We study lessons from the experience of Finland in meeting the challenges of joining the euro area at its outset and its subsequent economic success. Traditional optimum currency area theory is too limited a framework for judging the experience in qualifying and membership.Five main factors have...

The project to build up a banking union in Europe was launched in summer 2012. Thereafter the progress has been fast. Single Supervisory Mechanism will embark on November 1, 2014. A decision on the Single Resolution Mechanism was made in Spring 2014. It should be up and running as of the...

The present paper provides further empirical evidence on the credit view (i.e., bank credit availability has a positive impact on macroeconomic activity) by investigating the case of Finland. The Finnish economy suffered a severe recession in the early 1990s that was marked by widespread banking...

The paper investigates the relationship between relative price movements and changes in the aggregate price level using monthly data on Finland's Consumer Price Index and its components from the period covering the past eight and a half years. This was a period of very low inflation. The rate of...

The credit view asserts that there is a positive relationship between credit availability and economic growth. This paper applies recent advances in time series analysis to investigate the role of credit availability on the Finnish economy in the 1980-1996 period. During this period the Finnish...