Persistent unemployment is the top social and economic problem of most EU countries. Today, the unemployment rate in most EU countries is above ten percent and, although unemployment has decreased during expansions, the average EU unemployment rate within each cycle has increased since the early...

This paper is a follow-up to the recommendations made by Jacques Drèze, Edmond Malinvaud and colleagues in 1993 (Drèze, Malinvaud et al., 1994). The key arguments that are of interest for discussion here are paraphrased below: 'For almost 20 years now, West European unemployment has been a...

A trend common to virtually all European banking markets over the last decade or so has been the fall in bank numbers. The decline in number of banks and the associated increase in market concentration may suggest that banking service choice is declining. However, a growth in branch numbers in...

More than l00 episodes of bank insolvencies have been documented by Caprio and Klingebiel (1996) for the period from 1980 to 1995 - and this does not include the Asian crisis. About 75 percent of these were classified as major insolvencies with potential systemic implications. The overwhelming...

A considerable amount has been written about the impact of EMU on European financial markets. A broad consensus has emerged from this work, with the main conclusions as follows: Government bond markets will be more closely integrated and yields closely correlated. Non-government borrowers will...