There is a general consensus that monetary stability in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) requires sustainable public finances of the member states. But how can a sufficient degree of budgetary discipline be maintained in Stage three of EMU?To answer this question, this study provides an...

The formation of the European Convention leads to revisit the ends and the principles of the European Union. This articles confronts insights from the economic theory of federalism and lessons from the history of European integration. It points out significant convergence between the normative...

What is the impact of political decentralisation in Latin America? This book considers the problems raised by political decentralisation in the region and identifies the challenges ahead. Political decentralisation tends to devolve a certain amount of financial responsibility to the sub-national...

This paper’s field evidence is: (1) many official sectors rapidly forget the damage of the 1982-85 exchange rate liquidity crisis and reverted to what caused that crisis, namely a closed economy clean floats perspective; and (2) the 2006-2008/9 exchange rate liquidity shock would have been more...

This paper reviews the macroeconomic use of national fiscal policy in EMU and examines the rational and scope for a collective insurance system which redistributes income among countries in response to asymmetric cyclical shocks. The analysis of the record of national fiscal policies before and...

Alan Ahearne and Jürgen von Hagen examine one of the most alarming global economic developments in recent years- the evolution of global current account imbalances and its implications for European policy.