This paper empirically analyzes the effects of de jure financial openness on institutional quality as captured by indicators on investment risk, corruption level, impartiality of judiciary system as well as the effectiveness of bureaucratic authorities. Using a panel data set of more than 110...

Many regions on the EU Eastern borders have developed favourably after the opening up of the border and the implementation of association agreements with the CEECs. This was often seen as a positive sign for the further perspectives of these regions after EU enlargement. In this paper we take a...

This paper investigates the transmission of US macroeconomic shocks to Germany by employing a large-dimensional structural dynamic factor model. This framework allows us to investigate many transmission channels simultaneously, including 'new' channels like stock markets, foreign direct...

This paper extends the work of Kaminsky and Schmukler (2003) to the Baltic and Central Eastern European future Member States of the European Union, to test if the same short-run increase in cyclical volatility arising from financial integration is observed in this specific sample of ?emerging...

In this paper we rely on techniques recently developed by Bai and Ng (2004a) to estimate common euro-area stationary and non-stationary factors using a large-scale dynamic factor model. We find that euro-area economies share four non-stationary factors or trends and one stationary factor. By...

A high degree of cyclical synchronization between central and east European countries (CEECs) and the euro area is generally seen as a prerequisite for successful EMU enlargement. This paper investigates comovements between CEECs and the euro area. We first establish stylized facts on economic...

Recent studies have conjectured that there may be a link between financial liberalization and financial instability in emerging economies. Most of these studies, however, do not investigate whether emerging economies are becoming structurally more vulnerable to currency and banking crises. In...

Since EMU represents a currency area with a GDP level and a world market share comparable to the United States, it is widely expected that the euro will become an important international currency. This paper suggests simple methods how to quantify the effects that EMU may exert on the roles of...

Using long time series for sovereign bond markets of fifteen industrialized economies from 1875 to 2009, I find that financial market integration by the end of the 20th century was higher than in earlier periods and exhibited a J-shaped trend with a trough in the 1920s. The main reason for the...

This paper is motivated by the idea that the enlargement of the European Union is only one part of an overall process, known as economic integration, which characterizes the involvement of European economies into the global division of labor. Therefore, the paper aims at providing a quantitative...