The validity of the Balassa-Samuelson effect seems to be something of a stylized fact for transition countries. This article addresses the question as to whether the productivity bias hypothesis holds for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia between 1991 and 2000. In so...

The enlargement of the European Union raises a series of questions related to new member states' entry to the EU's exchange rate mechanism II (ERM II) and their subsequent adoption of the euro. This paper considers how to determine the best initial central parity for new EU member states from...