Potential new entrants to the European Union from Central and Eastern European countries face many challenges to achieve financial convergence with the existing EU nations. Using detailed case studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and analysis of cross country...

"This comprehensive Handbook deftly examines key aspects of financial integration, providing an overview of contemporary research and new perspectives. Employing state-of-the-art econometric methods to obtain new empirical evidence, it will be critical for designing optimal policies, and...

On the premise that pension provision in Europe will dramatically change over the next few decades, this book concentrates on the funded component of pension wealth, and specifically on annuities - financial products that, on the basis of actuarial equivalence, allow the conversion of wealth...

This book contends that the East Asian financial constitution lacks an appropriate infrastructure, resulting in inefficient allocation of high savings and an over-inflated short-term debt market. It goes on to point out that despite high savings, East Asia's dependency on financial centers...

1. General introduction -- 2. A critical review of the literature on credit rationing -- 3. The theory of credit rationing revisited -- 4. Financial liberalization -- 5. Intervention I : the South Korean experience -- 6. Intervention II : the Indian experience -- 7. Concluding remarks.

This highly topical book examines the development and future prospects for economic and monetary union in Europe. European Monetary Integration examines the background to economic and monetary union from a historical perspective that distinguishes between national and supranational currency...

Economic and Monetary Union in Europe brings together contributions from leading specialists which explain and evaluate the most important implications of economic and monetary union. The book examines theoretical aspects of monetary integration, illustrates the historical lessons to be learned...

This book deals with the economic consequences of monetary integration, which has long been dominated by the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) paradigm. In this model, money is perceived as having developed from a private sector cost minimization process to facilitate transactions. Not surprisingly,...

EMU is a completely new policy regime which has significant economic implications and which, it is hoped, will ultimately enhance the role of Europe on the world stage. EMU and Economic Policy in Europe takes stock of the initial experiences of EMU and assesses the challenges which will have to...

The book reveals that European product market integration has a significant impact on the conditions of competition, the strategies of companies and the structure of industry. It adds a quarter of a percentage to annual GDP growth rates and has not led to an increased exposure of the EU to...