Intereconomics is now archived and no
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Wim Boonstra, Chief Economist, Rabobank Nederland, Utrecht, and lecturer in
monetary economics and banking, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands. The author is indebted to Martin van Oijen for his comments
on an earlier version of this article.
Sylvester C. W. Eijffinger, Professor of European Financial Economics and Jean Monnet
Professor of European Financial and Monetary Integration, CentER,
Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Research Fellow, CEPR, London,
UK; Member of the Panel of Experts of the Committee on Economic
and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament to which the article
was . rst presented as a Briefing Paper (November 2004).
Carsten Hefeker, Professor of Economics, University of Siegen, and Research Fellow,
Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA), Germany.
