This paper provides an analysis of the fiscal challenges faced by the eight transition economies, which joined the European Union (EU) in May 2004. More than half of them run excessive fiscal deficits being partly a legacy of an early transition period, partly - a consequence of additional...

After accession to the European Union, new member countries have to decide the optimal path to the adoption of the euro. Some have argued that the euro should be adopted only when a sufficient degree of real convergence has been achieved. The idea is that real exchange rates will be affected by...

Several leading candidate countries will eventually enter the European Monetary Union (EMU). A key question is what exchange rate management policy should be pursued after joining the European Union (EU). This paper focuses on the impact of Euro-area monetary policy on Hungary. We find that...

We assess the correlation of supply and demand shocks between current countries in the euro area and European Union (EU) accession candidates from 1993/1995 to 2002. Supply and demand shocks are recovered from estimated structural vector autoregressive models of output growth and inflation....

This paper addresses the balance of costs and benefits arising from the adoption of the euro in Poland. It shows that given the present degree of economic integration between Poland and the euro area, the potential costs of relinquishing the monetary policy autonomy in Poland are likely to be...

The debate surrounding EMU enlargement is usually focused on the policy choices prior to EU accession, on Maastricht criteria and ERM-II, and on the existence of an optimum currency area between accession counties and the Euro Area. This paper reviews these issues from Estonia's perspective....