This Occasional Paper examines how and why the institutional framework governing EMU has evolved since the creation of the euro. Building on theories of institutionalism, the paper in particular investigates to what extent functional spillovers from the single currency into other policy domains,...

In the wake of the global financial crisis, the economically weaker countries of the European Union that adopted the euro as a common currency soon started to feel the pressure of markets. In a monetary union, with one single central bank in charge of the monetary policy but without a common...

What determines a country's ability to compete in international markets? What fosters the global competitiveness of its firms? And in the European context, have key elements of the EU strategy such as EMU and enlargement helped or hindered domestic firms' competitiveness in local and global...