It is commonly argued that Poland avoided a massive drop in output during the 2008/2009 economic crisis in part thanks to substantial nominal zloty's depreciation against the euro. The Polish case is often contrasted with Slovakia that adopted the euro in January 2009 and, since the Ecofin...

Once a country joins a monetary union, an efficient competitiveness channel is commonly considered to be the main substitute for the abandoned autonomous monetary and exchange rate policy. This paper attempts to make an empirical assessment of how the price competitiveness of domestic producers...

The Walters critique of EMU presumed that pro-cyclical country-specific real interest rates would incorporate significant macroeconomic instability in an environment of asymmetric shocks. The literature on optimum currency areas suggests a number of criteria to minimize this risk, such as market...