This study mainly examines the role of macroeconomic policy variables associated with Maastricht Convergence Criteria (MC), using various approaches to analyze comparatively differences in growth and convergence in income, productivity, and unemployment between a developed, economically...

This paper estimates the Balassa-Samuelson effects for 11 countries in central and eastern Europe on a disaggregated set of quarterly data covering the period from the mid-1990s to the first quarter of 2008. The Balassa-Samuelson effects are clearly present and explain around 24% of inflation...

We present a new approach to study empirically the effect of the introduction of the euro on currency invoicing. Our approach uses a compositional multinomial logit model, in which currency choice depends on the characteristics of both the currency and the country. We use unique quarterly panel...

In the current debate on the reasons and implications of the Greek and Irish euro crisis, the intra-European current account imbalances have gained rising attention. Whereas Greece and Ireland struggle for austerity in private and public spending, Germany is urged to reduce its current account...

Der Beitrag analysiert die inner-europäischen Leistungsbilanzungleichgewichte auf der Grundlage der Theorie der optimalen Währungsräume. Wir zeigen, dass die deutsche Wiedervereinigung nicht nur zur EWS-Krise 1992/93 führte, sondern auch der Ursprung der derzeitigen europäischen...

In der Juliausgabe veröffentlichte der Wirtschaftsdienst einen Aufsatz von Georg Erber mit dem Titel „Irrungen und Wirrungen mit der Leistungsbilanzstatistik“. Dazu äußert sich Jan Priewe kritisch. Anschließend stellt Georg Erber in einer Erwiderung seine Sicht dar.

The financial crisis in Europe has resulted in a new assessment of monetary and financial integration both in Europe and in Asia. Before the current crisis, regional integration in monetary and fiscal affairs including mechanisms to stabilize exchange rates enjoyed a lot of academic and...

This paper analyses the smoothing of asymmetric shocks to output for a sample of OECD countries. It also examines whether the private capital markets will be able to replace the government in providing output smoothing in the euro-area, in the near future. The research finds no evidence of large...

Along time the European Union (EU) has been pointed as the most succeeded example of regional integration. Now, this example has been cruelly shaken by the EZ (Euro Zone) crisis, originating increasing doubts about the integration process. It is evident that the proposed solutions for attacking...

In diesem Beitrag folgen wir der aktuellen Diskussion über die Aussagekraft der Maastricht-Kriterien für die Auswahl von Ländern zur Teilnahme an der EWU. Es wird gezeigt, daß diese Kriterien weder die Theorie optimaler Währungsgebiete ausreichend reflektieren noch der...