Gaps in competitiveness, rooted in economic as well as in political factors, characterise postwar European economic history. The eurozone experience showed the emergence of large current account imbalances. The peculiar mixture of financial markets integration and national cycles in wages and...

Existing work on wage bargaining (as exemplified by Cukierman and Lippi, 2001) typically predicts more aggressive wage setting under monetary union. This insight has not been confirmed by the EMU experience, which has been characterised by wage moderation, thereby eliciting criticism from Posen...

"On the 25th January 2015, the Greek people voted in an election of historic importance--not just for Greece but potentially all of Europe. The radical party Syriza was elected and austerity and the neoliberal agenda challenged. Suddenly it seems as if there is an alternative. But what? The...

Incomplete monetary union and Europe's current crisis -- From order to disorder : how monetary union changed national labor markets -- Monetary regimes, sectoral wage relations and the current account crisis in the EMU south : empirical evidence -- National central banks promoting inflation...