In the present paper an attempt will be made to show that in the banking sector wage rigidity increases as consumer inflation decreases. The immediate consequence is that banks cannot offer more competitive prices without shrinking profits. Hence, countries with strict labour laws hinder baking...

Macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU are at the heart of the current crisis. A widely popular explanation for the high current account deficits in the Southern European countries is that they lack a large, competitive and export-oriented industrial sector. The paper tests the hypothesis that...