It was expected that full integration of product and financial markets would expose inefficiencies, steering investment flows away from laggards towards the more efficient countries. Yet, while reform efforts intensified throughout Europe in the late 1990’s both inside and outside of the euro area, there is little evidence that “ins” enacted more far-reaching and significant supply-side reforms than the “outs.”
欧元更本质的问题是它的采纳并未促使各个国家解决这些潜在问题。人们曾经希望产品和金融市场的彻底融合会暴露哪些低效行业，把资金流从发展迟缓的国家转移到更加高效的使用者。可尽管20世纪90年代包括欧元区内外的整个欧洲改革力度都有所加大，但并没有多少证据表明“区内”国比“区外”国实行了更多意义深远的重大供应改革。