Contents: 1 - Jürgen von Hagen, Jean Pisani-Ferry - Forum Economique Franco-Allemand /Deutsch-Französisches Wirtschaftspolitisches Forum -- 4 - Frédéric Bobay - Political Economy of the Nice Treaty: Rebalancing the EU Council -- 21 - Winfried von Urff - The Future of European Agricultural...

Does a monetary union need fiscal shock absorbers helping the participating countries to cope with asymmetric shocks? The consensus in the debate over EMU argues that the answer is yes. In this paper, we revisit the issue, building on a dynamic, general equilibrium framework of regions in a...

Contents: 1. Forum Economique Franco-Allemand - Deutsch-Französisches Wirtschaftspolitisches Forum...1 -- 2. Opening Address, Klaus Bünger...2 -- 3. EMU and Transatlantic Exchange-Rate Stability - Agnès Bénassy-Quéré and Benoît Mojon...5 -- 4. What Exchange Rate Policy in EMU? - Manfred...

The implications of monetary unification for fiscal policies are discussed. The roles of nominal exchange rate flexibility in the presence of asymmetric national shocks and nominal price rigidities as an automatic stabilizer and source of disturbances to real economic performance are reviewed....

Contents: 1. Das Deutsch-Französische Wirtschaftspolitische Forum...1 -- 2. Opening Address, Dominique Strauss-Kahn...2 -- 3. Does EMU Need an Employment Pact? - Klaus-Werner Schatz, Institute of World Economics, Kiel...3 -- 4. Is the Stability Pact an Efficient Agreement? - Patrick Artus,...

The Eurosystem is the fifth decentralized system in the history of central banks. It consists of the European Central Bank (ECB) and twelve National Central Banks (NCBs) forming the European Monetary Union (EMU). The stark decentrality of this System is so little known that ubiquitous statements...