Over the past decades, cross-border financial flows have increased in importance and have in many occasions exceeded the underlying current account positions. This phenomenon has been accompanied by an increase in the volume of international equity transactions that accentuate the role of...

The overall objective of the present study is to improve the quality the EC and other donors’ media support by providing an analyses of the EC ́s assistance so far and recommendations on future strategies and modalities. This present report focuses on the activities so far, while a separate...

Central and East European countries (CEEC) differ significantly with regards to their economic performance despite the fact that external policy prescriptions are very similar in all these countries. Extreme diversity and fragility in the performance of the main economic variables such as GDP...

The coming enlargement of the European Union is an opportunity and a challenge for taking decisions on a substantial reform of its institutional framework. After the negative experience of the past Intergovernmental Conferences leading to the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice, the preparation of...

On 1 May 2004 the EU will enlarge to 25 member states. Member states are uncertain what they will gain or lose from enlargement and they are concerned about the implications for the functioning of the EU. Talk is even of enlargement as a u0093leap in the darku0094. The reports in this study deal...

Within a two-step GARCH framework we explore the linkages between equity returns of ten sectors in the euro area, the United States and Japan, respectively. Our estimation framework allows a distinction to be made between spillover effects originating from one of the three currency areas and...

Four years after the introduction of the euro, this paper provides an overview of the current structure and integration of the euro area financial systems and related policy initiatives. We first compare the euro area financial structure with that of the United States and Japan. Using new and...