This article seeks to explain intercountry differences in the debt crises in Europe. Is there a single explanation, cause? Specifically, were the crises due to government budget deficits or to the private sector? The answer will determine the appropriate policies to prevent a recurrence. The...

This article addresses the issue concerning the application of Regulation (EU) 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 “on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance based investment products (PRIIPs)” in relation to callable corporate...

Using newly assembled data on foreign exchange market intervention, we construct a daily index of exchange market pressure during the 1992-3 crisis in the European Monetary System. Using this index, we pinpoint when and where the crisis was most severe. Our analysis focuses on a neglected factor...

This essay deals with the EMS experience and its failure, with the Maastricht Treaty, and with the interregnum leading to the formation of the EMU in 1999. The paper highlights the position of German authorities, showing that they were quite lucid about the fundamental weaknesses inherent in a...

This essay deals with the contradictory dynamics that engulfed Europe from 1959 to 1979, the year of the launching of the European Monetary System. It focuses on how the macroeconomic frame-work of stop-go policies in the 1960s ended up privileging external – intra-European – exports at the...

This paper analyzes the early stages of the formation of the Common Market. The period covered runs from the end of WW2 to 1959, which is the year in which the European Payments Union ceased to operate. The essay begins by highlighting the differences between the prewar political economy of...

Greece is one of the countries that were dramatically affected by the recent euro crisis, as in six years it lost more than one fourth of its national product. Although its economic and monetary history is rich in crises and defaults, it has not been systematically studied, thus remaining...

In the last two decades, European countries, while working for the establishment of a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) to harmonise the legal frameworks of the member states and establish common minimum standards, have rather pursued domestic goals at times, imposing restrictive policies on...

With ageing populations and a stronger reliance on individual financial decision-making concerning asset portfolios, retirement schemes, pensions and insurances, it becomes increasingly important to understand the determinants of cognitive ability among the elderly. Macro-economic recession and...

With ageing populations and a stronger reliance on individual financial decision-making concerning asset portfolios, retirement schemes, pensions and insurances, it becomes increasingly important to understand the determinants of cognitive ability among the elderly. To study effects of the...