The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 has mainly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, exporters who are heterogeneous in terms of productivity, size or external financial dependence should be...

This paper presents a positive theory of centralization of political decisions in an international union. My central claim is that lobbies play a role in determining the assignment of competencies to the union because their power of influence can increase or decrease under centralization. I show...

We assess monetary convergence preceding the implementation of the European Monetary Union (EMU) through Kalman filtering estimates of the risk premium of eleven forward exchange rates of European and non-European currencies. Since all participating currencies are in effect identical from...

We show that the composition of imports has important implications for the optimal volatility of the exchange rate. Using input-output data for 25 countries we document substantial differences in the import and non-tradable content of final demand components, and in the role played by imported...

Since its establishment in 1998, the European Central Bank (ECB) has come of age. During this period, its legal framework has been put to the test sufficiently to allow for a proper assessment of the working of this system in practice. This article focuses on the relationship between the ECB and...

The role of private, non-state actors in the international institutional and legal order is often praised for providing greater pluralism, public participation and transparency in the formulation of legal norms. Often overlooked are the ways that non-state actors undermine the sovereignty and...

Very few studies investigated central banking efficiency. Although Data Envelopment Analysis is widely used to measure efficiency within the banking industry, it has surprisingly never been implemented in a central banking context. In our study, we employ a radial DEA model to measure Eurosystem...

The establishment of a central bank occurred at very different moments in the process of economic integration in the United States and the European Union. In this paper, we go into the first years of the Federal Reserve System through the lens of Paul van Zeeland's PhD dissertation. Paul van...

Today, nearly every central bank around the world is considering whether to create a new form of digital public money, referred to as central bank digital currency, “CBDC.” Although CBDC is often discussed as a way to make payments more efficient, enhance financial inclusion, or reduce the...