[eng] The political economy of E.M.S. . . The economic issues underlying Britain's decision not to join the EMS at its inception are analysed. Technical difficulties were the most important factor in the short term. Britain had been following a successful policy of stabilising the effective rate...

In EMU, a country may have difficulty ensuring stability in the face of asymmetric shocks; the response may be unstable, or, even if not, the real exchange rate might overshoot. Fiscal policy may help to stabilise inflation and also to target the real exchange rate. The paper argues that an...

The assessment attempts to provide a broad explanation of the post-war pattern of real interest rates, drawing on the theoretical and empirical papers in this issue of the Oxford Review. It is argued that the concept of the "neutral" rate of interest, at which the economy grows at its productive...

This paper reviews the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union over the first 4 years of its existence. Monetary policy is viewed as having been of the 'inflation-targeting' type, but with a tendency towards delay and conservatism in adjustment, which may also reflect over-optimistic...