The paper presents evidence from the past three years which indicates that the exchange rate between the private ECU and the official ECU Basket can deviate substantially from par. The value of the private ECU is driven by expectations that a future European Central Bank will enforce par...

Recent developments in the theoretical and empirical analysis of balance of payments crises are reviewed. A simple analytical model highlighting the process leading to such crises is first developed. The basic framework is then extended to deal with a variety of issues, including alternative...

Daily French and German interest rate changes since the Basle-Nyborg agreement of September 1987 are examined empirically. In particular, it is asked whether the shock associated with German unification altered the degree of leadership of German monetary policy in the exchange rate mechanism...

This paper first reviews the mainstream literature concerning the explanatory factors of fdis in the ceecs and specifically the exchange rate effects. We then present an empirical analysis of medium and long term exchange rate effects over the period 1995/2002, comparing us and eu investors...

This paper investigates the relationship between fiscal performance and movements in the exchange rates, the terms of trade, and other macroeconomic aggregates in 28 sub-Saharan African countries over the 1980-91 period. It finds that the tax base in most of these countries is heavily dependent...

There has been considerable interest in recent years in the possibility of hardening the SDR, motivated by the desire for an international yardstick of monetary stability. This paper explores various ideas aimed at hardening the SDR in the light of the previous debate on the valuation of the...

Based on an interdisciplinary approach, this article aims at elucidating what can be called the nature of money. To define it, we first distinguish between the generic properties of every money and its different and non specifically monetary uses. Then currency is grasped through its three...

The part of literature concerning monetary theory which focuses on payments system corresponds to a specific tradition. This article seeks to state the peculiar place held in it by James Steuart when, in the XVIII th century, cash payments and partial money keep on ruling. Among the very first...

This paper analyzes strategic interactions between the European Central Bank and member countries of the euro area in a model where governments have private information about the current state of their economy. We study the consequences of such information asymmetries on fiscal and monetary...

This paper surveys the empirical studies about shock asymmetries in the context of the European Union enlargement, and the new membership of Slovenia to the Euro area. Overall the evidence appears rather mixed due to different approaches on three levels : the choice of the sample, the selected...