The question of convergence between poor and rich countries is a central issue in economic growth debate in the last years. This paper investigates the β-conditional convergence of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region towards the Euro Zone using a set of macroeconomic, institutional...

The European Central Bank (ECB) was built in Phase Two Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 1998. This institution performs tasks in line with its primary objective to maintain price stability, the rules of the EC Treaty and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The ECB has...

Extreme volatility and high uncertainty characterized European financial markets between 2010-2012. In addition to the "financial contagion" effects of the 2007-2009 Subprime Mortgages crisis, the European financial markets' turbulence was also related to a more fundamentally economic reality:...

The European Union (EU) was set up to create more prosperity through cooperation among all Europeans. Now, the EU is a family of 27 democratic countries. From January 1, 1999 to 2008, there has been 15 the EU Member states participate in phase three Economic and Monetary Union (the Euro Zone =...

This note argues that the solutions to the euro-area crisis proposed by the EU governing institutions in cooperation with the IMF, based on further austerity and wage cuts, will worsen the crisis. They are unlikely to reduce both sovereign and external debt ratios of countries experiencing these...

In this paper I evaluate the usefulness of a set of fiscal indicators as early-warning-signal tools for annual General Government Net Lending developments for some EMU countries (Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Finland) and an EMU aggregate. The...

Short-term fiscal indicators based on public accounts data are often used by European policy makers. They represent one of the main sources of publicly available intra-annual fiscal information. Nevertheless, these indicators have received limited attention from the academic literature analysing...

The analysis of the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policies in the euro area has been traditionally limited by the absence of quarterly fiscal data. To overcome this problem, we provide two new databases in this paper. Firstly, we construct a quarterly database of euro area fiscal variables for...

This paper discusses topics related to the growth mechanism in Europe, and specifically in the eurozone. It looks at the interaction of macroeconomic and structural aspects identifying issues where more analysis is needed in order to draw policy implications. It also looks at how developments in...

The paper examines economic and political challenges of joining the euro area in the case of Poland. After reviewing the economic developments since the pre-accession period and assessing economic convergence with the euro area the paper focuses on the political and institutional challenges of...