The Knowledge Problems Of European Financial Market Integration

Since the creation of the euro and a European Central Bank, the European Union has persistently pursued financial market integration throughout periods of economic growth, membership enlargements, financial breakdown, and political crisis. While traditionally analysed in terms of clashing ideological orientations and strategic political interests, this book presents a novel and empirically grounded perspective on the issues around financial market integration by approaching them in terms of the knowledge problems that actors face. Drawing on European legal texts, policy documents and interviews with regulators, central bankers, and financial market professionals, this book is rich in empirical detail which reveals a close-knit set of knowledge problems, or paradoxes, of ‘the market’. These paradoxes are irreducible to a particular political ideology or national interests because they are rooted in the conceptual structure of the European treaties. Moreover, while these knowledge problems present themselves as uncertainties, tensions, and conflicts in practice, they also echo persistent conceptual and theoretical controversies in the field of economics. Indeed, this book demonstrates how ‘the market’ is adopted from economic theory into European treaty law, resulting in central bankers and regulators struggling with knowledge problems and conflicts paralleling classic debates in the academic discipline. This book will be of significant interest to political economists working on European economic integration and money and finance as well as readers of heterodox economics, economic sociology, and political and social theory more broadly.

By and large, EU financial integration has been a success story. Still, the reform agenda is far from finished. What are the remaining challenges? What are the gains of closer financial market integration? This IMF book tracks the European Union's journey along the path to a single financial market and identifies the challenges and priorities that remain ahead. It pays particular attention to the most recent integration efforts in the European Union following the introduction of the euro. The study looks at the importance of financial integration, in particular for economic growth, the interplay between banks and markets, and equity market integration. It closely examines the relationship between financial integration and financial stability. This interaction presents the European Union with a challenge, but also with the opportunity to play a pioneering role in developing a regional approach to financial stability that could provide lessons for the rest of the world.

Financial capital, whether mediated through the financial market or Foreign Direct Investment has been a key factor in European economic growth. This book examines the interaction between European and global financial integration and analyses the dynamics of the monetary sector and the real economy in Europe. The key analytical focus is on the theoretical and empirical dynamics of financial markets in Europe, however, it also provides regional case studies of key institutional developments and lessons from foreign direct investment. There is a broad range of findings for Central, Eastern and Western Europe as well as EU Partner Countries. Crucially the analysis includes new approaches and options for solving the transatlantic banking crisis and suggests policy innovations for a world with unstable financial markets.

Financial capital, whether mediated through the financial market or Foreign Direct Investment has been a key factor in European economic growth. This book examines the interaction between European and global financial integration and analyses the dynamics of the monetary sector and the real economy in Europe. The key analytical focus is on the theoretical and empirical dynamics of financial markets in Europe, however, it also provides regional case studies of key institutional developments and lessons from foreign direct investment. There is a broad range of findings for Central, Eastern and Western Europe as well as EU Partner Countries. Crucially the analysis includes new approaches and options for solving the transatlantic banking crisis and suggests policy innovations for a world with unstable financial markets.

This edited collection assesses the level of financial integration in the European Union (EU) and the differences across the countries and segments of the EU financial system. Progress in financial integration is key to the EU’s economic growth and competitiveness and although it has advanced substantially, the process is still far from completion. This book focuses on the pace of financial integration in the EU with special emphasis on the new EU Member States and investigates their progress in comparison with ‘old’ EU countries. The book is the first of its kind to include and evaluate the effects of the global financial crisis on the process of EU financial integration. In particular, the book’s contributors address the issue of whether a high degree of financial integration contributed to the intensification of the financial crisis, or whether a low level of integration prevented countries and financial industries from some of the negative effects of the crisis. Although most of the chapters apply contemporary econometric tools, the technical part is always reduced to indispensable minimum and the emphasis is given to economic interpretation of the results. The book aims to offer an up to date and insightful examination of the process of financial integration in the EU today.

"The European Monetary Union (EMU) has been the single most important policy-induced innovation in the international financial system since the collapse of the Bretton-Woods system. By eliminating exchange rate risk, EMU has eliminated a key obstacle to financial integration. But while a single currency is a necessary condition for the emergence of pan-European capital markets, it is not a sufficient one. Other frictions may still stand in the way of full integration: persistent differences in regulations applying to financial intermediaries, tax treatment, standard contractual clauses and business conventions, issuance policy, security trading systems, settlement systems, availability of information, and judicial enforcement may still segment financial markets along national borders. In the process that preceded and accompanied the introduction of the euro, however, monetary unification triggered a sequence of policy actions and private sector responses that swept aside many other regulatory barriers to financial integration. To what extent has this process of regulatory reform led to actual financial integration? And if European financial markets have actually become more integrated, to what extent have these changes spurred growth and investment in Europe? Will financial integration affect also the ability of households to shoulder risks, or the ability of European economies to adjust to macroeconomic shocks? Which policy lessons can we draw for the future of European financial markets?"--Publication information page.

This second edition of this influential IMF book, originally released in the fall of 2007, has been expanded and updated to reflect developments since the start of the global financial crisis. The central tenet of the first edition, that continued progress to integrate Europe's financial integration would require reform of the EU's financial stability arrangements, has been put into sharp relief by the crisis, which erupted around the time of its initial publication. This revised edition recasts the debate about European financial integration in light of the crisis, with a new chapter outlining the case for financial integration, which remains compelling despite the current challenges and setbacks. Indeed, the need for a fundamental overhaul of the EU's financial stability arrangements is more urgent than ever. Only with an integrated and modernized financial stability framework will the EU be able to establish an integrated and sound financial system that can efficiently serve the nee