This paper considers per capita income and productive efficiency beta-convergence for 15 EU countries (EU-15) during the European Economic and Monetary Union and the period preceding it. A production frontier approach is used to obtain efficiency measures. Even though we uncover evidence of...

The hesitation of many conventional-wisdom economists to rely more aggressively on fiscal policy measures in order to keep their public finances more or less balanced may have contributed to the persisting current slowdown. We discuss the potential of active fiscal policies in stimulating growth...