The launch of the EMS, far from being the result of deep economic thinking, was the somewhat unexpected outcome of political initiative. The rather casual economic debate that took place at the time is appraised by examining some problems that were at the centre of the negotiations in 1978. Some...

The work surveys the Italian experience with reference to growth and public debt. It does not seek to test conflicting views, as the effects of some financial and policy innovations are too recent and some data is of poor quality. Rather, its more limited scope is to draw on past experience and,...

This paper analyses the constraints on the choice of the conversion rates resulting from the fact that the external value of the Ecu cannot be changed at the start of the third stage of EMU and that one Ecu must be converted into one Euro. These constraints force the authorities to accept the...