This paper aims to identify different growth patterns in the EU which led to the emergence of macroeconomic imbalances. It provides a detailed statistical picture of the evolution of various macroeconomic variables on the demand as well as on the supply side, before, in and after the financial...

Macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU are at the heart of the current crisis. A widely popular explanation for the high current account deficits in the Southern European countries is that they lack a large, competitive and export-oriented industrial sector. The paper tests the hypothesis that...

This paper assesses whether or to what extent the macroeconomic imbalances, which emerged in the ‘North’ and ‘South’ of the European Monetary Union before the financial and economic crisis of 2008/09, are symmetric. Firstly, we calculate bilateral exports and imports between all EU...

The development of "green" industries is commonly seen as a necessary even though not sufficient condition for the transition towards ecologically sustainable paths of economic development. It is also a recurrent view that pro-active and successful policy action in this domain will not only...

The paper summarises the channels and mechanisms which lead to the emergence of macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU before, in and after the crisis of 2008/09. It focuses on the role of the specific institutional setting of the EMU in these developments and outlines the key reforms which are...