What policy objective should a common central bank in a heterogeneous monetary union pursue? Should it base its decisions on the EU-wide average of inflation and growth or should it instead focus on (appropriately weighted) national welfare losses based on national rates of inflation and growth?...

Die Bilanz des Europäischen Zentralbanksystems (EZBS) ist um 50% länger als notwendig, und da die europäischen Notenbanken ihre Bilanzen so undurchsichtig wie möglich gestalten, ist es schwer, genau festzustellen, woher die überflüssigen Positionen stammen. Daniel Gros, stellvertretender...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a closer view on the interaction of exchange rate volatility and interest rate volatility in the Mercosur countries. We discuss several models that explain systematic correlations between the movements of both variables and their second statistical...

Most countries commonly classified as 'in transition' are st ill recognisably different from other countries with a similar income per capita in some respects: a larger share of their work force is in industry, they use more energy, they have a more extensive infrastructure and invest more in...

In a simple stochastic two-country model in which each country uses monetary policy to offset shocks that impinge on its national income, the policy rule chosen by each country is affected by the rule chosen by the other. A monetary union emerges as a Nash equilibrium (and is Pareto optimal) if...

The variability of the euro seems to have a statistically significant and economically small, but non-negligible, impact on labour markets in Euroland. Unemployment tends to increase and employment growth tends to fall whenever the effective exchange rate of the euro or the bilateral euro/dollar...

The paper analyzes the importance of credible institutions in the process of trade liberalization. It combines aspects of credible policy announcements with adjustment costs. We show that if industries' profits are subject to adjustment costs, a dynamic link between periods arises that creates...