The paper argues that the Greek debt crisis, as well as those of other Southern European countries and Ireland, has to be seen in macroeconomic context. The sum of the public sector balance, the (domestic) private sector balance and the current account deficit (or equivalently: the capital...

France’s economic short-term outlook is positive, and long-term prospects have improved. Fiscal adjustment remains high on the government’s agenda. Tax reforms have improved the economy’s growth potential. Reforms in financial, labor, and product markets are necessary to...

This paper seeks to draw lessons from the IMF’s experience in handling financial crises around the globe over the past ten years that are relevant to the challenges faced by countries in Latin America, especially in the wake of the recent crisis in Argentina. Experience suggests that...

Economic activity stagnated in the first half of 2003, but recent indicators point to a gradual recovery. On product markets, there was agreement that progress had been secured over recent years, but also that Italy continued to suffer from insufficient competition in a number of protected...

Recently, the EU Council adopted a new labour migration policy instrument – the EU Blue Cards (BC) – for attracting the highly skilled workers to the EU. The present paper examines the potential impacts, which BC may cause on less developed sending countries (LDC). Our results suggest that...

In August 2009, the Freetown Declaration by the African finance ministers committed their governments to 'implement fiscal stimulus measures' to counter the effects of the international financial crisis. This paper analyses the institutional and economic feasibility of realising this commitment....

In this paper, asset price bubbles in equities and housing that were developed from August 1987 to September 2008 are examined. Monetary policy reaction functions are estimated. Results revealed that, although not successful in pricking the bubble, the Federal Reserve System did follow a...

The subprime crisis raised some fundamental questions about the usefulness of mainstream economics. This paper considers the shortcomings of the new neoclassical synthesis and the new macroeconomic consensus in analysing the causes and consequences of the crisis. It demonstrates that the major...