This paper uses a specific experiment — „voucher privatization“ in the former Czechoslovakia — to test the permanent income hypothesis of consumer behavior. Voucher privatization (the mass privatization of state-owned assets through publicly offered vouchers) led to an unexpected...

Although price stability has been achieved in the euro area, the first ten years of the euro have not brought the expected long-term output growth benefits. The Czech Republic – an economy that has achieved price stability without the euro – should then reframe the debate about euro area...