The paper is organized around two main questions. The first is, why is the eversion to exchange rate fluctuations stronger in Europe than elsewhere? the second question is: how does the EMS hold together?

An epidemiologist calculating the risk of a localised epidemic becoming a global pandemic would investigate every possible channel of contagion from the infected region to the rest of the world. Focusing on, say, the incidence of close human contact would underestimate the pandemic risk if the...

The report discusses a variety of issues involving difficulties in the banking sector, with a view to ascertaining the appropriate institutional infrastructure in the context of the European Union and the euro area. Forbearance on the part of banks dealing with delinquent borrowers is...

The European macro-prudential policy framework operates at two levels. First, the ESRB has a legal responsibility for macro-prudential oversight in the EU. Second, various national and EU authorities have responsibility for the implementation of macro-prudential policy. The creation of a...

SUERF – The European Money and Finance Forum, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS) took the opportunity of the first anniversary of this new institution to organise a joint conference in Berlin on 8-9 November 2011. The purpose of this event was...

The article studies policy options in an economy which is unstable under bond-financing of a predetermined government deficit. We analyze policies based on pre-announced changes in monetary control or on confi-scation of that part of the Government debt which could only be retired through a...

This paper reviews the arguments for and against monetary unification in Europe, taking into account the recent shift in emphasis in the analysis of exchange-rate regimes.

Verso la metà degli anni '70, molti economisti iniziarono a chiedersi se un ruolo attivo della politica monetaria e fiscale fosse ancora auspicabile ed efficace. I dubbi nascevano dall'osservazione che la politica economica sembrava incapace di risolvere il dilemma di un'alta inflazione e di...

The Italian economy has often puzzled foreign observers over the past fifteen years. In this article we attempt to interpret these developments. In our interpretation, some implications of which are perhaps of more than local interest, we stress the role of policies throughout the period.