In June 2012 European Council launched the banking union as a new project expected to contribute to solve the euro area crisis. Is banking union a necessary supplement to monetary union or a new rush forward? A banking union would break the link between the sovereign debt crisis and the banking...

The banking union emerged from the June 2012 European Council as a new project expected to help and solve the euro area crisis. Is banking union a necessary supplement to monetary union or a new rush forward? The banking union would break the link between the sovereign debt crisis and the...

General public debates on international relocation in the EU-15 generally focus on the process in its narrow sense: a company closing a plant in one of EU-15 countries while simultaneously opening a plant in a low-wage emerging country where it will produce goods at lower costs to be offered on...

The 10th EUROFRAME1 Conference on economic policy issues in the European Union was held in Warsaw on 24 May 2013. The Conference topic was: “Towards a better governance in the EU?”. Twelve of the papers given at the Conference are released in this issue of the Revue de l’OFCE/Debates and...

This paper presents a critical assessment of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Section 2 recalls the fiscal policy framework in the euro area. Section 3 provides an assessment of the first five years of the SGP. Section 4 addresses the weaknesses of the procedures: arbitrary criteria,...

According to the fiscal theory of the price level (FTPL), the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies with governments facing the possibility to act in a non-Ricardian manner make the general price level be fully determined. Here, depending on the expectations framework, we show to...

La théorie budgétaire du niveau des prix, soit en anglais la Fiscal Theory of the Price Level, (FTPL), a donné lieu à une intense littérature dans les années récentes1 (Leeper [1991], Sims [1994], Woodford [1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999 et 2000], Canzoneri et alii [1998], Cochrane [1999,...

L’impôt sur le revenu est le plus important sur le plan redistributif comme sur le plan psychologique. Il représente globalement 10 % du PIB et le quart des recettes fiscales des pays de l’UE. Dans la période récente, la volonté d’utiliser l’impôt sur le revenu pour réduire les...

The economic crisis which started in 2008 led to a strong rise in public debts. The sovereign debt crisis in euro area southern countries broke the unity of the euro area and weakened the “single currency” concept. The paper shows that this situation is not due to a lack of fiscal discipline...

We intend to point out three issues. Disparities in growth, inflation and current account balances are a problem in the euro area. The current functioning of the euro area increases growth disparities between the Member States. It is not only domestic problems which could be improved by...