This paper argues that the crisis was an outcome of EMU: setting a common monetary policy for countries with different initial inflation rates. The crisis countries were those with high inflation rates which then had negative real interest rates and consequently over-borrowed. Current policy...

The theory of optimal currency areas, due to Mundell and McKinnon, has enjoyed a revival of interest in the wake of European discussions of monetary union. The basic theme of this old literature is that there are potential gains for stabilization policy in an independent exchange rate and money...

Since the establishment in 1979 of the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the EMS a number of countries, after entry, have experienced a substantial and persistent rise in their real exchange rate (the ratio of domestic to foreign prices). This paper explains this phenomenon in terms of a `peso problem'...

Using the recent EC Commission report `One Market, One Money' as a point of reference, we consider the merits of a single currency in Europe. The main benefit is the reduction in transaction costs, which the report estimates at 0.4% of European Community (EC) GDP (but much less in countries with...

China's fast growth has been accompanied by rising regional inequality, triggering debate over a policy trade-off between aggregate growth and equity. We set out a three-region model of China in which local government behavior affects local TFP dynamics, and regional inequality itself generates...

China's fast growth has been accompanied by rising regional inequality, triggering debate over a policy trade-off between aggregate growth and equity. We set out a three-region model of China in which local government behavior affects local TFP dynamics, and regional inequality itself generates...