Patterns of female employment participation are compared in a variety of European countries with differing levels of child care provision. The earnings forgone over a lifetime by a woman bearing children (compared with the earnings of her childless counterpart) are simulated for four countries,...

The first part of the paper analyzes the inflationary risks associated with price liberalization, the welfare costs of inflation and the difficulties of East European central banks in pursuing non-inflationary policies. The main obstacles are the low credibility of stabilization policies and a...

The paper analyzes the role of a multilateral payments union (PU) between East European countries (EEPU) as an intermediate solution in the process to full convertibility. After a description of the main functions of a PU, which is based on the historical model of the European Payments Union, it...