We analyse the optimal composition of a committee comprising members that have private information and represent constituencies of different economic sizes. ‘Proportional representation' - i.e. each constituency represented proportionally to its economic weight - seems intuitively...

We analyse the optimal composition of a federal or supra-national committee. The representation of regional (national) entities in federal committees is typically motivated by their superior knowledge of local conditions. Using this argument, we formally model the optimal composition of a...

We investigate shifts in correlation patterns among international equity returns at the market level as well as the industry level. We develop a novel bivariate GARCH model for equity returns with a smoothly time- varying correlation and then derive a Lagrange Multiplier statistic to test the...

This paper considers the position of national central banks within the ESCB. The funda-mental framework underlying the ESCB is that of a system of central banks in which component institutions are individually and collectively responsible for carrying out vari-ous tasks. Within this framework,...

We analyse the possible impact of EMU enlargement on inflation rates in the accession countries. Using a simple theoretical model we show that the optimal path price adjustments should be asymmetric, i.e. occuring mostly in the candidate countries. Using data from the German reunification we...

Central banks do not operate in a vacuum. In this paper we analyse the fac-tors leading to external pressure or public support for European monetary policy. Moreover, based upon the findings for the Deutsche Bundesbank, some additional les-sons are drawn for the ECB. External pressure on the ECB...