The paper takes into account both the concerns of the EU, arguing that convergence is incomplete, and the demands from accession countries, claiming that monetary integration is optimal. Indicators are developed which measure convergence and optimality in comparison with a reference group of the...

Incomplete monetary union and Europe's current crisis -- From order to disorder : how monetary union changed national labor markets -- Monetary regimes, sectoral wage relations and the current account crisis in the EMU south : empirical evidence -- National central banks promoting inflation...

In this paper we present supporting evidence of the existence of heterogeneity in inflation dynamics across euro area countries. Based on the estimation of New Phillips Curves for five major countries of the euro area, we find that there is significant inertial (backward looking) behavior in...