The failure of key EU Member States to respect the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) a few years after its inception triggered a heated debate on how to reform the framework of fiscal policy coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper systematically...

This paper reviews the first five years of experience with the working of the EMU framework for fiscal policy in EMU. It is argued that the balance with the fiscal framework of EMU so far is mixed. The EMU framework has contributed to avoid large fiscal imbalances in EU Member States and has...

This paper assesses the relevance of the competitiveness argument in the debate on the current situation of the Spanish economy. We estimate error-correction models for exports and imports. Econometric analyses suggest that external demand and domestic activity are the more important...

This paper analyses non-Keynesian effects in fiscal consolidations in the EU. The analysis is carried out both ex-post, i.e. by looking at the emergence of expansionary consolidations in the past and at their characteristics, and ex-ante, i.e. by simulating with the European Commission QUEST...

This essay will evaluate the experience of the first decade of EMU and the euro in historical perspective. It will ground the establishment of EMU and the euro in the context of the history of international monetary cooperation and of monetary unions. A discussion of the origins, key operating...

It is often claimed that the introduction of the EU rules-based fiscal framework of the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact was responsible for a decline in public investment shares in EU countries. Proposals have also been made in recent times in favour of a revision of the EU...

EMU and the euro will face a number of challenges in the future. Two such challenges are examined here:first, the endurance prospects for the euro, and second, the inflation performance of the euro area during the coming ten years. How will it respond to them? This report provides a set of...

This paper examines the benefits of co-ordination in EMU in a stylised manner and how these benefits have shaped the co-ordination framework in EMU. It then discusses in detail the co-ordination experience in four areas that are particularly important for the functioning of EMU: (i) fiscal...

The paper examines the implications of EMU for world macroeconomic and financial stability, distinguishing EMU effects from other global factors at work. It concludes that EMU is having on the whole stabilising effects on the world economy, particularly in neighbouring regions.

The thesis of this paper is that there is no historical precedent for Europe's monetary union (EMU). While it is possible to point to similar historical experiences, the most obvious of which were in the 19th century, occurred in Europe, and had “union†as part of their names, EMU...