This paper investigates determinants of convergence in GDP per capita in the euro area and the EU between 1995 and 2021. It finds that the COVID-19 crisis temporarily slowed convergence but the estimated negative impact is significantly smaller than during the global financial crisis. Diverging...

Thanks to recent reforms, projections suggest that public pension expenditure as a share of GDP might be no higher in 2060 than in 2013 for the EU. However, the adequacy of pensions is also important; if reforms leave an increasing number of older citizens without adequate incomes, they will...

This paper analyses the adjustment mechanism in the euro area prior to the crisis. Results show that the real exchange rate adjusted to redress cyclical divergences and that after monetary unification, real exchange rate dynamics became less reactive to country-specific shocks but also less...

There are many reasons to reform the Stability and Growth Pact, but that reform is no panacea. This is because the euro area periphery has increasingly entered a debt conundrum.

Experience after the establishment of EMU shows that the behaviour of private consumers differs considerably among member countries and that average and marginal propensities to consume are fairly heterogeneous. In particular, there are clear differences between Germany and the rest of the euro...

This paper presents three simple policies for overcoming the crisis that can be implemented immediately and require none of the moves such as national guarantees or fiscal transfers to which many Europeans are opposed, nor moves towards federation that entail Treaty changes, which electorates...