This regional input analyses recent developments and future prospects of fiscal policy (part I) and monetary policy (part II) of Benelux, France and Germany (EMU-5) covering the period of 1997-2004. The fiscal policy part concentrates on budgetary effects of the eastward enlargement. Besides,...

The current state budget crisis in the EU and the numerous futile efforts to solve the problem has brought back the fraction of people that argument in favour of an exit strategy of Germany from the European monetary union (EMU) or even the break-up of the EMU in total. This paper investigates...

This paper evaluates the prospects for the renminbi's role as an international currency and the implications for global financial markets. Although the People's Republic of China (PRC) does not have either an open capital account or a flexible exchange rate, the renminbi has attained...

This paper examines the fiscal and monetary policy options available to China as a sovereign currency-issuing nation operating in a dollar standard world. We first summarize a number of issues facing China, including the possibility of slower growth, global imbalances, and a number of domestic...

We present a two-country New Open Economy Macro model of the Austrian economy within the European Union's Economic & Monetary Union (EMU). The model includes both nominal and real frictions that have proven to be important in matching business cycle facts, and that allows for an investigation of...

The paper examines economic and political challenges of joining the euro area in the case of Poland. After reviewing the economic developments since the pre-accession period and assessing economic convergence with the euro area the paper focuses on the political and institutional challenges of...

For the first time in almost a decade, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates at the end of 2015 - an initial step toward normalizing monetary policy which has been very expansive since the onset of the financial crisis. Ahead of the move, it was feared that the interest rate reversal...

Erstmals seit fast zehn Jahren hat die US-Notenbank Fed Ende 2015 die Leitzinsen erhöht - ein erster Schritt auf dem Weg zu einer Normalisierung der Geldpolitik, die seit Beginn der Finanzkrise sehr expansiv ausgerichtet ist. Im Vorfeld wurde befürchtet, dass die Zinswende erhebliche...

When do flexible exchange rates prevent monetary and financial conditions from spilling over across currencies? We examine a model in which international investors strategically supply capital to a small inflation-targeting economy with flexible exchange rates. For some combination of...

This paper studies the determinants of business cycles in small open economies and adds to the discussion about the changing nature of inflation dynamics. We estimate a series of VAR models for a set of six Asian emerging market economies, in which we identify a battery of domestic and global...