The Greek bail-out was highly controversial. An oft-heard assessment is that i) the bail-out was a mistake, ii) the political haggling over it was irrational and iii) the bail-out will create a moral hazard problem. Contrary to this view, our analysis suggests that, given EMU’s present...

The TARGET2-system impedes economic recovery within the EMU. Hard budget constraints are a key to kick-start structural reforms in some EMU-member countries. However, the TARGET2-system is not only aggravating real misalignments but also softening budget constraints. The authors argue that the...

We propose a positive formal framework for analyzing sovereign bail-outs in the context of the European Monetary Union (EMU) with a view to making policy recommendations regarding improvements to the EMU institutional architecture. We build our analysis on a political economic game-theoretic...

In this article we inquire into the root causes of the present financial crisis by drawing on a Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson trade model. At the origin of the current crisis are global imbalances originating from distortions in relative prices. Due to impasses in international production, financial...

This study argues that the key issue for defining and solving the Eurozone’s (EZ) difficulties lies in readjusting the relationship between the centre and the periphery of the EZ. Our argument proceeds in two steps. Firstly, the basic finance problem of a centre-periphery system is captured by...

The Greek bail-out was highly controversial. An oft-heard assessment is that (i) the bail-out was a mistake, (ii) the political haggling over it was irrational. Contrary to this view, our analysis suggests that, given EMU's present political-economic set-up, (i) the bail-out was unavoidable and...

Purpose – This paper inquires into the root causes of global imbalances from an international trade perspective. The purpose of the paper is to establish a conceptual framework that links financial market governance, international trade and financial market integration, and to derive...

Sovereign creditworthiness within the euro area hinges upon the credibility of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). We analyse whether political events that worsen the SGP's credibility result in a shared default risk premium for all euro members, therefore leading to a joint deterioration of...

This paper argues that the key issue for defining and solving the Eurozone’s (EZ) difficulties lies in readjusting the relationship between the centre and the periphery of the EZ. Our argument proceeds in two steps. Firstly, the basic finance problem of a centre-periphery system is captured by...