Current discussions on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe have stressed the need for enhanced integration of goods and factor markets as a pre-condition of moving as costlessly as possible to a single currency system. The real interest differential--and hence tests of real interest...

Is further economic convergence between European Monetary System (EMS) member countries desirable? This paper addresses some of the convergence issues currently being raised in the debate over Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe, with particular emphasis on the behavior of real interest...

The euro area has experienced an unprecedented economic downturn and exceptional financial market turmoil in the past few years. Policymakers have faced the twin challenges of addressing cyclical economic weakness--not unlike other industrial countries following the global economic crisis--and...

Since the Asian crisis, ASEAN5 countries have expended considerable effort in trying to develop their domestic bond markets. Yet today these markets are not much larger, relative to GDP, than they were a decade before. How can we explain this? And does this mean that domestic markets have not,...

Among member states, many structural weaknesses were exposed when economic performance declined significantly and financial markets became more discerning. This book focuses on the analytical underpinnings of real-time policy advice given to euro area policymakers during four cycles of the IMF's...

This paper provides preliminary econometric evidence suggesting that the traditional trade-based business cycle linkages between the North and the South have changed. Many countries in the South, in particular in Asia, appear to have become more resilient to cyclical movements in the North, and...

Deregulation of the financial system often proceeds in tandem with macroeconomic stabilization centered on monetary and other financial targets. This paper presents a model where there may be conflict between these processes. The indicator properties of some financial variables may be rendered...