Adopting the European single currency is reevaluated amid changing environment of the existing euro area. In this paper we are mapping those divergences among member countries that challenge the optimal currency area (OCA), at least from a theoretical perspective. Nevertheless, the decision to...

Recently proposals for introducing greater exchange rate fixity into the behavior of key exchange rates have become fashionable. One proposal, for example, suggests that a target zone arrangement for the dollar, mark and yen would represent a desirable reform of the international monetary...

This paper makes the case for full euroization of the Balkans. It argues that the full adoption of the new currency, including the use of euro notes and coins, would bring important benefits for the countries in south east Europe. The key benefit of euroization would be the opportunity it would...

Typically, the catching-up process between rich Northern Europe and poor Southern Europe and the diverging cost competitiveness between the two regions are considered alternative explanations for the widening current account imbalances in the euro area. This paper proposes a new explanation for...

This paper proposes a new approach to EMU governance and integration consisting of the following elements: (i) an optimal use of the existing EU institutional framework for economic, fiscal and financial policies is necessary and possible at each level of EMU integration that is politically...

This paper, drawing on the lessons from the sovereign debt crisis, tries to give answers to some key questions: Was the strategy and specific actions to cope with the crisis appropriate? Was the priority given to preserving financial stability justified? Are stability and growth objectives...

This paper, after reviewing briefly the early steps of European monetary integration and key elements of the EMU project as reflected in the Treaty of Maastricht, analyses the monetary integration strategy and convergence experience of member states, in particular that of Greece, in the 1990s...

This paper explores the economic rationale of an EMU fiscal capacity. It explains that the EMU's architecture suffers from two structural weaknesses: a tendency to develop imbalances and an inherent deflationary bias. The analysis shows that the external imbalances developed during the first...

The paper analyses the role of fiscal and monetary policy for the development of the current account imbalances in the euro area, including the most recent developments during the coronavirus crisis. Several financial transmission channels such as international bank lending, changes in TARGET2...

This paper provides an alternative approach in explaining current account imbalances within the euro area. The inability of the ECB to react to disparities in inflation and economic growth between EMU members results in persistent real interest rate differentials, which in turn cause divergent...