This paper offers a quantitative description of European private equity markets and compares the recent development in these markets with the development of the US venture capital market. Moreover, the paper addresses the differences between private equity investors acting in a single national...

Since the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty in December 1991 expectations on the new European currency could possibly influence European interest rates. The focus of this paper is both on the theoretical and empirical analysis of the link between European Monetary Union (EMU) and German...

The most recent wave of political integration in Europe is usually interpreted to represent a consequence of German unification, following which the other EU countries attempted to contain an imputed threat of the change in the European balance of power. This paper shows that German unification...

In February 1998 a work was published in the series of discussion papers produced by the Bundesbank which was concemed with problems of measuring inflation in Gerrnany. This paper met with a lively response. The Research Group of the Bundesbank therefore staged a workshop on this subject at...

This paper studies the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies in the euro area. It carefully discusses the process of policy competition and the structure of policy cooperation. As to policy competition, the focus is on competition between the European central bank, the American...

This paper offers a comprehensive comparison of the structure of banking and financial markets in the euro area. Based on this, several hypotheses about the role of banks in monetary policy transmission are developed. Many of the predictions that have been proposed for the U.S. are deemed...

The introduction of the euro marks a milestone in the process of European financial market integration. This paper analyzes the implications of the euro for cross-border banking activities. A portfolio model is used which captures the role of banks as providers of informational and of...