Elements of the euro area. Integrating financial markets

Abstract:

Enlargement and integration are the headline issues of the European Union in this first decade of the twenty-first century, and these same issues dominate the policy arena of the euro area. This book aims to inform the debate and to provide a reference source for the euro area financial systems.

The book is organised in four parts spread over nine chapters. Part one offers the necessary background to place the subsequent parts in context and presents comparisons with other monetary zones. Chapter one compares the main economic and financial characteristics of the euro area with the US and Japan. Chapter two compares some of the features of the eurosystem with the US Federal Reserve System and the Bank of Japan. Chapter three provides the methodology used when analysing financial integration. The fourth chapter closes part one with the legal framework supporting financial integration. Part two is comprised of one chapter only, chapter five, which describes the euro area financial structure before and after the introduction of the euro and examines the changes involved.

The third part presents a more detailed analysis of integration across financial markets. Chapter six concentrates upon the evolution of integration in the markets for financial services in the euro area, and its constituent countries. Chapter seven deals with the euro area money market including the operational framework of the eurosystem, the overnight market, and the money market instruments and derivatives. Integration across the different euro area bond and equity markets is examined in chapter eight.

Part four presents a case study on the integration of transmission processes and describes how changes in the financial structure, the banking system and the money, bond and equity markets in the euro area have impacted upon linkages between the price of debt finance and monetary policy.

The book will interest scholars and students, researchers and professional observers in the fields of economics, international investment, currency management and monetary policy.

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