Recent price developments in the euro area demonstrate that deflation is a serious issue of concern. Some euro area countries are already facing a deflation in the usual macroeconomic sense of a 'general price decline'. This article discusses the economic consequences of deflation and suggests...

Recent public debate on the costs and benefits of EU membership has focused more on the costs and less on the benefits. This paper explores the benefits from improved regulatory or policy implementation and enforcement. If actual regulatory enforcement differs from the socially optimal level,...

The extraordinary measures taken by the ECB to combat the financial crisis have led many observers to question whether the bank has put its independence at risk. The bank’s vow to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro has added a second (and potentially contradictory) goal alongside its...

In the twelve months preceding the conclusion by the EFTA countries and the EC of the agreement on the establishment of a common European Economic Area in October 1991, the three Scandinavian EFTA members - Norway, Finland and Sweden - decided to tie their currencies to the ECU. What objectives...

The extreme widening of the exchange rate margins last summer has transformed the EMS from a multilateral fixed rate system into a system of unilateral exchange rate pegging. Professor Neumann characterises the current state of the EMS, outlines the major defects of the system and makes some...