While the ECB helped mitigate the euro crisis in the aftermath of Lehman, it has stretched its monetary mandate and moved into fiscal territory. This text describes and summarises the crucial role played by the ECB in the intervention spiral resulting from its bid to manage the crisis. It also...

The forces of the market and systems competition bring about economic and social convergence in Europe. There is no need for social policies at the EU level. Social harmonisation would distort migration flows and slow down the speed of economic convergence. National welfare states will be...

This paper describes and analyses the evolution of euro area currency in circulation in the last years and especially in the run up to the cash change-over. In particular, it revisits the possible effect of the latter on the euro/dollar-exchange rate, which has been emphasised recently in the...

Aufgrund des Balassa-Samuelson-Effekts werden die Länder im Euro-Gebiet in Zukunft sehr verschiedene Inflationsraten aufweisen. Wie auch immer das Inflationsziel der Europäische Zentralbank aussieht, es wird Länder mit Inflationsraten unter und über diesem Ziel geben. Nach unseren...