As the euro is on its second decade, the European sovereign debt crisis and the ever more evident disparities in competitiveness among member states are prompting many to question whether monetary union is bringing more benefits than costs. The optimum currency area (OCA) theory provides a...

Economic globalization puts businesses and countries facing new opportunities and challenges and engenders a high degree of uncertainty/risk. Portugal, facing this new global environment, has been experiencing poor economic performance, growing in the last decade at a rate lower than the...

The public finance constraints introduced by the Maastricht Treaty have been subject to numerous debates among economists. Balassone and Franco (2000) pointed out, for instance, that the fulfillment of these constraints allows for fiscal discipline and flexibility and excludes any bias from an...

Since the beginning of the European single currency project, the adoption of fiscal binding rules, restraining the use of the single policy instrument left for national authorities, has been challenged by many authors and politicians. The discussion has been rekindled in recent years, following...

One of the most important and current problems in the European Union (EU) public finance concerns its system of own resources. Almost all economists involved in the subject agree that the present system needs a comprehensive reform, as it does efficiently allows to deal with the new reality of...

In this paper, we compare the present process of definition and implementation of fiscal policies in the European Union with the main conclusions of the “fiscal federalism” theory. This is done in order to draw possible lessons for future evolution, particularly taking into account the...

More than fifty years after the Schuman Declaration, Europe is still far from a real Political Union. Europe faces an important imbalance between the two sides of the integration process, appearing as an important actor in the international economic scenario, but as a minor actor in the...

The creation of the European Monetary Union has led to a substantial increase in the discussion of the importance of fiscal discipline and adequate fiscal rules in such a monetary union. The “European” solution has been challenged by many authors and politicians: among the main questions...

No presente artigo, tenta mostrar-se que a moeda única deve ser vista necessariamente sob um duplo prisma, enquanto reflexo máximo da integração económica na Europa e enquanto catalizador decisivo da necessidade de uma maior velocidade no processo de integração política. Assim, por um...

More than fifty years after the Schuman Declaration, Europe is still far from a real Political Union. In fact, Europe faces an important imbalance between the two sides of the integration process, appearing as an important actor in the international economic scenario, but as a minor actor in the...