With the advent of EMU monetary policy can no longer be used to prevent housing market bubbles in regional economies such as Ireland or Spain. However, fiscal policy can and should be used to achieve the same effect. This paper shows that the advent of EMU relaxed existing financial constraints...

This volume shows how joining the European Union helped Ireland energize what had been a stagnant agricultural backwater. Ireland became a prosperous globalized hub for multinational firms exporting technologically sophisticated products and services. But there have been some severe policy...