Germany had a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 60% in  1  See Bordo, M., “The Euro needs a Fiscal Union: Some Lessons from History”, Shadow Open Market Committee, October 2010. 2  See Fontagné, L., Mayer, T. and Ottaviano G., “Of Markets, Products and Prices: The Effects of the Euro on European Firms”, Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, 44 (3), 2009, pp.
149–158. 3  Strikingly, this finding held within individual European countries. This empirical regularity could not therefore be explained by factors such as language or unwillingness to move to another country. See Decressin, J. and Fatas, A., “Regional labour market dynamics in Europe”, European Economic Review, 39(9), 1995, pp. 1627–1655.