The purpose of the paper is to review the sources of France's trade surplus in recent years and to attribute trade balance movements strictly to those determinants of trade flows suggested by economic theory. The paper is organised as follows: after the introduction, section II reviews some...

In this paper we discuss the role of tax and benefit systems in the context of the functioning of the labour markets and review recent progress made by EU Member States in reforming tax and benefit systems with a view to increasing economic incentives for higher employment and job creation. On...

EMU and the euro will face a number of challenges in the future. Two such challenges are examined here:first, the endurance prospects for the euro, and second, the inflation performance of the euro area during the coming ten years. How will it respond to them? This report provides a set of...

Real convergence in the recently acceded EU member states (RAMS) is taking place in a new environment, with important implications for convergence and vulnerabilities. Financial liberalization can increase temporary imbalances, while financial integration provides the necessary external finance...

This paper reviews the economic debate surrounding both the opportunities and the challenges arising from European monetary union. It is organised in two parts. Part I examines the economic environment in EMU, analysing the role of markets and the macro-economic framework. It finds that the...

This paper presents results of an on-going joint European Commission / OECD project, aimed at monitoring the direct influence of tax and benefit instruments on household incomes. Indicators of financial work incentives are needed for identifying any undesired influences of taxes and social...

Forecast errors are large in the recently acceded Member States and the mistakes have a similar order of magnitude in the Commission services' forecasts, Consensus forecasts and projections made by national authorities. The prediction mistakes cannot be attributed to bias or autocorrelation....

European policy makers, notably in the euro area, seem to take for granted that the electorate will punish them for bold reform in product and labour markets. This may explain why progress in the euro area has been comparatively limited. This paper posits and, using a dataset for 21 OECD...

This study traces and analyses the changes in firm and industry structure due to EU market integration and the integration of the EU in the global economy. It focuses on changes in competitiveness based on innovation and technology development.

This paper examines the benefits of co-ordination in EMU in a stylised manner and how these benefits have shaped the co-ordination framework in EMU. It then discusses in detail the co-ordination experience in four areas that are particularly important for the functioning of EMU: (i) fiscal...