What are the prospects for New Member States to join the euro-zone in the not too distant future? They seem to be in a catch-22 situation Because of the current financial crisis some Maastricht criteria would be more difficult to fulfil in the short and medium term, which would make it hard for...

This paper looks at the dynamics of (dis)equilibria during post-command transition. It tries to define an optimal mix between external and internal disequilibrium and to apply this concept to the analysis of the Romanian economy. The forced adjustment of the balance of payments in the 1980s is...

The financial crisis and its ensuing effects have brought back into the limelight the issue of cycles and of policies which fuel or mitigate crises. Cognitive and operational models in economics and business are questioned. There is a specter of much lower economic growth in the industrialized...

What are the prospects for New Member States to join the euro-zone in the not too distant future? They seem to be in a catch-22 situation. Because of the current financial crisis some Maastricht criteria it would be more difficult to fulfill in the short and medium term, which would make it hard...

Facing major external and internal challenges (climate change, redistribution of power in the world economy, increased EU complexity following the Eastern enlargement etc), the European Union needs to overhaul its budget, observing some basic principles such as: solidarity, interdependence of...

Euro area (EA) accession should mainly depend on the achievement of a critical mass of real and structural convergence, which should diminish the risks to operate in an incomplete monetary union. Accession would also be enhanced by reforms in the functioning of euro area institutions and...

Intro -- Table of Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction. Return to Common Sense -- Chapter 1. Institutional and Policy Diversity as an Engine of Economic Development -- I. What Influences Institutional and Policy Diversity? -- II. An Historical Perspective -- III. Examining...