Economic relations with regions neighbouring the euro area in the ‘euro time zone

This paper reviews the economic, monetary and financial relations between the EU and the euro area and a set of countries in a broad set of neighbouring regions. The 80 or so countries are mostly classified as transition, emerging or developing economies and belong to four main regions: the Western Balkans; the European part of the Commonwealth of Independent States; the Middle East and Northern Africa; and Sub-Saharan Africa. In many respects, these countries are diverse; however, some common features can also be identified. One of these common features is the fact that the euro area is their largest trading partner and the largest originator of international bank credit, foreign direct investment and official development assistance; meanwhile, from a euro area perspective, while these countries account for a somewhat smaller share of external trade, they are important as providers of energy, other raw materials and agricultural products.

An abstract machine for Oz

Oz is a concurrent constraint language providing for first-class procedures, concurrent objects, and encapsulated search. DFKI Oz is an interactive implementation of Oz competitive in performance with commercial Prolog and Lisp systems. This paper describes AMOZ, the abstract machine underlying DFKI Oz. AMOZ implements rational tree constraints, first-class procedures, local computation spaces for deep guards, and preemptive and fair threads

Jacobi-like algorithms for the indefinite generalized Hermitian eigenvalue problem

We discuss structure-preserving Jacobi-like algorithms for the solution of the indefinite generalized Hermitian eigenvalue problem. We discuss a method based on the solution of Hermitian 4-by-4 subproblems which generalizes the Jacobi-like method of Bunse-Gerstner/Faßbender for Hamiltonian matrices. Furthermore, we discuss structure-preserving Jacobi-like methods based on the solution of non-Hermitian 2-by-2 subproblems. For these methods a local convergence proof is given. Numerical test results for the comparison of the proposed methods are presented

Solving singular generalized eigenvalue problems. Part II: projection and augmentation

Generalized eigenvalue problems involving a singular pencil may be very challenging to solve, both with respect to accuracy and efficiency. While Part I presented a rank-completing addition to a singular pencil, we now develop two alternative methods. The first technique is based on a projection onto subspaces with dimension equal to the normal rank of the pencil while the second approach exploits an augmented matrix pencil. The projection approach seems to be the most attractive version for generic singular pencils because of its efficiency, while the augmented pencil approach may be suitable for applications where a linear system with the augmented pencil can be solved efficiently

The acceding countries’ strategies towards ERM II and the adoption of the euro - an analytical review

This paper reviews the strategies announced by the ten countries joining the European Union in May 2004 with regard to their intentions for participation in ERM II and the adoption of the euro. The paper examines the economic rationale of the monetary integration strategies declared by most acceding countries with a view to identifying also their potential risks. It does so by making use of several different approaches, including a short review of nominal convergence and a more extensive discussion from an optimum currency area perspective. An important part of the analysis is devoted to the implications of real convergence – i.e. catching-up growth in income and adjustment of the real economic structures towards those prevailing in the euro area – on the patterns of economic dynamics in acceding countries. Other aspects covered are the risks for external competitiveness in the convergence process and the appropriate pace of fiscal consolidation.

Structured eigenvalue backward errors of matrix pencils and polynomials with Hermitian and related structures

We derive a formula for the backward error of a complex number λ when considered as an approximate eigenvalue of a Hermitian matrix pencil or polynomial with respect to Hermitian perturbations. The same are also obtained for approximate eigenvalues of matrix pencils and polynomials with related structures like skew-Hermitian, *-even, and *-odd. Numerical experiments suggest that in many cases there is a significant difference between the backward errors with respect to perturbations that preserve structure and those with respect to arbitrary perturbations

Structured eigenvalue backward errors of matrix pencils and polynomials with palindromic structures

We derive formulas for the backward error of an approximate eigenvalue of a *-palindromic matrix polynomial with respect to *-palindromic perturbations. Such formulas are also obtained for complex T-palindromic pencils and quadratic polynomials. When the T-palindromic polynomial is real, then we derive the backward error of a real number considered as an approximate eigenvalue of the matrix polynomial with respect to real T-palindromic perturbations. In all cases the corresponding minimal structure preserving perturbations are obtained as well. The results are illustrated by numerical experiments. These show that there is a significant difference between the backward errors with respect to structure preserving and arbitrary perturbations in many cases