The accession of ten new members to the European Union on May 1st 2004 is among the most significant developments in the history of European integration. Based upon studies conducted by the European Forecasting Network, this book analyses key aspects of the impact of this recent enlargement with...

This paper analyzes two features of concern to policy-makers in the countries of the prospective European Monetary Union: the solvency of their government's finances and the accuracy of fiscal forecasts. Extending the existing methodology of solvency tests, the paper finds that, with few...

We analyse the relative performance of the IMF, OECD and EC in forecasting the government deficit, as a ratio to GDP, for the G7 countries. Interesting differences across countries emerge, sometimes supporting the hypothesis of an asymmetric loss function (i.e. of a preference for...

Key aspects of the impact of the recent enlargement of the EU are analysed with reference to the Central and Eastern European countries. The book demonstrates that the enlargement could have profound consequences on both the new Member States and on the pre-accession members of the Union