This study inspects if there is greater convergence with Germany amongst the Eurozone founding members and if their relations with the hegemonic economy have been more symmetrical after "euroization". The dimensions explored are those inspired by the optimum currency areas (OCA) framework. To...

The need for macroprudential policy to “lean against the wind” of credit cycles at the aim of financial and hence macroeconomic stability is a common belief. Which design of macroprudential policy might attain the greatest stability for the economy is still an open debate. This paper builds...

Differential requirements for seigniorage provide a weak case for retaining monetary independence. As regards adjustment to asymmetric shocks, nominal exchange rate flexibility is at best a limited blessing and at worst a limited curse. Absence of significant fiscal redistribution mechanisms...

I estimate regime-dependent spillover effects from government spending shocks across the members of the European Monetary Union (EMU). I use panel regressions for a total of 14 EMU economies from 1997 to 2022. Government spending shocks are defined by unexpected innovations to forecast...

The general acceleration of trade globalisation over the last decade - or a growing interdependence of economies via trade, production and financial market linkages - has engendered several macroeconomic implications for the euro area. This paper focuses on assessing the key impacts on the euro...

Fiscal policy is widely criticized for its failure to act as a stabilizing countercyclical force in the European Monetary Union. Two periods should be distinguished: Prior to the Financial Crisis of 2008, when monetary policy had traction to pursue stability for the aggregate eurozone, fiscal...

In this paper, the monetary policy independence of European nations in the years before European Monetary Union (EMU) is investigated using cointegration techniques. Daily data is used to assess pairwise relationships between individual EMU nations and ‘lead' nation Germany, to assess the...

The uncovered interest rate parity condition lies at the heart of the "impossible trinity", stating that the three objectives of fixed exchange rates, free capital flows, and independent monetary policy cannot be pursued simultaneously. We argue that although monetary unification does indeed...

This paper studies monetary regime choice between monetary union and flexible exchange rate regime in a large open economy framework. The classical approach emphasizes that monetary unions are inherently costly because a single interest rate cannot respond effectively to different shocks of...