According to the conventional wisdom, "peripheral" Southern European countries members of the euro area (Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) suffer from a problem of competitiveness. Since devaluation is not possible because they are part of the euro, the adjustment should come through...

The balance of payments can act as a constraint to the rate of growth of output, on putting a limit to the growth in the level of demand to which supply can adapt. This effect might be even stronger for regional economies, presumably more integrated among them. In this paper, we examine this...

According to conventional wisdom, “peripheral” Southern European members of the euro area (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) suffer from a problem of competitiveness. Since their membership of the euro area renders devaluation impossible, adjustment should come through decreasing wages and...