It has to be kept in mind that there is no general construction principle for a perfect composite leading indicator. It is only possible to optimise the construction of such an indicator with respect to specified demands. In the case of the EU Economic Sentiment Indicator the question is if top...

The purpose of the present 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. These determinants are price and/or cost developments, and demand in France and...

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.

A stable and predictable demand for money function is a pre-requisite for the use of targets for monetary aggregates as a suitable intermediate objective of monetary policy. In spite of the clear difficulties which have manifested themselves in the estimation of such money functions, empirical...

Over much of the period since the late 1970s consumer confidence in France according to the consumer surveys prepared by the Commision, has generally been weak, with the balance between those consumers responding positively and those responding negatively to the questionaire, in percentage...

The possible emergence of the Euro'as an international currency has often been underlined as a by-product of European monetary unification. This report deals with such a possibility both form a positive and from a negative point of view.