The world has been struck by a mutating systemic financial crisis that is unprecedented in terms of financial losses and fiscal costs, geographic reach, and speed and synchronisation. The crisis from August 2007 to date can be divided into three main phases: the financial turmoil from August...

The destructive potential of the sovereign debt crisis of the euro area has been slowly abating since last summer, but still remains considerable. One reason for it is the sheer complexity of the crisis, which brings together several harmful factors, some long-standing, others more recent, like...

This paper addresses the effects of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) since the introduction of the euro on economic and financial structures, institutions and performance. What type of changes is the euro fostering? What forces is it setting in motion that were not there before?...

This paper surveys the optimum currency area (OCA) literature. It is organised into four phases: the quot;pioneering phasequot; which put forward the OCA theory and its properties, the quot;reconciliation phasequot; when its diverse facets were combined, the quot;reassessment phasequot; that led...

The start of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has spurred a new interest in the debate on the effects of monetary unions on regional economic integration. This literature either investigates past episodes of monetary unions or attempts to gauge any effect with a few years of EMU...

This paper examines the various stages of the sovereign debt crisis of the euro area, the ensuing re-segmentation of several financial market segments and the disruptions in the transmission of monetary policy impulses. The paper provides the first systematic attempt to describe the European...

Our understanding of optimum currency area (OCA) properties has changed over time. While all properties can now be discussed in detail, the challenge of weighing and reconciling them remains. Looking ahead, we may be confronted with two distinct paradigms: specialization versus 'endogeneity of...