Compared with the issues of economic and monetary policy the EEC Treaty says little about a common cyclical policy, and no great advances have been made towards such a policy since the Treaty of Rome was drafted. Which impediments are holding up progress in this direction?

Most of the empirical studies dealing with international business cycles have disregarded the credibility issues that play an important role in the decision to join or not a monetary union. Most of empirical applications based on asymmetric shocks have failed to account for these aspects. In...