The influential work of Obstfeld and Rogoff argues that a closing-up of the US current account deficit involves a large exchange rate adjustment. However, the Obstfeld-Rogoff model works exclusively via demand-side channels and abstracts from possible supply-side changes. We extend the framework...

The present paper does not claim to solve the Columbus' egg conundrum. There even may not be a "silver bullet" formula that would convince the entire membership. However, there may be a simpler, more transparent formula that produces more intuitive and more equitable results for the distribution...

Official and unilateral dollarisation/euroisation has become a common policy advice for emerging market economies. Against this background, the paper provides a comprehensive review of all the main cases of dollarisation/euroisation, analysing motives, features and policy implications of this...

This paper reviews the strategies announced by the ten countries joining the European Union in May 2004 with regard to their intentions for participation in ERM II and the adoption of the euro. The paper examines the economic rationale of the monetary integration strategies declared by most...

This paper reviews the economic, monetary and financial relations between the EU and the euro area and a set of countries in a broad set of neighbouring regions. The 80 or so countries are mostly classified as transition, emerging or developing economies and belong to four main regions: the...

This paper examines inflation dynamics in the current EU-accession countries in central and eastern Europe, focusing particularly on the determinants of "dual inflation", that is, diverging inflation rates for tradable and non-tradable goods. The paper draws on the recently published data for...

Despite the importance of insurance in enabling individual and collective social, economic, and financial activities, discussions about the macro-economic role and risks of insurance markets are surprisingly limited. The core motivation for publishing this book is to bring together academics,...