We study the convergence of European bond markets and the anchoring of inflation expectations in euro area countries …) has led to substantial convergence in euro area sovereign bond markets in terms of interest rate levels, unconditional … using high-frequency bond yield data for France, Germany, Italy and Spain. We find that Economic and Monetary Union (EMU …

The paper provides an analysis of the euro area money and bond markets and their infrastructure since the introduction … of the euro. Significant development in terms of integration took place in both markets in general to a various degree … for the different segments. However, there remain room for further integration after the first year of Stage III of EMU …

. It finds that political mishandling has increased uncertainty, which has contributed to a tendency for the euro to become …

and timing of euro adoption. We investigate the real-nominal convergence nexus from the perspective of euro area entry. We …The paper discusses the risks and challenges faced by the new members on the road to the euro and the strategies for … argue that the initial level of economic development as measured by per capita income and the speed of real convergence have …

A major economic reason for the introduction of the euro was its supposedly positive effect on intra-EMU trade …. Existing studies examine this suspicion indirectly using non-EMU data and report ambiguous results. We estimate the euro …-effect directly from data that include EMU observations. Using a dynamic panel model for annual bilateral exports, we find that the …

We reassess the result of unsustainability of the euro with respect to inflation differentials claimed by Wickens (2007 …) by specifying an open-economy version of a two-region New Keynesian model for EMU and demonstrate that the result by … rules so that the sustainability of the euro area and the member countries is reached over time with respect to supply and …

Will EMU accelerate or retard structural reform in labour and product markets? The theoretical literature is ambiguous …. New descriptive evidence provided in this paper suggests that euro-area countries have made relatively good progress in … structural reform. However, it is much less clear whether progress can be ascribed to EMU membership. To explore further the …

analysis suggests that, given EMU's present political-economic set-up, i) the bail-out was unavoidable, ii) the lengthy process … with a future moral hazard problem. Based on our analysis, we suggest that the EMU's institutional design could be improved … negotiation processes as well as the conditions and parameters on which the scope and limits of fiscal redistribution in EMU …

Overall, the ECB managed monetary policy quite satisfactory in the first phase of EMU. Nevertheless, this paper asks …

quasi-fiscal rescue operations can undermine this consensus and lead to a disintegration of the Eurozone. There are also …