We analyze whether financial integration will lead to lower national regulation of domestic banking activities. In our model, banks? efforts and public regulation can lower the probability of bankruptcy. We contrast the national case with an integrated banking market and find that banks will...

This paper argues that, in contrast to the popular bipolar view on exchange rate choices, intermediate regimes in general and regional exchange rate systems such as the European Monetary System (EMS) in particular should not be ruled out per se even in today?s world of highly mobile capital. The...

EU enlargement rests on the proven success of European unification. European monetary integration and the introduction of euro are probably the best examples of integration. The EU financial sector has been going through a large restructuring program in the last decades. There was a continuous...

The politically and legally complicated character of the EU Eastern Enlargement heavily influenced the conflict between the legal and economic rationality underlying the construction of the EMR-II. This makes the ERM-II vulnerable to currency crises and creates conditions for a widespread...

With the elimination of foreign exchange risk among the E.M.U.-member countries, the yield of, say, French benchmark government bonds (henceforth, the yield) should be equal to that of German bonds, plus some credit and liquidity premia. Since both premia are not likely to change substantially...

Japan and Korea are close countries in terms of economic interaction as well as geography. To quantify the impact of changes in the yen-dollar exchange rate on the Korean economy before and after the crisis in 1997, the sample period has been divided into two sub-periods and the causal...

This paper extends an economic geography model by tariffs to analyze their impact on welfare and sustainability of agglomerations. Policies with and without cooperation are compared, with the goal of maximizing aggregated welfare in the former and regional welfare in the latter case. The main...

In this paper we describe the development of regional specialisation and geographical concentration in Germany between 1993 and 2001. Somewhat contrary to theoretical expectations derived from the recent literature in location theory, we neither find compelling evidence for a specialisation...

In Africa there has been an immense effort in the past, continuing into the present, to unite politically and to build numerous economic integration areas. In this paper we discuss the reasons for the existence of this phenomenon in Africa which we call the drive to political and economic...

The EAC is on the verge of establishing a customs union. But this is accompanied by fears that the Customs Union would lead to trade imbalances among the Partner States, which would create serious problems for the proper functioning of the Customs Union itself. To mitigate these problems the...