This paper analyses the Balassa and Samuelson hypothesis in two groups of countries: six New Member States (NMSs) of the EU and six old member states (OMSs) not affected by the transition problems. We find that in the NMS group, the model may be successfully enlarged with variables that account...

This paper investigates the determinants of equilibrium real exchange rates for the new EU member states and candidate countries, relying on an asset model inspired by Aglietta et al. (1998) and Alberola et al. (1999, 2002). The impact of productivity gains on both the Balassa-Samuelson effect...

In this paper, we investigate the Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson (HBS) hypothesis in 11 Central and Eastern European transition countries. Unlike previous research, we test the HBS hypothesis with NACE 6 quarterly data which enables us to divide data into tradable and nontradable sectors without...

Inflation differentials within European Monetary Union (EMU) are increasingly seen as exerting adverse effects on the price competitiveness of member countries' firms and – given the common monetary policy within EMU – as being detrimental to euro-area economies, in particular to those with...

This paper analyses the Balassa and Samuelson hypothesis in two groups of European countries: six New Member States (NMS) and six advanced EU-15 economies. It is found that the second stage of the hypothesis, which relates relative sector prices with the real exchange rate, does not hold...

The aim of this paper is to provide some new empirical evidence on the determinants of volatility of real exchange rates in emerging countries, focusing on the role of international financial integration in particular. A reduced-form model is estimated using the GMM method for dynamic panels...

In this paper we address the two following questions: (1) what are the major sources of real exchange rate fluctuations in developing countries? (2) do economic policy makers have room to face possible real exchange rate fluctuations? To answer these questions, we estimate a structural VAR model...

This paper examines the current state of price convergence amongst the eleven initial EMU member states. Special attention is given to possible changes in the convergence process during the euro cash changeover. We apply the convergence approach using both panel estimates of changes in the...

The paper scrutinizes the role of wages and capital flows for competitiveness in the new EU member states in the context of real convergence. For this purpose it extends the seminal Balassa-Samuelson model by international capital markets. The augmented Balassa-Samuelson model is linked to the...