The failure of key EU Member States to respect the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) a few years after its inception triggered a heated debate on how to reform the framework of fiscal policy coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper systematically...

This edition presents, as a double number, two interrelated reports on preparatory aspects of the introduction of the euro.

In a little over one year, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) will enter its third and final phase. As the date of 1st January 1999 approaches, the debate over European monetary unification is accelerating. The time has come, therefore, to shift our attention from the legal and technical issues...

Several studies have documented the weak response of regional wages differentials and labour mobility following region-specific ("idiosyncratic") shocks in the average of the EU countries. This has been often taken as evidence of the rigidity of labour markets in European countries, as opposed...

In a little over one year, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) will enter its third and final phase. As the date of 1st January 1999 approaches, the debate over European monetary unification is accelerating. The purpose of the present paper is to review and assess the recent debate. This review is...

The paper analyses different aspects of the role that the euro is currently playing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and in the CFA franc zone of West and Central Africa. As similar contributions on the role of the euro in other global regions, it served as background information for the analysis of...

Though it is generally accepted that the introduction of the euro is a business issue, its impact on information technology (IT) is tremendous. Since the mutual dependency of business and IT is crucial and undeniable, company management must consider both the business and IT aspects of euro...

The European Union is now in the final phase of a journey into Economic and Monetary Union which began more than ten years ago. Monetary Union became a reality on 1 January 1999; since then the euro has been the currency of eleven Member States according to the blueprint laid down by the Treaty of...

The fiscal theory of the price level has challenged the conventional view of that monetary factors drive prices and exchange rates and has also provided a rationale for fiscal restrictions in a monetary union. This paper extends the main results of this theory in the context of an open monetary...