Summary. Contrary to often-heard concerns, the main question regarding the future of the European single currency is not who is going to leave, but who is going to join. Three of the new EU member states want to join Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and adopt the euro within the next year, and...

(From introduction). By many standards, economic and monetary union (EMU) is a major success. The transition to the new currency was remarkably smooth. The euro area has enjoyed remarkable price stability. After several years of disappointing economic performance between 2001 and 2005, growth...

Wage growth has remained under control after the formation of the European Monetary Union (EMU). The literature has advanced numerous explanations to account for this phenomenon. But, arguments about the need to preserve competitiveness in an enlarged market remain too generic. At the same time,...

[From the Introduction]. What are the major issues involved in our topic? The questions are: first, given that there is a "Europe 1992", the creation of a Single European market (SEM) in the real sector, what, if any, are, or must be, the implications for the monetary sector. Second, whether and...

[From the Introduction]. With only two more years to run on the European Community's (EC) 1992 single market program, European leaders have been seeking for the last several years to develop and specify a range of extensive proposals to enhance the benefits of an integrated market. One principal...

This paper analyzes the 1992 crisis in the EMS and raises the question whether EC monetary integration along the lines envisaged by the Maastricht Treaty is an efficient and viable way of monetary union. The challenge of the single market project for monetary integration is discussed and it is...

This paper examines why policy-makers (experts in central banks, ministries of finance, employers' organizations and trade unions) of Britain, France, and Germany have accepted an 'asymmetrical' Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) which incorporates a developed monetary component, yet a relatively...

At the start of the Third Stage of EMU, it was by no means clear whether the ECB would succeed in setting up an efficient framework for distributing liquidity throughout the euro-zone. Now in retrospect, however, the ECB appears to have been quite successful. In this paper, we will look at the...

Ahead of the European Council meeting on 23 October, the author outlines how EU Heads of States should focus on restoring confidence in euro-area policymakers’ ability and determination to put the euro area on a sound footing and restore market credibility. Stress in the interbank market has...

[From the Introduction]. The main purpose of this paper is to consider whether fiscal policy according to EMU’s constraints is sustainable particularly in the context of high unemployment and low growth. In this respect, this paper is mainly based on previous studies which developed possible...