Accommodation of fiscal authorities by monetary policy is controversial, as can be seen in current euro area discussions. Some go further and suggest that confrontational enforcement by central banks taking a hard line on adjustment is critical to inducing longer-term fiscal stabilisation....

This paper develops an arbitrage-free affine term structure model of potentially defaultable sovereign bonds to model a cross-section of eight euro area government bond yield curves since January 1999. The existence of a common monetary policy under European Monetary Union determines the short...

Shifts in the long-run rate of productivity growth are difficult, in real time, to distinguish from transitory fluctuations. We analyze the evolution of forecasts of long-run productivity growth during the 1970s and 1990s and examine in a dynamic general equilibrium model the consequences of...

In December 1995, the European Council, metting in Madrid, confirmed "unequivocally" that the third and final stage of economic and monetary union (EMU) will begin on January 1, 1999. The Council chose "euro" as the name of the new single currency and adopted a timetable for decisions and...

In September 1997, at its Hong Kong meeting, the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) adopted a statement on the liberalization of international capital movements. It asked the executive boeard of the Fund to complete work on an amendment to the IMF's Articles of Agreement...

This essay examines the connection between the establishment of a common market and additional moves to monetary and political union. It then reviews both the monetary and fiscal aspects of ninteenth-century German unification. Finally, it discusses what modern Europe can and should learn from...