Does EMU require CMU?

How Much Does the EMU Benefit Trade?

The economic benefits of sharing a currency like the euro continue to be debated. In theory, countries that use the same currency face lower trade costs and exchange rate risk and are able to compare prices across borders more easily. These advantages should help increase trade among the economies involved. New estimates suggest that this has been the case in Europe, though perhaps to a lesser ...

‘does Size Matter?’ Financial Restructuring under Emu

This paper examines the main structural and performance features of European banking. It shows that while banking markets have become increasingly concentrated and bank numbers have fallen, competition appears to have intensified. Given the large number of banks and branches in many countries there still remain indicators of excess capacity in the system and that the consolidation trend, especi...

Does Modernization Require

Does intelligence require a body?

Our brain controls our body—every movement we make is guided by neuronal activity. But how about vice versa? Does the body influence our brain; does it have an impact on how we think? This question might seem odd. We usually stick to a simple ‘sense– think–act’ paradigm: we hear the phone ring (sense), we recognize that we should answer it (think) and grab the receiver (act). This is a one-way ...

Does Privacy Require True Randomness?

Most cryptographic primitives require randomness (for example, to generate their secret keys). Usually, one assumes that perfect randomness is available, but, conceivably, such primitives might be built under weaker, more realistic assumptions. This is known to be true for many authentication applications, when entropy alone is typically sufficient. In contrast, all known techniques for achievi...