The euro and the ESCB have started in January 1999 and there is naturally a wide-ranging interest in academia and among policymakers in OECD coun tries, how successful European Monetary Union will and can be. EMU has started with 11 countries and experienced a rapid depreciation of the cur rency. With so many EU countries joining for a historical monetary union in a period of economic globalization, international financial market changes and ongoing EU enlargement the problem of monetary policy efficiency becomes crucial; especially as so many countries in the EU still have high unemploy ment rates and the euro has just started at the beginning of a cyclical upswing in the euro zone. Monetary policy is also quite crucial, because the Maastricht convergence criteria severely restrict the scope of national fiscal policy. With a very limited stock of valuable European monetary experience which could be usefully exploited by the ECB and the ESCB respectively, one naturally will appreciate advanced economic modeling of the main issues. This book takes an analytical look at the problem of asymmetric monetary transmission in Euroland. Facing the ECB's monetary policy, individual mem ber countries are likely to experience different policy effects. Countries differ in their financial structure -a well-known argument in the literature -but also in the characteristics of goods and labor markets. The latter fields have been somewhat neglected in the literature but receive broad analytical attention here.

This work focuses on different aspects of the monetary transmission process, looking at both large and small economies in the EMU. The results offer useful evaluation tools with regard to monetary policy transmission in a European perspective.

'I can fully recommend this book to those interested in the transmission process of monetary policy.' - Harry Garretsen, De Economist Due to financial market imperfections it is imperative to analyse the relationship between financial structure and the monetary policy transmission process in Europe to effectively design and implement European monetary policy. Focusing on the years 1980-1995 and providing empirical evidence for six European countries, namely Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, the author discusses whether cross-country variations in financial structure have a systematic relationship with inter-country differences in the monetary transmission process. The analysis of this is invaluable as differences in financial structures across EMU countries may hamper the implementation of a common European monetary policy in the future. The conclusion is that some elements of the financial structure are clearly relevant and applicable for European monetary policy and the monetary transmission process in particular.

Master's Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 1,3, Berlin School of Economics, language: English, abstract: The European Central Bank1is in charge to conduct monetary policy for a growing number of nations, participating in the European Monetary Union. This joint enterprise is still young, but followed decades of increasing cooperation and integration after the Second World War. However, the question remains how suitable a shared monetary policy is for a number of different economies. Today, most central banks put emphasis on price stability as medium-term goal, for this is the best way to stabilise expectations and to promote sustainable growth. A precondition for the successful conduct of monetary policy is that monetary impulses are transmitted throughout the whole currency area in a symmetric way. Therefore, central banks need to assess the timing and magnitude how interest rate movements affect the economy and through which channels this mechanism works. This allows the central bank to use their policy instruments at the right time and with the right intensity. Information about the characteristics of the monetary transmission process in EMU-countries, especially about national differences, has important lessons for the effective conduct of monetary policy. Consequently, asymmetric monetary transmission would be able to weaken the position of the European Central Bank and has a negative impact on the economy. This paper deals with the question of asymmetric transmission in the Euro-area. It involves information about the characteristics of transmission channels in EMU countries, the different stages of transmission where asymmetry or convergence might occur and the perspectives for the future development of the European transmission mechanisms. The objective is to find out about asymmetries in monetary policy transmission and their consequences. This paper answers the question if there are major drawbacks for participating economies possible or if the Euro will catalyse European integration without negative side effects.

Monetary union has dawned in Europe. Now that the common currency is a reality, questions concerning the practical conduct of monetary policy in the European Monetary Union (EMU) are moving to the forefront of the policy debate. Among these, one of the most critical is how the new monetary union will cope with the large heterogeneity of its member economies. Given the large differences in economic and financial structures among the EMU member states, monetary policy is likely to affect different member economies in different ways. Regional Aspects of Monetary Policy in Europe collects the proceedings of an international conference held at the Center for European Integration Studies of the University of Bonn, dedicated to this issue. The contributions to this conference fall into two parts. The first part consists of empirical and theoretical studies of the regional effects of monetary policy in heterogeneous monetary unions. The second part consists of papers analyzing the political economy of monetary policy in a monetary union of heterogeneous regions or member states. The papers all support the conclusion that regional differences in the responses to a common monetary policy will make European monetary policy especially difficult in the years to come. Such differences arise from a variety of sources, and they cannot be expected to be mere teething troubles that will disappear after a while. Even if they were ignored in the run-up to the EMU, Europe's central bankers and economic policy makers will have to learn how to cope with such differences in the future.