A popular view among economists, policy-makers, and the media, is that the Maastricht Treaty and then Stability and Growth Pact have significantly impaired the ability of EU governments to conduct a stabilizing fiscal policy and to provide an adequate level of public infrastructure. In this...

Economists, policy-makers, and the media often argue that the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact make it difficult for governments of EMU countries to stabilize their economies with appropriate fiscal policy and to provide adequate public investment. Our empirical analysis...

Latin America is volatile, about two or three times as volatile as the industrial economies , and more volatile than any region other than Africa and the Middle East. Latin America's access to international financial markets is sporadic, and often disappears just when it would be most valuable....