This essay deals with the EMS experience and its failure, with the Maastricht Treaty, and with the interregnum leading to the formation of the EMU in 1999. The paper highlights the position of German authorities, showing that they were quite lucid about the fundamental weaknesses inherent in a...

Niels Thygesen (born 1934) played for nearly five decades an influential role in the process of economic and monetary integration in Europe. He is especially known as a member of the Delors Committee and as the first Chair of the European Fiscal Board. As part of a research program on collecting...

"The idea of this volume comes from the enigma that some Central and Eastern European (CEE) European Union (EU) member states have been keen to join the Eurozone while others have shown persistent reluctance. Moreover, the attitudes towards joining have seemingly not correlated with either the...

Warum ist die Politik der Alternativlosigkeit so gefährlich? -- Was heißt „Krisenpolitik“ und weshalb wirken ihre Folgen desintegrativ? -- Was sind die Kosten der Niedrigzinspolitik? -- Wie hoch waren die Schuldenerleichterungen für Griechenland wirklich? -- Inwiefern gefährden...

Using newly assembled data on foreign exchange market intervention, we construct a daily index of exchange market pressure during the 1992-3 crisis in the European Monetary System, allowing us to pinpoint when and where the crisis was most severe. Our analysis focuses on a neglected factor in...

"This book provides an intellectual biography of Robert Triffin. Triffin (1911-1993) played a key role in the international monetary debates in the postwar period. He became famous with trenchant analyses of the vulnerabilities of the international monetary system (the Triffin dilemma),...

The performance of EMU member economies is shaped by different and structurally entrenched "growth models" whose success depends on specific macro-regimes – restrictive for export-led growth, accommodating for demand-led growth. These two types of models cannot be equally viable under a...

"The last few decades have witnessed the emergence of economic imbalances at the world level and within the euro zone. The failure of mainstream economics to accurately predict financial crises, or model the effects of finance-led growth, highlights the need for alternative frameworks. A key...

Einführung -- Die Politik der Alternativlosigkeit: Wie es dazu kam und warum ein Wechsel angeraten ist -- Die Flüchtlings- und Eurokrise: Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in der politischen Handhabung -- Niedrigzinsen: Folgen und Gefahren -- Nivellierung der Risikoprämien durch die EZB --...

The French presidential elections could lead to more fiscal integration in the euro area. The proposal to establish a European Monetary Fund (EMF) based on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which would probably be possible without treaty changes, is evaluated in this paper. Potential EMF...

The paper analyses the extent to which fixed exchange rates within the EMS have hindered national monetary policies. The results show that the German authorities have relatively more freedom in pursuing domestic monetary objectives. The others may, notwithstanding foreign exchange controls,...

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a familiar concept in management theory. However, sometimes its implementation can fall short of delivery on the potential benefits to the business. The need for effective ERM is becoming increasingly evident for companies that want to ensure that their...

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) provides a novel approach to managing all risks faced by a firm as a portfolio. By forming a portfolio of risks firms can optimally choose strategies to hedge their overall risk. This study investigates ERM implementation across a broad spectrum of industries. In...

This paper applies multi-equation cointegration methodology to the short-term interest rate series of European Monetary System (EMS) member countries during the period from March 1979 to July 1998. The objective of the paper is to measure the degree to which the interest rates of EMS member...

Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou is a discrete person but well-known in Belgian and international political and economic circles. After an outstanding academic career at the Universities of Namur, Leuven and Louvain and then at Yale in the United States where he gained a PhD, he started out his...

Seit Ausbruch der Eurokrise befindet sich die Architektur der Europäischen Währungsunion in einer Dauerreform, die aller Voraussicht nach auch in den nächsten Jahren nicht abgeschlossen sein wird. Trotzdem ist der Euroraum immer noch nicht krisenfest. Besonders die anhaltende...

Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou is a discrete person but well-known in Belgian and international political and economic circles. After an outstanding academic career at the Universities of Namur, Leuven and Louvain and then at Yale in the United States where he gained a PhD, he started out his...

Im Kontext der Eurokrise wird mitunter der Übergang in ein diskretionäres Wechselkursregime diskutiert, das seinen Teilnehmern politisch verhandelte Auf- und Abwertungen ermöglichen würde. Über die Wünschbarkeit und die Wirkungsweisen solcher Auf- und Abwertungen finden sich in der Debatte...

Die Schuldenkrise in der EWU hat immer wieder Forderungen nach einer stärkeren Gemeinschaftshaftung hervorgebracht, was allerdings dem Wunsch nach nationaler Souveränität widerspricht. Systemkonformer und stabilisierend wäre eine Reform der einheitlichen Anleihebedingungen. So könnte eine...

Mitten in der Griechenland-Krise haben die Präsidenten der fünf wichtigsten europäischen Institutionen Vorschläge für eine weitere Integration der Europäischen Währungsunion unterbreitet. Sie beziehen sich dabei auf die Wirtschafts-, Finanzmarkt- und Bankenunion und gehen sogar so weit,...

Drawing on the premise that the integration of economies revises people's social space and their comparators, we quantify social stress by aggregate relative deprivation, ARD; we calculate the effect of monetary mergers on ARD; and we document the validity of the superadditivity property of ARD...

The eurozone is often considered to be the brainchild of Robert Mundell, who has often bragged about his paternity. In reality, the Eurozone setup, most specifically the TARGET2 settlement system, has several characteristics that look alike the plan for an international currency union that...

Much of ERM consists of qualitative discussion of the risks facing a business and controls over them. It is difficult to identify in the literature a clear body of theory to provide the foundation for the subject, integrating a business's objectives with its risk controls.The present paper...