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...

IN DECEMBER 2004, the new Barroso Commission brought the saga of the French and German infringements of the Stability and Growth Pact to a close by lifting the "excessive deficit" procedure launched in 2003. That same month, the Commission launched infringement proceedings against Greece that...

Theories of international cooperation (TIC) predict that deeper economic integration raises the costs of policy conflicts and promotes coordination. As the US-EU economy makes up 60 per cent of the world GDP, policymakers on the two sides of the Atlantic are expected to assign highest priority...

[Introduction]. A monetary union is a group of states which share a single, or common, currency. An economic and monetary union (EMU), like the Eurozone, is characterized not only by a single currency, but also by a single market, as well as by a common economic and monetary policy. According to...

[Introduction]. Until the 19th and mid-20th centuries, economic theory explained that the economic status of a country was represented by the strength of its currency.2 This strength is measured by the exchange rate of one currency vis-á-vis another currency, a “zero-sum” game in which one...

Even before the EMU process is complete in 2002, there are already initiatives being suggested to further integrate the European Union, both from an economic and political perspective. Many of these initiatives focus on harmonization of, for example, indirect taxes or corporate taxes in the...

This article will first develop the concept of financial motivations, presenting first the relevant variables and then the logic suggesting why they should be linked. Then it will look at monetary policy behaviour in four international monetary systems; the gold standard at the beginning of this...

The countdown for establishing economic and monetary union (EMU) in Europe has started and the countries of the European Union are practically on automatic pilot. Nevertheless, some nagging questions still have to be addressed concerning the design of the project and the possibility that, if not...

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...

[From the Introduction] This study provides new evidence on the emergence of a single eurozone retail banking market with particular reference to consumer credit. Given the heterogeneous nature of consumer credit products in the eurozone, the authors reject the earlier proposition of the...