Sobre la creación de áreas monetarias óptimas. El aporte de Robert Mundell

This paper reviews the ideas introduced by Mundell (1961) about the formation of an optimal currency area (OCA). We discuss in detail the cost of fully giving up the exchange rate policy instrument and the benefits associated to having a one-currency area in a process of trade integration. Based on the concepts reviewed we analyze how to determine the domain of an OCA and we argue about the existence of a natural sequencing in the process of integration. All these issues are of great importance to evaluate the viability of a monetary union as the next step in the Mercosur process of integration.