Who Gains (relatively) from Monetary Union? An Estimate of Relative Net Benefits For EU 15 Member States.

The paper adresses the issue of the distrbution by country of the costs and benefits associated to the introduction of a single currency in Europe, by estimating the relative costs and benefits of the 15 member state through the use of exploratory multivariate statistical techniques. Our results indicate an uneven distribution of the potential relative costs and benefits across the EU member states. Moreover, we find that not all the characteristics identified as relevant by the optimum currency area literature are equally important in shaping the net outcome of the move to the single currency.