The paper compares the German currency reform in 1948, the German monetary union in 1990, and the European currency union in 1999. Because of special national and international conditions the currency reform in 1948 was the starting point of West German economic prosperity. Under present, quite...

Using parametric and non-parametric estimation techniques, we analyze the sustainability of the recently growing current account imbalances in the euro area and test whether the European Monetary Union has aggravated these imbalances. Two alternative criteria for the as-sessment of external debt...

We develop a theoretical model that features a business cycle-dependent relation between output, price inflation and inflation expectations, augmenting the model by Svensson (1997) with a nonlinear Phillips curve that reflects the rationale underlying the capacity constraint theory (Macklem...

This paper discusses the interaction of fiscal and monetary policy in the euro area. Given the existence of a monetary union, but absence of a federal fiscal union, many observers suggest a fiscal union as the next step of euro area constitutional reform. Though further fiscal capacity has a...