The start of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has spurred a new interest in the debate on the effects of monetary unions on regional economic integration. This literature either investigates past episodes of monetary unions or attempts to gauge any effect with a few years of EMU...

This paper surveys the optimum currency area (OCA) literature. It is organised into four phases: the quot;pioneering phasequot; which put forward the OCA theory and its properties, the quot;reconciliation phasequot; when its diverse facets were combined, the quot;reassessment phasequot; that led...

This paper addresses the effects of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) since the introduction of the euro on economic and financial structures, institutions and performance. What type of changes is the euro fostering? What forces is it setting in motion that were not there before?...

EMU has spurred an interest on the effects of monetary unions on regional economic integration. This paper investigates the link between intra-European trade growth and the institutional process of regional integration, of which monetary integration was one step. Special attention is paid to the...

La Revista Integración & Comercio del BID incluye artículos referidos a las distintas manifestaciones del proceso de integración en América Latina y el Caribe, a la integración hemisférica y, también, a los procesos con igual orientación que se llevan a cabo en otras partes del mundo....

We construct, on the basis of an original methodology and database, composite indices to measure domestic financial development in 26 emerging economies, using mature economies as a benchmark. Twenty-two variables are used and grouped according to three broad dimensions: (i) institutions and...

The European experience illustrates that institutional integration interacts with economic integration at the regional level. In this paper we ask how economic and institutional integration are linked and whether there is a causal link between the two. We present an original indicator of...

What lessons can be drawn from the European experience with regional integration that started in the 1950s, for regional integration in Latin America, which is still in its early stages? We present here a new indicator of institutional integration and study how it developed vis-à-vis diverse...