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The focus of this paper is the economic theory of the plans for the European Monetary Union. Part 1 demonstrates that economists, bankers and policy makers know very little about monetary policy. Part 2 explains the errors of the common practice of defining money by its functions. Because any monetary policy must rest on a definition of money it seems reasonable to conclude that a flawed definition might lead to problems with monetary policy. Part 3 applies this insight to the plans for a common currency in Europe. Because of uncertainties about the timing and details of the implementation, some important considerations are necessarily speculative. They are relegated to appendices. Appendix 1 comments on the timing and authorship and responsibility for the official reports with their unspecified authors. Appendix 2 supplies some grounds for doubting the ultimate durability of the European Monetary Union focusing on reasons that are historical, economic and pragmatic. Because the entire movement is driven by politics, not economics, Appendix 3 considers some of the relevant political issues. The conclusions summarize and speculate on possible reasons for successful outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the banking industry’s efficiency using the case of Yemen.

The paper utilises two-stage analysis to evaluate the efficiency adopting Data Envelopment Window Analysis (DEWA) in the first stage for the period 1996-2011. Furthermore, the paper addresses, in two-dimensional matrix, the stability and efficiency of the banking sector in order to assess their ability for survival. In the second stage, panel data analysis is applied to regress a set of bank-specific and macro-economic variables on the efficiency of the banking sector in Yemen in a comparative fashion between Islamic and conventional banks.

The findings of the investigation indicate that the Yemeni banking industry in general was on a declining efficiency’s trend with increased instability during the later period of the investigation. In addition, the study shows that most conventional banks were relatively stable, though inefficient, while Islamic banks were more efficient over the time. The results of panel data regression further suggest that efficiency is related to a number of determinants. Loan/financing, and profitability are the common key determinants of efficiency for both Islamic and conventional banks. However, other determinants have impacted differently for Islamic and conventional banks, which could reflect the uniqueness of their operation and structure.

The present study provides a basis for the regulators and bankers to assess the viability of the banking sector and proposes policies to restructure the industry in order to enhance the performance of the whole industry.

The paper presents new empirical findings on the efficiency of Islamic and conventional banks in Yemen.