The paper argues that international differences in fiscal conditions influence the relative attractiveness of locating production facilities in different countries and could prove to be a troublesome source of instability for the European economies. Even though physical capital movements tend to...

The issue of whether constraints should be placed on fiscal policies when moving to European monetary union is examined in the context of the use of fiscal policy for macroeconomic stabilization purposes. Examples of shocks hitting French and German economies are considered: an appreciation of...

This paper reviews the pros and cons of institutionalized constraints limiting the freedom of national budgetary policies within an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe. The issue is approached from three angles: the influence of EMU on (i) budget discipline; (ii) intergenerational equity...

This 2005 Article IV Consultation highlights that economic activity in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) has accelerated since mid-2003 owing to an acceleration of activity in the tourism and construction sectors. Inflation has been stable and monetary aggregates have been expanding...

The staff report on discussions with regional institutions of the West African Economic and Monetary Union is presented. The region faced a number of challenges in 2011, with the intensification of the political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire and a large increase in global food and fuel prices. A...

The effectiveness of carbon pricing as a market-based policy tool with economy-wide transformation potential has increasingly rendered it the instrument of choice among policy makers responding to challenges posed by climate change. However, the potential for jurisdictions to introduce carbon...

Climate protection scenarios are a key part of long-term climate policy planning, which has been given a further boost by the Paris Agreement. The modelling performed in such scenarios informs the development of 2050 national climate strategies—which themselves serve as roadmaps for the...

This report analyses the influence of the Cap and Trade (CaT) system and the electricity market in California along two main questions: How do CaT design features affect the environmental effectiveness of the system and the quality of the carbon price signal? How do electricity market design...