This paper examines whether economic integration favors countries' convergence into a common cone of diversification. We analyze the manufacturing specialization patterns for a sample of 19 current and potential European Union countries over the period 1963-1998, and assess the impact of...

European Monetary Union will come into existence in 1999. This raises questions related to the monetary policy targets that will be adopted by the European Central Bank (ECB). For both likely candidates, targeting a money aggregate or an inflation target, the existence of a stable money demand...

The renewed interest in the theory of the lender of last resort (LOLR) as well as the missing LOLR in the Eurosystem has triggered a new thesis on the LOLR: not the central bank but the Minister of Finance is the true LOLR. The classical theorists of central banking – Steuart, Thornton,...