Here the author empirically estimates if the different monetary and exchange rate frameworks observed in the Accession Countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics do yield different outcomes in terms of level and variance of a set of nominal and real variables. The author follows and...

EMU enlargement not only depends on the individual state of convergence of the accession candidates, but also on their political situation. Therefore, we argue that institutional convergence, in particular monetary policy binding, is equally - if not more - important for successful monetary...

Soon, euro area membership could more than double, with the vast majority of accession countries being quite different in economic terms compared with current members. Under the current decision-making system, this can lead to high decisionmaking costs and there is a risk that monetary policy...