In this study, we seek to better understand the interest rate pass-through in five Central and Eastern European countries-the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the CEE-5. Our pass-through estimates for several retail rates are generally lower than those reported in the literature, given the absence of cointegration between policy rates and long-or even short-term market rates. In addition, the pass-through has been declining over time in the CEE-5, and we argue that it is likely to decrease further in the future. Finally, the pass-through appears similar in the CEE-5 than in Spain and is higher than in core euro area countries. Hence, euro adoption by the CEE-5 would not further increase heterogeneity within the euro area with regard to the interest rate passthrough. However, substantially more research is needed to establish commonalities and differences between the CEE-5 and the euro area with respect to the reaction of prices and output to monetary policy action.

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The correlation between the magnetization processes and the microstructure of nanocrystalline Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 is investigated. After annealing the originally amorphous samples above the crystallization temperature the coercivity Hc, the initial susceptibility χo, and the Rayleigh constant αR change their values with increasing annealing temperature by several orders of magnitude due to a change of the magnetization process. This occurs without any significant change in the grain size, D ≈ 12 nm, of the nanocrystalline FeSi grains (20 at% Si) in the samples. For lower annealing temperatures, TA ≦ 853 K, irreversible Bloch wall movements are found, which can be described by the statistical potential theory. For annealing temperatures above 853 K the mobility of the Bloch walls is reduced due to pinning caused by Fe–B precipitations. As a result reversible rotational magnetization processes dominate. This is also demonstrated by domain pattern observations by the magnetooptical Kerr effect. Theoretical values for Hc, χo, and αR correlate well with the experimental data.

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