The paper provides and empirical characterization of fiscal policy in the euro area and in a group of twenty-two OECD … economies over the period from 1970 until 2007. Using the cyclically-adjusted fiscal balance we document that policy in the euro … policies. However, the component of the budget due to automatic stabilizers reacts stronger in the euro-area countries than in …

The possibility that the euro area might break up was being raised even before the single currency existed. These … scenarios were then lent new life five or six years on, when appreciation of the euro and problems of slow growth in various … unlikely, I argue here, that one or more members of the euro area will leave in the next ten years; total disintegration of the …

others used the gravity model on a much smaller data set to estimate the effects of the euro on trade among its members. The … that were estimated in the euro's first four years hold up in the second four years? The answer is yes. Second, and more … explanations for the gap between 15% and 200%. First, lags. The euro is still very young. Second, size. The European countries are …