This paper focuses on ihe rationale behind fiscal solidarity. It is argued that, while at the national level the main aim of regional policies is to downsize the cost of labor market policies, the motivation behind EU transfers is less straightforward. Here, regional assistance should rather be...

In the nineties, the number of currency crises has been high, both in the industrial world and among emerging countries. An important characteristic of many of these crises is that they started in one country but very soon affected others as well. Currency crises seemed to be contagious. In this...

Dutch media often pay a lot of attention to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They are considered to be the engine of the Dutch job industry and therefore deserve our attention. In this study we highlight the role the Dutch SMEs play in the Dutch economy. This study's first objective is...

In the empirical literature, not much support is found for the uncovered interest parity. Especially with free floating exchange rates, the forward rate is a biased predictor of the future exchange rate. This phenomenon can both be explained by an absence of rational expectations or by risk...

One of the major puzzles of the economic profession is the pricing of exchange rates. Despite the development of numerous theories, the actual behaviour of exchange rates, especially in the short run, is not well understood. This article evaluates several popular exchange rate theories and...