EMU has a unique macroeconomic framework that combines a single monetary policy with coordinated national economic and fiscal policies. Since the coordination process has some serious weaknesses despite having been modified several times in recent years, the idea of a single economic/fiscal...

EMU and the euro have been existing for more than seven (almost eight) years. As it is known, EMU –and in particular the proper functioning of the single currency – requires the appropriate policy mix. But there is the significant macroeconomic and institutional imbalance within the euro...

We revisit the subject of country-level macroeconomic adjustment in the euro area in theabsence of autonomous monetary and exchange rate policy. We discuss how the procyclical real interest rate mechanism and the competitiveness channel of adjustment interact with various aspects of...

Once a country joins a monetary union, an efficient competitiveness channel is considered to be the main substitute for the abandoned autonomous monetary and exchange rate policy. This paper attempts to make an empirical assessment of how the price competitiveness of domestic producers...

This paper reviews the literature on the labour market institutions in European Union Member States in the context of monetary integration. Traditionally, labour markets are a key concept in the optimal currency area theory, playing the role of the only accommodation mechanism of asymmetric...