Eight months ago, as the risk of sovereign default in Greece first emerged, the Intereconomics Forum invited a number of contributors to examine the options available to EU policymakers. As the threats to European Monetary Union resurface now, six of the same authors return in this issue's Forum...

While past discussions on EMU tended to emphasise its role in limiting the impact of the global financial crisis on the euro area countries, the focus has now shifted to the destabilising effects threatening the entire euro zone as a consequence of the dire fiscal situation in some weaker member...

A Capital Markets Union (CMU) is the great hope of European policymakers. The plan for a CMU tries to reduce the reliance of European investors on banks and build up a market-based risk-sharing channel between member states. Our empirical analysis raises doubts that this can be achieved through...

Promoting employment at low earnings figures prominently in several debates on how to make the German social welfare system more prone to job creation. In the U.S., about 15% of all civilian jobs are subsidized via the Earned Income Tax Credit, a transfer program that refunds income taxes beyond...

Die meisten mittel- und osteuropäischen Beitrittsländer bekundeten ursprünglich, sie wollten sobald wie möglich nach dem EU-Beitritt auch der monetären Union beitreten. Der Eifer hat inzwischen nachgelassen. In diesem Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass es gute Gründe für diese gemischten...

In a substantive paper, Buti et al. (2003) discuss various criticisms of the European Stability and Growth Pact and propose a number of amendments. The bottom line of their review is that reform requires internal adjustment only, keeping the norm of relying on rule-based fiscal consolidation and...