An important question in the process of European integration concerns the best institutional level for stabilization policies. The theory of fiscal federalism gives criteria for evaluating if fiscal stabilization policies should take place on a centralized or on a decentralized level. This paper...

The decisions taken at Maastricht seem to have finally removed the obstacles to European monetary union. So have the monetary questions really been settled? Is the process of monetary convergence irreversible?

Real Wage Rigidities, Fiscal Policy, and the Stability of EMU in the Transition Phase. - EMU will start with eleven member countries as scheduled on January 1, 1999. The paper shows that the primacy of politics over economics in this decision could have serious consequences concerning the...

Throughout the world, strong dispersions of both regional and national unemployment rates can be observed. The economic theory has developed various explanations on how this differences occur. Corresponding models mainly aim at institutional and political framework, insider effects, efficiency...

The decisions taken at Maastricht seem to have finally removed the obstacles to European monetary union. So have the monetary questions really been settled? Is the process of monetary convergence irreversible?