This paper compares relative unit labour cost developments in the countries of the euro-area since the beginning of the European Monetary Union (EMU) both with historical developments and with intra-regional unit labour cost developments in the United States of America and Germany. To this end,...

Using a modified version of the model presented by Belke and Gros (2007), we analyze the stability of adjustment in a currency union. Using econometric estimates for parameter values we check the stability conditions for the 11 original EMU countries and Greece. We found significant instability...

This paper compares relative unit labor cost developments in the countries of the euro area since the beginning of the European Monetary Union (EMU) both with historical developments and with intraregional developments in the United States and Germany. Unit labor cost indices for the U.S. states...

In this paper we investigate if the actual debate on divergences in the Euro area is indeed a reason to be concerned. We argue that the standard definition of divergence in terms of standard deviations is too narrow to capture the persistence in deviations in output, prices and wages. Our...

Using unit labor cost (ULC) data from Euro area countries as well as US States and German Länder we investigate inflation convergence using different approaches, namely panel unit root tests, co-integration tests and error-correction models. All in all we cannot reject convergence of ULC growth...

Die Wachstumsschwäche in einigen europäischen Ländern wie Portugal und Italien in der ersten Hälfte dieses Jahrzehnts sowie anhaltend hohe Inflationsraten und ein Bauboom in Spanien haben zu einer Debatte darüber geführt, ob sich möglicherweise die einzelnen Länder der Eurozone...

Using a modified version of the model presented by Belke and Gros (2007), we analyze the stability of adjustment in a currency union. Using econometric estimates for parameter values we check the stability conditions for the 11 original EMU countries and Greece. We found significant instability...

Using unit labor cost (ULC) data from Euro area countries as well as US States and German Laender we investigate inflation convergence using different approaches, namely panel unit root tests, cointegration tests and error-correction models. All in all we cannot reject convergence of ULC growth...

The decline in output volatility in Germany is analysed. A lower level of variance in an autoregressive model of output growth can be either due to a change in the structure of the economy (a change in the propagation mechanism) or a reduced error term variance (reduced impulses). In Germany the...