Due to financial market imperfections it is imperative to analyse the relationship between financial structure and the monetary policy transmission process in Europe to effectively design and implement European monetary policy.Focusing on the years 1980-1995 and providing empirical evidence for six European countries, namely Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, the author discusses whether cross-country variations in financial structure have a systematic relationship with inter-country differences in the monetary transmission process. The analysis of this is invaluable as differences in financial structures across EMU countries may hamper the implementation of a common European monetary policy in the future. The conclusion is that some elements of the financial structure are clearly relevant and applicable for European monetary policy and the monetary transmission process in particular.

This highly topical book will be of great interest to academics and professional economists in the field of financial, macro and monetary economics and the economics of European integration.