Traditionally clustered around one leading "hegemonic" world currency, with the introduction of the euro the international monetary regime might become a "symmetric" dipolar system. This fundamental change would come at a time of already considerable uncertainty when, after the Asian, Russian...

This paper examines the long-term financial integration of second-round acceding and candidate countries?? with the European Union and the US stock markets during the Accession Process. The lowpair wise correlations between these markets imply portfolio diversification opportunities, yet...

In the discussions on the need for fiscal rules and their usefulness in a monetary union, researchers have not agreed if financial markets have a sufficiently disciplining effect on governments, which would mean that the fiscal rules are not necessary. This paper investigates whether the...