Diverging fiscal policy paths, housing booms and diverging unit labour costs were driving forces of rising intra-European current account imbalances, which were underpinned by low interest rates. Since the outbreak of the crisis, the adjustment of intra-EMU current account imbalances has been...

Attributing the foreign trade effects of an expansion in the state budget to a single cause cannot do justice to the multitude of macro-economic interrelationships. Both theory and observation can reveal quite differing links between the public sector financial balance, the balance of payments...