The authors revisit Western Europe's record with labor productivity convergence and tentatively extrapolate its implications for the future path of Eastern Europe. The poorer Western European countries caught up with the richer ones through both higher rates of physical capital accumulation and...

We critically review the recent literature on currency unions and discuss the methodological challenges posed by the empirical assessment of their costs and benefits. In the process, we provide evidence on the economic effects of the euro. In particular, and in contrast with estimates of the...

We revisit Western Europe's record with labor-productivity convergence, and tentatively extrapolate its implications for the future path of Eastern Europe. The poorer Western European countries caught up with the richer ones through both higher rates of physical capital accumulation and greater...

The paper seeks to assess the current monetary policy stance of the European Central Bank (ECB). To do so, it analyses factors driving the inflation dynamics in the euro area (EA) and their potential persistence, drawing comparisons with the inflation drivers and policy response in the United...

The paper seeks to assess the current monetary policy stance of the European Central Bank (ECB). To do so, it analyses factors driving the inflation dynamics in the euro area (EA) and their potential persistence, drawing comparisons with the inflation drivers and policy response in the United...