This paper develops a method to estimate jointly the degree of (possibly incomplete) intertemporal consumption smoothing and the degree of (possibly incomplete) international/interregional risksharing. This approach generalizes and improves upon studies that either examine only intertemporal...

We investigate the theory and empirics of currency substitution and currency complementarity. Analytical tractability is facilitated by focussing on a small currency. Data spanning 1985 to the turn of the century contain evidence of the Australian dollar’s substitution for the mark and...

This paper investigates possible contribution of third-currency effects to exchange rate movements. It reopens the subject of currency substitution and examines whether the third-currency effects change when the third-currency is a complement as opposed to when it is a substitute for currencies...

This paper surveys the economic literature on the links between finance, law and growth in the Central and Eastern European transition countries. The literature that is surveyed at the outset of the paper shows that if a financial system is based on an adequate legal system it can positively...

This paper investigates effects of third-currency monetary policy shocks on exchange rates. For this purpose we setup a structural VAR model containing the exchange rates of the three major currencies – the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen – and short-term interest rates on the...

We recognize that intertemporal models of the current account (Frankel and Razin with Yuan 1996, or Baxter and Crucini 1993) imply a theory of consumption smoothing channels, and thus we build an empirical model on the theoretical foundations of Sachs (1982)'s optimizing model in order to...

We study whether foreign and domestic banks in Central and Eastern Europe have reacted differently to business cycle conditions and host country banking crises. Our unique panel dataset comprises data of more than 300 banks for the period 1993-2000, with detailed information on bank ownership....

We place regional industry structures at centre stage in currency union analysis, decomposing differences between regional and aggregate cycles into 'industry structure' and 'industry cycle' effects. The industry structure effect indicates whether a region's industry structure causes its cycle...

The EU accession countries have made remarkable progress in developing their financial sectors. Nevertheless, potential risks to banking sector stability remain. We take stock of these risks, with a focus on the challenges posed by the EU accession process. Important potential risks we identify...

If two countries experience similar cycles, loss in monetary sovereignty following currency union may not be severe. Analysis of cyclical similarity is frequently carried out at the overall industry level, then interpreted with reference to regional industrial structures. By contrast, this paper...