in developing markets these data should be collected with consideration toward improving standardization of many of the aspects of the product, which can help to increase transparency, improve efficiency, and reduce uncertainty. for example, the recovery of the cmo market was aided by improved information and modeling, which increased confidence, especially as products became increasingly standardized. standardization in the terms and in the contractual rights and obligations of purchasers and sellers of the product reduces, but does not eliminate, the need for market participants to engage in extensive efforts to obtain information and reduces the need to verify the information that is provided in the market through due diligence. reduced information costs, in turn, lower transaction costs, thereby facilitating price discovery and enhancing market liquidity. also, standardization can reduce legal risks because litigation over contract terms can result in case law that applies to similar situations, thus reducing uncertainty. the benefits of the development of standardization for enhancing the liquidity of financial markets have a long history. one particularly clear example dates back to the development of exchange - traded commodities futures contracts in the mid - 1800s. the standardization of the futures markets improved the flow of information to market participants, reducing transaction costs and fostering the emergence of liquid markets. 2 in the mid - 1850s, the market for grain did not enjoy the very deep liquidity we see in today's market. at the time, chicago was facing competition from exchanges in minneapolis and st. louis and from some in europe that had created innovative structures to make markets more liquid. to create a liquid market for grain trading, buyers and sellers of grain needed a way of systematically analyzing the different kinds of grain that came into the exchange from different sources. in other words, the market needed a way to " grade the grain. " the market created special silos that combined grain from a number of sources. buyers no longer bought a silo of grain from one source ; a silo, for example, of " winter wheat number 2 " would be graded in a way that allowed buyers to know exactly what they were getting. standardization and related controls reduced traders'information requirements and, thus, their transaction costs. the board of trade established minimum quality standards based on the need for market participants to evaluate the reliability of promises of future deliveries of grain to the buyer. in 1865, the chicago board of trade standardized the delivery dates for the contracts, thus fostering the emergence of liquid markets in which traders could readily hedge the risk of price changes in the commodities and contracts. buyers and sellers

to the long - term prospects, in order to raise the rate of potential economic growth in the euro area, structural reforms in the size and composition of public revenue and expenditure, as well as in product and labour markets, have to continue. advances have been made in times of high real gdp growth, although in many areas, including in labour markets, more could have been achieved. as adjustment needs are likely to become more visible in periods of less vigorous economic growth, policy - makers must now intensify the acceleration of reforms rather than allow efforts to abate. moving forward the reform agenda decisively will enable the euro area economy to respond flexibly in future and thereby underpin our confidence that external shocks can be more easily absorbed than in the past.