1. Fiscal aspects of European monetary integration: an introduction Andrew Hughes Hallett, Michael M. Hutchison and Svend E. Hougaard Jensen; Part I. Institutions and Political Economy: 2. Institutions and fiscal policy in EMU Niels Thygesen; 3. A political economy analysis of the Maastricht and Stability Pact fiscal criteria Thomas F. Willett; Part II. Automatic Stabilizers in a Monetary Union: 4. Budgetary norms and EMU Torben M. Andersen and Robert Dogonowski; 5. Regional adjustment and the welfare economics of monetary unification: what are the benefits of exchange rate flexibility and fiscal insurance? Kenneth M. Kletzer; 6. Nominal stability, real convergence, and fiscal transfers in a monetary union Svend E. Hougaard Jensen; Discussion: Automatic Stabilizers and Fiscal Transfers Neil Rankin; Part III. The Stability and Growth: Pact 7. The Stability Pact: Trading-off Flexibility for Credibility? Michael Artis and Bernhard Winkler; 8. The stability and growth pact in a model with politically-induced deficit biases Roel M. W. J. Beetsma; 9. Implications of the Growth and Stability Pact: why the growth element is important Andrew Hughes Hallett and Peter McAdam; Discussion: the Stability Pact and Fiscal Policy Clas Wihlborg; Part IV. Asymmetric Business Cycles and Fiscal Linkages in Europe: 10. Costs of EMU and economic convergence Michael Bergman and Michael M. Hutchison; 11. Fiscal consolidation in Europe: some empirical issues Christopher Allsopp, Warwick McKibben and David Vines; 12. Could the ins hurt the outs? A welfare analysis of International Financial Fiscal Links Giancarlo Corsetti and Paolo Pesenti; Discussion: insiders and outsiders in EMU Paul De Grauwe.