The paper applies fuzzy clustering techniques to developed and emerging economies in East Asia in order to arrive at an identification of potential subgroups of economies for monetary union. The statistical criteria employed are those suggested by the Optimal Currency Areas theory and the period...

This paper attempts to assess the feasibility of Malaysia to rejoin the monetary union with Singapore and Brunei which it left in 1973 in terms of the real convergence criteria suggested by optimum currency areas (OCA) theory and the nominal convergence criteria specified by the Maastricht...

This paper uses a model of import prices whereby exporters to the euro area set export prices partly as a mark-up on their production costs (i.e., the degree of exchange rate pass-through) and partly in line with euro area producer prices (i.e., pricing-to-market). Using both time series and...

Global trade contracted quickly and severely during the global crisis. This paper, using a unique dataset of French firms, matching together export data with firm-level credit constraints, shows that most of the 2008-2009 trade collapse is accounted by the unprecedented demand shock and by...

The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 has mainly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, exporters who are heterogeneous in terms of productivity, size or external financial dependence should be...

The purpose of this paper is to explain the relation between the Border Effect and industrial concentration. This is achieved by founding this relation on the Home Market Effect and testing the robustness of this foundation through an application to the European Single Market. A sectorial...

Die Weltkonjunktur zeigt sich im Frühsommer 2003 leicht aufwärtsgerichtet. Zu einer durchgreifenden Erholung ist es bisher noch nicht gekommen. Belastend wirkten insbesondere die Irak-Krise, der zwischenzeitliche Höhenflug des Erdölpreises, der Ausbruch der Lungenkrankheit SARS sowie die...

The growing consensus that the design of scientific monetary policy requires targets or rules rather than discretion is explained in the paper, using a macro-theoretic framework. A quadratic loss function constrained by a an expectations augmented Phillips curve has been used to demonstrate that...

Well-functioning economic structures are key for resilient and prospering euro area economies. The global financial and sovereign debt crises exposed the limited resilience of the euro area's economic structures. Economic growth was masking underlying weaknesses in several euro area countries....

Saudi Arabia is a fiscally dominant open economy. The exchange rate anchor provides the long -term framework for monetary policy. There is only limited scope to diverge from US interest rates but SAMA retains flexibility in deploying prudential guidelines, adjusting reserve requirements and...