Purpose – This paper aims to examine whether credit ratings of banks are related to their location, i.e. inside or outside the Euro Area. Design/methodology/approach – The authors estimate a multilevel ordered probit model for banks’ credit ratings in 2011 and control for bank-specific...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that major credit rating agencies (CRAs) have been inconsistent in assessing the implications of monetary union membership for sovereign risks. It is frequently argued that CRAs have acted procyclically in their rating of sovereign...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship among fiscal variables (net lending, government expenditure and revenue) and economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries. Design/methodology/approach – Using yearly data for the period between 1980 and 2011 in 15 Economic...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the welfare gains from risk sharing among African countries and regional groupings in Africa that are planning to establish monetary unions either in the short or longrun. Design/methodology/approach – The paper empirically tested two...