With the abolition of exchange rates the role of wage formation in the European Monetary Union changes fundamentally and national economic policy in particular fiscal policy faces new restrictions. These are analysed in the first two chapters. A major impact is expected for wage formation. To...

Understanding EMU : the role of labour market institutions -- The other road to Maastricht : currency blocs, wage moderation, and social conflict -- The perils of coordination : wages and labour relations from the European Monetary System to EMU -- Diversity without unity : labour unions and...

We study the distributional consequences of housing price, bond price and equity price increases for Euro Area households using data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). The capital gains from bond price and equity price increases turn out to be concentrated among relatively...