This paper traces the history and the institutional background to the establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union in the EU. It argues that since the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the late 1950s, attempts at monetary integration and ultimately monetary union,...

This paper proposes an alternative stability and growth pact to the one which accompanied the introduction of the euro in January 1999. The latter is part of the third stage of economic and monetary union and, will govern the economic policies of the member countries which have joined the single...

This paper proposes an alternative stability and growth pact among European Union (EU) governments that would underpin the introduction of a single currency and a "single market" within the EU. The alternative pact embraces a number of new aspects of integration within the EU that are based on a...

This paper explores some of the links between macroeconomic policy and industrial strategy. The perspective of the present paper is to emphasis the role of the output and investment activities of enterprises rather than the general focus on the labour market in the determination of economic...

This paper provides a theoretical explanation of the accumulation process, which accounts for the developments in the financial markets over the recent past. Specifically, our approach is focused on the presence of correlations between physical and financial investment, and how the latter could...

In this paper, the author aims to question the assumptions underlying the economic case for the independent European Central Bank (ECB) and argues that although a European Clearing Agency (ECA) of the type Keynes envisaged for the international economy is not a panacea for the economic problems...

Recent episodes of housing bubbles, which occurred in several economies after the burst of the United States housing market, suggest studying the evolution of housing prices from a global perspective. We utilize a theoretical model for the purposes of this contribution, which identifies the main...

The relevant economic literature frequently focuses on the impact of credit shocks on housing prices. The doctrine of the "New Consensus Macroeconomics" completely ignores bank credit. The "Great Recession," however, has highlighted the significance of bank credit. The purpose of this...

This paper appraises the current position of the European Union (EU) countries, which could potentially become members of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) which is now likely to materialise in January, 1999, in an attempt to argue that the current EMU criteria should be revised. The paper...

This paper seeks to evaluate the strength of the case for a financial transactions tax, judged against the three rationales which have been proposed for such a tax: the excessive volume of short-term foreign exchange transactions and their effects on exchange rate volatility; the revenue-raising...