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This paper analyses cross-border spillovers of monetary policy by examining two countries that were in the eye of the storm during the euro area sovereign debt crisis, namely Ireland and Portugal. The research provides insight as to how banking and sovereign stress affect the inward transmission of foreign monetary policy to two economies that share many characteristics, but that also have many distinct features. In particular, our research addresses the question of whether a banking system in distress reacts more or less to monetary policy changes in other major economies. The empirical analysis indicates that international spillovers are present for US and UK monetary policy for both Ireland and Portugal, but there is heterogeneity in the transmission mechanisms by which they affect credit growth in the two economies.

The feed-in tariff (FIT) program is a popular policy for incentivizing new renewable energy projects because it establishes a long-term contract with renewable energy investors. This paper presents a novel model to analyze a FIT contract with a minimum price guarantee (i.e., a price-floor regime) from an investor's perspective. The results show that a perpetual guarantee only induces investment for prices below the price floor when offering a risk-free investment opportunity. In contrast, the finite guarantee may induce investment even when the revenue from the guarantee is lower than the investment cost. When an investor faces a scenario with regulatory uncertainty, a higher and more likely reduction in the price floor induces earlier investment. For all cases, investors postpone an investment decision when market conditions present a higher price volatility.

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