We examine the implications of a regional, fixed exchange rate regime for global exchange rate volatility. The concept of the optimum currency area turns out to play an important role. The formation of a regional regime tends to decrease global volatility when countries are symmetric. The...

We compare monetary union to flexible exchange rates in an asymmetric, threecountry model with active monetary policy. Unlike the traditional OCA literature, we find that countries with a high degree of nominal wage rigidity benefit from monetary union, specially when they join other, similarly...

This paper describes the origins of the Greek financial crisis and discusses the progress that Greece has made in adjusting its economy. The main causes of the crisis were the large and growing external and fiscal imbalances. The primary factors accounting for the growing current-account deficit...

The early stages of banking and finance in Turkey were one of its brightest periods, even though it was the toughest because of lack of capital and unfavourable initial conditions. The finance and banking conception was quite rational and potential crises were eliminated through careful choices....

The main goal of this paper is to trace the long record of financial crises and financial market regulation from the perspective of an emerging economy. Two questions are addressed: first, what explains the incidence and severity of financial crises in an emerging market economy? And, second,...

The Berle-Means thesis (1932) implies that diffuse ownership adversely affects firm performance. This paper tries to investigate whether there is strong evidence to support the notion that variations across firms in observed ownership structures result in systematic variations in observed firm...

Liquidity in government securities markets, despite their importance to both private and public agents, has received much attention in the literature only recently due to the fact that high-frequency data from trading in those markets were previously unavailable. This paper attempts to measure...

This paper examines the behaviour of the demand for money in Greece during 1976:1-2000:4, a period that included many of the influences that cause money-demand instability. Two empirical methodologies, vector error correction (VEC) modelling and second-generation random coefficient (RC)...

This paper develops an international oligopoly model where foreign and domestic firms simultaneously choose their pricing strategies under the assumption of non-zero conjectural variations. The model captures the links between domestic and foreign producers’ prices and establishes a...

This paper presents evidence that currency episodes display heterogeneity in terms of their evolution, their impact on the inflicted economy and their links with financial, political and macroeconomic fundamentals. Limited-dependent variable models for ordered and unordered outcomes along with...