The three essays of this dissertation contribute to the measurement of European economic integration and investigate the welfare effects of the European countries. The first study presents a newly developed index – the EU Index – which measures the extent of economic integration into the...

Against the background of the euro-sceptic view many German economists expressed during the 1990ies and the traditional as well as modern debate on the optimum currency area the outcomes of the first ten years of the European Monetary Union are analysed. It is checked to what extent the concerns...

By applying the concepts of institutional and constitutional economics, this paper addresses the question to what extent a reform of the stability pact will be efficient and appropriate. The starting point of the analysis is the assumption that the stability pact will yield disciplining effects...