A large number of European countries still cope with historically high unemployment rates. One line of research that has been followed to explain European unemployment and the differences among European countries is the impact labour market institutions. One important channel through which...

This paper uses the Taylor rule to examine the appropriateness of ECB interest rate policy for the initial EMU members and the ten new EMU member states some of whom are expected to join the Eurozone in 2006-7. Specifically it addresses three questions. (1) Are there differences between the...

This paper presents new evidence on inflation differentials in the Euro Area from different perspectives, and extending the sample including the recent financial crisis. First, we give an informal analysis of the evolution of inflation dispersion and inflation differentials since the start of...