We proceed as follows. Section 7.2 deals with the conflicts arising from the persisting asymmetry of demand shocks, possible unfavourable effects on trade and welfare, lack of national and supranational fiscal stabilizers, low mobility and flexibility of labour and shortage of money stocks for...

This paper traces the history and the institutional background to the establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union in the EU. It argues that since the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the late 1950s, attempts at monetary integration and ultimately monetary union,...

The primary objective of this paper is to use the Markov regime-switching modeling framework to study the credibility of monetary policy in five member countries of the European Monetary System (EMS) during the period 1979 to 1998. The five countries examined for this purpose are Austria,...

In this paper, the author aims to question the assumptions underlying the economic case for the independent European Central Bank (ECB) and argues that although a European Clearing Agency (ECA) of the type Keynes envisaged for the international economy is not a panacea for the economic problems...