Preface; Introduction; Part I. Macroeconometric Evidence on the Transmission Mechanism in the Euro Area: 1. Some stylised facts on the Euro area business cycle A.-M. Agresti and B. Mojon; 2. The monetary transmission mechanism in the Euro area: more evidence from VAR analysis G. Peersman and F. Smets; 3. A VAR description of the effects of monetary policy in the individual countries of the Euro area B. Mojon and G. Peersman; 4. Analysing monetary policy transmission mechanism at the Euro area level: using structural macroeconomic models P. McAdam and J. Morgan; 5. The effects of monetary policy in the Euro area: evidence from structural macroeconomic models P. van Els, A. Locarno, J. Morgan and J.-P. Villetelle; 6. Financial frictions and the monetary transmission mechanism: theory, evidence and policy implications C. Bean, J. Larsen and K. Nikolov; Part II. Firm Investment and Monetary Policy: Evidence from Micro-Economic Data: 7. Firm investment and monetary policy transmission in the Euro area J. B. Chatelain, A. Generale, I. Hernando, P. Vermeulen and U. von Kalckreuth; 8. Business investment and monetary transmission in Belgium P. Butzen, C. Fuss and P. Vermeulen; 9. Investment and monetary transmission in Germany: a microeconometric investigation U. von Kalckreuth; 10. Monetary policy and corporate investment in France J.B. Chatelain and A. Tiomo; 11. Monetary policy and firms' investment in Italy E. Gaiotti and A. Generale; 12. Monetary transmission: empirical evidence from Luxembourg firm-level P. Lunneman and T. Matha; 13. The role of trade credit and bank lending relationships in the transmission mechanism in Austria M. Valderrama; Part III. The Role of Banks in the Transmission: Evidence from Micro-Economic Data: 14. Financial systems and the role of banks in monetary policy transmission in the Euro area M. Ehrmann, L. Gambacorta, J. Martinez-Pages, P. Sevestre and A. Worms; 15. The reaction of bank lending to monetary policy measures in Germany A. Worms; 16. Is there a bank lending channel of monetary policy in Spain? I. Hernando and J. Martinez-Pages; 17. Is there a bank lending channel in France? Evidence from bank panel data C. Loupias, F. Savignac and P. Sevestre; 18. Is there a bank lending channel of monetary policy in Greece? Evidence from bank level data S. Brissimis, N. Kamberoglou and G. Simigiannis; 19. The Italian banking system and a monetary policy transmission: evidence from bank level data L. Gambacorta; 20. The impact of monetary policy on bank lending in the Netherlands L. De Haan; 21. The cross-sectional and the time dimension of the bank lending channel: The Austrian case S. Kaufmann; 22. The bank lending channel of monetary policy: identification and estimation using Portuguese micro bank data L. Farinha and C. Robalo Marques; 23. Transmission of monetary policy shocks in Finland: evidence from bank level data on loans J. Topi and J. Vilmunen; Part IV. Monetary Policy in the Euro Area: Summary and Discussion of the Main Findings: 24. Monetary policy transmission in the Euro area: where do we stand? I. Angeloni, A. Kashyap, B. Mojon and D. Terlizzese; 25. Discussion B. Bernanke, X Freixas, V. Gaspar and J. von Hagen; Appendix: 26. Economic and financial structure in the euro area A-M. Agresti and J. Claessens; References.