Austrians widely expected prices to fall on account of EU accession, participation in the Single Market and the resulting stepped-up competition. In hindsight, this assessment was partly correct. In the course of the decade from 1995 to 2004, the inflation rate dropped by half to 1.5% per annum...

In this paper we examine the international implications of monetary union in the European Community (EMU) and the associated international costs and benefits. We consider prospective changes in international institutions, the potential role of the ecu as an international currency, and the...

This paper contributes to the debate engendered by the Delors Report on the issue of European Monetary Union. It focuses on the options of a strengthened (or hard-) EMS, with a commitment to a fixed exchange rate relative to the Deutschmark, or a European central bank with full monetary union...

This paper focuses on two questions. First, under what conditions would two countries agree to hold their bilateral cross exchange rate fixed? and second, what allocation of intervention duties would this require? Answers to these questions are sought by combining a standard macroeconomic model...

This paper studies the exchange rate between the East and West German mark in the period before German monetary union. We show that standard exchange rate theory contains strong predictions about the dynamics of the exchange rate under these circumstances, and we use state-space methods to...

The currency crisis of 1999 in Brazil and the current debt crisis in Argentina has put economic integration in MERCOSUR under stress. Fears of disintegration seem to be more prevalent than optimism on a further deepening of economic and eventually monetary integration in MERCOSUR. The...

This paper relates the volatility of interest rates to the collective nature of monetary policymaking in monetary unions. Several decision rules are modelled, including hegemonic and democratic procedures, and also committees headed by a chairman. A ranking of decision rules in terms of the...

Why increase the independence of the Central Bank of West African States? The answer can be sought in the monetary and institutional evolution of the West African Economic and Monetary Union. The advantage would be to increase confidence in the value of the currency and to guarantee the...

Potential costs and benefits of a monetary union for the four MERCOSUR countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are compared. Particular emphasis was put on the traditional and new approaches to optimum currency area theory which were reviewed and analyzed with respect to their validity...

We use a spatial competition based model in a two-stage game setup to assess whether equilibrium in exchange rates among the leading currencies is attainable. We show that a stable equilibrium can be reached in the case of two leading currencies, but not in the case of three. In our model,...