The world has been struck by a mutating systemic financial crisis that is unprecedented in terms of financial losses and fiscal costs, geographic reach, and speed and synchronisation. The crisis from August 2007 to date can be divided into three main phases: the financial turmoil from August...

The destructive potential of the sovereign debt crisis of the euro area has been slowly abating since last summer, but still remains considerable. One reason for it is the sheer complexity of the crisis, which brings together several harmful factors, some long-standing, others more recent, like...

EMU has spurred an interest on the effects of monetary unions on regional economic integration. This paper investigates the link between intra-European trade growth and the institutional process of regional integration, of which monetary integration was one step. Special attention is paid to the...

This paper examines the various stages of the sovereign debt crisis of the euro area, the ensuing re-segmentation of several financial market segments and the disruptions in the transmission of monetary policy impulses. The paper provides the first systematic attempt to describe the European...

How fast should the new Member States of the European Union (NMS) relinquish their domestic monetary and exchange rate autonomy? While the Maastricht convergence criteria are attracting significant attention (particularly the inflation and deficit criteria), we think the debate should also...

The European experience illustrates that institutional integration interacts with economic integration at the regional level. In this paper we ask how economic and institutional integration are linked and whether there is a causal link between the two. We present an original indicator of...

The paper provides a systematic comparison of the Eurosystem, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the Bank of Japan. These monetary authorities exhibit somewhat different status and tasks, which reflect different historical conditions and national characteristics. However, widespread changes in...