We examine the bilateral composition of international bond portfolios for the euro area and the individual EMU member countries. We find considerable support for “euro area bias”: EMU member countries disproportionately invest in one another relative to other country pairs. Another striking...

Europe experienced substantial cross-country variation in domestic credit growth and cross border capital flows during the pre-crisis period. We investigate the inter-relations between domestic credit growth and international capital flows over 1993-2008, with a special focus on the 2003-2008...

This paper develops a view of exchange rate policy as a trade-off between the desire to smooth fluctuations in real exchange rates so as to reduce distortions in consumption allocations, and the need to allow flexibility in the nominal exchange rate so as to facilitate terms of trade adjustment....