently created monetary authority. 1CEMPRE–Centro de Estudos Macroeconomicos e Previsao - is a research centre supported by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal, whi...

This paper examines the growth of Portuguese industry throughout the XXth century, focusing on the dynamics of its productivity, measured by the ratio of value added to labor force. The analysis consists of: (i) construction of productivity indices for the Portuguese industrial sector and sub-sectors, as well as for the industrial sectors of fourteen European countries, covering the widest possible period within the century; (ii) identification of growth cycles for each productivity series, by means of estimation of trend growth rates; (iii) assessment of the contributions of each sector to the productivity dynamics in each growth cycle, using structural change analysis and international and inter-industries comparisons; (iv) appraisal of the results in the light of previous analyses of historical data.Portuguese industrial productivity has trended up systematically during the XXth century, but with well-differentiated growth phases matching the institutional changes that most markedly influenced the economy. The growth cycles clearly distinguish a first phase of weak growth, until the beginning of the 50s, from a subsequent phase of strong vitality and industrial modernization, especially in the manufacturing industry, ending in the mid-70s. A negative growth cycle follows, until the mid-80s, in which the consumption goods industries, with a large share in total industry, assured a minimum productivity threshold, in a context of severe reductions in the industries producing intermediate and capital goods. During the last fifteen years of the century, a new positive growth cycle emerged, led by some modern manufacturing sectors, although with a clear deindustrialization trend, ie of loss of production and labor force shares, in favor of services. The two phases of higher industrial productivity growth, 1951-1973 and 1985-2000, coincided to a large extent with institutional changes leading to openness and international integration, which proved to be crucial in enhancing the international tradability of industrial goods. When assessed in international perspective, with a focus on Europe, the performance of Portuguese industrial productivity is much less impressive, even during the cycle of higher growth and industrialization – 50s and 60s.

This note applies the median unbiased estimation of coefficient variance, proposed by Stock and Watson (1998), to the extraction of the time-varying trend growth rate of industrial productivity in fifteen European countries, over most of the XXth Century, by means of an unobservable components univariate decomposition. In addition to the description of the procedure, this illustration is particularly useful in explaining why the method is especially appropriate for comparison of trends growth rates extracted from time series with diverse degrees of variability.

This paper presents new tests and estimates of the Phillips trade-off in the Euro Area, carried out in a unobserved components model with possibly non-linear Phillips and Okun relations, using quarterly aggregate data for the period 1970:I-2001:II. A concept of forward-looking near-rational expectations is introduced in the model, improving on the contradiction between rational expectations and evidence of inflation inertia. The Phillips curve turns out to be linear and its trade-off statistically significant, while non-linearity shows up in the Okun relation. The trend-cycle decompositions capture the main features of the Euro Area recent macroeconomic record.

This research uncovers a well-defined monetary policy regime starting in 1986 in the aggregate Euro Area. Both alternative solution-estimation methods employed - optimal control cum GMM, and dynamic programming cum FIML - identify a regime of strict inflation targeting with interest rate smoothing. The unemployment gap, properly estimated as quasi real-time information, is a relevant element in the information set of the monetary authority, despite not being included in its preferences. The emergence of the regime relates to the improvement of the volatility trade-off between inflation and unemployment gap since the mid-80s. Additional improving factors have been milder supply shocks and better ability of policymakers to set the interest rate closer to optimum.

This paper presents new tests and estimates of the Phillips trade-off in the Euro Area, carried out in a unobserved components model with possibly non-linear Phillips and Okun relations, using quarterly aggregate data for the period 1970:I-2001:II. A concept of forward-looking near-rational expectations is introduced in the model, improving on the contradiction between rational expectations and evidence of inflation inertia. The Phillips curve turns out to be linear and its trade-off statistically significant, while non-linearity shows up in the Okun relation. The trend-cycle decompositions capture the main features of the Euro Area recent macroeconomic record.

This paper analyses the Taylor Rule in the U.S. 1960-2014 with new lenses: continuous time partial wavelets tools. We assess the co-movement between the policy interest rate and the macroeconomic variables in the Rule, inflation and the output gap, both jointly and independently, for each frequency and at each moment of time. Our results uncover some new stylized facts about U.S. monetary policy and add new insights to the record of U.S. monetary history since the early 1960s. Among other things we conclude that monetary policy has been successful in stabilizing inflation. However, its effectiveness varies both in time and frequencies. Monetary policy has lagged the output gap across most of the sample, but in recent times became more reactive. Volcker’s disinflation, and the conquest of credibility in 1979-1986, was achieved with no extra costs in terms of output.